W4 Reading

Moral Voices of Women and Men in the Christian Liberal Arts College: links between views of self and views of God

By: Kaye V. Cook

Kaye Cook devised a study to determine how first year and senior year college students viewed themselves and viewed God. She was specifically examining whether their view was one of care, justice, or a combination of both. She studied 44 students, half male, half female, and an equal split between first year and senior year students. She hypothesized that women would show a greater tendency towards care and men towards justice, both in their view of self and in their view of God. Upon analyzing her results, she noticed that both men and women showed an overwhelming tendency towards justice and viewed God as an authoritative figure over a relational figure. When comparing first-year to senior-year students, she noted that the senior students were more likely to view God as both relational and authoritative than the first-year students.

Expelling God from the University

By: David French

David French writes a very passionate paper with the intent to explain why young Christians are leaving the faith as they move through college. In his paper, he places strong accusations on the gay-rights movements and blames first amendment violations for campus Christians. In this zealous article, French states that many of the Christian groups are not condemning homosexuals but they are excluding them from some of their groups based on moral principals that they choose to adhere to. This exclusion has caused numerous law-suits in hundreds of universities nationwide. French declares that student groups have the freedom to choose who can participate based on their code of ethics.

Disclaimer: I am only reviewing this article and do not necessarily share the beliefs of the author. If you are intrigued, I’d strongly suggest you read the article in it’s entirety. As a loving Christian adult, I would love to engage in a conversation with you regarding your thoughts.

Love of God and Neighbor: Religion and Volunteer Service Among College Students

By: Elizabeth Ozorak

Elizabeth Ozorak examines the relationship between religious commitments in students and their desire to volunteer. Upon examining her results, she determined that there was also a significant gender component towards likelihood to volunteer. She concluded that women were more likely to volunteer because they had an intrinsic motivation to be more nurturing than men did. She also found evidence that men in particular who were more religious had a much greater likelihood to volunteer.

Youth Ministry as Practical Theology

By: Clark Chap

Clark Chap outlines what practical theology is in his essay and how it applies to youth ministry. His purpose was to create practical theology for youth ministry because in his experience prior to 1990, youth ministry was just a branch of a theology degree and not a separate program in and of itself. Chap and other prominent youth leaders in the Denver area worked to create a youth ministry master’s program that, in 1990, was questioned by some of the leaders for it’s lack of continuity with the general theology degree. His focus was to create something that would reach youth while maintaining the Gospel message and as of 2008 the program was still thriving.