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Name:
Bill Bright
Full Name: William Rohl Bright
Dates:
Born: October 19, 1921 in Coweta, Oklahoma
Died: July 19, 2003 in Orlando, Florida
Founded Campus Crusade for Christ International: 1951
Biography:
Bill Bright was best known for having founded Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC), an
international organization with chapters on various college and university campuses.
Although its primary emphasis has always been on personal evangelism and gaining
converts to Christianity, it has also been an important force for political
conservatism on college campuses.
Bright had been a businessman in California when he converted to evangelical Protestantism and felt a calling to spread the message to others. He began by preaching the gospel to students at UCLA, but the popularity of his efforts caused him to spread the organization to other campuses around the country. Campus Crusade for Christ has long since moved beyond simply targeting college students; today there are units who try to evangelize in the entertainment industry, high school, athletics, and more. CCC now boasts more than 26,000 full-time staff members and more than 225,000 trained volunteers.
Bill Bright is a very authoritarian person and has told the staff of CCC that it "is not a democratic organization." He has even gone so far as to say that criticism of himself, other leaders of CCC or of the actions of CCC is "evidence of disloyalty to Christ." Any member of CCC who exhibits such disloyalty should consider those actions to also be their resignation from the organization. Thus, for Bright, remaining loyal to Christ had become confused with personal loyalty to him and adherence to a politically conservative agenda.
Also Known As: none
Alternate Spellings: none
Common Misspellings: none
Related Resources:
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A system of human beliefs, ideals and practices which is harder to define than it may at first appear. Read more about how dictionaries, scholars and others have tried to define and explain religion.
