Should christians pledge or join a greek letter organization otherwise known as fraternities or sororities this is a question that i get asked on a regular basis so we’re finally going to attempt to answer this question today on the beat coming up hey my friend welcome back to the beat
My name is alan parr thank you so much for tuning in if this is your first time here it’s a pleasure if you want to learn the entire story of the bible i’ve got a free ebook for you click the link in the description box below if you enjoy this video consider
Subscribing hit that little bell notification so you won’t miss a beat okay so on may 28 1995 i crossed over the burning sands and pledged to a fraternity called alpha phi alpha fraternity incorporated i was 19 years old 25 years ago didn’t know anything about what i was doing and uh
Basically what i want to do in this video is i want to encourage you to ask yourself some very simple questions if you are on the fence as to whether you should join this in an undergrad or graduate school situation so that you’re not just doing it for some
Reason that may not necessarily line up with your christian values but you’re very clear on what it is you’re doing and more importantly what you are pledging or joining yourself to so with that being said i want to give you five questions that i want to encourage you to ask yourself
Before you make this decision question number one what is my motivation for wanting to be a part of this fraternity or sorority is it because you are seeking to find your identity is it because you want to be recognized on campus as the man or as the girl or the woman
Is it because of pride in other words you think that it’s a status symbol of some sort to wear these letters or to know a certain secret handshake or to be in the in crowd is it because you want to be noticed at parties is it because you want
More attention from the opposite sex like really drill down and get real with yourself and ask yourself why is it that i even want to be a part of this organization to begin with and then line that up with your christian values and say are these the right reasons
Is pride something that i need to do this for since i’m a christian is getting more attention or feeding my ego or whatever it is that i’m my motivation is is that lining up with scripture i can just tell you from my experience whenever i did it 25 years ago i wasn’t
Thinking about community service i was not thinking about networking because i was a sophomore in college i wasn’t thinking about any of that i was just thinking about whenever i went to the yard and i saw some brothers on campus that were stepping they had their black and gold alpha phi alpha
Letters on their jackets and whatnot and i thought that was so cool i saw all the attention that they got from the girls and everybody else and it was a status symbol on my campus to be called an alpha man and that’s the reason why i did it but i
Didn’t know any better at 19 years old or 18 years old because i didn’t have that firm relationship with christ you more than likely if you’re watching this video you probably do and so you really need to check your motivation for why you want to do this
Now i will say this let’s say you want to join because of the brotherhood or because of community service or because of networking i can tell you that’s a good motivation but you don’t need a fraternity or a sorority to have a brotherhood because the bible says that your
Brothers and sisters in christ are your new spiritual family you don’t necessarily need it for promotion because we know that the bible says promotion comes from the lord and you also don’t necessarily need it for community service because you can do that through your church or on your own okay the second question
You want to ask is is me joining this organization going to cause me to be tempted on a regular basis to go against my christian values listen i’ve been through this i’m not just somebody making this video who wanted to be in a fraternity but never was able to get in
I got in and i ascended to the highest level which i’m going to tell you a little bit more later on in this video but basically i saw it all i saw parties about twice a weekend for about a year i went to all the parties i saw uh half-dressed women at these
Parties vulgar language uh in terms of the the land the language of the music that we were dancing to i saw people getting drunk i saw people hooking up going home together one night stands i saw drugs i saw all sorts of things and let me
Just tell you at that time i didn’t have that close relationship with christ but looking back it didn’t help right because i was tempted into all of these other areas so the question you have to ask yourself is is it wise for me to put myself purposely put myself in these situations
And assume that i’m going to be strong enough to resist temptation in all of these areas because if he doesn’t get you with women he may get you with alcohol if he doesn’t get you with alcohol he may get you with drugs if he doesn’t get you with drugs alcohol
And women he’s going to tap on some other weakness in your life and he very well know you may use the party scene in order to tap into that you know the bible says blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly
Nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful now let’s just break that down in terms of the progression it says you first and foremost you will be blessed if you don’t even walk around this type of ungodly behavior right so walking around means you
Haven’t made up your mind whether you want to do it or not you’re just kind of checking it out you’re just in the atmosphere in the environment but then it says nor stands in the way of sinners so now you’re standing there you’re thinking about should i go forward or should i go
Backwards i’m not walking anymore i’m just standing here i’m considering it now i’m thinking about those drugs i’m thinking about going home with that girl i’m thinking about getting drunk because all of my friends are getting drunk and so now i’m thinking about it and then you’re not just walking around
You’re not just standing in the in the place of the sinful but now you’re sitting in the seat of the scornful now you’ve taken a seat and now you are a student of this thing and you basically are all the way in it progresses from walking to standing to sitting
If you’re not careful about being uh extra uh protective in terms of putting yourself in the wrong worldly environment number three is how will me joining this organization affect my witness to others now once again if you’re joining in the graduate chapter or whatnot and you’re really just trying to get networking
Or whatever this may not apply to you as much but if you’re in the undergraduate scene or your children are in the under undergraduate scene and you’re going to all these parties even if you are not doing the things that are going on at that party my friend as a christian
I can tell you’re going to be guilty by association because non-believers are going to look at you and be like wow he goes to the same parties he listens to the same music she dresses the same way as we do or she is um you know drinking casually even if you’re not getting
Drunk and they’re going to make certain assumptions about you just because of who you are associated with so you have to ask yourself the question is this going to help me be a better witness for christ or could it hinder my witness as well now let’s get into a good one
Should i take an oath or a pledge to this organization once again the process behind going from someone who’s interested all the way to being an associated member is called pledging for a reason because once you get to the place where you are uh joining you have to pledge yourself to this organization
But the question is what does the bible say about taking oaths or taking pledges well jesus is very clear that we need to be very careful about taking an oath notice he says here in verse 33 you have also heard that our ancestors were told you must not
Break your vows you must carry out the vows you make to the lord now let’s stop right there god says first and foremost it’s best to not even make a vow period even to the lord because it’s better to not make a vow than to make a vow to the
Lord and then not carry it out all right but let’s keep going it says but i say do not make any vowels like i just said do not say by heaven because heaven is god’s throne and do not say by the earth because the earth is its footstool and do not say by
Jerusalem for jerusalem is the city of the great king do not even say by my head for you cannot turn one hair white or black now here it is just say a simple yes i will or no i won’t anything beyond this is from the evil one now let me explain what jesus
Is saying he’s saying you and i should take everything on a case-by-case basis and sometimes our answer will be yes do you want to do community service yes do you want to drink alcohol and get drunk tonight no see you need to be able to say yes sometimes
And know some other times but whenever you take an oath to an organization or you pledge yourself to an organization essentially what you’re doing is you’re saying yes to everything that that organization stands for because you’re taking an oath to that you’re pledging yourself you’re taking a vow to that particular organization
Right basically you’re signing yes all the way down the page so you need to make sure before you ever pledge a fraternity or sorority that you know clearly what this fraternity or sorority is all about for the most part but the problem with that is oftentimes you don’t really necessarily know what
You’re pledging into until it’s too late because they are secret orders now i know it sounds like i’m against fraternity sororities i’m not at all i’m just want to give you some things to consider before you jump in and pledge a fraternity or sorority and number five cannot go without saying and
That is this what is your spirit telling you right do you have a sense of peace and excitement about this or is there some sort of spiritual conviction or or conflict going on in your heart as it relates to joining or pledging this particular fraternity or sorority now i know i’m probably gonna
Get in trouble first uh by some of my uh fraternity brothers by saying this but i’m gonna just be honest with you whenever i was pledging alpha phi alpha we had to recite a certain poem and i know it’s been 25 years i can recite it today
Just as i could 25 years ago because i did it so many times while we were pledging right and the name of the poem was invictus and the first couple lines go out of the night that covers me black as the pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul now once again i didn’t have that strong of a relationship with christ but i did get saved when i was eight years old and i did understand some things about christianity and one thing i did know
Was that there were no other god there is one god right so every single time i said those words in that pledging process i thank whatever gods may be plural there was something in my spirit that didn’t feel good about that because i’m like wait a second why is this organization having me
Recite a poem that’s acknowledging that there is more than one god and then my unconquerable soul no no no my soul belongs to god i’m not in charge of that right and so there were certain things that i would say not only that at the end it
Would say it matters not how straight the gate or charge with punishment is the scroll i am the master of my fate i am the captain of my soul now if you pledge particularly a black uh greek letter organization you probably know that poem but think about
It and really ask yourself as a christian be honest do you feel comfortable saying that i am the master of my fate and i am the captain of my soul be honest about it right don’t just spell that’s no big deal it’s just a poem no no
They’re trying to get you to think a certain way and the reality is i am not the master of my fate and i am not the captain of my soul god is right i’ll give you another story um i would say my junior year i actually became the president
Of our chapter the president of alpha phi alpha incorporated and most people think oh man that’s a great thing about halfway through my term as the president i got so convicted because of some things that my organization was involved in and i’ll just be honest with you there was hazing
That was going on hazing is against the law right there’s a law in our country that says you can’t do these things so me as a christian as i started to grow more i started to ask the question is it right for me to willingly go against what i know the law says
And for whatever reason i started feeling convicted about it maybe you won’t be but i started feeling convicted about it and i actually had the courage to resign as president of my chapter did i catch some slack yes but christ over culture right i had to be true to christ
Rather than what my culture was telling me to be true to so my friend i know that many of you watching this are not interested in greek letter organizations or you’re a little bit older but if you know somebody that is in college or they’re considering doing this on a graduate school
Level then do me a favor and share this video with them so hopefully these five questions will really encourage them to really think about whether this is a decision that they need to make if you found this video helpful in any way feel free to share with a friend
Also if you haven’t done so already i would love it if you would subscribe check out some of the other videos on this channel thank you so much for watching i’ll see you next time on the beat
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