THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 17, 1997 TAG: 9702170036
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 88 lines
``When I came here,'' Virginia Wesleyan College student Andy Edwards said the other day, ``I wasn't a fundamentalist Christian, but I was very set in my ways.''
Now, the 20-year-old senior said, ``I still call myself a Christian, but at the same time I recognize everyone is on a quest to find out who we are in relationship to God. . . . My field of view has widened.''
He attributes that in large part to a symposium on religious freedom that Virginia Wesleyan began offering this semester.
The class - the debut offering of the college's new Center for the Study of Religious Freedom - will cover a wide swath, from pagan worship to the role of religion in medical decisions to traditional Negro spirituals.
Rabbi Lawrence A. Forman of Ohef Sholom Temple in Norfolk, who spoke to the class last week, said the Methodist-affiliated college is proving that ``you can have the emphasis on the spiritual and the moral, not only on the scientific and rational, which is what universities are known for. . . .
``For students at a young age, this is where they should be learning those spiritual and ethical values . . . in the context of the secular.''
About 50 students are enrolled in the one-credit symposium, said Dora H. Dobrin, a sociology professor who is one of the coordinators. But the classes are open to any professors or students and the public.
Stephen S. Mansfield, dean of the college, said the class has provided an ``intellectual shot in the arm for the whole campus,'' sparking more lively discussions in other classes, too.
The symposium has two main components: There will be 10 lectures throughout the semester, usually given by campus professors, on a range of topics, including early Sufism, a form of Islamic mysticism, and the philosopher Immanuel Kant. There will also be six informal ``brown-bag lunches,'' sometimes led by students, on subjects such as religious rights against prisoners.
In addition, the symposium will include three discussion groups for students to hash out questions and thoughts, said Craig S. Wansink, an assistant professor of religious studies who is another coordinator.
Last week, the lecture was a forum with five board members of Wesleyan's new center, including Forman. Why, Mansfield asked the panel, is America still wrestling with the issue of religious freedom?
Sheer ignorance, said Robert A. Spivey, president of the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges.
``The first time that students are exposed to the academic study of religion is at the collegiate level,'' said Spivey, who is also Virginia president for the National Conference of Christians and Jews. ``So we have a nation of illiterates.''
He and other panelists urged public schools to dare to teach more about religion. ``To do it accidentally or by omission is the worst thing,'' Spivey said.
Norfolk State University education professor M. Sharif Hafiz tried to clear up some misconceptions about Islam, telling the audience not to equate terrorists with Muslims. ``They don't practice the teachings of Islam,'' which preaches tolerance for others, said Hafiz, chairman of the board of the Islamic Center of Norfolk.
The brown-bag lunch the next day was led by 20-year-old junior Jamie Brooks, whose subject was farther from home: Chinese repression of Tibetan Buddhists.
When China took over Tibet in 1951, he said, ``it was not just to maintain control of a geographic region. It's also a campaign against Tibetan culture and religion.''
Tibet's religious leader, the Dalai Lama, is in exile in India. Some Tibetan nuns, Brooks said, have been subjected to ``sexual torture and exposure to the cold.'' And communist ``indoctrination is on the rise in the monasteries. . . . If China's policies do not change, Tibet may be left without a functioning religion.''
Next semester's religious freedom course will be taught by Steven M. Emmanuel, an associate professor of philosophy.
The class, he said, will discuss concepts like ``social freedom'' and ``tolerance'' - with readings of philosophers such as John Stuart Mill and John Locke - as well as current matters, such as the rise of the religious right.
Next year, Virginia Wesleyan will also have a visiting scholar, yet to be named. The college hopes to expand course offerings in coming years, Mansfield said, to the point where it can attract transfer students who want to study religious matters for a semester or two.
Emmanuel said he also sees the college eventually holding seminars off-campus so the community can benefit from the discussion.
``It's wonderful as a freshman to see so much new growth and so much interest in expanding the curriculum and expanding the views of students,'' said Heather Hansen, a 20-year-old in the course.
Another student in the class, Elisabeth Tyndall, a 21-year-old senior, said: ``It's good to remind people that there are different people out there with different faiths. When I graduate, I'm really happy about the fact that I can say my school believes in this.''