WATCH: "People live in despair today," Dr. Jeff Myers on college students and religion

Campus Reform Reporter Alexa Schwerha spoke with Summit Ministries President Jeff Myers about why college students appear to reject religion, and how Christian students on campus can stay firm in their faith.

According to Myers, the transition from high school to college for many Christian students can be “devastating.” He cited a study that found that of young adults who were active in church through adolescence, 70% no longer attended church by their mid-twenties.

”So what happened in between their high school years and their mid-twenties? Well, for virtually all of them, it was a college or university experience,” Myers explained. 

He continued, stating that college classrooms often serve as the brewing ground for a shift in worldview.

”I think a lot of students... they begin to believe that because their professor’s have doctoral degrees in these subject areas they somehow know more about the world and what is ultimately true,” he said. “So, when a professor says ‘there’s no such thing as truth’ which, of course, is the proclamation of the truth, or, if the professor says ‘you’re truths are not really an expression of reality it’s just your social construction of your own, personal experiences’ they begin to think ‘well, this person seems to know a lot about this, maybe my parents were wrong.’”

Campus Reform has reported on the liberal slant college courses often take when it comes to God and religion. One course at Swarthmore College was titled “Is God a White Supremacist?”. Another course, also at Swarthmore, was titled “Radical Jesus” and examined Jesus as “nonbinary.”

At Mercer University, a seminary professor wrote a prayer in which she asked God to help her “hate White people.”

Campus Reform held a similar discussion about how college students can maintain their Christianity with Leadership Institute’s Aron Railey, who told Schwerha that college students can combat the isolation felt on campus by finding community. Railey referred to Genesis 2:18, “It is not good that Man should be Alone.”

Follow the author on Twitter: @Alexaschwerha1