06-23-2021, 06:08 PM
(06-23-2021, 12:50 PM)ss20ts Wrote:(06-23-2021, 10:27 AM)Alpha Wrote: I think it's important to point out that many colleges and universities are "religious" but do not push their belief systems onto their students. Boston College and Georgetown University are both Catholic schools. Boston University and Duke University are both Methodist schools. All of these schools are quite tolerant of their student's personal religious beliefs. It's not their religiousness that is at issue. It's the degree to which the religious beliefs of the school are rolled into the rest of the curriculum. Occasionally students are required to sign onto some type of spiritual/behavioral pledge in order to enroll. I've linked to one below. Clearly in these sorts of situations the student can fully expect that the religious beliefs of the school will be integrated into the curriculum in a definitive, non-debatable manner.
https://policy.byu.edu/view/index.php?p=26
None of this describes the university I'm talking about. The one I'm considering is Southern Baptist university. They have required chapel days every semester for undergrad on campus students. You're required to go to chapel x number of Wednesdays every semester. You earn points for this and the points accumulate. You're also required to take 4 religion courses. You're required to have x number of points to graduate. The graduate online program has none of this and no mention of it. Every email from the university includes biblical messages, verses, etc.
BYU is a Mormon university. Most students there are Mormons. They have a strict code for ALL students. The Mormon faith is part of their required curriculum. From a sociological standpoint it is an interesting place.
I have no problem if a private school wants to have rules like that. I have no problem with students who agree to such rules. My point was only to highlight the fact that there are a LOT of "religious schools" that do not take such an extreme approach to higher education. Perhaps the online graduate program is exempt as it would essentially be unenforceable.