Uninvited guests

How hospitable should Christian campuses be to visitors who oppose their beliefs? | Joel Belz

Imagine that you're the president of a traditional evangelical Christian college. You're opening your mail this morning, and your attention is arrested by an envelope with an unfamiliar but Islamic-sounding return address.

You're satisfied that it's not a mail bomb. Instead, you find an altogether cordial introduction to a group of bridge-building Muslims who are reaching out to evangelical Christians. They would like to visit your campus for a couple of days, getting to know you, your faculty, and your students. They would like to sit in on and participate in some of your classes, join you for meals, be part of your worship in chapel. They say that in the process they would also like to have the opportunity to explain to you their way of doing all those things as well. The visit would be, very simply, what we have for years called a cultural exchange.