Neely Shah was raised Hindu, but she'll be the first to admit it hasn't been a very important part of her life. "I don't do a lot of religious things or go to a lot of religious functions," she said. "Just in name, I am Hindu."
So when Shah found herself at the Hindu Bhavan, a Hindu temple in Raleigh, two Fridays ago, she confessed it felt a little strange. "It was so weird. It was a Friday night and we were going to this place where it was just families and not Ocollege-y' at all."
Three days before Shah's journey to the Bhavan, terrorist attacks had rocked New York and Washington, D.C., and the Duke senior said she just didn't feel like partying. So Shah and her roommate headed to the temple, where there was an event planned in response to the terrorism. "It wasn't even how it pertained to Hinduism," she said. "It wasn't the scriptures that were read or the actual words that meant anything to me. It was that the temple was packedÉ. I felt a sense of home and community being there."
All over the United States, Americans are attending religious services and events in record numbers, according to a Sept. 17 article in the New York Times.
At Duke, the numbers mirror national trends. According to Pastor Nancy Ferree-Clark of the Congregation at Duke University Chapel, approximately 2,000 people turned out for services on Sunday, Sept. 16--500 more than usual. "It was standing-room only, and there were many new faces," she said.
Roger Kaplan, director of the Freeman Center for Jewish Life, estimated that 100 students attended the Freeman Center for Jewish Live service on the Friday night after the attacks, as opposed to the normal 30 to 50 students. Last Monday marked the first night of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and though that service is always popular, at least a few of the students in the crowd said they would not have attended had Sept. 11 been just like any other day.
One of those students, sophomore Bethany Greene, a reform Jew, never considered herself particularly religious. "It was always something I had to do," she said. "At home, I was forced to go, but usually midway through the service, I would sneak outside and gossip with friends."
Once she got to Duke, Greene stopped attending services altogether. But this year, she changed her mind. "For the first time in my life I really wanted to go to services," she said. "I didn't want to go to forums and hear people talking directly about the attacks. By saying prayers and going to services, you don't directly talk about it but you deal with it in a way that doesn't seem forced or fake. You can reflect. It's peaceful."
Greene found the experience consoling, but said she doesn't think it will make her a more active Jew, though she plans to attend Yom Kippur services later this week. "It's a time I want to be... thinking about the same kinds of things [my family is] thinking," she said. "It's tradition." And for Greene, who, like the rest of America, doesn't know what tomorrow's news will bring, a little tradition and comfort in this time of great uncertainty can't hurt.
Or can it? Sophomore Flynn Cratty, a member of Campus Crusade for Christ, said faith should not be used solely as a comfort blanket. "It trivializes religion," said Cratty. "I think religion is for informing us about the event as much as it is to comfort us.... Just to say religion is a comfort is kind of condescending, because it makes it seem like religion is a crutch."
But Ferree-Clark said there is nothing wrong with relatively non-religious students going to a house of worship in response to recent events. "I think in moments such as these we recognize that... our security is challenged or perhaps completely blown away," she said. "People want to [know], OWhere is the security in my life?'
And that may raise the question for someone who hasn't thought about it in a long time, OWhere do I stand in relationship to God or to any divine being?'"
While some previously non-religious students have attended services to help them deal with the crisis, a few are questioning why a God they've been taught is all-loving would let an event like this happen. But in comparison with other recent disasters, campus religious leaders said that they have seen virtually no students in serious faith crises.
"One of the things I've noticed about this particular crisis as opposed to a devastating hurricane, or floods," said Jennifer Copeland, director of the Wesley Fellowship and United Methodist Campus Ministry at Duke, "is that when you have a crisis perpetuated by other human beings then we are less likely to blame God for it because we can point to a faceÉ and say, OWell you did this,'"
Lala Qadir, co-president of the Muslim Students Association said the attacks have only strengthened her faith. "All of a sudden I was identified as a Muslim in the public eye whether I wanted it or not," she wrote in an e-mail. Qadir said the attacks have made her even more interested in understanding her faith, "in order to be able to dispel ignorant beliefs and misconceptions regarding Islam. What I found confirmed what I had already believed: Islam literally means peace, and Muslims are instructed to enjoin goodness and forbid evil."
Like Qadir, Imam Abdul-hafeez Waheed, religious adviser to MSA, is confident that the events of the last two weeks will only strengthen students' spirituality. "I see people increasing their faith," he said, "increasing their level of curiosity. People are understanding there's no guarantee that the next second is yours.... There's a spirit I see emanating from people.... I guarantee you we are better off spiritually and socially as a nation than before this happened."
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