A Christian author addressed the lack of religious spiritualism among college students at a conference held at the University this weekend.
Dudley Hall, author of "Grace Works," was the keynote speaker at "Christ, The Campus, The Church and Generation X," a conference sponsored by Cambridge Club, a campus Christian group. The conference attracted about 800 college students from throughout the Southeast.
Hall asserted that organized religion is an outdated concept that repels most college-aged people.
Christians have to move away from the restrictions of organized religion and think of it as a relationship with God, Hall said. "I've been on a mission these past few years to stamp out all religion where I see it."
The weakness of organized religion lies in its staleness, Hall said.
"The real reasons for people's bad attitudes toward God is that they feel an obligation to perform work for God. When you're a kid, your concept of Him is that He's a big boss and we have to work for Him.
"If God had wanted more work done, He'd have made more angels -- they're bigger, they can do more and they require less maintenance. . . . Knowing the Father and joy are inseparable."
To prove his point that religious spirituality should be joyful, Hall peppered his address with jokes -- often leaving the audience in hysterics -- but he always returned to passages in the Bible or his opinions on practicing Christianity.
"People are afraid that if the Holy Spirit's in you, it'll embarrass you. Well, He will, and He'll take delight in doing it, but if you have any pride that'll be all right with you."
In addition to rejecting the notion of organized religion, Hall also redefined the requirements for being "a disciple for Jesus."
Christians need not dance around as if part of a cult, he said. "A disciple of Jesus is someone who knows what he is, does what he says and uses what he can."
Disciples of Jesus must also be careful not to project their worship of Jesus onto humans, Hall said. Many of those who practice religion fall into a "welfare mentality" in which they expect spiritual knowledge to be handed down to them by others, rather than discovering such knowledge for themselves.
"People want to be taught everything but do not want to go through the process of discovering things for themselves," he said. "All we can do is help people to hear the voice of God. We can't translate what he's saying to them."
Hall said people also should learn to translate the words of the Bible into messages that transcend time and can be related to anyone's life.
"Sex life, money matters -- advice and values and messages on all of these are in the Bible if you can interpret it right," he said.
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