Are you a doubting Thomas?
During the last few years dialogue ction of students’ faith seems to have become more frequently present in Trinity Western University’s academic and non-academic spheres of conversation. Specific departments and professors endure the brunt of the criticism, introducing students to new ideas and ways of thinking that challenge the faith that these students grew up with.
To their credit, professors at TWU are willing to walk with students in the process of reconstructing a more informed and deeper Christian worldview; many are more than willing to spend time with students one-on-one, sorting out issues that have been brought up in class. But despite this support, many students fall through the cracks during their time here, not knowing where to turn with their struggles with faith, particularly when their questions might ostracize them from friends, family, or the TWU community in general.
Students lead almost unhealthily busy lives, overwhelmed with assignments, extra-curricular activities, family conflicts, and other challenging issues that arise in the post-high school, pre-adult stage of life —particularly in a Christian setting. We know. We are students.
Last fall, a group of us began a group we now endearingly refer to as AA (Agnostics Anonymous). We view this group as a grassroots attempt to address the “crises” of faith that many students seem to experience sometime while at TWU. 
We’re not all agnostics, but many of us are trying to pick up the pieces in some form or another of a once confident and once-certain faith. We’re attempting to reconstruct, to recover, to reform, to revamp—whatever you want to call it—the Christianity we once professed before TWU. We’re trying to move into a mature, humble, and love-filled pursuit of truth and wisdom.
We’re informal about the whole thing. We’re not a Bible study, though we do read the Bible sporadically. We’re not a prayer group. Some of us haven’t prayed in months; for others, prayer is no longer just thinking or speaking words to God. We’re not afraid to continue to ask the difficult questions about life and faith, or if we are, we try to admit it. The questions may be complicated and troublesome, but we know we couldn’t do anything else but face them.
We’re not fond of pat apologetic, unreflected theology, or other simple solutions. We don’t settle for the facile language of religion and “faith.” No topic is off limits. No words are forbidden. We value community, good humor in the stress of this stage of life, honesty, humility, and the authentic pursuit of truth. Although we don’t come close to being perfect in these values, we try to embody them as
best we can.
We’re trying to provide a setting for those of us who can’t seem to find a safe place to fit in, a shelter in which to rest from the storm, a refuge in which we can be open about our questions, doubts, frustrations, and anxieties.
We’re just a group of guys “doing life together.” It’s not that we think females don’t have the same questions; it’s just that we’re male and we’re trying to help out our fellow guys who find themselves identifying with Doubting Thomas more than anyone else.
We’re just trying to figure out this mystery called faith.
Curious? Email us:
iamdoubtingthomas@gmail.com
Soren and Pilate
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