Franklin's religious ties could lead to confusion
With Religious Emphasis Week ending on campus, it seems the event has grown and flourished after its sixth year on campus. But it leads us to wonder about the campus’ Baptist affiliations.
Franklin College has been a Baptist-affiliated college since its establishment in 1834, when it was founded by the First Baptist Church in the city of Franklin. The college currently stresses a voluntary affiliation with the American Baptist Church.
According to Wendy Hagn, Franklin’s director of church relations, the school has only 99 Baptists attending school here, which is less than 10 percent of the student body.
And for that less than 10 percent, in the last fiscal year the college received slightly more than $16,000 from American Baptist Churches, plus an additional undetermined amount of individual donations.
Ten percent does not constitute enough to reasonably believe Franklin should continue to play up its Baptist affiliation.
Rather, Franklin should promote its ideals of the liberal arts and diversity and welcome a wider variety of religions to campus.
First of all, the Baptist title associated with the campus could be seen as intimidating to potential students who are not Baptists. We do not want students who may be Jewish, Mormon, Muslim or otherwise to think the school will impose certain ideals on them. We want them to recognize the affiliation for what it is: voluntary, and know the campus community welcomes students from any faith.
In terms of money, it could be easy to talk to other churches that might offer scholarships for students of other religions. We don’t have to specifically target Baptists in this sense.
Chapel services could still be held on Tuesdays at 11 a.m., but the school needs diversity. As a liberal arts school, we hear the never-ending plea for more liberal arts and diversity on campus.
So let’s do just that. Let’s have a new service each week. (There is already a Catholic Mass once a month). We need to get students out of their comfort zones and put them in unfamiliar territory.
