Religious Colleges

[ss20ts]

Anyone ever attend a religious college and you're not religious? I have found a program that I love but am a bit apprehensive about because it's a really religious university. The on campus program has chapel requirements and required religion courses. The online master's degrees don't have those requirements. The textbooks all appear to be the regular college textbooks except for one which is a book of management proverbs. I'm not religious at all. This is what I'm struggling with. The university is open to all faiths and has a mix of students. I'm thinking this could make for some interesting talks in the ethics class! Everything I have read about the school and the discussions I've had with staff have been great and really supportive which as an online student is really important. Religion has not come up at all in any of my conversations which I think is a bit interesting. Has anyone gone to a religious school and what was your experience? What did you struggle with? What worked for you?

[rachel83az]

I haven't had this experience but I did see an atheist YouTuber who decided to get a degree in religious studies. I thought that was interesting.

[ss20ts]

I haven't had this experience but I did see an atheist YouTuber who decided to get a degree in religious studies. I thought that was interesting.

I will have to look for this! Thanks! My degree would not be in religion. It is a business degree so I am kind of thinking that the religious aspect may be helpful with things like ethics and morals in the business world.

[dfrecore]

Honestly, as a religious person, I think that most religious colleges here in the US aren't very religious at all any longer. The liberalism that has taken over in almost all aspects of academia is prevalent in religious universities as well (not saying that all liberals aren't religious, but just not what I'd consider "religious" in terms of going to church weekly, tithing, fairly conservative values, etc.). I think you will probably be fine; I'm willing to bet you won't encounter any negatives for not being religious at all (which is the opposite of what a religious/conservative person might experience at a "regular" university). You will be allowed to speak your peace, and any discussions about your point of view will be welcomed. Just a guess, but please let me know if I'm right when you get there.

[freeloader]

I would say it really depends on you, OP, and how comfortable you feel in a (potentially) religious environment. You weren’t super descriptive in explaining your relationship with religion (nor did you need to be, particularly). There is a wide spectrum between being an outspoken, virulent atheist, someone who was exposed to religion but for whom it didn’t “stick”, and someone with little or no knowledge of religion. Where you fit on that spectrum likely would inform how you would feel in the environment you describe.

If you say in a discussion that you aren’t religious and someone challenges that or even tries to educate/convert you, how would you respond? It doesn’t sound like that would be deeply offensive or anything to you. If people mention their church, religion, etc casually, would that bother you? Again, it doesn’t sound like it, but that is up to you.

There are a couple of posts on this board about a (nonreligious) person taking classes at Liberty and being required to incorporate religious content/worldview into assignments. Is that something you would be, potentially, willing to do? If someone makes a post about the earth being 6,000 years old, can you let that slide or are you the type of person who has to respond?

I would surmise, OP, that you are interested in a degree in a tech or business field. In most of your courses, religion probably won’t come up. I have taken a number of undergrad accounting courses at University of the Cumberlands. Outside of introductory posts where a person says they love God, go to a particular church, or want to work for a church or to be a missionary, religion hasn’t really come up, but YEMV.

[Vle045]

My suddenly atheist son is planning to go to a Catholic High School. I am hoping his Theology classes change his mind again. ??‍♀️

[sanantone]

I flirted with applying to Liberty University because some guy said online students don't really have religious requirements. That turned out to not be true. A man who finished his PhD at Liberty said that you had to include the Christian worldview in your assignments. For me, that would get quite annoying when you're studying a subject that has nothing to do with religion.

As far as I know, secular schools don't kick people out for what they do in their personal lives unless it was illegal or blatantly racist. There have been cases of conservative Christian schools expelling students for being openly gay or living with a partner they're not married to. While I'm not gay, I don't need a university policing my personal life. If a religious school just requires one religious course, and the rest are secular, I don't think a non-religious person will have many issues.

[ss20ts]

I would say it really depends on you, OP, and how comfortable you feel in a (potentially) religious environment. You weren’t super descriptive in explaining your relationship with religion (nor did you need to be, particularly). There is a wide spectrum between being an outspoken, virulent atheist, someone who was exposed to religion but for whom it didn’t “stick”, and someone with little or no knowledge of religion. Where you fit on that spectrum likely would inform how you would feel in the environment you describe.

If you say in a discussion that you aren’t religious and someone challenges that or even tries to educate/convert you, how would you respond?  It doesn’t sound like that would be deeply offensive or anything to you. If people mention their church, religion, etc casually, would that bother you? Again, it doesn’t sound like it, but that is up to you.

There are a couple of posts on this board about a (nonreligious) person taking classes at Liberty and being required to incorporate religious content/worldview into assignments. Is that something you would be, potentially, willing to do?  If someone makes a post about the earth being 6,000 years old, can you let that slide or are you the type of person who has to respond?

I would surmise, OP, that you are interested in a degree in a tech or business field. In most of your courses, religion probably won’t come up. I have taken a number of undergrad accounting courses at University of the Cumberlands. Outside of introductory posts where a person says they love God, go to a particular church, or want to work for a church or to be a missionary, religion hasn’t really come up, but YEMV.

I was purposely vague as to not cause any arguments. I am not looking for arguments but am wanting to learn from other's experience. Many of the questions you posed don't bother me in a casual setting. I tend to be someone who tries to change the topic when things like politics and religion come up because they tend to cause arguments and hurt feelings. Life is too short for that! I have yet to see anyone change their political or religious beliefs because of an argument with Aunt Sally. Maybe it does happen but that doesn't seem to be the norm. 

Yes this is a business degree with a bit of emphasis in the tech field. Funny you mention U of Cumb. It's one of the schools I have been considering for my DBA. The religious aspect there has also been a concern of mine. I actually visited the university and town on vacation many, many years ago. I had never heard of it until I drove by and said he lets go walk around the campus. It looked like it had some interesting architecture. It is a nice quiet campus. I knew absolutely nothing about it until I started reading the signs on campus while walking around. I had completely forgotten about it until I saw it mentioned on here last year and. was like wait I know that name. I had to google it and sure enough I was there.

Liberty is far too hardcore fo my tastes. I would not feel comfortable writing papers that require incorporating religion into them. This is also an online grad school program so it seems a bit different than the on campus degrees. It is a Southern conservative university. I've been to the city it's located in and while it is a very Christian city it does have a number of others faiths including churches/houses of worship from 250 years ago. The city's religious history is pretty interesting. It was one of the most interesting and surprising things I found while visiting. 

I have already made my decision. The university opens their courses up the week before the term starts so you can see what you're in store for. That helped me make my decision. I did some googling and read some forums. Many of those got very ugly very quickly and I didn't bother to read them once that happened because I didn't want that negativity to taint my decision. Those forums were actually not helpful because of the arguments that ensued. All sides came across poorly and did not help me at all.

[Maniac Craniac]

By coincidence, this is exactly what's been on my mind today, too. I'm trying to decide if I should stick with my current MBA program or transfer out. Two of the schools I'm considering are Christian schools, and I am an irreligious agnostic.

For one of those schools, they only bring up religion in certain courses (eg, "Christian Counseling"), but keep it out of courses where it's not relevant.

For another, the school is unabashedly Christian in its ideology, but welcomes people of all sorts. They don't force their views on students, although it might come up from time to time.

I don't think either situation would be a problem for me as a student. My concern is how these schools are viewed by the public. Do people realize that these are academic programs with a superficial sprinkle of religion, or do they imagine that they are religious programs with a superficial sprinkle of academics?

[ss20ts]

I don't think either situation would be a problem for me as a student. My concern is how these schools are viewed by the public. Do people realize that these are academic programs with a superficial sprinkle of religion, or do they imagine that they are religious programs with a superficial sprinkle of academics?

This is definitely something to ponder. Are they well known schools? Has the general public heard of them? Or are they unknown where you live? No one here has heard of UMPI but they've heard of the University of Maine. I really did look for schools that were kind of unknown to most people because I didn't want to attend schools who are surrounded in various controversies like U of Phoenix, Capella, Liberty, etc. I have also avoided schools with online in their name. No one would know I completed my undergrad online unless they asked me. Same with my grad degree that I'm now working on. There's still that negative reputation for online degrees which I hope improves with the remote learning that was forced on people. Remote learning is not the same as an online degree program which took years to develop so I hope people begin to understand this. I worked harder in my online courses than I did on campus.