Faith on campus

Two years ago Ezekiel Olagoke, associate professor of sociology, was teaching a lesson on religion in one of his classes when, at the end of his lecture, a student approached him.

The young woman, who Olagoke described as “blonde-haired and blue-eyed,” was silent for the entire lecture, but afterwards, thanked Olagoke for the lesson, before revealing something about herself.

“She said ‘professor, I really thank you for your lecture today,’” Olagoke remembered.

After that seemingly standard comment, the student added, “I am a Muslim.”

Waynesburg University is a predominantly Christian institution, and the idea of other religions is unusual.

“On this campus, a Muslim,” he responded to the girl.

Today, according to Waynesburg University’s Total Enrollment Composition for the Fall of 2017, the Islamic faith didn’t even show up on the radar among undergraduate students.

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Olagoke sees multiple categories his students can fall into regarding his faith.

“Some are dazed,” he said. “Some are spiritual but not religious. Some are just searching. I think the other [category] which some people have expressed a few months ago, I think they use the sociological term ‘morally therapeutic dazing.’ Religion is morally therapeutic in a sense.”

For Diamond Price, religion didn’t play a large role in her college choice.

Price came to Waynesburg this past fall to pursue a degree in forensic science. She does, however, frequently sing Christian hymns as a member of the Lamplighters Concert Choir on the stage of Roberts Chapel before a predominantly Christian audience.

This seems particularly unique, especially regarding her Jewish faith.

According to the enrollment composition, an official document that states the demographic information of students, that was released year before Price enrolled at Waynesburg, there was only one Jewish student amongst undergraduates.

When Price was growing up, she was fortunate to face only casual ribbing because of her religion, hearing the “occasional, stereotypical Jew joke,” and little more.

When she sings on stage at chapel, she doesn’t think too much about the meaning behind the songs. Instead, she takes an interest in seeing how another faith operates.

“I treat [chapel] it as a social experiment to see the other side of a different religion,” she said. …“I personally love seeing different religions and how their beliefs are counteractive to mind.”

Price describes herself as someone who doesn’t go out of their way to tell people of her Jewish faith. One of the things that has surprised her in her short time at Waynesburg University is how willing students are to talk about what they believe in.

“I thought that, yeah Waynesburg was a Christian school, but I didn’t think that so many people would be so open about their faith,” she said. “I thought it’d be a small sliver of people that would meet up in their building.”

When the topic of religion comes up in conversation, people are sometimes surprised when they find out Price is Jewish. What follows the typical ‘I didn’t know that’ comment isn’t any playful banter, but rather casual questions about how Price goes about her faith.

“They ask me if I go to temple, or if I believe in a God,” Price said. “Those are pretty much [the only questions]. They don’t ask me a lot of questions. It’s mostly just cultural difference questions.”

While it hasn’t happened yet, Price is prepared for the possibility of abuse. Her grandmother, who only speaks Hebrew, has heard comments because of her language, and Price feels that she would “probably just ignore it” if anybody ever looked for conformation.

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Olagoke advises people to “seek to understand” their peers who don’t share the same spiritual beliefs.

“We should not impose a view that would almost knock the Bible on their head,” he said. “Some of them have had roommates who try to force Christianity or the Bible on them. They have been able to resist it. So I’m hoping they would be able to reason to the students. Faith should seek understanding. This is a journey, it’s not a product.”

Olagoke has studied at intuitions based around different faiths, including Christianity. So whenever one of his students reaches out to talk about religious issues, he uses his time learning about different forms of religion to understand what they are dealing with.

“I knew my own struggles,” Olagoke said. “So therefore, [when] somebody expresses to me ‘this is how I feel religiously or spiritually,’ it’s for me to seek to understand them, rather than  [tell them] ‘you need to go to church’ or things like that. I think advisors should try to understand them. Four years [at Waynesburg] is a time to grow. It’s a time to explore. It’s a time to even be different. When you don’t allow that, you are constraining them.”

For Price, non-Christian students attending Waynesburg should take the opportunity to learn about another religion over their time in college.

“I would tell them that they should try to look at it from a social experiment side,” Price said. “To just try to see the other side of other people’s religions and to see the interactions of people and to see how they differ from other people.”

Most of Waynesburg University’s students read the Bible, and most of their communication comes with people who share the same faith. Olagoke’s advice to these students is “not to impose their faith on those of a different background, but rather to go out of their way to see things from the other side.”

“Don’t bash them with the Bible,” he said. “Be open. Seek to understand them, talk to them. They’re not going to bite you. You probably have [more in common] than you think.”