Religious Colleges

[sacredrain]

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?

I received my bachelor degrees from a  private Methodist supported university and I am not that religious. It also helps that the Methodist religion is somewhat liberal compared to some denominations. Chapel was not required, it was on the campus but you had a choice to go there or not. The only real forced religious requirement was that I had to take 2 religious courses to get my degrees. You could choose from Old and New Testament, World Religions, or Religious service (where you volunteered at the chapel and had to keep a journal that entire semester).  The university had students from all over the US and around the world and many with different sexual orientations. We even had a co-ed dormitory, while it was off campus, it only caused minimal stir.

I later obtained my first full time professorship position at a private liberal arts university that is part of the Original Free Will Baptist Church. While this denomination is stricter than the Methodists, I once again never encountered any issues there. Chapel was also optional here for students and faculty. Once again you had students and faculty from all around the world, some who were not Christian by any means. In fact one of my colleagues was a Buddhist, and two were Muslim from overseas. I was here for 4 years before accepting my current position at a large state supported university that pays far more than my previous university. This university also introduced one co-ed dormitory about 5 years ago, which also caused a stir but it is one of the popular dorms of course on campus.

As these church supported and affiliated universities receive federal financial aid money, they really cannot discriminate and most have dropped their chapel requirements from the 60s to 80s requirements in favor of optional chapel attendance and fulfill the religious requirements by adding religious courses to ones degree plan. Things have changed so much, I have friends who do not want to send their daughter to Liberty University or Bob Jones because they now think both of these universities are liberal! So they are opting to send her to Pensacola Christian College, which I understand is very conservative and the university is segregated by gender, with heavy monitoring of the student's activities.