Beware of Greeks...

“IS GREEK LIFE Worth Saving?” asked a recent U.S. News & World Report article. It’s a question others are asking since Indiana University became the seventh university to suspend the activities of its fraternities and sororities. Four deaths in a year attributed to the fraternity pledge process are a clear sign that “Greek life” has a problem.

Yet fraternities aren’t going away. In fact, journalist John Hechinger estimates that at least 380,000 male undergraduates belong to Greek-letter organizations, a 50 percent increase over the last decade. And while millennials are flocking to Greek life, even more are abandoning the church.

A 2015 Pew study found that only 27 percent of millennials attend a religious service on a weekly basis. It’s something college Christian organizations are noticing, and why InterVarsity now sponsors “Greek InterVarsity,” purporting that one can be both “Greek” and Christian.

It’s an interesting approach. However, considering these deaths—and the numerous sexual assault allegations made against fraternity men—some wonder if InterVarsity is making the right decision. It’s time to ask how people of faith can effectively combat the toxic behaviors—prejudice, misogyny, and addiction—that are allowed to flourish within the Greek college and university systems.

Christians first must recognize these same sins in our own Christian communities. The church has the potential to shape attitudes toward sexual assault, gender violence, and toxic masculinity. Unfortunately, 65 percent of pastors have spoken once or never about domestic and sexual violence. I can’t remember my campus ministry discussing the topic ever.

My sorority did, though. As part of my membership, I was required to attend talks on sexual assault, alcohol awareness, and bystander intervention. Some Greek organizations have even begun addressing the issue at a national level. In 2015, the sorority Alpha Delta Pi and the fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon partnered to create #LiveYourOath, a program that requires members of the organizations to have conversations about sexual assault and to understand campus policies around alcohol, Title IX, and sexual consent. Additionally, Sigma Phi Epsilon decided in November to ban alcohol and all illegal substances from its chapter houses.

While Christian ministries can and should be participating in and supporting these efforts, it’s also imperative that we advocate for a system of accountability on campuses. This will ensure that groups that haze and commit assault are prosecuted and disbanded.

Greek organizations are not the only campus groups that foster situations of violence. In October 2014, a former member of the Florida A&M marching band was found guilty of manslaughter and “felony hazing.” Last September, five football players at evangelical Wheaton College in Illinois were charged with a series of felonies in conjunction with a 2016 hazing incident.

First Corinthians says that we are the “body of Christ” and “individually members of it” (12:27). As people of faith determine how to respond to the Greek system, we might keep this verse in mind. When we talk about dismantling the Greek system, we should not characterize it as an unequivocally bad entity. People turn to Greek life for good reasons, including those who seek community in unfamiliar academic settings.

Christians are to be known by their love. By building and fostering inclusive and healthy communities, we can make the natural need for one another into a redeeming and transformative experience—and offer this as our witness and model to others.