Dear College-Aged Daughter: A Parent's Hope in Our Times

Dear Daughter,

You are at the time in your life where you are exploring what you believe, piecing your world together as it expands and grows.

Ever since you were born, we aspired to teach you many things so you could grow into your full, beautiful self as a child of God. In some areas we succeeded and, in others, we missed the mark. I am sorry. I ask for your forgiveness, and I am trusting God to cover my failures.

I want you to know, as you launch into adulthood at this unstable time in our country's and the world's history, that the choices are not what you think they are. Two paths may seem to lie before you: one involves sticking with Christianity and buying into things that seem wrong, and the other involves taking Christianity's values and turning away to do what is right. Even so, a quieter and somewhat hidden path exists if you choose to seek it. It will be increasingly hard for young women like you to see and hear it because of the forces obscuring it, but it is the truth we have most wanted you to know. It is the path of Christ. I understand why you do not want anything to do with what you see around you, but what you see is not who Christ is.

Since humankind was created, God's disposition toward his children has not been to force love. We have always had a choice. This tells us something about how God uses power. God wants relationship and not dictatorship. So when God sent Jesus into the world as God in the flesh, it is no wonder that Jesus abided by the same standards. The Bible tells us that Jesus had all the powers of God available to him, but he did not use them to coerce people into following him, glorify himself through show, or overturn oppressive empires.

Of all the ways God could have come to earth, he sent Jesus. Born as a simple boy to a no-name family, he grew up to be an offbeat Jewish rabbi with great compassion, supernatural authority, and divine insight. Instead of instigating a bloody revolution or demanding allegiance, he taught the secret of the kingdom, which required people to draw near with openness and curiosity to behold what is hard to see. He preached that happiness came through meekness, peace, righteousness, and suffering for God. He drew from a deep well of truth that was otherworldly, but he walked in the nitty-gritty of the world, touching untouchable lepers, the bleeding, dead, and demonized people.

Christ's most powerful action was his unjust death at the cross, which he willingly submitted himself to without a fight. Because of his sacrifice and his resurrection, death in this world is life in the next. None of his followers had to fear death when earthly powers martyred them. After Christ, no king could terrify Christ-followers because they lived unto a heavenly kingdom rather than waiting for an earthly one.

You told us the other day you passed someone on campus yelling about salvation with big, giant signs, and you argued with them. You may not be following Jesus with your life yet, but you know him. You know the kind of person he is. You can identify fruitless things done in his name and the kinds of things that represent his character.

What concerns me is that culture is splitting things in a way that makes you think you have to choose. You do not need to choose between forceful governmental Christianity and a Christ-less path. You can cling to the true Christ and his ways in this broken world.

Your dad and I have watched generations of students deconstruct the parts of cultural Christianity that are off track, but it has broken our hearts when they lose their desire to connect with Christ altogether. My prayer for you and all our students and friends is that Christ will not be lost in the midst of this culture war. At least my confidence is in this — even if you lose him, he will not lose you.

What I am saying is that the forces using Christ's name in our world today are not necessarily representing Christ. Christianity means following Christ, and Christ did not assume a position of controlling the government for greater influence or usurping government powers. Christ led the way for us to follow, despite these systems. Christy's very being goes against all systems of earthly power and control. The greatest resistance to all forms of evil was laying down his life.

So, please, don't think you have to reject Christ because of the mislabeling happening in society right now. Christian Nationalism is a co-opting of the symbols of Christ for national power and domination, two things Christ had no interest in. Christ is still the most powerful antidote to all the powers of darkness in this world. He disarms them by refusing to wield power the way institutions and leaders are tempted to.

So Christ is for you, not only because you are a young woman and the gospels show so many culturally and religiously upsetting moments where he crossed barriers to give women dignity and honor, but because history will show that the powerful cannot advance Christ's cause the way the meek can. Your instincts are correct. The trick is to resist using earthly powers to counter the ones you face in your generation.

A lot of Christians are afraid of what students like you will learn in university to undo the Christianity we have tried to put inside of you. I know God is bigger than that. I want to make sure that when you encounter these truths about Christianity getting mixed in with power, you do not miss Christ. Christ is there on campus. He loves you and the students there. He invites you to something life-giving, freeing, and true.

He will find you.