Deacon Dan Wright

Weekend Homily: Commitment and Freedom

As I began to prepare for the homily, my thoughts carried me back to some of my earliest memories as young Christian. It was passages like the one we just heard from the Gospel of Luke that intrigued me, and perhaps instilled a sense of fear, the most.

Especially I recalled a certain sense of religious anxiety or spiritual unrest that accompanied my deeper reflections on Jesus' warning that "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God." I suppose that I am still close enough to my agrarian roots for the image to have the fullness of its original intended meaning. Of course, we can easily and simply restate it: when we commit to follow Jesus, we must commit wholeheartedly.

Part of the journey toward the kingdom of God is learning not to desire those aspects of life that we have previously surrendered. Nevertheless, I couldn't get around a nagging suspicion that something much deeper was being gotten at by Jesus in his demand that we not look back.

Because I am a convert from Evangelical and Pentecostal forms of Christianity, it's easy for me to relate to the idea of being saved; that is, of being saved from something, and typically I found that this meant being saved from a Godless life to a transformed existence. There is a certain sense of being empowered to live victoriously that's inherent in this kind of Christian viewpoint, so it's not something that I would reject outright. It can indeed have merit for us as Catholics and we might do well to consider the power of God to transform our lives.

However, the gist of today's scriptural lessons runs all the way to the essential core of what it means to be human. Jesus' warning not to look back is much more involved than simply being about not sinning, though that too is part of it. The deepest meaning of the lesson is that in following Christ, in being a baptized Christian, by participating in the Sacraments of salvation, we acquire a particular freedom that differs qualitatively in terms of depth from what one ordinarily means by freedom. We might say that the freedom given in Christ is a transcendent freedom because it reaches to the foundation of what it means to be a human being. Such freedom inspires awe in the human heart because it places us in the presence of God. It is freedom in the Spirit, and the freedom inherent in the new nature given to us in baptism.

Without any doubt whatsoever the freedom that is the gift in salvation is ours because of what Jesus did for us in his Passion, and we respond through obedience and by our unswerving commitment to live in the spiritual liberty that God has so graciously given to us. It is the same freedom that our Lord exercised in offering himself, thus our participation in it is a participation in the cup of salvation. It unites us with Christ in a way that is perfectly symbolized and revealed in and through the Eucharist.

Our course of action is to live by the Spirit, and to live spiritually requires that we look deeply within ourselves to the source of our spirituality. It also demands that we recognize what stands in our way as the enemy of the freedom given to us to live as the children of God. Where lies the temptation to set our direction in life in opposition to God's will? It would be easy to look outside ourselves for a source of spiritual failure, yet the true difficulty is that it is precisely this short-lived bodily existence of ours, at least the part of it that remains subject to the fallen nature, which we must overcome.

Although we participate through Christ in spiritual freedom, our corporal humanity, our physical and sensual nature, is set against it. St. Paul warns us that the Spirit and the flesh are opposed to each other. Thus we find it as a source of fear and anxiety when presented with scripture's spiritual ultimatums. This too was the source of what I felt as a youth when I was confronted with so stern an admonition as "Don't look back." Many were the times that I imagined the horrible fate of Lot's wife as I, in fact, sometimes did find myself looking away from the goal of the kingdom of God.

There is an assurance that Christians of all backgrounds share: as Psalms 16 instructs us, we may always take refuge in the Lord; it is he who shows us "the path to life." In him we rejoice both "body and soul," and we seek to be instructed and guided by the Holy Spirit through the teachings of the Church.

Living by the Spirit in such a way that we allow it to sanctify our bodily humanity, complete with all the passions and desires that often have the power to blind our hearts, presents no great mystery to us. The Spirit is the master of the body, and thus by submission to the freedom of the Spirit the body too rejoices in the holiness of God. Clearly, we fulfill the call to live by the Spirit in obeying the law of love through being at the service of all our fellow human beings regardless of whether they share our faith.

It is true that living by the Spirit presents us with great challenges, but when we persevere we will overcome them. The love that serves, heals, and reconciles has the potential to overcome all obstacles regardless how great or seemingly impossible they may be.

Ultimately, God does ask us for a lasting commitment, a promise as binding as the vows of marriage, and we respond to him with forward-looking affirmation.

We are followers of the Master for we have heard his irresistible summons to come and be with him on the journey. The Psalmist asks, "How shall I repay the Lord for all he has done for me?" We too in having discovered our freedom ask similarly, and similarly we answer, "I will take up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord before all his people."

Late Evening Reflection: The Holy Spirit as Teacher of the Father's Will

Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord,"
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day,
"Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
Did we not drive out demons in your name?
Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?"
Then I will declare to them solemnly,
"I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers." Mt. 7: 21-23

How is it that someone could go a lifetime, perhaps calling on the name of the Lord, and perhaps prophesying and working great deeds, and still somehow fail to do the essential thing required to spend eternity in the presence of the Lord?

I have to admit that when I was much younger the scripture cited above caused me to have more than a little concern.  I knew many people in the Pentecostal and charismatic gatherings I attended who did--or claimed to do--just the things mentioned in the passage.  How could anyone be sure of his or her standing with God?  I tried to understand, and I prayed to have wisdom amid my concern.  Over time I learned that having concern can be a good thing, and especially this is so when our concern causes us to examine the motives of our hearts.

On my recent post, Pray Always, someone commented that in Jesus teaching us to pray the Our Father or the Lord's Prayer he was teaching his disciples how to pray a prayer in its full intention and with the understanding of God's will.  Indeed God's will is what should concern us most, and ironically it is God's will that is easiest to discern, but perhaps most often missed.  Are we doing things merely to bring attention to ourselves?  Is our motive to make ourselves look good or to gain the esteem of others?  If so, it may be that we have failed in discerning God's will.

Something Jesus gave us to help along the way will ultimately see that we do not fail; that is, if we listen.  It is the Holy Spirit who acts as our teacher through the Church. I cringe when someone tells me that Jesus wouldn't have cared much for a religion of dogma and doctrine, or that Jesus would not have wanted the Church to inform our beliefs and practice, and I cringe even more when I hear it from our own clergy.  Clearly Jesus gave us the Church as our teacher, and he continues to teach us today.  When we think that we know better than the Church, it reveals that we have somehow failed to discern the Holy Spirit's activity in our midst.  In desiring to have the last say in matters of faith and doctrine have we perhaps failed to know and do the will of God?

The problem I had when I was a Pentecostal Protestant, and during my Catholic growing pains, was figuring out God's will.  It seemed that everyone had their own opinion of what the Holy Spirit was telling them.  I still notice the same thing today too.  It's pretty clear that everyone has his or her own idea of what is "truth." However, apart from the Holy Spirit's teaching us through the Church, which we can depend on with certainty, are any of these individual ideas true? 

Undoubtedly you and I can go on having our opinions.  We can agree and disagree on an infinite number of subjects, theology included.  However, we should never confuse our opinions and our ideas with God's will.  Truth is found in the Spirit of God: it is found in the person of the Lord, and it is none other than Jesus our Lord to whom we look and who teaches us when we look to the Church as our guide.

Knowing God's will requires that we learn the discipline of self-surrender.  We must surrender to something bigger than ourselves, but the sheer joy is that surrender, rather than loss, means that we gain everything.

The greatest joy of this life--really, its only joy--is to know and to do the will of God.  Certainly we have a sure teacher, and thus we also have great cause to rejoice.  In knowing and doing the Father's will, we engage and commune with both his Son and with the Holy Spirit.  It may be that we have never before realized the accessibility of the Spirit-Teacher.

Wrongly Creating a Connection

In the days before pro wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife and child and hanged himself, the couple argued over whether he should stay home more to take care of their mentally retarded 7-year-old son, an attorney for the wrestling league said Wednesday.

“I think it’s fair to say that the subject of caring for that child was part of what made their relationship complicated and difficult, and it’s something they were both constantly struggling with,” said Jerry McDevitt, an attorney for World Wrestling Entertainment. “We do know it was a source of stress and consternation.”

McDevitt said the wrestling organization learned from the couple’s friends and relatives that the Benoits were struggling with where to send the boy to school since he had recently finished kindergarten.

He also said Benoit’s wife didn’t want him to quit wrestling, but she “wanted him to be at home more to care for the kid. She’d say she can’t take care of him by herself when he was on the road.”

The child suffered from a rare medical condition called Fragile X Syndrome, an inherited form of mental retardation often accompanied by autism, McDevitt said.

Read the whole story here

What is predictable about the above story is how the press was quick to make a connection between Benoit's actions and his child's disability.  Does it somehow make Benoit's crime less terrible or even excusable that he and his wife had to care for a child with a cognitive disability?  Exactly what is WWE trying to say?  Don't say it's the steroids?  Don't blame wrestling?

While parenting a child with disabilities has great difficulties, as I can attest, what happened was not the child's fault.  Undoubtedly, as a society on the whole, we often fail at supporting the families of children with disabilities.  However, the case of the Benoit killings has nothing to so with the availability of services.  Nor did it have anything to do with the child's disability.  The point to keep in mind is that there should be no more sympathy shown toward someone who murders his child who has a disability than one who murders his or her child without a disability.

Researcher Dick Sobsey has documented an increase in the murders of children by their parents...in relation to well-publicized and sympathetic coverage of the murders of children with disabilities. Articles about the alleged murder of a person with a disability should not contain more about the disability than about the victim as a person.

...what will be accomplished by saying that murderous feelings toward disabled children are common? Will this increase the acceptance of children with disabilities in our schools and neighborhoods? Or will the public conclude that kids *that* horrible are better locked up? What is the end result when parents say feelings of murder or desperation are "the norm?" How will it affect the small percentage of parents struggling with the despair? Will it give them strength or help them leap off the abyss?

Source

Pray Always

In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Mt. 6:7-8

A few years ago my role in interfaith ministries took me to the denomination of my youth—the United Pentecostal Church—for several visits.  Through those visits I had the opportunity to reflect deeper on the value of my faith as a Catholic.

By way of a meeting hosted jointly by the mayor of Austin and my organization I made contact with the pastor of the local Pentecostal congregation, who was and is still the president of their denomination’s seminary.  In my discussions with the pastor I had in mind getting his congregation to participate as a member in my organization, seeing from his participation in the mayor’s meeting that he had an interest in community concerns and outreach. 

In our conversations we talked about our faith, and I talked at length about my role as a Catholic deacon.  However, for the time being I withheld the fact that I had at one time been a Pentecostal.  I felt that the chance of being known as an “apostate” from the UPC wouldn’t go well in my persuading one of their national leaders to join a somewhat progressive interfaith organization.  In the process of getting to know the pastor and his congregation I accepted an invitation to attend one of their regular Wednesday evening bible studies.  The lesson was on the passage above, which is from today’s readings.

I suppose the pastor felt that I was mature enough not to take offense at what he had to say; after all, the organization I represented was receiving membership dues from his congregation at this point.  I sat near the front and listened intently while he cited the recitation of the Rosary as an example of how the scripture is ignored, or its law somehow broken, in our times.

I recalled that I had heard the same thing when I was teenage member of the UPC, though at that time I had no idea what the Rosary was.  Even the first two words of the Hail Mary were unknown to me, but I had an argument against it.

As I listened to the pastor’s lesson I seriously considered what he had to say.  I asked myself to what degree he might be correct.  I considered the simple prayer of Jesus, the “Our Father,” and I considered not only the Rosary but also other Catholic prayers such as the Liturgy of the Hours.  In my consideration of the passage's warning of “many words” I weighed what my prayers typically looked like as far their wordiness.  Certainly, I had been given something to consider.  Nevertheless, my familiarity with the Church's teaching guided me through an uneasy place.

In recent months someone brought a question to me that I believe is relevant to what I’m getting at today.  The question was, “Which is most important, to practice the religion of Jesus—and by this I’m not referring to Judaism, but to Jesus’ personal, everyday practice of what he preached—or to practice a religion that is all about Jesus.  My answer to this, simply stated, is that in Catholicism we do not separate the two.  We allow the Holy Spirit to be an active teacher of the Church in our times.

Often we might encounter those who believe that things ought to be the way they were, and whether the way things were was 20 years ago or two thousand years ago makes little difference.  It’s possible to be in error out of the desire to be “historically pure.”  We remember that ours is a living faith—in addition to being a historical faith—imbued with the Holy Spirit as guide and teacher.  The Church speaks to us in our times and situations.

So, while Jesus had a good reason to warn against the practice of praying a multitude of empty and meaningless words, he did not make the warning against the Christian practice of prayer that was to grow out of the Church in the centuries to come.  St. Paul recognizes this in his admonition that we “pray always.”

If we insist only on what once was, and fail to accept what is today, we then fail to understand our faith as living and dynamic, one that speaks to us where we are now.

Note: Today's photo is one of my own, taken in the early evening at St. Thomas More parish in Austin, Texas.

Diversity and Multicultural Utopianism

The discussions last week in the combox resulting from my post regarding the appointment of a Hindu as head of the religion department at St. Olaf College (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) were still fresh on my mind when I discovered a story linked to on TCRNews on the rise of Islam in London.

Although I agree with TCR, and I find many of of the claims in the article they reference to be highly doubtful, something inside tells me there is there is a truth being communicated that is still relevant in a world where the traditional religious makeup is quickly changing.  Moreover, it precisely brought up the important question, which I had just visited in the post mentioned above, about how we relate to those in our society who differ from us.  It's more than interesting to me because I find that multiculturalism is a challenge that we cannot ignore.  In response to the story on London's Islamic future TCR's editor writes:

The Church has never embraced a naive multicultural utopianism which mixes irreconcilable principles and thereby risks terrible conflict, but rather urges peace and caring between nations across respectful borders, sharing the bounties of each for each, without precluding reasonable international institutions which assist all nations when called upon.

TCR's response caused me to ask myself several questions. How much is my commitment to multiculturalism naive, and is not multiculturalism in keeping with Catholic social doctrine?"  Does multiculturalism in fact mix irreconcilable principles?  Is there any hope for the world beyond establishing a peaceful or respectful border?

The official answers from the Church concerning multiculturalism required a good bit of searching, but the question has been addressed in several statements concerning the migratory people in our midst.  Often I've heard it said that provided that immigration is legal, and those immigrants show willingness to assimilate into our culture, there's no problem.  I find both these positions to be problematic and possibly untenable.

Moreover, when immigrant people share our religion, my observation is that acceptance, while often being troublesome, is not impossible.  However, when we add in the variable of a religion that in recent years has shown itself to be challenging, both in terms of its growth worldwide and the intolerance associated with its extremists, multiculturalism asserts unrealistic demands.  Do we then dismiss multiculturalism as the enemy of the Church?

Pope John Paul II made the following statement:

In a rapidly changing global order, I am convinced that multi-cultural and multi-religious societies...have much to offer to other nations, since they can assist the wider international community in developing new global models of unity within diversity. A sustained commitment to dialogue between different religions, cultures and traditions is in fact "the obligatory path to the building of a reconciled world, a world able to look with serenity to its own future." (Source )

Such sentiment was shared by Rev. P. Antonio Pernia, S.V.D.

Our ever increasingly multi-cultural world is challenging the Church to also become multi-cultural itself. A multi-cultural Church will be seen by strangers and foreigners not just as a more tolerant but also a more welcoming Church. Part of the missionary task of the Bishop will be to promote a multi-cultural Church - a Church, that is, that fosters recognition of the other, respect for cultural difference, and healthy interaction between cultures. (source)

Actually, I have held off a few days on posting this particular entry.  I needed to give it time and prayer because I sense that it is immensely serious as well as being relevant to our times and needs.  The gospel today tells us to let our righteousness surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, and we live in a world that more and more demands that we understand and represent the truth in what we convey in our claim to faith.

Ours is the ministry of mercy; the ministry of preaching Christ as Lord.  Certainly since the truth of God is in our message we have nothing to fear from the challenges of a changing world.  We have no need to be concerned about phenomenal growth in a religion that does not recognize Jesus Christ as the Son of God.  Ours is still to show mercy--in it I cannot help but see a gentle hand; a loving and listening heart--rather than to fret over the doubts of a thousand tomorrows.

I believe entirely that God has a plan for us and in that plan we are called to accept those who are most different from us like they were one of us.  Vatican II showed us that this thing we call Church is much larger than we imagined.  In standing for multiculturalism with all its diversity--not as an empty utopian ideal that gives away all we value, but as part of God's final plan--we stand for the deepest and truest meaning of Church. 

 

Summer Moves Along

This week I had hoped to get a little more blogging done than I have, but as the summer moves along so does life.

The past week's activities have ranged from swimming lessons for my youngest child to typical ministry stuff.  June is especially a popular time to get married, and also a popular time to decide to get married, so there have been several meetings at the parish office.

Also this month I have been looking forward to my new job next year, which I am actually very exicited about.  I wanted to wait until I signed my contract before I jumped up and down, rang the bells and blew the whistles.  Today--what a relief--I returned my contract for my job teaching next school year. 

With great anticipation I am looking forward to teaching at a high school and working with older students, and I'll still be working with students with significant cognitive disabilities.  It is something I am convinced that God has handed me to do in this life!  There are many things that could be much easier to do, but this is what God has given me.  I accept it with gratitude and a glad heart.

There's still a lot of summer ahead, such the annual family vacation.  This year I'd like to do a couple different things and perhaps take a few photos to post.  Certainly another trip to the beach is in order--the kids won't let that one get by us--but also this year I have longed to return to the piney woods of east Texas where I grew up.  Don't be too surprised to find a photo of a loblolly pine posted sometime in the next couple weeks.  Yes, even the deep piney woods have gone wireless.

This evening I took a moment to exhale.  It was a needed breath amid a lot of mental movement.  There was a meeting at the parish, and the couple was running a few minutes late.  I had time to go into the church and pray in my favorite place: in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.  Always, though not always immediately noticable, God leaves a word in my heart when I visit Jesus in the tabernacle.

It was a good occasion to remember to pray a few decades of the Rosary tonight as well.  I haven't mentioned yet but when I first decided to leave my former job earlier this year, turning frequently to the Rosary gave me the courage to move ahead.  It was about the same time that I posted on the Rosary a couple months ago.  Undoubtedly God was with me again through yet another time that--quite honestly--was filled with uncertainty.

Throughout the seasons of life, but especially in this season, I hear a soft say "have faith, trust in God."  I also hear in my soul, "Pray often; be disciplined, and share the truth of the faith you have received."

I feel fortunate to have a life that I can share on so many planes with others--with my wife and children, in my profession and in my ministy, and here on the Internet with you.  Summer moves along, and so do the many, many blessings from the Lord who makes the seasons of life.

This summer take a moment to thank God for all you have.  In the midst of it all ask God to come to the forefront.  You will not be disappointed.

Who Decides Which Religion Is Radical? The US Government, That's Who

NEW YORK — Inmates at the federal prison camp in Otisville, N.Y., were stunned by what they saw at the chapel library on Memorial Day — hundreds of books had disappeared from the shelves.

The removal of the books is occurring nationwide, part of a long-delayed, post-Sept. 11 federal directive intended to prevent radical religious texts, specifically Islamic ones, from falling into the hands of violent inmates.

Three inmates at Otisville filed a lawsuit over the policy, saying their constitutional rights were violated. They say all religions were affected.

"The set of books that have been taken out have been ones that we used to minister to new converts when they come in here," inmate John Okon, speaking on behalf of the prison's Christian population, told a judge last week.

Okon said it was unfortunate because "I have really seen religion turn around the life of some of these men, especially in the Christian community."

The government maintained that the new rules don't entirely clear the shelves of prison chapel libraries.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Feldman told U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain that prison libraries limited the number of books for each religion to between 100 and 150 under the new rules. He said officials would expand the number after choosing a new list of permitted books.

Feldman said the removal order stemmed from an April 2004 Department of Justice review of the way prisons choose Muslim religious services providers. It is not exactly clear why it took so long for the order to be put into effect, but prison officials said they needed time to examine a long list of books.

Feldman said the study was made out of a concern that prisons "had been radicalized by inmates who were practicing or espousing various extreme forms of religion, specifically Islam, which exposed security risks to the prisons and beyond the prisons to the public at large."

Feldman said the review by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons concluded that prison chapel libraries were not adequately supervised.

"The presence of extremist chaplains, contractors or volunteers in the BOP's correctional facilities can pose a threat to institutional security and could implicate national security," the bureau's report said.

The review suggested audio and video monitoring of worship areas and screening of religious service providers. It also recommended that prisons reduce inmate-led religious services and consider constant staff monitoring of inmate-led services.

Continue reading

Once you land in jail is it safe to assume you've given up all your rights?  Well, maybe not.  Inmates are still entitled to basic human rights, such as the right to choose their religion.

On a fundamental level this looks to me--a legal layman--like it's a violation of the separation of church and state, which is something that I feel strongly about as a Catholic.  Church/state separation protects our right to choose and practice our religion.  It's what has made religion strong in the US.

Furthermore, it bothers me more than a little to see Islam in particular being targeted.  If we allow Islam to be regulated, then which religion is next?

Bush says US working to insure fair treatment of Christians

Of the many articles circulating regarding the President's visit with Pope Benedict XVI, I found this one most interesting.  In light of the recent attack on Iraqi priests and deacons, which I blogged about earlier in the week, the story brings up the question of exactly what the US is doing in Iraq to insure fair treatment of Christians. This is the first I've heard that we have a specific plan.

Anti-Christian discrimination by the majority Muslim population of Iraq was raised by Pope Benedict XVI at a meeting with US President George Bush in the Vatican today.

President Bush said the Pope wanted to discuss the "the worrisome situation in Iraq" and the treatment of Christians in the country.

At a press conference later with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, Bush said of the Pope: "He was concerned that the society that was evolving would not tolerate the Christian religion.

"He's worrisome about the Christians inside Iraq being mistreated by the Muslim majority."

The war was vigorously opposed by the late Pope John Paul II, and Benedict, in his Easter message, denounced the "continual slaughter" in Iraq.

Bush said he assured the Pope that the US was working hard to ensure that the Iraqi people treat Christians fairly.

Continue reading

Also, I have to wonder if we have a comical new "Bushism" in his assertion that the Pope is "worrisome," or was he misquoted?

...Meanwhile on the ELCA University Scene

A college affiliated with a Christian denomination has appointed to head its religion department a practicing Hindu who believes that some forms of Christian ministry produce violence.

Anantanand Rambachan, who has taught religion and philosophy at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., since 1985, now will become the first non-Christian to head the religion department in the school's 133-year history.

"It's a great honor," Rambachan, a leading figure in Minnesota's Hindu community, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

But in an interview with Hinduism Today, he wrote of participating in the Pontifical Council in Rome in 2006.

"Last year we met in Rome in a joint consultation with the World Council of Churches to discuss conversion. This was the first meeting of a three-year project to study the issue and to develop an acceptable code of conduct. Certain forms of Christian proselytization have given rise to tension and even violence between some religious communities," he said. "We gathered to share our perspectives on this matter and to consider acceptable and unacceptable ways of sharing our faiths in communities.

Continue reading

Regarding the idea that proselytization gives rise to tension and violence, it has always been the case that when religious people challenge one another's beliefs there's trouble brewing. 

Several years ago while doing interfaith work I frequently found that fundamentalist Christian congregations would not participate in events because they said that they would not be allowed to direct "evangelism" toward members of other denominations or toward non-Christian religions within the organization.

Personally, I am not bothered at all to see a Hindu heading a religion department at a Christian university.  Undoubtedly, being open to understanding one another's religious diversity is key to building peace and lasting respect.  It does trouble me is that often I find a closed-minded attitude on the Internet--even on Catholic blogs. 

While we certainly may joyously celebrate who we are and what our faith stands for--as we should--we must never allow the insistence upon the rightness our beliefs to become a barrier toward unity with our brothers and sisters of the human family.

Interestingly...

A University professor and graduate student have concluded that students who attend college are more likely to maintain religious beliefs than those who choose not to attend higher education.

A paper written by assistant sociology professor Mark Regnerus and sociology graduate student Jeremy Uecker analyzed the idea that college life influences religious faith and practice, based on the findings from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

"We wanted to know if the college experience had a secularizing effect," Regnerus said.

The survey tracks 15,000 students randomly selected from high schools across the country and monitors their religious devotion post-high school.

In general, the survey has shown that "the young-adult years of many Americans are marked by a clear decline in outward religious expression, which is popularly thought to hit bottom during - and perhaps because of - the college experience."

Surprisingly enough though, college graduates reported a 59.2-percent decline in religious service attendance compared to a 76.2-percent decline among those who chose not to attend college, according to the report. Regnerus and Uecker explain that the structure of college life reinforces and provides for a more religion-friendly environment. Through student organizations and various network associations, college students live in an atmosphere that allows them to maintain their religious beliefs.

"There is, in essence, a lack of structure for those students who don't go to college," said Uecker.

Continue reading

Yet it's not surprising to me...as a college student in the 1980s it was my experience that in general there was a strong interest in religion.  It appears that in the world of university culture, where change is sometime the only constant, religion is holding its own. 

Another story attributed the interest in religion in college as being due to a shift away from liberal arts education to professional programs.  However, I recall many of my peers studying graduate philosophy as being active in church.  Some even went on to attain national recognition in their denominations.