Faith: The Facts
Religious Practices on UNC's Campus
Alex Ortiz
January 2006
Students sing songs and wave their arms in the air. Some bow their heads in silent moments of prayer and reflection. Others shout and yell when the spirit fills them. A normal day at a Chapel Hill evangelical service? More like a normal day at a Carolina basketball game – UNC students are far too busy to go to church.
With the holidays just past, it is important to take a critical look at faith on campus. The Daily Tar Heel has done just this. Its series of articles on spirituality and religion tout UNC’s appreciation for diversity and liberalism. However, conversations with students reveal unsettling themes that run contrary to the DTH’s optimism.
The fact is that many students care more about schoolwork and exams than they do about active participation in their faiths. Certainly students may be spiritual. The DTH eagerly points to a 2003 survey that revealed 50 percent of UNC students being more spiritual than the average person, but spirituality is not necessarily a measure of how religious a person is. One could be very spiritual and never attend a church service in their life.
The Nov. 28 DTH article “More in tune with Spirituality” confused the two. A discussion on students’ personal spiritual growth quickly becomes a discussion on religious groups on campus. The definition of spirituality is incredibly subjective – some would say that it involves an acknowledgment of a higher power but others would claim that it is an appreciation for the soul.
Religiosity on the other hand has some definite boundaries. Usually faiths have a distinct doctrine or they at least acknowledge some basic tenets. Most importantly, nearly all campus religions call for active participation of members and some sort of community involvement. So it is quite possible to have a campus that is both spiritual and secular at the same time.
But the phrase “secular campus” is about the last thing to come to mind when one attends a meeting of Campus Crusade for Christ. Any unsuspecting student that walks into Hamilton 100 at 7:30 p.m. on a Thursday will be dazzled. Campus Crusade for Christ, known as Cru for short, knows how to host an amazing meeting.
Newcomers in the lecture hall are greeted by a great number of welcoming faces. Cru makes it known they are glad you are celebrating with them. Visiting students will appreciate the seamless mix of tech-savvy slides and video, live band, and the heartfelt prayers. It is easy to get caught up in their vivacity and their message.
Unfortunately Cru is not characteristic of the entire population at UNC. As the University’s largest nondenominational religious student organization, Cru falls short when it comes to diversity.
When asked about the participation of LGBTQ students in Cru, Michelle Earp, a small group Bible study leader with Cru, acknowledged their low numbers.
“There’s a lot of animosity between the two communities. There’s probably nobody here from the LGBTQ community.”
In addition, Earp estimated that nondenominational Cru was about 70 percent Baptist.
The issue of diversity is not unique to the Christian groups. Crissy Mayo, a senior history major and pagan, recognizes there is not an organized pagan religious group on campus. Her discontent is not unfounded as she notes that nearby Appalachian State University has a strong pagan presence on campus. She jokes that a friend always calls her to report when “the pagans are having another bake sale.”
Paganism, Mayo explained, has many different branches, though the most commonly recognized form is Wicca. Wicca involves the belief in one or more gods and goddesses either as an abstract concept or as real beings. Pagans determine which entities they follow and draw on mythology from around the world to structure their faith.
According to City University of New York’s definitive American Religious Identification Survey, self-identified Wiccans, Pagans and Druids in the United States totaled about 433,267 adults in 2004.
Cru may simply lack diversity in its membership, but UNC is more secular as a whole while less popular religions are not represented. These examples bring into question the contentions made by UNC professor Yaakov Ariel, who was quoted in the Nov. 28 DTH article.
“We’ve seen more diverse groups and more non-Christian groups, and within Christian groups we have differences ranging from Unitarian Universalists to highly conservative evangelical groups,” he said.
While it is difficult to determine why religious participation is not faring as well as campus spirituality, one can acknowledge key differences between college life and home life that make for a more secular campus. The religion article in the Nov. 29 DTH hinted at this distinction when it mentioned that “navigating relationships, economics, and completing degree requirements” often envelops a student’s time and prevents them from becoming more involved with their deeper identity.
Jewish Sophomore Sam Shepard explains the situation well.
“When you’re back home, you’re around your family and you feel more obligated to participate in things because your family is going to,” Shepard said.
Of course not all students have the same belief system as their parents but a great many do.
Though Shepard does appreciate the work that Hillel has done for the Jewish community on campus, he says that there is less active Jewish participation on campus than there is at home. He confesses that he himself often goes to participate in Jewish activities on campus just so he can tell his parents, “Oh yeah, I went to High Holiday.”
So, while there are many students on campus that are active in their religions, many more have traded religion for spirituality or simply fail to participate while at school. What is the trouble with students who prioritize school over religion? Simply put, believers are failing their faiths by not budgeting time for their religious communities.
Earp asserts that there is a Biblical imperative in Christianity to gather together and participate.
“It is important to be in a body of believers and to have that support. You have relationships on a different level,” she said.
Shepard is quick to make note of Jewish ceremonies that take a certain number of adults to conduct. Without active students, these ceremonies cannot take place on campus.
“There are so many cultural aspects of our religion [in Judaism] that it’s more conducive to participation with other people,” he said.
As a new semester dawns go forth and enjoy your religious community. Part of faith is always participation. Spirituality is not enough. Let us transform our secular campus and celebrate our beliefs with fellow believers.