11
Wednesday, August 20, 1986
Campus
University Daily Kansan
7
Trouble leads many to religious zeal
By Rachelle Worrall Staff writer
Students look in dismay at the friend they used to party with. The friend no longer has a beer in his hands, but a Bible.
People are turning to religion to fill a vacancy in their lives. But for some it becomes an intense and short-lived addiction that may end as abruptly as it began.
Eric Goff, Ballwin, Mo., junior, was in trouble a lot when he was younger and turned to religion for an escape when he was a high school freshman. After a friend convinced Goff to go on a three-day retreat, he became a "born-again Christian" for about a year.
Goff said he and others turned to religion out of desperation.
"I think it's that they've hit rock bottom. It's a different way out." Goff said.
The church Goff attended was supportive, but he said, "I think it was more of a scapegoat. It's an addiction" to takes as much of your time."
It takes as much of you.
Like others, Goff said that while he was religious, he always carried a Bible with him. The devotion to religion ended almost as quickly as it began. He decided he was not doing any better than he had been before he became religious.
"I'm more agnostic now than anything else," he said.
Dave Lovell, youth minister of Ithaca, the college youth group at the First Presbyterian Church, 2415 W. 23 St., said that he became more religious about nine years ago.
People become more religious to satisfy a need, he said. More than 350 college students attend his church.
"I was in high school and was a heavy drinker. I was using alcohol as a crutch. I became religious and that crutch has never failed." Lovell said.
People going from one extreme to another, he said, was a regular occurrence.
"They're redoing just what they were doing before. They haven't found what they're looking for
because they have not started looking yet," he said. "That's not what being a Christian is, I see it all the time."
Anne Clevenger, chaplain at the Canterbury House, an Episcopal church, 1116 Louisiana St., said many people went from the extreme of being wild to being very religious.
"It's almost like a pendulum." she said.
Many people who lose interest in religion may do so because they've become disillusioned after realizing the initial zeal they felt when they became born-again does not happen all the time. Cleverenger said.
"It's this enormous hole that we all have. But the only thing that can fill it is God," she said. "But a lot of the things that we turn to, all of those are very sincere efforts to fill this very real need. I would not say that anybody's pursuit is trivial or very shallow."
Jim Musser, director of Campus Christians, 1016 Kentucky St., said he became religious in search of fulfillment and came to have a personal relationship with God.
"I didn't turn to religion," he said.
"I turned to a relationship with Christ. It was turning to a personal God for my needs.
"As a child growing up, there were a lot of inadequacies in my own life. There was a lack or void there. So through peers, I began to realize there was a little bit more to life."
A recent increase in church attendance by the middle class has occurred because people have acquired all the material wealth they can, yet still they find themselves unfilled, he said.
"Materialism is rampant right now. I think that materialism is the God of the age, of this generation," he said. "This is a very difficult time for campus ministries because students aren't really committed as they were 19 years ago."
There are more people going through the motions of being religious. Musser said, but more people aren't becoming Christians. More people may be attending church but this is not an indication of spiritual religion.
Some people may be zealous for a year or two, but may not be firmly rooted in their religious beliefs, he said. The zeal can't last forever, and eventually it may burn out.
Maranatha Campus Ministry, 927 Ohio St., is known for its extreme Biblical interpretation.
"I've met some people who've gone from one extreme to another in a sense," Musser said. "There are some people like that. We tend to pick up on stereotypes. I don't think it's a black and white issue."
Sometimes the churches that follow a strict interpretation of the Bible, such as Maranatha, are called cults, Betthauser said. But that is only because they are often small, close-knit groups. Maranatha has about 30 members.
Beth Betthauser, congregation member and former KU student, said, "We're probably considered more raidical than say a conservative church. With God, it's all or
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Betthesauer, 24, became a Christian as a KU junior, and felt some of her sorority sisters were bothered by the fact she was religious. Her parents just thought it was a phase she was going through.
"I guess I did carry my Bible around," she said. "I guess because I was reading it."
She said she didn't understand why her sorority sisters seemed to duck when they saw her coming except that they were afraid because their own sins might be exposed.
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