By Michael R. Shannon

This Christmas brings another “can’t we all just get along“ story that once again demonstrating how the media fails to understand committed Christians.

According to the Washington Post, the Higher Education Research Institute found Catholic colleges had a higher percentage of Muslim students than the average secular four–year school.

In typical MSM tail–wags–dog fashion the story is written from the perspective of two Muslim students attending Catholic University in Northeast Washington: A female from Saudi Arabia and a male from Iran.

The students are exposed to, “a life–size painting of Jesus carrying the cross...every classroom is adorned with a crucifix...Professors often open their classes with an appeal to Jesus.” The female student was even required to buy a Bible for a class on the Old Testament! (A book she will have to discard when she returns home, since Bibles are not allowed inside Islamic–ruled Saudi Arabia).

So where’s the story? It’s not like the Muslims are attending Unitarian University. There it would be a big surprise to find crosses, appeals to Jesus and a focus on Christianity, but it’s hardly news to discover Catholics at a university named for the faith.

Instead the reason for the coverage is in the observation, “The influx has astonished and sometimes befuddled administrators. Some Catholic campuses are creating prayer rooms for new Muslim students and hiring Islamic chaplains to minister to them. Others are unsure of how to adapt.”

From the reporter’s viewpoint, hiring Muslim chaplains at a Catholic university is a good thing: One pre–modern superstition accommodating another. What could be better? Unless, of course, some fanatic wants an Ishmael and the manger scene on the quad at Christmas.

But from a genuine Catholic point of view, “adapting” and creating a Muslim prayer room is a betrayal of 2,000 years of the faith. Why would a real Catholic university, confident in the truth of Christianity, encourage students to engage in error?

According to the ACCU, 58 percent of incoming freshmen at Catholic schools identify as Catholic — meaning over 40 percent are from other denominations. Yet, I know of no Baptist chaplains at Catholic colleges and we are much closer theologically than Islam.

Baptist–Catholic differences are doctrinal. For example, we prefer potential converts be old enough to get to the Baptismal under their own power and the conversion experience contain more moisture than is imparted by your average sneeze. And we hold to “sola scriptura,” the belief that the Bible contains all the knowledge necessary for salvation and holiness.

But when it comes to dogma, the set of principles incontrovertibly true, Catholics and Baptists walk side–by–side.

Islam, on the other hand, isn’t even in the ballpark. To mention but a few differences, Jesus is not divine, did not die on the cross and is not the path to salvation. The Golden Rule only applies to other Muslims, not mankind. And there is no Holy Spirit and people who believe that are polytheists.

Compared to that gulf in theology, the average Baptist minister is qualified to be a cardinal.

‘Catholic’ schools that enable Muslim students are what the faithful refer to as Catholic In Name Only, like Holy Cross in Massachusetts. This is a school with an association of Bisexuals, Gays and Lesbians. It allowed a conference that invited Planned Parenthood and NARAL. So naturally it founded MECCA: the Muslim Endeavor to Create Cultural Awareness.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn ‘WICCA’ was also in the planning stages at this school that has obviously lost its way.

The students profiled choose Catholic University because, “there is something powerful here because people are thinking about God all the time and not just about their own life or studies.” An admirable outlook, making them a prime audience for what a Catholic school should be in the business of doing: exposure and conversion to Christianity. Encouraging the practice of Islam, as the media would have it do, betrays the Great Commission.

When the Apostle Paul addressed the pagans in Athens, some of whom worshiped an idol to the “unknown god.” His message was not “let’s form an Association of Students of the Unknown God!” Paul believed, acted on that belief and invited the audience to join him in worshiping Christ.

These students know in their hearts there is a Creator and they are yearning to be closer to Him. A Catholic university’s mission is to demonstrate through words and actions that the way to realize that goal is through Christ.

Otherwise the school is just another theologically unmoored, formerly religious institution that has succumbed to the secular world and it’s philosophy of the Great Permission.



Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He’s a dynamic and entertaining speaker and can be reached at michael–shannon@comcast.net.

Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He’s a dynamic and entertaining speaker and can be reached at michael–shannon@comcast.net.

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Michael R. Shannon
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