Christian Union
Calamarain's post reminded me of the CU at my uni.

Now, I spent a huge amount of my university time in the college chapel - I was a choral scholar, and therefore services, rehearsals, concerts and recordings meant we were in the chapel for an average of at least 10 hours a week.

The Christian Union, for all their "yay God! Join us, join us and be SAVED!", weren't seen in chapel that much. In fact, I saw them in chapel amount as many times as there are hairs on the late Jade Goody's head. A big, bald bugger all.

I had a friend who was quite involved with the CU at one point, and when I asked him about this, he looked slightly panicky, and then slightly ashamed, and said that "chapel wasn't really their thing". WTF?
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Mon 23 Mar 2009, 11:40, 10 replies)

Ahhhh...
Say all you like about the evils of organised religion - but at least it's not religion of the ranting meet-in-a-living-room sort. I'm guessing that a fair portion of the CU would have been of that latter variety. Y'know: the ones who reject priests because they might actually have studied the Bible, Greek and Latin, and know what they're on about.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 23 Mar 2009, 11:47, closed)

^ Exactly.
Away from the qualified eye of a vicar, they can spout whatever they want. The CU students were much more homophobic than any vicar I've met.
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Mon 23 Mar 2009, 12:04, closed)

Sounds about right to me
Our CU were a bunch of smug, self-satisfied twats who apart from back-slapping each other and electing each other to every Student Union position going, behaved exactly the same as everyone else. It's basically an old boys and girls network.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Mon 23 Mar 2009, 12:11, closed)

It must be a consistent phenomenon
A former colleague of mine is a very staunch catholic with an entertainingly school-ma'am-ish character.

On the way back from lunch one day, we were accosted by some spotty undergrad who thrust a leaflet into my hand and invited me to some debate about something organised by the CU. It took me a surprising amount of effort to convince this guy that I had absolutely no belief in a deity and was not interested in coming along to this. I chose my words carefully so as not to offend my friend...

...so I was quite surprised when she told me afterwards: "I didn't want to say anything at the time, but you really wouldn't want to go to that event. I've been to CU events before and they scared even me..."

Sounds like they are just a vehicle for thinly-veiled bigotry...
(LongJohnBaldry, Mon 23 Mar 2009, 14:11, closed)

It worries me
That at freshers fair at my uni this year there were seven, yes, seven different Christian groups all trying to recruit people.
( Anthropos Was making beer on, Mon 23 Mar 2009, 14:12, closed)

There's only one way to decide which one is best...
FIGHT!
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Tue 24 Mar 2009, 13:12, closed)

Join us...
Perhaps they could be redefined as a cult? :)
(calamarain just invented dehydrated water, Mon 23 Mar 2009, 19:17, closed)

mistake
surely you meant to put an "n" instead of an "l" in there??
(RVD420 has his world coming down on, Mon 23 Mar 2009, 21:13, closed)

They prefer...
... tiny cultish churches where they don't have to be anywhere near those who have not been brainwashed. There are a few exceptions - Oxford, for example, has St Aldates, which is a large cult church for the self-loathing closeted gay and socially awkward female students.
(ubergeekian, Tue 24 Mar 2009, 12:22, closed)

Fuck
This actually really does explain a lot. And I'm 100% serious. This makes me feel much better about my run ins with the twunts.
( Undercovercarrot got done for gross misconduct on..., Wed 25 Mar 2009, 21:23, closed)