From Tehran To Baylor, Chaplain Charles Ramsey Says ‘Faith Overcomes Fear’
WACO, Texas – If you saw Dr. Charles Ramsey’s warm smile today, you wouldn’t guess he had lived a perilous life. He is a university chaplain at Baylor University, serving as a spiritual or pastoral resource for students, faculty and the wider university community.
Whether leading worship or prayer, offering spiritual guidance and emotional support, organizing religious programs, or counseling students through difficult experiences, he maintains an uplifting demeanor. You would never guess that two years ago, rain and thunder pounded down around him in Tehran as he realized his life could be in great peril.
At the time, he was working as an associate university chaplain and lecturer at Baylor. He had been invited to Iran by the first lady, Jamileh Alamolhoda, who was holding a conference promoting Iranian influence on higher education. Dr. Ramsey caught her attention because of his work at a Christian University in Pakistan from 2012-2017, which is primarily a Muslim country.
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That night, he was supposed to attend dinner with the Iranian first lady and President Ebrahim Raisi, when the country’s leader was in a helicopter crash and perished.
Soon, whisperings of ill intent began to emerge, and, of course, eyes fell on the American roaming around Tehran. Although the guise of a religious scholar would be an adept way to hide a CIA agent, Ramsey doubled down: He was no CIA agent. He was in Iran on a special invitation.
“Was it intimidating?” he said. “Yes. But I was not alone. I was in the hands of the Lord.”
Exactly a year later, he was appointed university chaplain. As Baylor University continues to diversify, Ramsey is faced with the task of extending hospitality to people from around the world. A two-time Baylor graduate, Ramsey, 51, earned his B.A. as a university scholar in 1997.
At the same time, he is tasked with keeping students strongly rooted in their Christian identity. Reflecting on his time in Iran, he said, “the world would say ‘that’s our enemy and you are behind enemy lines.’”
But Ramsey said he saw it differently: “I was there as a known Christian with good intentions, and I wanted the Lord to be glorified.”
Ramsey makes it clear: Christian faith does not require retreating from an increasingly broad and uncertain world. Instead, it helps us face it without fear. Today, Ramsey encourages students to look beyond a defensive mindset.
“When I look around, I see people who are bound in this web of fear and intimidation. That’s not of God, that’s of the enemy,” he said.
From surviving a tense night in Iran to being transformed by the kindness of a Christian doctor in China, Ramsey’s experiences abroad have shaped his belief that fear of other cultures and religions can be overcome through genuine relationships and trust in God.
As Baylor University continues to welcome more international students and navigate questions about how a Christian institution should engage with different faiths and cultures, Ramsey said he encourages students to look beyond fear and defensiveness.
Baylor offers both on- and off-campus opportunities to help students face their fears: the school offers over 100 study abroad programs and mission trips, and has increased its international student body in recent years. In the last 10 years, there has been a 30% increase in the number of international students at Baylor.
This past year, Ramsey ate with 21 muslim students from Iran at his home in Waco and has hosted students from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Germany, France or England. He said all students, no matter where they are from, face some universal challenges: they worry about their futures; they are hopeful about certain things, and fearful of others.
A college chaplain serves as a spiritual and pastoral resource for students, faculty, and the wider university community. Ramsey’s responsibilities can include leading worship or prayer, offering spiritual guidance and emotional support, organizing religious programs, counseling students through difficult experiences and helping create opportunities for people of different backgrounds and beliefs to connect.
At a Christian university like Baylor, a chaplain also helps uphold the school’s religious mission while encouraging students to engage thoughtfully with people and cultures different from their own.
Along with fear, Ramsey said one of the largest barriers to student spiritual life is “the sheer limitless options around us.”
The influx of information and choices students face in a digital age “does not let them be honest with themselves,” he said.
To help students stay rooted in their Christian faith, Ramsey recommends a weekly rhythm of sabbath, or rest. During this time, he said, students should do spiritually life-giving things, whether that’s talking to a trusted friend, reading their Bible, or going on a walk. Ramsey said students should look forward to that time and enjoy it.
“Those moments of rest can end up being some of the best moments of your week,” he said.
Ramsey said students can fight overstimulation while also expanding their world. The key is, he said, “having a firm center point in your life.”
For Ramsey, this center point became clear when he studied abroad in China during his junior year at Baylor in 1996. During that time, a Chinese doctor invited him to teach English in a hospital, and the doctor started to ask Ramsey questions about God.
At that point, Ramsey was not religious, but the doctor was a Christian. For the next few months, they had conversations about God and prayer, and Ramsey started to read his Bible again. Because he had time and space to read in China, he said he started to see the Bible in a new light.
Ramsey wants students to have that same experience in college. He wants them to find time and space to reflect, whether at home or abroad. He also wants to invite students into the Baylor campus from across the globe, just as he was invited to conversation with the doctor in China.
As university chaplain, Ramsey is also responsible for upholding the school’s long tradition of strong Baptist ministry. He is “greatly honored to be in this position and to carry that tradition,” he said, including the “vital place of God’s word and going to the Bible to answer any big question.”
The Baptist tradition is also becoming much more global. Today, 70% of Baptists live outside the United States.
“Being at Baylor is not just about being a Texas Christian,” he said, but a “global Christian with Baptist family members across the world. They matter to God, so they should matter to us.”
Ramsey concluded: “I feel deeply indebted to people from other cultures who have gone out of their way to help me … to provide for me, to protect me — and I want them to come here to experience that same kind of love.”
Luke Reinkensmeyer is a student at Baylor University and an intern at Religion Unplugged.