The Problem With Harvard’s Christian Culture

What they don’t tell you about coming to Jesus is that it’s incredibly confusing.

My spiritual awakening came roughly halfway through my freshman year. Walking through Tercentenary Theatre, I felt a strange elucidation — like a guiding hand on my shoulder, applying firm forward pressure while lifting an enormous weight off my back. After 18 years of searching, I finally felt the presence of God.

Two years later, I’ve attended 12 different churches and seven different student faith groups. Yet two years later, I’m still confused.

Our four years at the College ought to facilitate personal transformation through every aspect of academic, social, and extracurricular life. We should similarly take the opportunity to probe fundamental questions of faith. Instead, Christian student culture often siloes undergraduates into sects, thus failing to encourage spiritual exploration and leaving behind students finding or redefining their faith.

Most Christian registered student organizations are affiliated with a specific denomination or national organization. This is natural — it’s a way for students to find community and grow in their chosen faith.

These groups largely function like any other club: They connect with students during Visitas or the activities fair and often quickly build a freshman base that then gradually funnels students into leadership. In my experience, faith groups have a particular tendency to help students form close friendships early in their freshman year.

So far, none of this is negative. Students who commit to a group early will often make like-minded friends, grow in their faith through a strong community, and evangelize on campus.

So what’s the issue?

The status quo leaves little room for those who want to explore. A student who walks onto campus unsure what to believe seeks answers. But instead of intellectual curiosity and earnest theological rigor, all too often they are met only by rigid doctrinal stances. Instead of opportunities to learn more about faith with peers, they find non-student staff and unforgiving dogma.

A key part of Harvard’s transformative experience is exposure to students from diverse walks of life with evolving identities. In principle, such an environment should be the perfect place to grapple with our faith.

Instead, groups built around national organizations and strict denominations do little for those who question. Of course, members don’t necessarily have the intention to convert rather than educate when they engage with students learning about Jesus for the first time. But the fact remains that campus organizations built around retention and a uniform spiritual identity don’t equip their students to meaningfully engage with those new to faith.

In this way, programming is overwhelmingly designed around building up the faith of those who already have it. But Harvard should provide a religious home for any student who seeks one. Today, a student truly searching for spiritual formation may needlessly struggle.

This state of affairs also incidentally impairs even those students who ardently pursue a particular faith from their first week on campus. The best way to foster new membership is to warmly welcome the curious and questioning, regardless of experience or spiritual confidence.

An important way to strengthen our faith is to rigorously question it. We should take joy in trials, because “the testing of your faith produces steadfastness,” writes James in the New Testament.

We all benefit when our religious organizations engage with a diversity of voices. The most formative part of my faith journey here has been attending Shabbat dinners with my blockmates. Despite our religious differences, the tradition has introduced me to the spiritual connection of consistent practice across generations.

To be fair, Harvard makes an effort to address some of the above concerns through the Presidential Initiative on Interfaith Engagement, where students have the opportunity to interface with and hear the differences between a myriad of different faiths. But these events are focused on fostering engagement and community across differences, not opportunities for students to critically contend with those differences and decide for themselves where they fall.

That leaves the onus to us. Students in Christian organizations must simply choose to change.

We can engage more thoughtfully with others’ faiths. We can be more welcoming to newcomers — not just the first time they step in the door or when we follow up for a reimbursed coffee, but every time after. We can choose to look beyond the success of the organizations we belong to, and earnestly help confused Christians determine which community is the best fit for them.

We can learn to shepherd the searching without corralling them into our flock.

Victoria L. Dolan ’28, an Associate Editorial Editor, is an English concentrator in Kirkland House. She is a member of Harvard Christian Impact’s servant team.