When more than 50 students spend their spring break doing faith-based hurricane relief in Mississippi, it’s remarkable. When a dozen other students spend ten days in Istanbul and Jerusalem observing Jewish-Muslim relations and politics in the area, it might indicate a trend. When both of these trips are taken by students at a school named by the Princeton Review to “Ignore God on a regular basis,” there might be more happening than meets the eye.
Wesleyan students have long held up a reputation of being godless heathens, but beyond the liberal politics and the now-defunct Heathen House are vast communities centered around one thing: faith. The Wesleyan Christian Fellowship trip to Mississippi and the Interfaith Justice League trip to the Middle East are only two indicators that Wesleyan, though not necessarily religious, does anything but ignore God.
It is important to realize that both trips did not exclude participants who were non-religious, and neither had an underlying missionary or proselytizing purpose. But members of these groups explored faith through service work or staying with religious families in the Middle East. As with many other activities at Wesleyan, differing viewpoints were encouraged, and no one participant was excluded based on faith. While God may not have been specifically endorsed by some participants, He was not being ignored either.
With identity politics shaping much of the political discussion on campus, it is worth remembering that, for many students, religion and faith are major factors in their identities. With students who spend a significant portion of their spring breaks considering issues of religion and faith, Wesleyan is not and never will be a place where God is not welcome. As Passover and Easter approach, all it takes is a brief look around campus—students here aren’t ignorant of much, and religion is no exception.
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