Peter J. Gomes has been at Harvard University for 37 years, and says he remembers when religious people on campus felt under siege. To be seen as religious often meant being dismissed as not very bright, he said.
No longer. At Harvard these days, said Professor Gomes, the university preacher, “There is probably more active religious life now than there has been in 100 years.”
Across the country, on secular campuses as varied as Colgate University, the University of Wisconsin and the University of California, Berkeley, chaplains, professors and administrators say students are drawn to religion and spirituality with more fervor than at any time they can remember.
University officials explained the surge of interest in religion as partly a result of the rise of the religious right in politics, which they said has made questions of faith more talked about generally. In addition, they said, the attacks of Sept. 11 underscored for many the influence of religion on world affairs. And an influx of evangelical students at secular universities, along with an increasing number of international students, means students arrive with a broader array of religious experiences.
Professor Gomes (pronounced like “homes”) said a more diverse student body at Harvard had meant that “the place is more representative of mainstream America.”
This is happening at the same time that surveys across the country indicate college-age people are more open to accepting homosexuality and insuring full civil rights for them, such as same-sex marriage.
From where I sit, these two facts are not in conflict. Instead, I believe they show that college students are not just accepting right-wing religious rhetoric as fact--they are investigating and studying for themselves and developing their own values, ones which are more affirming and accepting than those of their elders.
All is not lost in a society when the younger generation is receiving MORE of God's revelation than those who preceeded them.
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