[Vision2020] Keeping the Faith

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (April 14, 2006) UI Argonaut with a special thanks to Nate
Poppino (staff writer, UI Argonaut) and Cassie Novak.

"To paraphrase the Bible, Seth's faith is a rock for him to take refuge in.
'It's something for me to hold on to in the middle of stress,' he says.
'It's nice to know something constant and solid.'

It also inspires him to treat all people as equals, despite the stereotypes
against those of Arab descent and others that come from recent world events,
he says.

'It helps me remember that every single person walking around this campus is
a child of God and my sister or brother.'

As an added footnote, I would like to express my appreciation to both Nate
Poppino and Cassie Novak for reminding us of true Christianity.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keeping the Faith
By Nate Poppino
Staff Writer, UI Argonaut

It's hard sometimes to be in college, Cassie Novak says.
More and more often, the University of Idaho freshman finds homework and
extracurricular events competing with God for her free time.

"Sometimes God gets away from me, especially in college where homework is
this big thing," she says. "I'm always busy, on the run. . Sometimes it's
really hard to think about him all the time."

Thankfully, Cassie says, when things get tough she has friends. A whole
building of them, actually, at the Campus Christian Center on the corner of
Elm Street and University Avenue.

The 75-year-old center, supported by seven Protestant denominations, is one
of many Christian groups on campus that serve as a refuge for Cassie and
others concerned with maintaining their faith in their college years. On a
campus with so many Christian groups, director Sharon Kehoe says, the center
differs itself through its approach to Christianity.

"What they (other Christian groups on campus) want and would give you are
answers, and what we want and would give you are questions," she says.
"People come to college for questions."

With the Methodist, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Presbyterian, American Baptist,
Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ communities of Moscow all
contributing to the center, each week is full of activities intended to make
students consider those questions. Along with the center's own programs,
including a weekly Religion and Ethics discussion and regular coffee hours
in the center's first-floor coffee shop, the building is host to meetings of
the Quakers, Alcoholics Anonymous (including one meeting specifically for
students) and several other campus groups, including the multi-faith Sacred
Journeys club that evolved out of one of UI's core classes taught by Kehoe.
Among the meetings, programs and classes, Kehoe estimates more than 7,600
people used the building in 2005.

During its 75 years in existence, the center has changed UI. When the
building was first placed on campus, there were no classes on religion and
no way to educate students about it, Kehoe says. It took the combined effort
of the center, St. Augustine's Catholic Center and the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints center to start the religion classes and degree
minor UI currently has.

"Teachers donated their time and worked for free," Kehoe says. "As a result
of those three working together, there finally came to be a religious
studies program."
In addition to programs, Kehoe says, the center also encourages students to
attend one of the seven local churches - though surprisingly, the students
who attend church regularly are rarely the same as those who attend the
programs regularly. The center also serves as a counseling center, and Kehoe
says she helps students talk through everything from sexuality to
prescription drug abuse.

Kehoe wasn't always a counselor, nor was she a religious leader. Born in
Berkeley, Calif., she came to Moscow in 1995. For most of her life, she was
a graphic designer living in San Francisco and, for a short time, Paris.
However, in 1986 she ended her artistic career and went back to school,
earning a master's in psychology and a doctorate in philosophy and religion.
The change, she says, was triggered by two factors - a desire to explore the
ultimate questions of life and her simultaneous burnout caused by work
stress and too much partying.

Her search for the fundamental truths of who we are and why we're here began
during her first year of college, when famed Anglican theologian Allen Watts
visited her college.

"He asked some questions I couldn't fathom," she says.
After spending much of her life traveling and exploring world religions,
Kehoe decided she didn't feel fulfilled and began her psychology degree. Her
educational path eventually led her to Genesee, where during the week of her
final dissertation she discovered the position of director at the Campus
Christian Center was open. She applied for it, and has worked in the
building ever since, studying in her spare time to join the Episcopalian
priesthood.

Understandably, the students she nurtures come to UI with considerably less
life experience. In Cassie's case, her Lutheran background came from many
years of attending church with her family back in Great Falls, Mont. She
says she doesn't consciously factor her beliefs into her daily life, but her
actions are always influenced by them.

"I guess it provides a basis for my thoughts in general," she says.
"There're certain things I do and don't do based on my religion. With me, a
lot of stuff is subconscious, just because that's the way I grew up."

Her beliefs affect everything, she says, from what she does on the weekend
(she doesn't like to party) to her extracurricular activities.

"I don't care for drinking all that much," she says. "It's not like all
Lutherans are like that, but I think that might be influenced from my
religion."

Right now, Cassie is trying to involve herself in as many clubs and
community service groups as she can. She views such activities as a way to
put her Christian ideals to work.

"My beliefs sort of drive me to try and do things for other people," she
says.

Despite her worries, Cassie says her life is full of God. She attends the
Religion and Ethics program at the center every Tuesday and a Bible study
every Wednesday. In addition, she attends the local Lutheran church on
Sunday mornings.

"I'm pretty much there (at the center) on my free time," she says.
She was introduced to the center by her brother, Seth, who will graduate
from UI this spring and plans to attend seminary in the fall. Seth had
already formed many bonds with the center, and he welcomed his shy sister
into his group of friends.

"The fact that my brother was here helped a lot," she says. "It would have
been more awkward if I had to find stuff by myself."

Seth had a slightly harder time settling in, but had help as well - this
time from his hometown. Members of his church in Great Falls let the
center's Lutheran leader, Karla Neumann-Smiley, know that he would be a
great asset to the center.
"I never came until one of my friends suggested a get-together one night,"
he says. "It was a great atmosphere, and I've been stuck ever since."

Part of the reason he became hooked on the center, Seth says, was that it
provided a familiar face in a new setting.

"I came to a place I'd never been before (UI), surrounded by people I didn't
know."

The Lutheran church in Moscow also gave him something familiar to focus on.
"One thing I knew would be the same was the Lutheran church at large," he
says. "Even with a different church and different people, there's still that
sense of community there."

Seth says he now "floats in and out" of most programs and attends Lutheran
Campus Ministry programs religiously. However, the center is now more than a
series of programs to him. It's also a home base where he can crash between
classes and bump into friends, who trickle in and out of the center all day.
"I don't always have the chance with my friends to see them on campus," he
says. "This is a great place to hang out with people. There are 15 to 20
people I know through here."

To paraphrase the Bible, Seth's faith is a rock for him to take refuge in.
"It's something for me to hold on to in the middle of stress," he says.
"It's nice to know something constant and solid."

It also inspires him to treat all people as equals, despite the stereotypes
against those of Arab descent and others that come from recent world events,
he says.

"It helps me remember that every single person walking around this campus is
a child of God and my sister or brother."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seeya rouind town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

" . . . wording plays a big part in understand[ing] the nature and meaning a
verse written two thousand years ago in a different language, and some
Bibles just have it plain wrong."

- Donovan Arnold (August 23, 2005)