"Crusade" is the new "Jihad"

At the spearhead to get Intelligent Design (ID) Creationism into high school classrooms and university lecture halls was the Centre for the Renewal of Science and Culture -- the CRSC. A subset of the Discovery Institute (DI), it was a right-winged conservative Christian think tank closely linked to Philip Johnson, the prominent lawyer who for debatable reasons thought that his degree in law automatically made him an authority on evolutionary biology.

I say "was" because the CRSC is now known as the CSC: the Centre for Science and Culture. Notice something missing? In short, the reason why they dropped the "R" was because of the rather negative reaction that the ID movement was getting due to things like the Wedge Strategy, an uncompromising statement of what the aims of the CRSC and the DI were: to remove the secular influence of "materialism" in culture and science and replace with a theocracy, where both science and culture would begin and end with a conservative/evangelical version of Christianity, coupled with a unflinchingly literal view of scripture. Hence the "R" for "Renewal" in CRSC.

Not something you'd be quick to accept if you were an average American with only a cursory knowledge of biology, but with enough religious sense to say "NO" to self-righteous preaching and conversions.

So of course, they tone down their rhetoric, remove the "R" from the name, and go on pretending that ID is just as secular and as scientific as that evil materialist/atheistic un-scientific evolution. Of course, the ultimate goals and aims haven't changed -- is it any wonder then that cynics often refer to the CSC as the Centre for the Renewal of Science and Culture?

So then we come to one of the "big three" Christian organizations at U of T: Campus Crusade for Christ, or as I used to playfully call them, the 'Crusaders. No? Oh wait, I'm sorry. That's Campus for Christ. Notice anything missing? Katherine told me about how she found out about the name change, which prompted me to do a little Googling...which led me to this:

Published Tuesday, October 13, 1998
Campus Crusade for Christ seeks new name

BEN TRACHTENBERG
YDN Staff Reporter

Christian students may soon stop "crusading" at Yale.

Concerned that the word "crusade" inaccurately represents the goals and activities of the Campus Crusade for Christ, members are now considering new names for the religious group. A decision is expected in the next few weeks.

Although the CCC has not yet chosen a specific new name, President Brian Kang '99 said the new name will omit the word "crusade."

This should sound familiar to you, right?

"There are negative connotations associated with the word 'crusade,'" Kang said.

Kang said that despite the name change, the group's religious activities will remain unchanged.

"We're not trying to compromise our purpose," he said. "It's just that some people find [the name] offensive."

David Myung '00, who leads a CCC Bible study group, said some of CCC's 50 to 60 members worry that the word "crusade" scares off students otherwise interested in CCC's events.

"negative connotations"? Are you kidding me? We're talking about the bloody Crusades here...an unfathomably inhumane period of Christian history where Christians were slaughtered alongside Jews, Muslims, and anyone else unfortunate enough to get into the army's path. Rape, murder, robbery, pillage, cannibalism...these were all elements of accounts of what the Crusaders did on their journeys.

As Raymond d'Aguiliers, chaplain to Raymond de Saint-Gilles, Count of Toulouse observed:

"Piles of heads, hands, and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to pick one's way over the bodies of men and horses. But these were small matters compared to what happened at the Temple of Solomon, a place where religious ceremonies were ordinarily chanted. What happened there? If I tell the truth, it will exceed your powers of belief. So let it suffice to say this much, at least, that in the Temple and porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle-reins. Indeed, it was a just and splendid judgment of God that this place should be filled with the blood of unbelievers, since it had suffered so long from their blasphemies. The city was filled with corpses and blood."

- Edward Peters, The First Crusade: The chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and other source materials, p. 214

"The name itself is a little antiquated," Myung said. He added, "I don't think the word 'crusade' exactly reflects what the fellowship is there for."

Heh.

Historically, the term "crusade" refers to attempts by Christian armies during the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries to conquer Jerusalem and reclaim the city from its Islamic inhabitants. The attacking armies often slaughtered Jerusalem's non-Christian residents, and medieval crusaders' religious rhetoric can jar modern sensibilities.

As I pointed out, it wasn't just Muslims who were the only victims, though they were ostensibly the main targets: pretty much anyone who was non-Christian suffered and died. And in many cases, Christians suffered too.

Recalling a meeting for CCC that I went to a year or so ago, there was much talk of "raising the banner of Christ higher over U of T", even talk of "claiming" the university for Christ...as if somehow, there was some sort of hidden, implicit goal, concealed in their rhetoric, of turning U of T into the Canadian version of Bryan College. It made the use of the term "crusade" in their name all too apt.

Is it fair to really equate "C4C" to the CRSC? Well, the motives are similar: a desire to present a more superficially pleasing and acceptable face to non-believers with the intent on raising their status in a larger secular society. But does C4C's name change come with the same intention of malice and dishonesty that the CSC has? We'll have to see about that. I have my suspicions though.

I think though, that perhaps the direction of the name change should have gone in the other direction, instilling a greater sense of honesty to their name...