Inside Higher Ed reports that Georgetown University, an avowedly Roman Catholic and markedly prestigious institution of higher education, is eliminating all independent Protestant groups from its roster of official campus organizations. Per the article, the expulsion includes InterVarsity Fellowship. We would guess that Campus Crusade is another.
The move was prompted by a decision by the university's Protestant chaplain to try to unify Protestant ministries on the campus. It seems that the students didn't respond to the Protestant chaplaincy's services and programming, so the expulsion of other groups creates a monopoly that the chaplain hopes will force Protestant students to join in the ecumenical spirit of things.
First, we want to note that Georgetown is noteworthy for even having non-Roman Catholic campus ministries. Some other prestigious Roman Catholic universities, notably Notre Dame, at our last check did not have any religious life on campus that was not of the Roman Catholic variety. That a private, faith-based university would allow any religious diversity at all is a remarkable occurrence.
However, we predict utter failure for this ill-informed move to limit groups formerly granted campus activity status. Command economies and state-enforced monopolies have a miserable historical record. The intangible matter of faith and its expression is, furthermore, impossible to control in an authoritarian way. Trying to force a particular kind of religious expression by restricting the supply will undoubtedly fail, as it always has in the past.
We also confess ourselves amused by the remark attributed to Georgetown's Protestant chaplain, the Rev. Constance C. Wheeler, who gave no reason for her decision to eliminate outside Protestant groups except that it came "only after much dialogue with the Lord." Her words suggest the following exchange between Isaiah and his wife after the gravid events of Isaiah chapter six:
PROPHET'S WIFE: What did you do today, dear?
PROPHET: Oh, I just went to the temple and had some dialogue with the Lord.
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