I am strongly considering going to Berkeley for my undergrad however, I am a christian and I have heard that Christians are discriminated against and are looked upon negatively at the school. Is this true? I don’t mind the liberalism but I still want to grow as a christian when I go to college.
Where did you hear that from?
From what I see, no one cares. My D has been at UCB for 6 years now (3 as undergrad, 3 as a PhD student), I don’t think anyone there knows or cares what her religion is.
Now, if you don’t try to force your belief onto others, no one will force their belief onto you.
BTW, what happened to your prom today?
Students are too overworked and too busy studying, working and taking care of business to care.
How would they know you’re Christian? No one will know unless you try to push your beliefs on everyone.
Why would it matter or change anything?
There is every group/club on campus under the sun, including several Christian clubs.
We have a lot of Christian clubs and Bible studies and whatnot.
The only annoying Christians are the evangelical ones who preach at people outside of Dwinelle every day.
I’m Catholic and the only way anyone knows that you’re Catholic is seeing everyone with their ashes on Ash Wednesday, and it’s sort of cool because quite a lot of people got their ashes. I always see people I know at church and there’s a student dinner every Sunday at 6 (free food).
I also had an interesting philosophical discussion with a Muslim and a Lollard (he explored a lot and decided that’s what he believes in. There’s a wikipedia page) at lunch the other day. It was perfectly amiable and interesting and it helped all of us develop our ideas on religion. One of my most interesting discussions so far at Berkeley.
My Buddhist roommate joined a Christian fellowship somehow. She says she likes the people.
Those are all of my experiences with religion at Berkeley. It’s good. A nice community.
Both of my kids are active in fellowship and church. I asked them and here’s the answer:
no the christian community is very strong and christian discrimination is overblown; i have never experienced faith-based discrimination in three years at berkeley