Fear Factor

Answers In Genesis have a new article that all Chrsitians should take note of.

The best part about my freshman year in college was my roommate. She was a fellow Christian, and it was comforting knowing I could come back to my room after class and share my struggles with her. She could understand why I was so upset. She helped me gain perspective and showed me I was not the only Christian and conservative on campus, even though it felt like it at times.

As we would walk to our separate classes together she encouraged me, confirming we knew the truth, that our ideas were valid, and that we were responsible to present the whole picture.

Those days really made a difference before I walked into English class. I could hold my head higher. It would be difficult to overstate the importance of a solid, grounded Christian friend. Fortunately for my roommate, she didn’t seem to have drawn a class schedule featuring some of the far left academia nuts I was encountering. But she didn’t escape completely.

As my roommate sat in freshman biology class the first week of school, the professor paced across the front of the class, turned and asked if anyone did not believe in evolution. If they did not, would they please raise their hands? My Christian roommate and another student both raised their hands.

At a secular school, it certainly would be plausible that the majority of students adhere to the story of evolution. But it is even more plausible that there were other students who didn’t believe, or at least questioned some of the holes in the evolution theory, but were too scared to identify themselves. The two who did raise their hands became easy targets the rest of the semester.

My roommate wasn’t intimidated and stood up for her convictions with that small gesture of raising her hand. With that simple act, she acknowledged that truth is more important than conformity. There were probably others in her class who thought the way she did, but they were too scared and intimidated to identify themselves. It’s easy to be bullied into silence. It happens a lot—even to mature Christians.

An example of how silence can engulf members of an audience happened during the Iraq War. At an anti-war “teach-in,” a Columbia University professor Micholas DeGenova, told an audience that he would like to see “a million Mogadishus.” He was referring to the Somalia incident in which 18 American soldiers were ambushed and killed in 1993, their corpses dragged through the streets to the cheers and jeers of crowds. DeGenova, assistant professor of anthropology and Latino studies, also said, “The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military.”

The crowd listening to DeGenova nearly filled Columbia University’s Low Library. And the crowd was silent. If there were students who disagreed with DeGenova’s murderous comment, their voices were not heard. How is it possible in a crowd that size that not one person was utterly repulsed by DeGenova’s wish for a million Mogadishus? How can that be possible?

How? Fear. There probably were at least a few who disagreed with DeGenova, but they were afraid to be heard. Fear is a powerful intimidator.

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