What defines a "religious" school?

[Keilexandra]

<p>1/3) If you had read my previous posts (in the other thread) more closely, you would have noted my earlier exception for people who self-identify as Christian but don’t regularly attend church. If someone does regularly attend church and go through the motions of being a devout Christian, then the private beliefs in their head are irrelevant to others–what matters is the societal/environmental norm set, and church-going Christians contribute to a religious norm. </p>

<p>For similar reasons, many homosexual/transsexual students prefer a campus environment where the assumed sexuality is not heterosexual. Do the students who presume heterosexuality as the norm also discriminate against homosexuals? Most likely NO. But as you have said yourself in similar words, tolerant != active.</p>

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@Baelor

Now, on CC, the concern seems to be with an environment that’s friendly or tolerant toward a particular stance, e.g. LGBT rights, a religious affiliation of choice, or a conservative/liberal viewpoint. These criteria have value insofar as they provide a reason to eliminate options (e.g. a staunch conservative woman may not be at home at Sarah Lawrence, or an atheist liberal at Bob Jones U.). However, they do little to distinguish between schools that can be broadly categorized as “friendly,” or that have a campus with a vocal contingent of choice. Simply labeling the campus as tolerant is therefore insufficient, given the wide spectrum this word permits.

Different atheist/agnostic students will be comfortable at different levels of “religious” schools. However, creating a religious/secular dichotomy is flawed the same way a friendly/intolerant dichotomy is flawed wrt LGBT life. An atheist student who would be comfortable at Georgetown might not be comfortable at ND, might not be comfortable at BYU.</p>

<p>And to clarify: Since you disagree with my labeling Notre Dame as a “religious” school, is it your position that in a school such as ND, with 85% self-identified Catholics, Catholicism has “no impact on the rest of the campus in any way whatsoever”?</p>