Intervarsity

[titus2_4u]

Does anyone know anything about Intervarsity?

One of my friends from undergrad is getting involved in it in grad school. I'm curious to know about their fundie links/roots/etc.

[NurseNell]

Does anyone know anything about Intervarsity?

One of my friends from undergrad is getting involved in it in grad school. I'm curious to know about their fundie links/roots/etc.

Did this used to be called Campus Crusade for Christ?

[Kitty]

Intervarsity's advertising is rather deceptive- it took me lots of Googling to figure out that it was a Christian group. It's much like Cru in that respect, which turned me off.

I have no idea about fundie roots, but they do seem to be conservative/fundie-lite. They're also all about small groups, and a large group meeting once a week or something like that.

[emmiedahl]

Their wikipedia entry says they were started in Canada by British students and they look pretty mainstream. Just looking around the webz, they seem to be divided right now on whether Catholics are Christian enough to be a part of the club. This quote is interesting: "When some move to make the words of Jesus in the gospels greater than the words of Paul, the very authority of the Bible is at stake." That is from a member writing a disgruntled post about the issue here: http://ltwinternational.org/main/index. ... &Itemid=54

[Kitty]

Did this used to be called Campus Crusade for Christ?

No, that's Cru.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Did this used to be called Campus Crusade for Christ?

No. They are two separate organizations. "Campus Crusade for Christ" has recently rebranded itself as "CRU," however.

I don't know much about the details of these, but see their recruitment booths every year, apparently they're pretty popular clubs.

Intervarsity used to be "Intervarsity Christian Fellowship." Is the official name "Intervarsity" now then? Interesting.

[Austin]

We used to go to church with a couple that worked for Intervarsity full-time. We still get their mailers asking for support. I would characterize them (at least at that time) as fundie-lite.

[emmiedahl]

The Paul over Jesus thing cracks me up. Maybe they should call themselves Paulians?

[Kitty]

We used to go to church with a couple that worked for Intervarsity full-time. We still get their mailers asking for support. I would characterize them (at least at that time) as fundie-lite.

They do seem to be fundie-lite, to me.

A general rule of thumb is, if their advertising is so vague you're not sure whether they're Christian or not, they're probably evangelical/fundie-lite.

[persuaded]

I would definitely call IV fundy-lite.... some might even say that it's so mainstream it's not really fundy at all.

[Kelya]

I knew a woman who worked for them. She is definitely fundie-lite. I personally think that any religious organization that spends time worrying about if catholics/mormons/jehovah's witnesses/Quakers/etc are christians cross themselves into fundie lite territory by that measure alone. It was never discussed in Catholic school,Quaker school, Lutheran church, or either of my UU and UCC stints. It was heavily discussed in my fundie/evangelical church/life and its become an indicator of fundie-ism for me.

[ems]

The Paul over Jesus thing cracks me up. Maybe they should call themselves Paulians?

That's what I thought too. I was like, I thought Christians worship JESUS, as God-the-Father, not the BIBLE. So that in and of itself would put the words of Jesus over the words of Paul.

I agree with everyone else who pegged Intervarsity (I knew a few people who were in it in college) as evangelical/fundie-lite. I think they try to brand themselves as just interdenominational Christians, but (sigh) that leans more toward evangelical today.

[Caxpax]

IV is super creepy. Every single interaction I've had with someone from IV , no matter what college, university, etc. has been seriously weird.....major, major creep factor there. My husband was in IV in college and stopped attending because they freaked him out. And he was raised fundy-lite.

[FloraDoraDolly]

Even the name Intervarsity is kind of odd. It sounds like a club that supports the university's sports teams or something.

[browncoatslytherin]

Even the name Intervarsity is kind of odd. It sounds like a club that supports the university's sports teams or something.

maybe they did that so people would be more curious about it

[GenerationCedarchip]

I was in Intervarsity when I was in college. I actually have rather fond memories because they were my real bridge out of fundie-dom. I knew a lot of devoted and serious Christians there, but none I'd call fundie. The group is divided into different regions and the character varies a lot between regions. Most of the schools in my region(VA and Carolinas) had IV chapters that tended to be mainstream and have a very intellectual bent. I had friends in the Midwest who associated IV with more of a fundie-lite vibe and their stories were a lot different than what I would have. Don't know about other parts of the country, though.

Not sure why googling wouldn't reveal them as a christian group. I just looked and the first hit I got was the homepage for "InterVarsity Christian Fellowship." The group got its start in England, not Canada, back in the 1800s. The name seemed weird to me at first, too, but I was told that the name came about back in the 1800s from Inter (i.e. between colleges) and Varsity (term for British college students). Rather than affiliate with one denomination, IV made itself open to all students. In addition to the fellowship, there is an InterVarsity Press, which publishes Christian books. Given that they have published a fair number of books by Christian egalitarians (as opposed to the biblical womanhood crowd), I'm guessing they wouldn't be fundie-approved. One oldie but goodie on my bookshelf argues that support of an equal rights amendment for women is not only Christian, but also pro-life because God does not see women's lives as less than those of men. Can you imagine the fundies reading that one? :)

They'd probably also croak if they saw this part of the vision statement:

"We develop women and men to serve as leaders at every level of InterVarsity and ultimately for the Kingdom of God, honoring God's gifts and calling in them."

Sorry to go on and on. However, this group meant a lot to me, so I wanted to get accurate info out there.

[FakePigtails]

I went to one meeting with a friend where I learned all about how touching private parts, even breasts (I think it was even if over clothing), was adultery to one's future spouse. There was a lot more on the subject but that's the main crazy part I remember (that and the band praying out loud like LOUD in the middle of a song). I was still fairly religious at the time but was having none of that.

This was in the Midwest, btw.

[titus2_4u]

Thanks for the information. I had the perception that it was something a bit like YoungLife for a slightly older crowd, but wanted to check. My friend definitely falls into the mainstream with the occasional fundie-lite tendencies. However, the fact that she joined it with friends in grad school and a lot of the members are women in grad school means that any sort of "stay at home/don't go to college" rhetoric wouldn't work.

[QuoVadis]

InterVarsity falls into the nondenominational/evangelical crowd. Look at their board of directors and the denominations represented there: http://www.intervarsity.org/about/our/board-of-trustees (not breaking since it's not a blog and I doubt they'd care). It's definitely not of the separatist fundamentalist mentality. And if you look at all the pictures, women are wearing pants, in college, talking with boys.....

[Austin]

The couple I referred to earlier are not weirdos at all. Very educated, very intelligent, nice, decent people.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Perhaps it's a suitable thread, I don't know, but - has anyone here ever heard of (or attended??) the "Urbana" conferences? Urbana 96, Urbana 99, etc.

It was a sort of Christian club gathering for college students, called "Urbana Conference" because they were held in Urbana, Illinois (on the campus of UIUC). The conference was over the winter break and the attendees would live in the student dorms, using rooms where the students were home on break but their stuff was all still there.

Anyway, I remember some of those conferences as I had a job (as a local resident doing part time extra jobs for $$$) doing food service at that time, in the dorm cafeteria, and they were all about evangelizing and having small group sessions and figuring out what to do on future mission trips. It was a window to another world for me. Fascinating.

But! They did have panels about how you could get a job teaching English in Asia (at regular pay-for-service English schools which can be skeevy enough) and then actually teach about the Bible! in those classes. That idea made me furious, when I heard people talking about it, it's bait and switch for heaven's sake!

But yeah people attending were mostly dressed as regular college students, only with more Jesusy t-shirts.