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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1986)
siTVf I.BONARD Tim Martindale of the Great Commissions Church waves a Milile in UT's West Mall while trying to shout above the din of an antiapartheid debate in the background I have no authority in myself to tell you how to live," he tells an audience of about 20 students, but proceeds to do so in the name of Christ. "You w ill all go to hell if you don't sign up now and send money,” says a mocking passerby. Another passerby makes an obscene gesture, while others smile cynically as they stroll by "You have a warped mind think ing you can make these judgments,” someone else shouts at Martindale But the preacher refuses to be drawn into a personal debate "It's tough to give up your own way of thinking." Martindale calmly concedes Most religious groups prefer less public methods of bringing in converts "We teach bv our example rather The religious resurgence reflects traditional values and family orientation than pushing it, like other groups do,” insists S. Mi chael Zargarov. chairman of the Bahai Association at LIT. "It’s abhorrent to me t hut some groups go banging door-to-door to tell people about their faith.” (Bahaism maintains that all major re ligions teach an identical truth i Some evangelists are not above attracting an audience through devious means Recently, for exam ple, the Duke University chapter of the Campus Cru sade for Christ advertised "a free 90-minute seminar guaranteed to improve your grade-point average” At the Friday-night meeting Steve Douglass, a Campus Crusade national vice presi dent, began with a set of study guidelines and time organization techniques— then abruptly shifted into a discussion of his relation Living by th« Booh: Donna Washington (left> and Felicity Eherle take [xirt in a religious study and discussion group at Northwestern ship with God. "These talks areoneof the easiest ways to promote our aims at aca demic schools," said Paul Konstanski, Douglass’s as sistant, after the meeting More than anything else, however, religious students rely on personal contacts to spread the word. At UT’sBeauford H Jester Center, a dorm so large it rates its own ZIPcode, about a dozen students on a single floor were inducted into the Great Commissions Church through conversations with dorm mates. Religious groups at Duke sponsor parties, ice-cream socials and even weekends at the beach or in the mountains. They also provide an alternative to the traditional fraternity beer bust. "Students have told me they think it’s nice to be with a group where they don’t insist you get drunk and go to bed with them," says Duke’s Willimon. Not that Greeks can’t be born-again Christians; Jed Fearon, a two-year Delta Kappa Epsilon at UNC who found his new faith six months ago, remains a Deke but tries not to proselytize "By the same token that I wouldn’t stand up at a chapter meeting and talk about Samsonite luggage, I wouldn’t stand up and talk about ... God's views,” he says. "I just try to show my friends that you can have a good time without getting drunk and having casual relations with girls." Thn marriage vocation: Meeting members of the opposite sex may be a more significant factor in today’s religious resur gence than its participants sometimes admit. Colleen Dow ney, a senior at Illinois, says she knows of at least 10 married or engaged couples who met through St. John’s Catholic Chapel. "There are people who are really into the religious vocation,” she says, "but that’s a minority. The majority are looking for people to marry. Marriage is a vocation, too ” Some clergy question just how deeply the mass of new worshipers feel their religious convictions. Pastor Will Bar nett of the Lutheran Ministry at USC, for one, believes that sometimes the interest can be pro forma. "When people are comfortable materially, they tend to be complacent," he observes. "And if they are involved with religious organiza tions it’s more of a social thing, like a country club.” Interest in Juduism is "booming,” says Rabbi Alan Flam of Brown University, but in many instances it may be as much an affirmation as a rejection of Yuppie values. "I sense that many students think and feel that religious observance is somethingtheyshouldbedoing...somethingadultsdo,"he says. "People are looking for a kind of security and stability." Perhaps so—yet at campuses around thecountry, religion is also reshaping lives. The religious revival is unlikely to change the secular nature of most American universities: one purpose of education istoquestion rather than to accept. But religion is clearly fulfilling individual needs that are poorly served by collegecurriculums: the search for meaning and a place within the framework of eternity. Whether future generations of students will embrace religion is a question better left to God himself. On today’s campuses, however, faith is a tempting proposition that is drawing increasing numbers of students back to the fold—and threat ening more and more clashes between fervor and freedom. H a k k v Anderson with Ellen Willi a ms in Auntm, Michael Milstein in Durham. Suzanne Schlosberc in Pratidtnct, 1. A UK A R u w L K V in Champuinn anil J i m Zook in ('nape/ Hill
