Please respond to Lydia with 290 words in Apa style citations and reference

Learning Goal: I’m working on a article writing multi-part question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

Please respond to Lydia with 290 words in Apa style citations and reference

By and large, students feel ostracized on college campuses for their religious beliefs. In a conversation with one of my advisees, this student reported that the reaction received by classmates when sharing their religious beliefs was ‘eww.’ Students want to have a sense of belonging, but wearing items that clearly show their religious beliefs tend to make them stand out and struggle to fit in. Lubis and Sianipar (2022) report that religious intolerance, especially amongst different religious groups, is a continued concern to this day. Many students have disclosed to me that they have been mocked by their college professors for their religious beliefs, but they feel they are expected to be tolerant of the beliefs of their professors. Farooq and Sohail (2019) speak to this by explaining that students on some campuses did not experience discrimination from peers or faculty until they disclosed their personal religious beliefs. I have heard other students report that their peers have made false assumptions about them based on biases against their religious beliefs. I believe, however, that many academic institutions are making great strides toward religious tolerance. Even still, students have expressed to me that their university’s efforts to accept their religious beliefs are not effective if there not is tolerance from their instructors and peers. The religious groups who seem to be the least tolerated are Jews and Christians. I believe this is because Satan has declared war against God’s children and “on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (English Standard Version, 2001, Revelation 12:17).

McCaffery (2018) says “Higher Education is also a growth industry” (p. 1). As institutions of growth, colleges should take positions on creating environments of religious tolerance. Research shows that the presence of spirituality on college campuses decreases violence and improves students’ mental health and academic performance (Nielsen & Small, 2019). College students themselves agree that spirituality and religious practice are important factors for academic success. College is a time to stretch one’s mental capacity and learn to live in and appreciate a world that is different from one’s own viewpoint. Students cannot learn to love and appreciate differences if institutions are not teaching tolerance of something that is the foundation of many students’ identities, their religious beliefs. I say this even as someone of strong faith in my own biblical beliefs. Souls are won for Christ through displaying His infinite love for all of humanity despite any and all differences. Matthew 11:19 says that Jesus was “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (English Standard Version, 2001). Students of all religious beliefs matter to God because people matter to God.

References:

English Standard Version. (2001). Crossway Bibles.

Farooq, A., & Sohail, Tayyaba. (2019). Conceptualization of religious belonging of Christian youth in higher education. Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 9(2), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.32350/jitcLinks to an external site.

Lubis, S. I., & Sianipar, A. (2022). How religious tolerance can emerge among religious people: An investigation on the roles of intellectual humility, cognitive flexibility, and trait aggressiveness. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 25, 276-287. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12493Links to an external site.

McCaffery, P. (2018). The higher education manager’s handbook. Routledge.

Nielsen, J. C., Small, J. L. (2019). Four pillars for supporting religious, secular, and spiritual student identities. Journal of College and Character, 20(2). 180-186. https://doi.org/10.1080/2194587X.2019.1591285