Fund Religious Groups Regardless Of Who Leads

To the editors:



The editorial “UC, Stick to Your Guns” (Apr. 20) is unreasonable and seems to ignore the fact that religion is defined by personal beliefs. While in modern times religious groups often see fit to emphasize the similarities rather than the differences between different religions, and most religious groups are quite willing to have nonmembers present for most services and social activities, religions are still defined by different, often inherently contradictory beliefs, and it would be absurd for members of a religious group like the Asian American Christian Fellowship to be led by someone who did not subscribe to Christianity.

People often forget that while groupings like race, gender, nationality, and class are defined by accidents of biology and geography, religion is defined more concretely by what a person believes to be true; there is nothing wrong with the founders of an organization decreeing that their successors must share their beliefs, as long as dissenters are given the right to organize their own groups, as they are at Harvard.

I see nothing wrong with the Undergraduate Council, which grants funds on a per-project basis, helping to fund an event sponsored by a religious group but open to the whole campus. It would be ridiculous to force a group to choose between receiving the funding necessary to hold such events and ensuring that their leadership reflected their core beliefs about the fundamental nature of the world in which we live.



STEVEN M. MELENDEZ ’07

April 20, 2006