Spirituality at Hendrix

<p>Hi everyone! I am very interested in Hendrix...actually, super excited is a better way to describe my anticipation of my visit (soon I hope)! I have a question though, which I'm sure some of you highly-informed Hendrix aficionados could answer:</p>

<p>What is the faith life of the campus like? I know that Hendrix is United Methodist; how strong is this connection? Is it prevalent throughout, eg does most of the student body go to Methodist services? I assume that, being a widely-regarded college, all faiths are accepted (I found information on groups of all different faiths there).</p>

<p>Any direction in this would be good. Thanks so much!</p>

<p>From what I gather from Hendrix thus far I do not think the main reason people go to Hendrix is because it has a religious base, so I do not think you are going to find much spirituality beyond the usual christian organizations on most school campuses.</p>

<p>What I hear is "liberal"--any religion or no religion--they are tolerant of everything. Students are not particularly religious, though some are.
A parent of Christian students there told me that Christian viewpoints would be more accepted at Hendrix than at the local state u.</p>

<p>After our visits there, I definitely get the impression that the campus is very tolerant of most things, be it politics, religion, etc. Although the college is church-affiliated, I don't get the impression that religion plays a large role on campus. We don't do the church thing, and DD, who considers herself to be agnostic, feels she'll be plenty comfortable there. I truly think that anyone could be comfortable there.</p>

<p>LL, jumping in here even though I don't have a kid considering Hendrix. I see this sort of question frequently about church-related schools; I can answer specifically about United Methodist schools. With very few exceptions, "United Methodist college" usually reflects a historical tie and has very little to do with day-to-day operations. It is not entirely meaningless, however. For ministers who are also professors, teaching at a UM school means they can maintain their connection with the church, an important consideration for their eligibility for retirement pay from the church. Most (maybe all) UM colleges also have the services of a chaplain, a position provided by the church. The chaplain is not there to bang you over the head with United Methodist doctrine but will frequently raise his/her voice on issues related to the UM social principles. For example, at another United Methodist college, the chaplain led the fight against serving Starbucks coffee on campus, because the UM position is that churches and UM institutions should only provide free-trade coffee. Interestingly, despite the chaplain's involvement in this issue, at the school in question (American), Starbucks is served...but they added the availability of free-trade coffee. There is no church "enforcer" who is going to penalize American or its students for this decision.</p>

<p>Financially, the church rarely provides more than token funds to each UM college; individual districts or conferences may provide funds for a church within their jurisdiction, but that varies widely from conference to conference. If, however, you are a member in good standing of the United Methodist church (for at least a year...in some cases, three years), there are UM scholarships for which you can apply. If anyone on this thread is a United Methodist, don't overlook that possibility. The deadline for applications is May 15th for most of the scholarships, so there's still time to apply.</p>