Princeton Faith and Action prevails over attempts to split group by race

The Christian group Princeton Faith and Action has been able to preserve its unity as one group following an initial decision by Christian Union — its national parent organization — that sought to break it into two racially separated ministries on campus.

The Union’s initial decision prompted the resignation of Tim Adhikari, ministry director of PFA, on Dec. 1 and spurred a petition challenging the decision that drew over 170 student signatures.

According to its website, Christian Union's mission is to "to transform our nation and world by developing and connecting bold Christian leaders."

In early December, Christian Union announced its decision to implement a new student group almost identical to the former organization "Legacy," in which members were typically of African-American descent. Two years ago, partly due to strong pressure from student leadership, Legacy merged with PFA in an effort to form a coalition representative of the University’s student diversity.

PFA students have near-unanimously contested the proposed division, according to Marie Brooks ’15, a student executive leader of PFA.

“Students were also outraged by the fact that Christian Unionleadership did not attempt to gather any student input during its decision-making process," Brooks said. "We, the PFA student leadership, believe that this situation is indicative of a broader issue, in that Christian Union has never sought student input on decisions that directly affect students."

Brooks said that while PFA realizes the imperfections in its current model, it has a solid foundation for providing Christian fellowship for black students. Ongoing initiatives such as TruThursday, dedicated to expressing Christianity through worship, community, conversation and culture from a black student perspective, are gaining momentum in reaching out to minority students.

“While the intention of CU may be good, the timing of it couldn’t have been worse," Eric Fung ’18, a student in a PFA Bible course, said.

Fung said that he believed that in the wake of a recent outburst of civil rights controversies,Christian Union'sdecision would have been perceived in a negative light.

“We are very thankful that the leadership listened to the unified student voice and that they are now beginning to engage students in conversation on issues of race and Christianity on this campus,” Brooks said.

In response to the initial announcement, students organized a petition to Christian Unionasking that PFA be allowed to stay united as one group without subsidiary organizations based on race, represent the "diverse and unified kingdom of God through the expression of multiculturalism in praise, worship and the sharing of the gospel" and be able to further its desire for racial reconciliation.

Matt Bennett, founder and president of Christian Union, issued a statementTuesdaymorning to all PFA members agreeing to all items of the student petition. He also said that Christian Unionwould plan on having regular meetings with student leaders as part of the agreement.

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“We never intended to split PFA," Bennett said. "We would love every student who is involved in PFA to remain involved and had hoped that an additional ministry would benefit to students who are not yet in PFA and have different needs and preferences."

Bennett said he and his colleagues were deeply grieved that students perceived their decision as an attempt to split the multicultural community cherished by its members and supported by the Union.

“Splitting this community was not and will never be our intent," Bennett said. "We now understand that students see restoring Legacy as doing that, so we have ceased any efforts to encourage the restoration."

Bennett also expressed that similar disputes have never occurred before in other Ivy League schools.

Brooks explained that it is difficult to predict the consequences that might have been experienced had the decision by Christian Unionbeen enforced. She added, however,that many students probably would have left PFA altogether while refusing to implement a separate ministry.

Tim Adhikari did not respond to multiple requests for comment. It remains unclear at the time whether he will be reinstated as ministry director.

Correction: Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this article misquoted Eric Fung '18. His quote referred to Christian Union's intentions. The 'Prince' regrets the error.