By Gracie Pixton; Student at Baylor University & Redeeming Babel Intern

If I could use one word to describe the month of April 2024 it would be this: quiet. On the campus of the Christian university where I attend school, late April is reserved for exam prep. It’s the time of year when finding somewhere to sit in the library is a nearly impossible task and every off campus coffee shop is filled with students, eyes locked on their textbooks and laptops. It’s a strange season as there is an undercurrent of anxiety permeating the campus but there’s also a fresh sense of peace as the collective focus turns towards getting to the finish line. 

The atmosphere at my Christian university late last spring differed significantly from the atmosphere of most universities across America. At Yale, 40 pro-palestine students were arrested on April 22 after refusing to leave an encampment they had set up as a form of protest. That same month, the honors convocation at the University of Michigan was cut short as a group of students began protesting, waving flags and chanting among the crowd of parents, students, and professors. Countless other universities canceled their graduations in the face of real or threatened protests. But while many universities were experiencing political unrest and social upheaval, most Christian campuses remained relatively unaffected and quiet. This quiet raises an important question: Do Christian college students not care about politics?

Out of Place

I grew up in an evangelical church in Portland, Oregon. I was one of the few students from my high school to head south to Texas for college and one of the only ones to attend a Christian university. Although I had been raised in the church and had friends who shared the same faith as me, I often felt ostracized for my religious beliefs. My time in Portland gave me a deep understanding of the way christians have historically used their beliefs to hurt people and I understood why my peers were hesitant to get to know me once they found out I was a Christian. But, because I was in high school and enduring the same growing pains as everyone else, there were many times where I still felt like an outcast. 

When I transitioned to Texas for school, I was looking forward to being in a place where I could express my faith in a less guarded way. I dreamed of the friendships I would form and the community I would find. However, in my first semester of college I was shocked to find that the faith context I had been brought up with differed greatly from the majority of the students at my university. The context I have been raised in compelled me to use my faith to advocate for justice and advance equality. I was no stranger to political activism and saw no reason one couldn’t be an advocate for social change and be a Christian (in fact, I saw these two as going hand in hand). I assumed these experiences were universal but I soon learned that I was, once again, out of place. 

Because I was Christian, people assumed I was too conservative for Portland. Because I was from Portland, people assumed I was too liberal to be a Christian. I felt spiritually and politically homeless. 

It’s Complicated

We know that the intersection of faith and politics is complex, no matter how old you are, where you go to school or where you grew up. Data show that I’m not alone in feeling like I don’t fit neatly into any political box, a sentiment that has left many of us feeling overwhelmed and anxious. However, for Christian college students, talking about politics can send some of us into complete panic. Why? Well, like most things, it’s complicated.  

For starters, many of us face extreme pressure from our parents to align with the values of a certain political party. The sense that “our family always votes (insert party name)” is a weight many of us are familiar with. Add to that pressure from our childhood pastors, many of whom aren’t shy about shilling for their favorite candidate from the pulpit, and a hefty side of anxiety-inducing scrolling and it’s no wonder our heart rates start to rise. Christian college students are wrestling with the vague understanding that our faith should, in some way, be connected to our politics, but not many students are given the tools to help us find the answers we need to make informed, truly independent political decisions. Instead, university students have endless people whispering (shouting?!) in our ears about who we should vote for and what policies a “good Christian” must support. 

Crowded Out

In fact, many of us have been steeped in a culture convinced that being a “real” christian means supporting a certain political party, a sentiment so strong that it often crowds out the space we need to form our own political identities. In order to understand how to become faithful, politically engaged university students–and in order for older generations to know how to best support college students who are at a critical point in their spiritual formation–it’s important to understand the unique environment we’ve been raised in, especially if we hope to engage in politics in the relaxed, hopeful way Jesus himself modeled for us. 

I’ll start by stating the obvious: College-aged Evangelicals have grown up in a time of political unrest. The political model we’ve been raised with would be unrecognizable to our grandparents. We have lived lives marked by social and political instability given the lingering impacts of the 2008 recession, a global pandemic that took many of us out of school, war between Russia and Ukraine, and, more recently, two presidential assasination attempts. By the time our generation got to 2016, most of us had witnessed decades of political norms getting tossed aside in favor of personal attacks, widespread disinformation, and even violence at the Capitol. It’s no wonder our generation has been left feeling emotionally drained and politically confused. 

For many college students whose earliest concrete political memories begin with the 2016 election, the idea of a political sphere that is not divisive, tumultuous, or hate-filled is difficult to imagine. Young Christians have lived their most formative years in a political echo chamber and, for many of us, this cacophony of sound has become so overwhelming that we’ve chosen to remove ourselves from political thinking and activism completely. We are Exhibit A of The Exhausted Majority. 

However, others have drawn a different conclusion, a sort of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” mentality which argues that might makes right and that whoever shouts the loudest or launches the best-organized crusade is also the most worthy for public service. This second group views themselves as under siege and, as such, is ready for a fight. Is it possible we’ve all got it wrong?  

The first category of students, the Exhausted Majority, are often unaware and uninformed. They exist in their own bubbles and hesitate to even read the news, preemptively bracing themselves for the anxiety it will cause them. When cultural and political discussions arise among their peers, they are quick to change the subject. Rather than think through political issues for themselves, they vote the way their parents or pastors tell them they should. While the current political climate offers an explanation for why this exhausted majority might want to pull away from politics, it is not an excuse for complete disengagement. What these students need is an option that allows them to be informed and politically aware citizens while still having the space to ask questions and change their mind without fear. 

The second group of students, the Christian Crusaders, are usually loud and combative. They spend hours a day reading various articles and blogs, searching for people to disagree with. They struggle with listening to other ideas and, when talking with their peers about politics, they are usually the ones dominating the conversation. The aggressive approach which has been modeled for this group is all they know. They see confrontation as the only way to participate in political discussions. What these students need is an option that emphasizes the importance of humility, listening, and gives them room to say “I might be wrong.” 

A Better Way

For both groups of today’s college students, there is a better way, starting with a framework for political engagement that allows students to be informed, engaged, and educated while still practicing humility and building relationships across political borders. This third, better way requires intentional practice, and here’s the hard part: for at least some of the time, it won’t feel great. This is hard, heavy lifting. 

If you are a college student and you don’t know where to start, here are a few ways you might begin to adopt this third-way approach in your own life: 

1. Turn off your phone: With encouragement from 2 Timothy 1:7, be mindful that scrolling through various apps gives us whiplash as we find ourselves laughing at a video one moment and then being met with intense online political content one or two swipes later that is designed to leave us unsettled and afraid. It’s no wonder we feel so overwhelmed! Most of this content is intended to make us fearful so that we will choose to align ourselves with certain ideologies. One of the best things a student can do to practice faithful political engagement is to turn off their phones and take a break from the endless scroll and arguing in the comments. It’s only when we take time to quiet our minds and ground ourselves in love that we begin to discover our own political identities. 
2. Read left, right, and all around: For many of us, the idea of engaging in political conversations with someone we disagree with gives us great anxiety. What do we do? We mistakenly retreat into a comfortable bubble full of others who share our beliefs. When we do so, it results in a phenomenon David French calls The Law of Group Polarization, whereby like minded people gather and tend to become more extreme in their actions and beliefs than they were before the group assembled. This extremism is reinforced when we read only from news sources we know will reinforce our opinions or political alignment rather than diversifying our sources of information. Constantly listening to echoes of our own opinion, and possibly becoming more extreme in the process, leaves us unprepared to interact with people whose ideologies differ from our own. Part of being a faithful, politically engaged college student requires reading or listening to perspectives you disagree with, not with the intent to debunk them, but with the intent to understand. We should seek to live in harmony with one another and be prepared to listen and learn from those who have different opinions than us. You might begin by asking yourself “What is the strongest argument this author/speaker is putting forward?”
3. Pop the bubble: College students spend most of their time surrounded by other students who are asking (or avoiding asking…) the same questions they are. Christian college students engaging in conversations about politics might be less compelled to form their own opinions and tempted to follow whatever political framework the culture of their campus suggests which, at many Christian universities, is a Conservative worldview. Many students would benefit from surrounding themselves with people who are diverse in age and background. College students looking to pop their bubbles might consider attending a multicultural and multigenerational church, grabbing coffee with a professor, or volunteering at a local nonprofit, allowing ourselves to be guided and instructed by a diversity of people as we grow in our knowledge. Embracing experiences that break us out of our college bubble compels us to think about the world around us in new ways and will deeply impact our political and spiritual formation.
4. Love your neighbor first: When we are thinking about politics, it is tempting to make all our decisions according to what we think is best for us. While it’s not bad, per se, to consider how policy will impact our own lives, we must also think outside of our own context and experience. The command in Matthew 22:39 –“You shall love your neighbor as yourself” – is pretty clear, isn’t it? Who is my neighbor, you might ask? Well – everybody! You are called to love and care for members of your community from all backgrounds and walks of life. Part of that care requires using your political engagement to advocate for their needs. Stepping outside of your context, considering those whose lifestyles differ from your own, and giving attention to correcting injustice and oppression is one of the most critical aspects of Christian political formation. 

A Final Thought

College is an exciting time, but it is also a season marked by continuous change. As students, we have a new set of classes every semester, a new internship every summer, and spend our years splitting time between our universities and our hometowns. Personally, in the past four years, I’ve lived in Oregon, Texas, Scotland, and Washington D.C and who knows where I will be next. 

For most students, the future feels uncertain and many of us feel too overwhelmed to begin to consider how our faith should impact our political engagement. However, political engagement does not have to be frightening or all-consuming. Engaging in the public square as a college student and staying educated on what is happening in the world around you is an important step in becoming a justice-seeking citizen, especially with an election season approaching. You don’t have to spend hours pouring over Instagram comments, arguing about the political topics you deem to be a part of the Christian mission. You also don’t have to disengage from politics and trust others to do the hard work of discerning your beliefs for you.

The third approach we propose may require more time and patience, and it might leave you with more questions than you began with, but it is an approach that allows you to be politically engaged and to use your vote to promote justice without becoming a Christian political crusader.