<p>First of all, you won’t catch flak at Oberlin for being a Christian – in my experience, there’s not a lot of anti-religion sentiment or anything like that. There are a few different Christian groups on campus (the Oberlin Christian Fellowship and Ecumenical Christians of Oberlin seem fairly active, among others), though I don’t know much about them. I would recommend contacting the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life: [Oberlin</a> College | Office of Religious and Spiritual Life](<a href=“http://new.oberlin.edu/office/religious-and-spiritual-life/index.dot]Oberlin”>http://new.oberlin.edu/office/religious-and-spiritual-life/index.dot). They should be able to answer your questions, and possibly put you in touch with current students.</p>
<p>As for being a conservative… you will almost definitely find it difficult. Whether it’s prohibitively difficult depends on how important politics are to you, how much you enjoy debating, and how willing you are to be a political minority. The vast majority of Oberlin students are leftist, progressive, liberal, or moderate (and most Oberlin “moderates” would be considered liberal anywhere else). We tend to like to debate, and so you will almost definitely find that your political views will be challenged if they come up in conversation… sometimes politely, sometimes not-so-politely, probably persistently. This is true for pretty much anyone at Oberlin who disagrees politically with someone else at Oberlin (i.e., it’s true for everyone) – but it’s especially true for conservatives, since there are so many Oberlin students who disagree with conservatism. This may or may not be a problem for you, depending on how well you tolerate aggressive debates and how committed you are to defending your views.</p>
<p>Oberlin is also quite socially liberal; abortion rights, sex-positivity, etc. are pretty mainstream. By and large, these issues aren’t seen as open to debate; there are so many LGBT students, for example, that voicing opposition to gay and trans rights would feel to many people like a personal attack. If these things make you uncomfortable, you definitely would not be happy at Oberlin.</p>
<p>There are not many conservative voices/outlets on campus, although apparently the Republicans & Libertarians Club has been resurrected. There is a big lecture series that brings high-profile conservative speakers to campus, but they tend not to be very well-received – for an example, you might want to read some of the Oberlin Review articles about Karl Rove’s speech on September 28.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, Oberlin is not all politics all the time, and there are conservatives who are happy here – though I suspect that many of them are in the closet, so to speak. Generally, they are people who feel so strongly about the academic and extracurricular opportunities at Oberlin that they are willing to put up with being in a political minority – or they really like to debate – or they’ve found a more moderate/apolitical circle of friends. If you are serious about Oberlin, definitely try to visit, and talk to lots of folks so you can get a feel for what it’s like.</p>