Religious activity on the rise

By Michael Watanabe
Daily Forty-Niner

Religion, traditionally rejected in academia, has recently seen a rise in college campuses across the nation, including Cal State Long Beach.

This rise can be seen with the expansion over the past few years of CSULB's own religious studies program. In a culmination of this expansion, next fall will mark the implementation of a new master's degree in religious studies at CSULB.

"In secular universities, like CSULB and other secular universities around the nation, there was a bias towards thinking that religion just was not really important in human culture and that it didn't really need to be studied," said Dr. Peter Lowentrout, chairman of the religious studies department.

"There has been an increasing awareness that there has been a blind spot in the modern academy," he said. "And one that has been needed to address."

Plenty of research teams have gathered and plenty of funds have been given to universities' religious studies programs, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article. Since 1997, the Ford Foundation has awarded approximately 50 grants totaling $10.5 million for these programs. The Lilly Endowment and Pew Charitable Trusts have funded similar projects.

The candidates in this year's presidential debate both want to expand religious organizations to help reduce poverty, homelessness and other social problems. Though the correlation between religion and societal problems has not been firmly established, studies are currently being conducted.

"Folks generally are coming to realize, that it is [important] to understand religion to understand human culture and human practices," Lowentrout said.

The rise has not only been seen in the religious studies department. The University Interfaith Center has also seen an increase in participation.

Catholic Newman campus minister Carol Classon has seen "a lot of students taking an active role in religion." Students are "hungry for socialization, bible studies, growing in their faith," she said.

The number of students on campus is rapidly and the new students are interested in religious and spiritual matters, said United Methodist campus minister Mary Kay Will. However, she said, she feels that the increase in the number of religious clubs on campus has occurred for a reason.

There are "more on campus because it doesn't have the sense of being institutional," she said.

Students are more interested in getting to know their peers and learning about the faith in that manner, Will said.

Many of the schools that are experiencing religious revivals have been "embraced by everyone," Clason said. Some of these schools even have chapels, something she calls "a nice luxury item."