‘Christian’ should be removed from TCU name
COMMENTARY
Nathan Winkler

The “C” in TCU gives off wrong connotations of an ultra right-wing university climate.

Texas Christian University should change its name. “University” is fine. “Texas” is even acceptable. The problem lies with “Christian.” Not in being one, but in the label.

My first reason is that the term Christian does not represent the diversity of this campus accurately to the world. The core of Christianity is that one believes Jesus is the son of God and accepts him as savior. A Christian may believe in the Trinity, or not. A Christian may believe in the virgin birth, or not. A Christian does not have to take the Bible literally. A Christian does not have to be pro-life. A Christian does not have to think evolution is false, pray to saints or worship on a Sunday. Christians do not have to be fanatics.

Somehow the religious right has hijacked the term, though, and when someone says “Christian,” reasonable people assume many of those attributes I just listed. Many come very close to mentally substituting “fundamentalist.’”

To use a personal example, high school friends of mine I got in touch with over the summer were amazed that at a “Christian school” they could visit the opposite sex’s residence halls, that it wasn’t mandatory to go to religious services, that the Internet wasn’t filtered to keep out the “bad” sites and that alcohol was permitted if you were 21.
Talking with others on campus leads me to believe that perceptions like that aren’t limited to just my friends. I don’t think that those who gave our school its present name intended to evoke the right-wing mental imagery that it does.

My second reason is that I have too often heard people try to use the C in TCU as a rallying point to expel all but the most conservative elements here. I appreciate the conservative viewpoint, and strongly support continued ties to the Christian Church Disciples of Christ no matter what we call ourselves, but I strongly believe that a diverse learning environment is essential to a solid education.

As an institution of higher learning, we would be better off if prospective, liberal students were not turned off by our name. Changing it would give one less weapon that the more conservative students could use in an attempt to create an environment where everyone believes the exact same things they do.

Another option would be to strip the term of its extremist connotations within our culture. I am all for that, but that effort will take a long time. Changing the name of the university now will alter the assumptions made about us much more quickly. As for what the new name should be, I am far less certain. Perhaps we should pick a name so that we can refer to our school with one word, like “Princeton” or “Stanford.” All I assert is that our university remains Christian, but not have “Christian” in the name.

Nathan Winkler is a sophomore speech communication major from Wichita, Kan.