Movie-like apologetics training hits universities

USA (MNN) — Have you seen the movie God’s Not Dead? If you haven’t, it’s about a Christian university student who takes an ethics class and is forced to write on a piece of paper “God is dead” so he can avoid a difficult part of the class. Instead, the student must prove the existence of God in a lecture format in front of his peers in order to get a good grade. If he fails to convince his fellow student God’s not dead, he fails.

While it’s only a movie, similar situations are taking place all over the United States. Christian young people are being told by professors there is no God and they need to fall in line.

President of Ratio Christi Rick Schenker says that’s one of the reasons his ministry exists. “Ratio Christi is Latin for ‘The reason of Christ.’ Basically what we do is recruit trained apologists to work on university campuses to start apologetics clubs.”

Why is apologetics training needed? Schenker says, “Studies say anywhere between 50% and 80% of [professing Christian students] are losing their faith.”

It’s happening because most of them aren’t trained to defend their faith intellectually. “We train them in what’s called classical apologetics, which is defending the faith with logical reasoning and scientific, historic, and philosophical defenses and evidence.”

What are the results? “It’s amazing! As Christian kids learn this, they become amazing evangelists is just a very short period of time.”

With cases of Christian persecution growing across the United States, this kind of training is in huge demand, evidenced by Ratio Christi’s growth in just three years. “We’re way above 130 chapters. We’ve launched an international division, and we just launched a high school program.”

Can a program start on your local campus? Schenker says yes. “If they’re on a university campus, or they’re parents who have students on campus, or a pastor who has a university near them, or if they’re an apologist, contact us about starting a club at that university.”

Schenker says this isn’t a Christian-only club. “We invite the clubs that are agnostic, atheist, and skeptics to come to our meetings. It makes for a lively discussion.”

Ratio Christi is having an impact, especially on young people leaving their faith. “We’re seeing that start to reverse. And, yes, we’re seeing people come to Christ…especially once they learn these arguments that start these kinds of discussions all the time.”

If you’d like to start a Ratio Christi chapter on your campus or one near you, go to http://www.RatioChristi.org.