VOA标准英语2012--American Students Find New Expressions of Faith

American Students Find New Expressions of Faith

 

Going to college is often a chance for young adults to explore attitudes, ideas and beliefs different from the ones they grew up with. In many cases, students are finding new ways to express their faith.

American college students are exposed to new ideas that can challenge their religious beliefs, but campus clergy¹ say many remain religiously committed.

A traditional festival lets Indian students share their faith and culture with others. Many are doing that today, says Chandni Raja of the Hindu Student Organization at the University of Southern California. “Meeting other groups on campus and trying to get that dialogue going, while also maintaining our own communities as a strong place where people can come together,” she said.

USC's dean of religious life, Varun Soni, says many students embrace religion on their own terms. “They're more interested, I find, in making religion work for them as opposed to working for it," Soni stated. "So they interpret their religious and spiritual traditions in a way that makes sense for them.”

And at Stanford University, the school’s dean for religious life, Scotty McLennan, is also seeing a new openness. “I think the most exciting thing that’s happening is that students really are learning how to listen to each other across traditions, and they really are getting more interested in that kind of empathetic listening," he said. "And presence to each other, hearing each others' stories.”

As young adults, some college students find opportunity to explore attitudes, ideas and beliefs some find new ways to express their faith

Some students maintain their traditional practices, and others become less observant, but many want to share their faith and traditional culture with others.

Omer Bajwa, coordinator² of Muslim life at Yale University, counsels Muslim students, and he says have many questions about the role of faith. “In a time of increasing religiosity but also increasing secularism³, where are the fault lines, what are the tensions and what are the areas of conversation? I think we find common questions coming across,” he said.

Probing discussions in the classroom and with students of different backgrounds can challenge a student’s faith, says Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann, senior associate dean for religious life at Stanford University. “The question in my mind is whether that questioning leads to a falling off of commitment or a deepening of commitment," she pondered. "And my experience is that people who claim their religious traditions after having or in the process of being engaged with other people are far more inclined to see what they have as something precious.”

Interfaith service projects and community dialogues are bringing students together at schools all across the country, says Tahera Ahmad, the associate university chaplain at Northwestern University. “What I’ve seen on college campuses is that the young students who are from various faith backgrounds are coming together and not necessarily leaving their faith at the door, but not also wearing their faith on their sleeve, but finding some kind of balance as to say, ‘This is who I am. I am a Muslim, I am a Christian⁴, I am a Jew. We’re all coming together towards making the world a better place,’” she said.

These college chaplains says that students are maturing in their faith by meeting and learning from those of other faiths.

1 clergy   

n.[总称]牧师，神职人员

参考例句：

• I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy would follow this example.我衷心希望，我国有更多的牧师效法这个榜样。
• All the local clergy attended the ceremony.当地所有的牧师出席了仪式。

2 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

3 secularism   

n.现世主义；世俗主义；宗教与教育分离论；政教分离论

参考例句：

• Unless are devoted to God, secularism shall not leave us. 除非我们奉献于神，否则凡俗之心便不会离开我们。 来自互联网
• They are no longer a huge threat to secularism. 他们已不再是民主的巨大威胁。 来自互联网

4 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。