Christian fraternities

While the traditional social fraternity is a well-established mainstay across the United States at institutions of higher learning, alternatives – in the form of social fraternities that require doctrinal and behavioral conformity to the Christian faith – developed in the early 20th century. They continue to grow in size and popularity.

History

Christian fraternities were established in the early part of the 20th century; the three largest were Beta Sigma Psi, Alpha Gamma Omega, and Sigma Theta Epsilon, which are still active.

Beta Sigma Psi

Main article: Beta Sigma Psi

Beta Sigma Psi, the oldest Christian fraternity, was founded as a national fraternity for Lutheran students in 1925 at the University of Illinois, home to the largest Greek system in the United States. The fraternity had its origins in the concerns of Rev. Frederick William Gustav Stiegemeyer, the son of a Lutheran pastor, who had been entrusted with the spiritual care of Lutheran students at the university. In the fall of 1919, he organized the Lutheran Illini League with a nucleus of ten students. At that time they intended to meet once or twice a week for religious instruction and discussion on contemporary issues. In the fall of 1920, now with twenty members, the Lutheran Illini League rented a house. In early 1921, it reorganized as the Concordia Club. By 1923, the group regularly participated in campus activities; so much so that they began being referred to as the "Concordia Fraternity." On April 17, 1925, incorporation papers were filed for Beta Sigma Psi National Lutheran Fraternity in Springfield, Illinois. By 1970, Beta Sigma Psi had grown to eighteen chapters. The fraternity had ten active chapters as of 2016.

Alpha Gamma Omega

Main article: Alpha Gamma Omega

Alpha Gamma Omega was established in 1927 at UCLA. The fraternity suffered a decline in chapters and membership before experiencing extensive national growth starting in 1987. As of 2020, it had sixteen active chapters.

Sigma Theta Epsilon

Main article: Sigma Theta Epsilon

Sigma Theta Epsilon is the result of the merger of Methodist-affiliated fraternities in 1941: Phi Tau Theta, founded in 1925, and Sigma Epsilon Theta, founded in 1936 at Indiana University. The merged fraternity was initially called Delta Sigma Theta, but the name was changed to Sigma Theta Epsilon in 1949 when a national sorority Delta Sigma Theta that was already using the name threatened legal action.

By the late 1950s, Sigma Theta Epsilon had grown to over twenty chapters. However, its numbers began to decline at the end of the 1960s. The fraternity became non-denominational in 1968. Down to only three chapters by the 1980s, Sigma Theta Epsilon began chartering new chapters again in 1988. The fraternity had twelve active chapters during the 2000s, but as of 2016 had only three active chapters. It ceased operations in 2022.

Texas movement

At the same time that the historic Christian fraternities were beginning to rebound from their declining numbers, other groups of Christian fraternities developed, with the rise of the Evangelical Christian movement in the later 20th century. Fifty-five chapters of Christian Greek letter organizations trace their roots to the Texas Movement. Beta Upsilon Chi (BYX) began in 1985 on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin as a local Christian fraternity and expanded when students at neighboring Texas schools convinced the founders of BYX to open new chapters. As of 2017, it is the largest Christian fraternity in the United States.

Beta Upsilon Chi, directly led to the founding of four other Christian Greek letter organizations. The second largest Christian fraternity in the United States, Alpha Nu Omega, was founded three years later. It was followed by Gamma Phi Delta in 1988, while Kappa Upsilon Chi was founded in 1993 on the campus of Texas Tech University. Kappa Upsilon Chi was founded by four men who led Christian college ministries, some of whom graduated and entered into the ministry. The Alpha class contained some members formerly of Phi Gamma Delta social fraternity at Texas Tech. The fraternity sought to be a social alternative for Christian men. While it originally had no intentions of expanding, the fraternity grew rapidly. Omega Kappa Psi was established in 1995.

Alpha Nu Omega

Alpha Nu Omega, Incorporated was founded in 1988 on the campus of Morgan State University. Its organizational purpose is to "present a Christian alternative to the students and or faculty on college/university campuses, to minister to the needs of the whole person (spirit, soul, and body), and to promote an attitude of academic excellence among its members." Alpha Nu Omega is established as far north as New York, as far south as Florida, and as far west as Ohio. While most chapters are located at historically African-American colleges and universities, the organization does not consider itself an African-American Christian organization and welcomes all ethnicities. The organization exists as one organization but operates as two distinct entities: a fraternity and a sorority. The two are bound by one constitution. As of 2016, sixteen chapters were active.

Alpha Omega

Alpha Omega Collegiate Ministries was founded in 1994 by Donyll Lewis on the campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The vision of Alpha Omega is based on Revelation 1:8 and the question, "Why join a man-made fraternity when the body of Christ is the largest fraternity in the world?" It is co-ed and multicultural. The fraternity is based in Michigan. It has chapters as far north as Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan and as far south as the University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University in Toledo-Bowling Green, Ohio.

List of Christian fraternities

Fraternity	Symbols	Chartered	Founding location	Scope	Emphasis	Active chapters	Status	Reference
Alpha Delta Gamma	ΑΔΓ	October 10, 1924	Loyola University Chicago	National	Jesuit	12	Active
Alpha Gamma Omega	ΑΓΩ	February 25, 1927	UCLA	National		15	Active
Alpha Iota Omega	ΑΙΩ	1999	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Local		1	Active
Alpha Nu Omega	ΑΝΩ	November 3, 1988	Morgan State University	National	African American, fraternity and sorority	19	Active
Alpha Omega	ΑΩ	1998	Young Harris College	Regional		7	Active
Alpha Omega Collegiate Ministries	ΑΩ	1994	Western Michigan University	National	African American, coed	8	Active
Alpha Omega Theta	ΑΩΘ	July 16, 2002	St. Louis, Missouri.	Regional		6	Active
Beta Alpha Gamma	ΒΑΓ	May 26, 2018		Local	African American	1	Active
Beta Sigma Psi	ΒΣΨ	April 17, 1925	University of Texas	National	Lutheran	11	Active
Beta Sigma Theta	ΒΣΘ	1973	Michigan Technological University	Local		1	Active
Beta Upsilon Chi	ΒΥΧ	1985	University of Texas	National		37	Active
Chi Alpha Omega	ΧΑΩ	1987	East Carolina University	Regional		9	Active
Chi Omicron Rho	ΧΟΡ	2017	Pittsburg State University	Local		1	Active
Delta Nu Omega	ΔΝΩ	December 27, 2015	Broward County, Florida	Local	African American	1	Active
Delta Phi Xi	ΔΦΞ	December 2007	Tarleton State University	Local		0	Inactive
Gamma Phi Delta	ΓΦΔ	March 21, 1988	University of Texas at Austin	National	African American	18	Active
Gamma Psi Lambda	ΓΨΛ	October 21, 1999	Fort Valley State University	National	African American, coed	8	Active
Kappa Phi Epsilon	ΚΦΕ	2004	University of Florida.	Local		1	Active
Kappa Upsilon Chi	ΚΥΧ	1993	Texas Tech University	National		7	Active
Lambda Sigma Phi	ΛΣΦ	2001	University of Alabama	Regional		2	Active
Megisté Areté Christian Fraternity	MA	1989	Illinois State University	Regional	African American	10	Active
Men of God	M.O.G.	1999	Texas Tech University	Regional	African American	5	Active
Mu Omicron Gamma	ΜΟΓ	September 9, 2001	Old Dominion University	Regional	African American	3	Active
Mu Sigma Chi	ΜΣΧ	October 24, 2008	Ferrum College	Local		1	Active
Nu Alpha Omega	ΝΑΩ	2020			African American
Omega Kappa Psi	ΩΚΨ	1995–1997, 2017	University of North Carolina at Charlotte	Local	African American	1	Active
Phi Alpha Kappa	ΦΑΚ	1929		Local		1	Active
Phi Kappa	ΦΚ	October 1, 1889 –April 29, 1959	Brown University	National	Catholic	0	Merged
Phi Kappa Chi	ΦΚΧ	1988	Baylor University	Local		1	Active
Phi Kappa Theta	ΦΚΘ	April 29, 1959	Ohio State University	National	Non-denominational	57	Active
Phi Tau Theta	ΦΤΘ	1925–1941		Local	Methodist	0	Merged
Sigma Epsilon Theta	ΣΕΘ	1936–1941		Local	Methodist	0	Merged
Sigma Kappa Lambda	ΣΚΛ	June 29, 2014	Birmingham, Alabama	Local	African American	1	Active
Sigma Theta Epsilon	ΣΘΕ	1941–2022		National	Non-denominational	0	Inactive
Tau Alpha Gamma	ΤΑΓ	2007			African American
Theta Kappa Phi	ΘΚΦ	October 1919–April 1959	Lehigh University	National	Catholic, social	0	Merged
Xi Upsilon Gamma	ΞΥΓ	2022			African American		Active
Zeta Phi Zeta	ΖΦΖ	April 11, 2001	Chicago, Illinois		Fraternity and sorority		Active

Branded chapters

Some non-religious national social fraternities allow individual chapters to brand themselves with unique ideals conforming to the specific interests of the local members. Instances have arisen in which a singular chapter of an IFC-affiliated social fraternity brands itself a Christian chapter and initiates members based on national membership standards as well as religious beliefs. One of the oldest such chapters is the Beta Alpha chapter of Theta Xi Fraternity at Georgia Tech which marked itself Christian in 1974. The chapter operates as a full social fraternity and member of IFC while pursuing Biblical masculinity and Christian brotherhood. The Beta Alpha chapter is currently the only Christian chapter of a secular fraternity. It expanded this model to a second chapter at Georgia Southern University; however, that chapter has since reverted to a non-religious chapter.

Legal challenges

Alpha Iota Omega and North Carolina

Alpha Iota Omega and the University of North Carolina clashed over the university's anti-discrimination policy. The fraternity refused to agree to the policy, which banned religious discrimination. As a result, Alpha Iota Omega was not officially recognized by the university for the 2003–2004 academic year. The fraternity sought assistance from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a civil liberties group, and the Alliance Defense Fund, an American legal alliance defending religious liberties. A lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina on August 25, 2004, citing the incident in the fall of 2003 when UNC administrator Jonathan Curtis refused to extend the benefits of official recognition to AIO. The group received temporary reinstatement in the spring of 2005.

Beta Upsilon Chi and Georgia

In late 2006, the Pi chapter of Beta Upsilon Chi at the University of Georgia was not registered as a student organization by university officials "because the group requires its members and officers to share the group's Christian beliefs." After months of negotiation between university officials, student officers of the local chapter and officials at the fraternity's national headquarters in Texas, attorneys with the Christian Legal Society and Alliance Defense Fund filed a civil rights suit on December 6, 2006, in federal court against the university on behalf of Beta Upsilon Chi. On December 7, 2006, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the University would remove the religion clause from its anti-discrimination policy.

See also

• Christian sororities
• Cultural interest fraternities and sororities
• List of social fraternities and sororities
• Knights of Columbus