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| The religious-secular gap |
| 2001-10-26 |
"We can't kill innocent children in Afghanistan to say we've responded to terrorism." So said Jessica Hiemenz, a junior at Virginia Tech, to a Baltimore Sun reporter during an antiwar demonstration in Washington late last month. "We need to look at what we've done wrong in the world--if we don't, then more of our buildings will keep blowing up in our face." When asked what he thinks about U.S. retaliation for the terrorist attacks, Christopher McGowan replies: "Tom Paine was pretty much on the money: 'Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.' " Mr. McGowan, a student at Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Mich., speaks with some experience. Before coming to the Catholic school, he served five years in the National Guard. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the divide between religious and secular colleges has become ever more evident. Harvard still bans ROTC from its campus; Wesleyan students have held teach-ins on "Cultures of Masculinity and Militarism in the U.S."; and some Berkeley students formed a "Stop the War" coalition. Meanwhile, at evangelical Christian Bob Jones University three students have left to join the military; several students at Southern Virginia University, a new Mormon college, are seriously considering enlisting; and ROTC students at Brigham Young University are wearing their uniforms even when not training. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |