Christian vs secular campus life

system
Thu, 17 Nov 2005 02:34:46 +0000

As a student, I feel most people more or less keep to themselves about their religion. torres probably represents most of the religious students in saying: “It is MY faith. I am not going to ‘push’ it on you.” I have to admit, torres, that you seem to want to push the fact that you are heavily involved in christianity onto this board. You do not have to “defend your faith” which nobody called into question. Such is the reaction of the majority of christians on campus. My only real problem with religiously involved people is this mild brand of annoyance (eek! sorry) prevalent at most colleges. I’ll explain.

Most religious people/groups recognize that proselytizing others is not in the spirit of acceptance, so you tend to see people instead that are highly expressive of their own involvement. They keep to their own religion by not trying to convert you or forcing ID on you or whatever else, but they let it known that they are supporters of the beliefs they have. The combination of the two ideas of embracing diversity and being involved in your community is kind of dangerous and slightly irritating. The desire to accept and to be accepted is for me sometimes so overwhelming that I am left wondering why the heck people even discuss these matters. It is almost as if some sects of religion comprise a community of people who agree to get offended by the same things. It’s nuts.

Let me step back and say, however, that on the whole Rice is probably low to moderate in terms of visible involvement including demonstrations, lectures, etc.

I did attend an “evolution talk” which was advertised to answer all my questions on the matter instantly. And who would have thought? It did! I now know not to discuss Intelligent Design with anyone else on the planet. At one point the lecturer said, and I remember this distinctly, “We are talking around the issue, but this is really all about God. He loves us and he wants you to love him. He wants you to be close to him and see his work.” I should have read the flyer more closely and I would have noticed the 1/128" Rice Christian Fellowship stamp on the lower left-hand corner.

But like I said, the atmosphere is saccharine certainly, but there’s a niche out there for all you pessimists (hint: you don’t even have to leave your room). :)