God and Lawrence

There is an interesting article on Lawrence as the least religious city in Kansas in today's Lawrence Journal World. Check it out here.

An excerpt:

• Only 29.1 percent of the Lawrence area's population was claimed by the religious groups.

• That made Douglas County the least religious in Kansas, according to the study. But three other counties also reported less than 35 percent of their population involved in religious participation: Riley County, home to Kansas State University; and Geary and Leavenworth counties, both homes to military bases.

• The Lawrence metropolitan area ranked near the bottom -- 266th out of 276 metropolitan areas -- of the entire nation, in terms of religious participation.

• While Kansas averaged 15 congregations per 1,000 people, Lawrence is home to only eight congregations per 1,000 people.

I'm a Jayhawks fan, and I really enjoy strolling along Massachusetts St. in the evening, but I will agonize if one of my kids wants to go to KU for college. It's not just KU, but any public university where "free-thinking" academics work their darndest to chip away at the Christian faith of their students. I don't mind my kids being exposed to alternate ideas, because I think that is important for anyone who will go out into the real world where not everyone believes as we do. But kids have such a longing to join the popular crowd that if denouncing Christ and the church is necessary to get good grades and feel included with the crowd that's what many of them will do.

Fortunately, I have a long way to go before I have to worry too much about it. But all Christians with kids should look at the liberalism and secularism of college towns and (a) do their best to ground their kids in the truth of Christ, and (b) be very selective about where their kids will go to college.