United Methodist Reporter: Religious life thriving on on campuses, say authors
Religion is back on campus, but in forms that might surprise those thinking only in terms of the traditional roles of organized churches in higher education.
The science-oriented Massachusetts Institute of Technology has hired its first paid chaplain, overseeing 22 volunteer chaplains, whose goal is to make sure students of all faiths are comfortable with each other.
At the University of Southern California, a young Hindu lawyer is dean of the Office of Religious Life; his predecessor was a female rabbi.
Even the Mormon church’s Brigham Young University has a prayer room for the small number of Muslim students who have enrolled there, taking comfort in the school’s conservative values.
These are among the findings from two professors at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., who spent four years visiting 50 public and private schools of higher education, ranging from small community colleges to large research universities. ...
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