University Daily Kansan / Thursday, December 7, 1989
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Religion
Keeping the faith
Story by Angela Baughman
Illustration by Susan Younger
religious beliefs often are examined and evaluated during the college years. Students are introduced to many different experiences that cause them to question their values. There are nearly 30 registered religious organizations at the University of Kansas this year. While some are more service-oriented than worship-oriented, the members of each group do share the common bond of a faith. This article examines student involvement with religion and focuses on the three major monotheistic religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
CHRISTIANITY
Christianity is based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ; Christians believe he is the Messiah, sent by God. They depend on the Bible as the inspired word of God. Christians believe by dying and rising from the dead, Jesus made up for the sin of Adam, thus redeeming the world and allowing all who believe in him to enter Heaven.
There are three great divisions of Christianity: the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Protestant Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church is headed by the Pope; Protestants reject the authority of the Pope. In 1988, there were approximately 1,644,396,500 Christians, 32.9 percent of the world population.
Kris Michaelson, Topeka senior, has been involved with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, which has about 40 members, for four years. He attends the First Christian Church Study, 1000 Kentucky, here, and the United Methodist Church at home. Both are mainstream Protestant churches.
"When I came to college, I became more involved than I was before," Michaelson explained. "I'd say most of the students who are involved are very involved."
He said that when he came to KU, Michaelson found his values were challenged more than in high school, and he thought he had to decide how he was going to respond to those challenges. He decided that to continue to trust in his faith was the proper avenue for him.
Michaelaon, who is majoring in organ and church music, said that his parents did not influence his decision to remain religiously active in college and that church as a social outlet was secondary to spiritual guidance.
"I think of it more as a lifestyle," he said. "It guides all of the decisions I make. It gives me a sense of purpose, a sense of direction and a sense of relief, or comfort, that God's in charge of my life."
Michaelson said he thought he would have chosen to be involved in religion even if he had not been brought up that way. Despite the recent incidents involving televangelists, such as Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, he thought the scandals did not weaken the image of the church but did not help it.
"In every area, you have people who aren't good representatives of the group they're representing," he said. "I think it's sad."
sad. "This is a sad."
Kevin Hackmann, St. Louis sophomore, said that when
he and his friends were at school, he noticed they did not go to church as much as at home. Hackmann, who is Catholic, said he did not go more at home because of his parents but because he had more time and felt more a part of that church community.
"It is hard to stay involved," he said. "My mom pushes me to get to church. I should go more to Mass."
He said that for now, religion was more of an independent part of his life rather than an all-encompassing lifestyle.
"It relaxes me," he said of going to church. "It makes me feel like I can cope with all of this."
"Offerwise I'd be out of it already." be said.
Hackmann said religion would always be a part of his life.
For Jeff Orr, Lawrence junior, religion has always been a part of his life. Orr's father, Richard, is a minister. Orr follows the mainstream Protestant religion of American Baptist. He is a member of a campus fellowship group, but he said that he had fallen out of the habit of attending church.
Orr said he doesn't go to church very often, partly because of work scheduling.
"I also got to the point where church got boring," he said. "I was guessing but not getting much out of it."
said. 'We's going out for getting much better.'
He said when he and his sister were younger, church was a routine they had because of their parents' involvement.
"When you're young, you parents make you go, and
they shoved religion down our throats."
College is a hard place to keep religious faith intact, he said, because students were suddenly exposed to so many different people and ideas. Orr said that his parents did not push him to remain religiously active in college. His father influenced him to believe that the purpose of religion was lost if it was not personal.
"I think religion is something I'll retain for the rest of my life," he said. "I do get things out of it. There's a lot of goodness to be gained from religion."
ISLAM
Islam was founded by Mohammed. Its followers, called Muslims, worship God. Allah in Arabic, and subscribe to the teachings of the Koran. Muslim prayers and the Koran are in Arabic, but not all Arabs are Muslims, and not all Muslims are Arabic. Islam means "submission to the will of God." Its fundamental belief is that there is only one God and that Mohammed is his prophet.
Muslims are expected to make a pilgrimage at least once in their lives to Mohammed's birthplace, the holy
city of Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. There are two major sites in Islam: Sumi and Shite. The Sumi seet comprises about 85 percent of all Muslims. In 1988, there were approximately 890,388,300 Muslims. 17.2 percent of the world population.
Hamed Ghazali, an Egyptian graduate student, is president of the Muslim Student Association, which has about 80 members. He estimated there were from 300 to 400 Muslims in Lawrence and from three million to five million in the United States.
"It's a complete way of life," Ghazali, a Sunni Muslim, said. "You cannot separate daily activities from the religion."
He said all of his time involved his religion. Going to class or playing soccer were just as much a part of his religion as praying, he said. Muslims are obliged to pray five times a day.
"Your whole life is based on the presence of God," Ghazali said.
He said he thought one misconception that people had about Muslims was that they didn't worship God.
"We worship God, who created you and me and everything," Ghazali explained. "It is very similar to Christianity, only we do not see Jesus as the son of God, shetla about the only difference."
that's about the only difference.
He also said that he thought that people believed Anan was a Buddha-type figure but that that was not true. Ghazali said Allah was the Arabic word for God, but it did not mean anything different than the Christian and Jewish God.
Bahal Safadi, a KU graduate from Amman, Jordan, and a U.S. citizen, said Islam guided every part of his life, including his behavior and the way he treated other people.
"To us, being religious keeps one from committing sin," he said. "It actually makes life whole. It's a feeling you have inside."
Regarding Salman Rushdie's book, "The Satanic Verses", which came under fire from the Muslim community last spring, Safadi and Ghazali agreed that it was offensive to Muslims. They said however, that Rushdie did not deserve punishment or death for writing the book, Iran's religious leader at that time, Aatollah Ruhailh Khomeini, a Shiite Muslim, called for Rushdie's death.
Ghazali said the book contained profane language in association with the prophet Mohammed.
Safadi said, "The book was offensive to Muslims all around the world. He does not deserve to be killed. There is no such thing in Islam."
JUDAISM
Judaism is based on the teachings of the Torah. Jews believe that they are God's chosen people and that a divine kingdom will be established on earth. Abraham is considered the founder of Judaism, and Moses is also an important figure in its foundation.
There are three major forms of Judaim: Conservative, Orthodox and Reform. In 1988, there were approximately 18,075,400 Jews, 0.4 percent of the world population.
Kevin Eberman, Overland Park senior, said he became more involved with his religion by a fluke. He said he had a friend who lived at Hillel House, a cooperative living unit for six Jewish students at 940 Mississippi St. When Eberman was looking for a place to live last spring, he decided to move there. Since then, he has become increasingly involved with Hillel activities. Hillel has about 125 members.
"I really didn't have much of a Jewish identity until I got involved with Hillet," Eberman said. "I got a lot more out of it than I really initially wanted, and that's been good."
He said he thought his parents, who grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in New York, were pleased with his increased involvement, but they had left it up to him how involved he was.
Eberman said that his activities had more to do with service than worship and that those activities were; to him, a very important part of being Jewish.
"Being Jewish is more than just being religious," he said. "I would describe myself as, Jewish but not observant."
Laura Cohen, Deerfield, Ill., junior, also lives at Hillel. She said, "Part of Judaism, as it's become, is the community."
Daveen Litwin, director of Hillel House, said that Judaism was open to individual interpretation and community was a very important part of it.
"In my opinion, Hillel is the most pluralistic Jewish organization there is," she said. "Judaism can be very secular without being very ritualistic."
Jennifer Marks is president of Hillel. The Overland Park park said she could always count on her religion.
"It's something that's very personal, and nobody can take it away from me," she said. "When everything else is going wrong, you always have that."
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