InterVarsity's lesson in effectively engaging a secular culture

The recent news that InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapters are returning to California’s state university system provides a lesson in how to productively engage the secular culture about the meaning of “diversity,” the group’s leaders say. And it turns out acting like a Christian works.

Last fall, InterVarsity announced it was moving all 23 of its affiliated chapters off 19 California State University (CSU) campuses. In December 2011, the school’s chancellor issued Executive Order 1068, requiring all official student groups to revise their charters to include “open membership,” in addition to a “nondiscrimination” requirement.

At face-value, the new policy required InterVarsity to open leadership positions to all students, regardless of beliefs. Like many other campus Christian groups, InterVarsity requires its leaders to affirm an orthodox doctrinal statement. Unwilling to compromise its stand on leadership guidelines, the ministry moved off campus in September 2014.

But on June 19, InterVarsity and CSU made the joint announcement that after “substantive and cordial ongoing conversations,” InterVarsity will be back on campus as an officially recognized student group this fall. The reunion came as a surprise to many onlookers, but not to Greg Jao, InterVarsity’s vice president and director of campus engagement.

“[School officials] recognized a wooden reading of the executive order wasn’t accomplishing what they wanted,” Jao told me. “They were trying to build more diversity on campus and the impact [of the executive order] was beyond what they thought it would be.”

Through several meetings with school officials, InterVarsity learned their goal for the new policy was twofold: every student group would welcome all students as members and any student could apply for a leadership position. InterVarsity whole-heartedly agreed to the first requirement and showed officials its constitution, which states membership is “open to anyone officially connected to the school as faculty, staff, or registered student.” But for leadership positions, Jao said discrimination is necessary to lead the mission with integrity, and in fact, increases diversity on campus.

“The irony of an ‘all-comers’ policy is that in the end, student groups make their best contribution when led by people who embody the group’s values,” Jao said. “Environmentalist groups should be able to ask potential leaders about their position on global warming. Democrat and Republican groups want people who agree with their platform. … I want football players that can play football, which is ‘able-bodied discrimination.’ Music groups should be able to choose leaders based on whether they can sustain a pitch. Not using religion as a criteria doesn’t makes sense for a religious group.”

After reviewing InterVarsity’s constitutional requirements for leadership, school officials “affirmed” the group’s constitution, its right to choose leaders by assessing their values and beliefs, and invited InterVarsity back on campus. Although there is no new written agreement between InterVarsity and CSU, Jao is confident the ministry’s relationship with the school is on solid ground.

InterVarsity went through a similar battle with Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. InterVarsity and several other Christian groups left campus in 2011 over faith-based leadership requirements that violated the school's newly adopted nondiscrimination policy. The groups have not returned. I asked Jao what why the negotiation outcome was so different this time.

“I think Cal State engaged with us in good faith,” Jao said. “I’ve never sensed animus on the part of Cal State—not even when the policy was enacted. … They wanted us on campus, and said, ‘Help us understand.’ They negotiated in good conversation.”

Conversely, Vanderbilt was “hostile toward the Christian groups” and the administration was “far more unyielding and less interested in engaging with us to resolve the situation,” Jao said.

The discussions were an opportunity to model for students what constructive engagement looks like when opinions initially seem incompatible, Jao said.

“Our posture was Cal State is a mission field, including the administration,” he said. “So we tried to listen carefully. We were doing the very thing that we challenge our student to do—love the person you are talking to, treat him with dignity and respect. You can do that and speak truth at the same time.”

And InterVarsity won more than just the approval of school administrators: In the past academic year, despite being off-campus, the group recorded its largest number of new believers at CSU.