Religious Student Clubs
Tonight, I found out that there is a small group of people that are trying to start up a Pagan Alliance and it got me thinking about the activity of student religious clubs on my campus. To be honest, I find it fascinating that there hasn't been a Pagan student organization on my campus previously, as I know that there are many Pagans on campus.
It seems that the only religious clubs that seem to have any sort of presence on my campus are the Christian organizations. They (I believe there are 5 clubs) each have their 'table times' in the lobby almost every week to encourage new membership and advertise their activities. Their posters are all over the bulletin boards around campus. All the clubs have a very active membership and participation.
While the Christian clubs seem to be thriving, the sole Jewish organization has had trouble with getting people interested in participating even though they have put on some great events. I first starting participating due to a good friend who is involved and also because I would like to get a better understanding of Jewish beliefs. Because of my involvement last year, they asked me to become an officer of the club this year, even though they know that I am not Jewish.
I am interested to see what is going to happen with this new Pagan group - especially since it seems like there is some difficulty in getting new religious clubs started on my campus. I also look forward to see what kind of events they will hold. While I didn't have time to talk to the person for very long, it sounds like they have plans to invite some speakers. I think that would be great and I look forward to it. When they get things up and running, I do plan on participating.
2 comments:
I hope the new Pagan group does well. I think there are many more "fringe" Pagans out there than Pagans. I mean people who are interested but have not "partaken" or taken any actual steps towards learning about Paganism. Groups like this are excellent opportunity for them to get their feet in the water and see if it is a good fit for them. Of course, this is just another reason for Evangelicals to hate colleges as corrupting influences on their childrens' lives.
It seemed as if it was one of the goals of the group to be able to reach out the community and to be able to "safe place" to get information about Paganism. I think that it will be a nice addition to the student clubs on campus.
You said "this is just another reason for Evangelicals to hate colleges as corrupting influences on their childrens' lives." Unfortunately, that can be true. I have more to say about this, but I think that I will turn it into a post because my response was getting rather long.
Post a Comment