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Falling from faith: Students’ struggle benefits spiritual growth
Marta Hennigan
It’s a bright, clear Sunday morning,
and the Montreat College campus begins
to stir. Sleepy college students turn over in
their bunks to look at their alarm clocks,
and they are faced with a choice. Get up
and go to church, or go back to sleep.
According to the 2007 Bama Report
on Youth, not many of them will get up.
Students who were raised in reli
gious households often experience a phase
when they attend college where they drift
away from their faith. In the Bama report,
according to ABC News “A recent UCLA
study found many college students drift
away from their religious upbringings. In
the study, 52 percent of the students said
they attended religious services frequently
the year before entering college, but by
their junior year attendance had dropped to
29 percent.”
However, this drifting is not nec
essarily a bad thing. Montreat College
chaplain Steve Woodworth sees it less as
a drifting and more as an exploration of
faith. “I am not entirely sure it is a negative
thing, I am not convinced that it is wrong
for us all to stmggle through doubts and to
test the faith before we embrace it.”
From Black Mountain to Washington! Read more on page 6.
Inside:
-Humor
- Update from SGA from Jared Neil
- Happenings
- Do faculty Worldviews affect their
students?
- Caitlin Chambers discusses nationals
- Dane Gomez writes in about ambition
Cont. on page 3
VERSE
ot
“For I know the plans I havefor you" says the Lord. “They are
plansfor good and notfor disaster, to give you afuture and a hope."
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Jeremiah 29:11