By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Outrage is growing in the evangelical community over an announcement by Campus Crusade for Christ, one of the nation’s most prominent Christian ministries, to take the name of Christ out of its name because it was “getting in the way” of accomplishing their mission.
Fox News is reporting that the U.S. operation of Campus Crusade for Christ International will change its name to “Cru” in early 2012. An interdenominational Christian evangelism and discipleship organization founded in 1951, it is currently served by more than 25,000 full-time and part-time team members in 191 countries around the world.
“We felt like our name was getting in the way of accomplishing our mission,” said Steve Sellers, the vice president for Campus Crusade, who insisted that their mission of “proclaiming Christ around the world” has not changed.
Sellers cited researchers who found that nine percent of Christians and 20 percent of non-Christians were alienated by the name Campus Crusade for Christ. He said Bill and Vonette Bright, who founded the group in 1951, said they always knew a name change would come, they just didn’t know when.
“Our name was becoming more and more of a hindrance,” Sellers told Fox News Radio, particularly the word “crusade,” which offended overseas sensibilities. “It’s reverted back to some of its meaning related to the Middle Ages – forcing Christianity on different parts of the world,” he said.
The website has posted a statement defending the name change. “We were not trying to eliminate the word Christ from our name. We were looking for a name that would most effectively serve our mission and help us take the gospel to the world. Our mission has not changed. Cru enables us to have discussions about Christ with people who might initially be turned off by a more overtly Christian name. We believe that our interaction and our communication with the world will be what ultimately honors and glorifies Christ.”
But the decision has struck a nerve in the Christian community with many evangelicals accusing the group of caving in to political correctness.
“It is sad that an organization like Campus Crusade at least appears to have allowed themselves to be taken by the politically correct environment instead of acting counter culturally as Christ’s followers are called to do,” said Richard Hornsby, of Kansas City, who was involved with the group during his college days at Ohio State.
“For an institution like Crusade to appear to cave to the same cultural pressure that leads school principals to harass or try to ban Christian groups from meeting on campus is incredibly sad. We expect the ACLU to intimidate small towns and schools by threatening to sue them. We don’t expect long-standing pillars of the Christian community to fold like this.”
Even though Sellers is denying that political correctness was involved, the defensive tone of the group’s press releases and posted statements reveal just how intense the criticism has become.
“It has nothing to do with political correctness,” Sellers told Fox. “It has everything to do with how we can be effective at what God has called us to do. Most churches don’t have Christ in their name. Hardly any other Christian organization has Christ in their name. People are making an issue out of something that isn’t the intent at all.”
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