From the Desk of...

Melissa Mercer, professor of education
 

November 5, 2004


My first experience with incoming Albion College students occurred on a bright, beautiful August afternoon at the 2004 matriculation ceremony. First-year and transfer students along with a healthy sprinkling of parents converged on Goodrich Chapel, the parents with obvious pride, the students with an air of anticipation as they looked forward to their exciting futures. The faculty convened in the basement of the building where we mingled in our impressive and varied regalia. We marched auspiciously into the chapel, faced our incoming students and welcomed them.

What might have been a joyous event was troubling to me. The problem wasn’t with the students, the faculty or the ceremony. The problem was the place.

I experienced a very strict religious upbringing in which entering a church other than my own was tantamount to endorsing another set of religious beliefs. From my professional life as a museum educator in thinking about exhibiting cultures and religions, I know that this is not an isolated feeling. For many religions around the world including certain sects within Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths, it is a sin to enter into a place of worship other than one’s own. Even though I no longer subscribe to the exacting religious codes of my youth, I still feel a distinct unease about walking into a space like this, especially in an official capacity.

My first reaction is that my convictions are not being respected: Why am I being asked to enter into a space that makes me uncomfortable? My second is concern: I wonder if I am complicit in sending messages to others in our community that I really do not want to send—messages that help define a hidden curriculum on this campus that may be embracing mainstream protestant Christian beliefs and discouraging thoughtful examination and tolerance of other personal or religious beliefs.

In 1984 Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote, “Endorsement sends a message to non-adherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.”

Even though Justice O’Connor is speaking about public institutions and we are a private institution, we should look to the heart of her message if we want to be a campus that welcomes a diversity of backgrounds, experiences and views. Every member of this community should actively work to uncover and act upon our own and others’ discomforts—religious and otherwise. We need to constantly consider how our actions (or non-actions) endorse messages that may be exclusionary or intolerant.

Lest my gentle reader think I am making a mountain of a molehill, note that recent events exhibiting intolerance relating to sexual orientation and political affiliation serve as glaring reminders that there is much to be done to make this a safe environment. It is absolutely fitting that we act decisively to discourage openly hostile actions on this campus. But I ask students, faculty and staff to also think about the more implicit traditions and assumptions that pervade this community. I do not expect that Goodrich Chapel will suddenly cease to be used for college events, but I do hope that we begin to talk about how its use might be marginalizing current and potential members of our community.