ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 9, 1996 TAG: 9611110088
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: B-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PORTLAND, ORE.
SOURCE: AMY CORNELIUSSEN ASSOCIATED PRESS
Reed College is the kind of place where some students, known as ``scroungers,'' eat leftovers from dining hall trays. The kind of place where nude water sliding at the end-of-the-year Renaissance Fair doesn't draw a second glance.
It is not a place identified with piety - and a recent, very unscientific survey confirmed it, finding that Reed is the least religious of the nation's top colleges.
Reedies generally agree, as long as the survey's question ``Are students very religious?'' applies only to traditional Western religions.
``It doesn't surprise me at all,'' said Lemar Johnson of the Reed Christian Fellowship. ``If I was a Buddhist, I would have a lot more acceptance on this campus.''
Reed sprawls on 100 acres in Portland's well-to-do Eastmoreland neighborhood. Reed costs $27,330 a year, with 45 percent of the school's 1,300 students receiving financial aid.
Organized religion may not have a loud presence on campus - 59 percent of freshmen claim no religious affiliation. But many students say spirituality is demonstrated and sought in other ways: paganism, Eastern religions, mysticism, the natural world.
``I think that a lot of Reedies tend to be very religious, but in an unorthodox way,'' said religion student Guy Leavitt. ``I think a more individual approach to religion is more evident here, part of it due to the amount of freedom here for the students.''
At the heart, Reedies say their school is obsessed with learning. If knowledge is their god, its pursuit may be the Reedies' religion.
``That's closer to the religion of Reed than anything - knowledge seeking or critical analysis,'' said Judaic studies Professor Steve Wasserstrom.
The national survey, which appeared in the Princeton Review, also placed Reed at No. 9 in time spent studying - a quest for knowledge that some say takes on a religious zeal.
But Reed's status as most nonreligious, mixed with the other stereotypes about Reedies, leaves some worried that it will become just one more adjective to describe the small liberal arts school's student body.
``When you combine left wing, pot-smoking, irreligious - it looks to many conventionalites as some sort of den of iniquity,'' Wasserstrom said. ``My impression of the students is that most end up as good students, as teachers, professional people, good parents.
``And so, I'm skeptical, but also irritated by this image, particularly because it's so impressionistic,'' he said.
Not everyone takes the new label so seriously.
``I thought it was kind of humorous - oh great, I'm the head of the Pagan Circle at the least religious school,'' said junior Emily Matson, whose group meets weekly at the Winch Dormitory.
In addition to being least religious, Reed came in as the most liberal of the nation's top 310 colleges surveyed. About 56,000 students participated, at least 100 per school.
Reed also showed up in the top 20 in marijuana use and acceptance of homosexuality, and No. 3 under the heading ``Birkenstock-wearing, tree-hugging, clove-smoking vegetarians.''
Even religion and spirituality at Reed take an educational - rather than proselytizing - approach.
Members of the Pagan Circle, for example, share and challenge beliefs.
Sacred places was the topic at one recent meeting - from dorm rooms to a ``magic'' grove of trees on the college's front lawn to Reed's chapel.
The Reed pagans reject traditional Judeo-Christian religions in favor of Celtic, Greek, Egyptian, African and American Indian beliefs.
``I would say I have a personal religion, but to put it into some kind of organization would go against what I believe in,'' Matson said.
Johnson's Christian group takes up a new subject for each Friday's worship meeting, which also includes prayer and song.
But Reed's celebrated tolerance doesn't include Christians, Johnson said.
``The existence of God and God's will are matters of facetious debate for the campus. It's very rarely taken seriously,'' he said.
Chavarim, a small Jewish group active on campus, seems to draw more respect than the Christian group because Judaism also is a culture, said senior Heather Gates, who is not a member of either.
About 10 percent of Reedies are taking religion courses this semester, though just 2.3 percent of undergraduates are religion majors.
``If John Locke talks about it, then we take it seriously in an academic context,'' said Gates, sitting on the steps of the administration building with the school president's dog on a leash. ``I'm not sure I believe in a higher (being), but if I did or if someone did, the best way to show reverence would be to teach yourself.''
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Todd Dickerson (left) shares his personal views onby CNBreligion during a weekly Pagan Circle meeting at Reed College in
Portland, Ore.