Quietly, We Believe

Walk through busy Harvard Square many nights of the year and you'll probably see and hear individuals and religious groups proselytizing Harvard students, tourists and anyone else who walks by. I watch these often self-styled visionaries and wonder why they have come. Do they think those associated with "Godless Harvard" are in special need of their help? What they don't know is that although there will always be many people here in spiritual need, religious beliefs and good works do abound at Harvard--sometimes where one least expects them.

Notice the Veritas insignia printed on everything here from sweatshirts to coffee cups. Contained in it are three open books, all facing upwards. Many years ago, one of these volumes was turned over to represent the truth that cannot be known by empirical methods and reason alone, as well as to signify the faith that Harvard's founders thought should accompany any search for knowledge and truth.

Today, Harvard has strayed oceans away from its Puritan beginnings, in many respects a good thing. Even this century, you didn't apply to the College if you were black, Hispanic, Asian, Jewish, even Catholic, poor or from the south. Thankfully anyone who's acquainted at all with today's Harvard knows that there is little truth left in that statement--all are welcome to enter her hallowed gates.

To achieve this however, all embrace of any tradition of faith was utterly abandoned. Today, Harvard's only official religion is one of tolerance, diversity and multiculturalism. The "real stuff," that is, the original truths that opened the university to all and gave these three words moral force, are left to the students to seek, to find and to cherish.

So where is God then? In the last-minute prayers we silently utter before turning the pages of fresh blue books? In the invocation that begins graduation? In the department of religion and the Divinity School? If you want to find God at Harvard, look to her students. Look to religious groups on campus. A joyfully vibrant bouquet of groups enriches the Harvard experience for many, ranging from the Harvard Radcliffe Christian Fellowship to the Islamic Society, from the Baha'i Association to Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel.

These organizations and many others, including informal weekly Bible studies and formalized Friday worship in Lowell Hall, boast heavy student involvement and large memberships. The vastly secular education Harvard offers its flocks seems not to have circumscribed them, but to have freed them.

Students who are religiously observant here sometimes participate in groups that provide fellowship and common worship, while others often do so quietly, but decisively. My first-year roommate, a devout Mormon, took seriously the commandment "to keep the Sabbath holy." She never did school work on Sundays. Even before final exams, she would study for the first part of the weekend then would rise early on Monday morning to finish whatever she had left undone. She used her Sunday as a day of reflection, prayer, church activities and "catching up" with family and friends.

I have friends who attend morning prayers at Hillel every weekday and others who go to daily Mass, all when most of us are still sleeping. All religions have their own weekly rhythms and calendar holidays which observant students have to balance with their many commitments to school, work and extra-curricular activities. They do it successfully, many seeing this aspect of their lives as the one that informs and under-girds all the others.

Happily, religious observance at Harvard does not end with Sabbath worship, but moves into the world as students put their faith into action in service to the Harvard community, to Cambridge, Boston and to the world beyond. Don't believe me? Ask someone from the Catholic Students Association and you'll find out those who fast on Ash Wednesday--the first day of the Lenten period preceding Easter--have usually been able to donate the raw cost of their meals to international hunger relief programs. Jewish students on campus were able to do something similar when fasting during Yom Kippur.

Many service groups originate with religious organizations as well, such as "Earthen Vessels," a tutoring program pairing Harvard students with at-risk elementary school students in the community. Groups such as these take to heart the important religious goals of "repairing the world" and serving the needy and forgotten. Some students put their beliefs into practice in other groups; students "do it for free" at PBHA because they want to help others and because returning some of their good fortune of circumstance and education is important to them.

Where else is God? In inspiration and in the sheer energy of the creative power of so many intellects concentrated on this small patch of earth called Harvard. In nights spent at Uni-Lu. In the friends we find here whom we will treasure forever. In passing those exams we all thought we would fail and didn't. Grace to inspire our thoughts and actions is here and available to us if we want it. We do.

Christa M. Franklin '99 is a social studies concentrator in Currier House. Her column will appear on alternate Mondays.