Religion by Any Name

There’s a new student group on the block and it’s safe to say they’re not interested in resume fillers. Rather, they’ve got more important stuff on the brain. Heaven and hell, for instance.

The week before spring break, as many people were cramming for midterms, 15 students gathered in a small room in Winthrop House to discuss the challenges faced by religious students at Harvard. The as-yet unnamed group was started by Moshe Shai Davis ’06 in response to the lack of a student discourse on religion. “I found that dealing with my own personal questions of spirituality and faith, I had few places to turn for honest, thoughtful discussion,” he explains. “I decided that there must be many others in similar situations, and it would be so terrific if we could come together to share these conversations.”

His plan worked. Among the crowd present at the inaugural meeting, there were Jewish (both Orthodox and Reform), Christian and Catholic students, as well as an Atheist student. Members of the small group shared their eagerness to explain their religious beliefs and practices to friends, but their frustrations as well. Many complained that they often felt pressured to defend or justify their lifestyle. The group also discussed their relationship with University chaplains. According to Davis, the group found chaplains “distant and impersonal” and “unable to relate to the issues of curiosity and questioning that college students experience.”

Perhaps the biggest success of the first meeting of this new group, however, was that members realized that they were not alone in feeling, among other things, spiritually lost at a secular university like Harvard, or at least limited by the dearth of options. Davis describes a unique sense of camaraderie when members discovered they shared the same feelings. “We were all so relieved to be able to talk about these issues with like-minded individuals,” he says.

For now, the group has decided to continue the conversations, perhaps over dinners with spiritual personalities, as well as by possibly creating a publication to spread their ideas to other students.

The group is seeking more members to diversify their perspective, by creating a new e-mail list and holding more meetings. However, the group’s founders are optimistic about its future. According to Isabelle Burtan ’06, “I think the group’s diversity, the safe intellectual and emotional forum it creates, and its sincerely interested members give it enormous potential.”