EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, USA, November 22, 2019 (Daily Northwestern, by Tanisha Tekriwal): I don’t know how many people on the campus of Northwestern University have been roped into a conversation about “spirituality” that ended up feeling like an attempt at conversion. As an international student, the title “Cru” meant nothing to me, and I suspect there are many domestic students, too, who might not have known much about it before coming to Northwestern. Cru is a religious organization, which used to be called “Campus Crusade for Christ,” and some years ago decided to change its name to be able to have “discussions about Christ with people who might initially be turned off by a more overtly Christian name,” according to the organization’s spokesperson who discussed the topic with ABC News.
My encounter with the organization seemed like an isolated experience that was uncommon on campus. Until I asked my friends and they asked theirs and I realized many more stories with more troubling particulars than mine than I had initially anticipated existed. So my question remains why missionaries trained to trap one in subtle turns of language and behavior are allowed to conduct activities that in exercising their religious rights simultaneously encroach on others’ rights on a secular campus like Northwestern. I question how we can allow “Crusaders” to flourish in a space where we know what the historical and brutal connotations of that term are. The word jihad roughly translates to “the Crusade for a principle or belief,” not the ugly definition it has devolved to in contemporary context. Yet, the idea of having a group on campus named Jihadists seems insane.
More of this insightful editorial at “source”.