2008 Woodie Awards
Religious groups flourish on campus
By: Marisha Pietrowski
Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: Forum
In Monday's USA Today, an editorial by Tom Krattenmaker addressed a long-held stereotype about college campuses. Krattenmaker discussed the idea that students yield an endless supply of religious apathy and that young adults lose any god-fearing bones they have in their bodies the second they arrive for freshman orientation.
The campuses are, as Krattenmaker says, "viewed by many as bastions of liberal secularism, the places where religious faith goes to die." Krattenmaker asks, "Is God silenced on college campuses?" Or is the conversation simply changing?"
When I arrived on campus last fall, I certainly assumed that the former question would be the truth. I spent my elementary and most of my high school years enrolled in Catholic schools, and, strange as this may seem, many of my classmates were rather apathetic and turned off by the idea of practicing religion and openly talking about their faith.
I was one of the few people I knew who went to church on a weekly basis, and this number dwindled when I attended a public high school. As a result, I naturally assumed that I would once again be in the minority when I came to the University.
I believed the stereotypes Krattenmaker describes, and the "conventional wisdom [that] ... from the Ivy Leagues to the brainiac liberal arts colleges to the major public universities, God has been silenced."
Very quickly, I was proven incorrect. I was astounded at the amount of religious groups on campus and how many of the people I met were involved in these groups, or, like myself, attended some sort of religious service at home. I was somewhat baffled.
You're telling me that college students don't have to abandon any religious or spiritual beliefs and begin denouncing a higher power or become interested in "trendy Eastern or New Age religions" in order to achieve higher education? Krattenmaker quotes former Attorney General Edwin Meese III, who said that "for years, our colleges and universities have shown themselves to be hostile to the rights and dignities of religious students."
The campuses are, as Krattenmaker says, "viewed by many as bastions of liberal secularism, the places where religious faith goes to die." Krattenmaker asks, "Is God silenced on college campuses?" Or is the conversation simply changing?"
When I arrived on campus last fall, I certainly assumed that the former question would be the truth. I spent my elementary and most of my high school years enrolled in Catholic schools, and, strange as this may seem, many of my classmates were rather apathetic and turned off by the idea of practicing religion and openly talking about their faith.
I was one of the few people I knew who went to church on a weekly basis, and this number dwindled when I attended a public high school. As a result, I naturally assumed that I would once again be in the minority when I came to the University.
I believed the stereotypes Krattenmaker describes, and the "conventional wisdom [that] ... from the Ivy Leagues to the brainiac liberal arts colleges to the major public universities, God has been silenced."
Very quickly, I was proven incorrect. I was astounded at the amount of religious groups on campus and how many of the people I met were involved in these groups, or, like myself, attended some sort of religious service at home. I was somewhat baffled.
You're telling me that college students don't have to abandon any religious or spiritual beliefs and begin denouncing a higher power or become interested in "trendy Eastern or New Age religions" in order to achieve higher education? Krattenmaker quotes former Attorney General Edwin Meese III, who said that "for years, our colleges and universities have shown themselves to be hostile to the rights and dignities of religious students."
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