A change of faith

When Josh Rodman '09 joined Tiger Inn in the middle of his sophomore year, he didn't expect to drop the club a year later to keep kosher. Rodman, who now considers himself an Orthodox Jew, is one of many students who said they have become more religiously observant after coming to Princeton.

Rodman attended Hebrew school, had a Bar Mitzvah, went to Jewish summer camp for two years and traveled to Israel, but he pointed out that while he has always been proud to be Jewish, he was never really observant until he came to Princeton. Since coming to Princeton, Rodman has taken two trips to Israel, started to keep kosher and made time to regularly learn Jewish texts.

"Princeton makes you think," Rodman said. "For me, it was the type of thinking that made me look deeper into my life."

For some students, however, that aspect of the college experience can bring them farther away from faith.

Celia '11,whose name has been changed to protect her privacy, grew up in an evangelical Christian family and attended a chapel boarding school. Because her parents encouraged her to look into Christian groups on campus her freshman year, Celia went to two or three gatherings and attended a few church services. "I found out that while they are made up of lovely people, the Christian groups here are very cliquey," Celia said. She explained that she felt the groups she experienced lacked a religious flexibility and left her feeling as if she would have to make sacrifices.

"I smoke, date, have sex and drink. There are so many things I feel I'd have to give up in order to be a good Christian," she said.

Celia still attends church with her parents when she is home over breaks, and she said she anticipates that later in life she will return to her faith. "I do believe in heaven and hell and that God exists, but I'm just not confident in telling people that I'm a Christian at this point in my life," she said.

For many Princeton students, college is an opportunity to leave their comfort zone and figure out what they believe.

College is a time "when students are just leaving their home environment and have time to try to answer questions like ‘Who am I?' ‘Where do I want to be in the world?' and ‘How should I practice religion?' " Associate Dean of Religious Life Paul Raushenbush said.

Laurie Knapke, a full-time volunteer with the Christian Union at Princeton and an organizer and study group leader at Princeton Faith and Action (PFA), said she thinks the independence students gain when they get to college is a crucial factor. "College is great because it's a time when people can decide for themselves what role faith is going to play in their lives."

"It's really fun to watch because when you get serious with your faith, your life inevitably changes," she explained.

Communities of faith

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Sometimes the greatest draw of religious groups on campus is that they give people stable communities to be part of. "There are no hazing rituals - you don't have to bicker," Raushenbush said. "It's a non-competitive environment where you can talk about what's important to you."

Before college, PFA member Julia Neufeld '10 knew few Christians in her hometown of Victoria, British Columbia.

"I regarded Christians in the same way that I think most people I knew growing up regarded them: as people to be baffled at or wary of or more strongly pitied for their ignorance and self-deception," she said in an e-mail.

Neufeld saw coming to college as a chance for her to question many aspects of her identity - including her religious identity - but she said she believes the pre-existing groups on campus were indispensable to her. "For me, the presence of so many Christians on campus who were willing to respectfully and gently answer my questions about the Christian faith and the Bible was a huge influence in shaping my faith," she said.

Kelley Sternhagen '11 also saw her religious views and practices change dramatically after she came to Princeton. Sternhagen grew up in South Dakota, where, she said, most people are Christian but practice "a nominal Christianity." During her freshman year, Kelley started attending PFA meetings.

"I met amazing people who helped me transition from practicing a traditional Christianity to finding my personal relationship with God," she explained.

Sternhagen now attends weekly PFA meetings, goes to services at the Nassau Christian Center (NCC) on Sundays and participates in a Bible study on Mondays.

Some students remain attached to their religious communities even after wavering in their faith.

Ari Shnidman '09 came to Princeton as an Orthodox Jew. Now, as a senior, he just considers himself Jewish. After attending a modern Orthodox high school, Shnidman took a gap year to study at a yeshiva in Israel. "I was a lot more observant during that one year, so by the time I got to Princeton, I was pretty observant," Shnidman said. During his freshman year, he attended daily services and even helped lead services sometimes, and he was the president of Yavneh, the Orthodox Jewish group on campus. But Shnidman also said that, by the end of his freshman year and in his sophomore year, he "was not observant anymore but would still go to Friday night services because [he] still liked the community and was a part of it."

Whereas some students practice religion less at college because of a lack of commitment, Shnidman's change had a lot to do with a reconsideration of his religious beliefs. Shnidman said that while attending a Jewish day school, he came up with "vague answers" to theological questions about God and the cultural meaning of the Jewish people. "Then I started thinking about whether I should feel obligated to do things in the Bible or what the rabbis said. I never disproved orthodoxy or anything, but I never actually believed in a sense that these things actually happened."

Shnidman added that the environment at Princeton, including the peer pressures associated with it, was a factor in his change. But he said, "I like to think that at some point I would have changed my practices anyways. It definitely wouldn't have happened as fast, though."

Striking a balance

While there are a number of religious groups on campus, many of those interviewed expressed the belief that the Princeton social scene often comes into conflict with students' religious ideas and practices. Rodman, as a former member of an eating club, said, "It's especially hard to be observant at Princeton because the social scene is so monolithic and basically only has one outlet: the Street. There is a lot of pressure to join that scene."

Sternhagen, on the other hand, said that she has been able to take part in both religious groups and the eating club scene and that she believes the two can coexist. "I love the Street," she said. "I just got into Cottage. I think it's a sign of strength when you can go there, be in that environment and still be a light."

While Sternhagen said that it used to be a common generalization that PFA members avoided the Street scene, she explained she believes this view is changing, especially because the group's new president and vice president are both eating club members.

Just as the social scene may or may not have an effect on students' religious practices, the focus on intellectualism on this campus is seen as a religious challenge by some and as completely irrelevant by others. Neufeld explained that, to her, students absolutely encounter challenges to their religious beliefs in classes at Princeton. "It would be considered unacademic for me to try to argue from a Biblical standpoint in any area of study here at Princeton. If I tried to appeal to the authority of Biblical truths in philosophy precept, I would probably be scoffed at," she said.

Raushenbush explained he feels like there was a time when people viewed their classes as potential challenges to their faith, but he added, "There's the sense that students actually want to know and learn about what other people are believing."

"If something is durable, what you hear in a lecture is not going to flip it upside down," he noted.

Raushenbush added that the prevalence of religious groups and activities on campus makes it inevitable for students to come in contact with religious ideas. "In such a tight-knit community, students inevitably come into contact with religious peers," he said.

Rodman, who will spend next year studying at a yeshiva in Israel before going to law school, cites the full kosher dining hall, availability of Jewish prayer three times a day and two rabbis with whom students can study holy texts as things that made it easier for him to become more observant.

"There are just so many resources at Princeton for facilitating students exploring their religious beliefs," he said.