Study: Most college students seek spiritual meaning

For many young people, college is their first experience away from home ... their parents, traditions, customs and churches. Some students stick to their faiths, while others fall away, convert or reconnect.

Two of the three were true for Southeast Missouri State University junior James Freeman, who fell away from his nondenominational Christian beliefs and has returned.

When Freeman first arrived at Southeast, he was an "A" student, a track and cross country athlete who attended church with his family on Sundays. Then he got on a downward spiral that led him to daily drinking, depression, a 0.5 GPA at one point and an 80-pound weight gain. Through it all, Freeman said he still had the morals his parents instilled in him, but tamped them down.

Five months ago, Freeman joined Ignite campus ministry, one of a variety of faith-based organizations at Southeast. He quit drinking, his grades bounced back to A's and B's, he's down to 185 pounds and goes to the gym daily.

"It's just a complete transformation," Freeman said.

In college, he said, everyone wants to be accepted for who they are, and in Ignite, he can be himself and everyone accepts him.

"I don't know how you could experience something like this and not want to hold on to it for the rest of your life. I don't see how I could do it any other way," Freeman said.

Research

A March study of 1,821 adults, including young adults age 18 to 33, by the Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends Project showed:

* Millennials are less likely than older generations to be affiliated with a religion and less likely to say they believe in God, according to the data. "A solid majority still do -- 86 percent -- but only 58 percent say they are 'absolutely certain' that God exists, a lower share than among older adults," according to a 2012 survey by the Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. "But if past is prologue, these young adults may develop a stronger belief in God over the course of their lives, just as previous generations have," Pew reported.

Dr. Bruce Gentry, right, director of the Baptist Student Center at Southeast Missouri State University, enjoys lunch and conversation with students, from left, Casey Cattron and Skyler Hanks, both of Jackson, and Yuko Meike of Japan. The center invites students to the free lunch each Thursday. (Fred Lynch)

* One in four members of the millennial generation, those born after 1980 who came of age about 2000, are unaffiliated with any particular faith, Pew reported.

* Millennials are "significantly more unaffiliated than members of Generation X were at a comparable point in their life cycle (20 percent in the late 1990s) and twice as unaffiliated as baby boomers were as young adults (13 percent in the late 1970s). Young adults also attend religious services less often than older Americans today. And compared with their elders today, fewer young people say that religion is very important in their lives," Pew reported.

Conversion

Growing up, Southeast senior Gideon Barr hopped around Protestantism -- evangelical, Pentecostal and nondenominational. But Barr was skeptical about those experiences, and that set him searching. He took a world religion course under the Rev. Patrick Ike Nwokoye, chaplain and director of the Catholic Campus Ministry, which exposed him to a lot of different ideas, but he gravitated toward the Catholic faith.

"For me, this is a time where you ask a lot of questions about your life and where it's going [and] how you're going to live it, so it's actually a time that's sort of ripe for religious experience or religious exploration."

That led him to Catholicism.

"I was very much impressed by intellectual heritage of Catholicism and what it has to offer as far as great thinkers and artists and poets. I was very much impressed by that. The beauty of the faith drew me in," Barr said.

Another factor was Catholicism has ancient traditions, and he found its culture gave texture to his faith. Barr said living as a Catholic is fulfilling, and one of his favorite aspects is confession.

"For me, it's quite liberating. I know before I was Catholic I wanted a personal relationship with Christ, and I knew he would forgive me my sins. It's actually quite liberating to hear the priest say, 'I absolve you of your sins.' That concrete aspect, to me, kind of made it more real.

"The guilt, I don't really feel it. I feel everyone sins and falls short, but we have this great sacrament of mercy and confession. I love it. I never miss an opportunity to go to confession," Barr said.

Keeping customs, traditions

Sindupa De Silva, a wildlife conservation biology major planning to graduate in May, is from Kandy, Sri Lanka. He has been to other countries, but this is his first venture to the West.

De Silva, president of the Sri Lankan Student Association on campus, said his countrymen tend to stand by their traditions. At home, his day would start with a cup of tea made by his mother. His mother sends him tea from home, but De Silva said it's not the same as when his mother makes it.

When he would leave his house for the day in Sri Lanka, the custom was to kneel on the ground, touch his parents' feet, and they would bless him for a good day or safe trip.

"That's something I really miss doing over here, especially living in a community within the university itself. There's only college students and hardly any elders from my country, so we can't offer that form of respect," De Silva said.

Another tradition he misses is having at least one daily meal with his family.

"It's almost a ritual, and it's something you learn through your childhood. It's an acquired lesson, where you always stick to it," De Silva said. "If you're late for it, or if you're absent, you feel the guilt and your family will feel that as well."

De Silva was born and raised a Buddhist.

"Buddhism is more for philosophy than it is a religion," he said. "It is a way of life. It teaches you how to do good, how to help other people, how to live positively and how to influence other living beings, not only people, but other living beings, in a positive way.

"To me it's more of a personal religion. I would say, once you've been educated [in] it, you control yourself and you learn to act based upon those values that you've been taught," De Silva added. He noted there are places to worship, but in St. Louis, so it's not as accessible.

Holding on

Suzanne Omran, assistant director of international programming in International Education and Services, said Southeast has students from more than 50 countries outside the United States, with China being the largest, followed by Saudi Arabia and India.

There are associations to keep students connected to a piece of home, but it's harder for the countries with few students on campus. Some students integrate with the rest of the student body, like a domestic student would. Others may join associations that have similar cultural or country ties to their own.

"We're lucky to have such diversity here in this area," Omran said.

Dave Wiant, director of youth ministries/contemporary worship arts at Centenary United Methodist Church, said the church's involvement with international students started almost four years ago. One of the first events was a welcome dinner, which was planned for about 30 students.

"It ended up that there were over 150 students who came for this dinner. Some of them would come directly from the airport, luggage still in hand, to come and eat, so we got to meet all these students there and developed some of the relationships, then just began asking them questions how we could help them here in their time as students," Wiant said.

"That's been the focus of our ministry is how can we make them feel comfortable being here in the states," he added. "We've done a lot of different things, including things as simple as driving them to and from the bank when they needed to open a bank account in the United States, and taking them to Wal-Mart in the church bus so they could get across town and do some shopping."

Having the international students around has enriched everyone and the church has partnered with the Islamic Center in town on welcome events, Wiant said. The church provides space to many international student organizations for celebrations and events.

"There was a period of time where we had to as a church change our thinking about what our purpose was, meaning we had to realize that not every student that walked through the doors was going to immediately convert to Christianity just because we were hosts to their event," Wiant said. "Explaining to all the people who were involved that our mission was not necessarily converting everybody, but that we wanted to be a welcoming and loving place for the students ... helped the church to grow in our understanding of what it means to be Christians and how to show love for all people of all races.

"And it's a unique opportunity to have so many different parts of the world come to your doorstep. I think it's really been enlightening for the members of the church to have that experience. I think it's helped them to grow," Wiant added.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639