NU students question
prior religious beliefs
RELIGION from page 1
shock her parents.
Her search ended when she dis
covered the Baha’i faith.
Baha’i is a religion that was
formed in Persia, or present-day Iran,
Pedersen said. It worships one God
and is devoted to the idea that the
world is one big family.
There are nearly 100 people in
Lincoln who practice the Baha’i
faith, including a group of five UNL
students. Pedersen said the idea of a
unified intemat^nal community is a
key aspect of Bana’i.
“Throughout the ages, God has
revealed His will at different times
and places,” Pedersen said. “The
result is a lot of small individual reli
gions.
“Now we have communications
that connect the world, and it is time
for us to realize that we are one glob
al family.”
Pedersen said Baha’i has recon
firmed her lifelong religious beliefs.
“I have always been active in
church, and I never once felt like I
had to rebel against the Methodist
beliefs,” she said. “But I always had a
problem with the thought that only*
Christians would go to heaven.”
This difference caused Pedersen
to look into other religious beliefs,
and she found Baha’i to be the most
intriguing.
“I have always felt that all reli
gions are very closely related, and
Baha’i reinforced that and made me
see that the entire world is one com
munity under God,” she said.
Baha’i requires Pedersen to spend
a certain amount of time each day
praying and participating in manda
tory group worship. The religion
stresses dedicating a lifetime of ser
vice to God and humanity, she said.
Pedersen said she has experi
enced a wide spectrum of reactions to
her faith. Some are curious, she said,
while others are disgusted.
“My parents were rather appre
hensive (about the change),” she said.
“I felt it was a fulfillment of my
beliefs, but they saw it as a rejection
of what they had given to me.”
Many people ask Pedersen about
her beliefs, but that curiosity could
sometimes lead to unwanted advice,
she said.
“People at work asked me about
my faith, and I began to explain it,”
she said.
“My boss overheard me, and she
called me into her office. She said
that she was concerned about me and
scared that my soul would go to hell.”
Inner conflict
Angela Hatcher, a senior English
major, foundherself questioning reli
gion at a young age. She is a member
of the Campus Atheists and
Agnostics, a group of nearly 100
members.
“I was raised as a Catholic,”
Hatcher said. “But I was a bit odd for
a Catholic child. I wasn’t sure about
communion, so I did it at age 12,
while most kids do it at age 7.”
Because of inner conflicts,
Hatcher rejected confirmation into
the Catholic Church when she was
16.
“I read the Bible, and a lot of stuff
just didn’t jive with what I felt,” she
said. “I always believed what I was
told, but when I became old enough
to question authority, I came up with
theories of my own.”
After entering college, Hatcher
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I’m not doing anything radical. I just have
unanswered questions.”
Angela Hatcher
member of Campus Atheist and Agnostics
said she began to spend time with dif
ferent people and learned that the
most open-minded people had no
religious affiliation.
“The people most true to my
beliefs of being a good person and
having an open mind didn’t have a
religion,” she said.
“I started to distrust organized
religion. I began to devote myself to
free thought, not religious worship.”
During her junior year, Hatcher
decided to become agnostic, and
joined Campus Atheists and
Agnostics.
“I am agnostic because I don’t
know what to think about God and
religion,” she said.
“If there were a multiple choice
question that read ‘Is there a God?’
then I would select the answer that
said: ‘Not enough information to
answer the question.’”
Hatcher said if there is a God,
then humans are not evolved enough
to find the true answer.
“I don’t assume to know God,”
she said. “I don’t try to push my
beliefs on other people. I respect their
beliefs, so I expect them to respect
mine.”
Hatcher has experienced some
backlash because of her beliefs, but
she said most of it is because of igno
rance and common assumptions.
“For some reason, when
Christians hear the word agnostic or
atheist, they seem to immediately
associate it with Satan,” she said.
“They think you go home and
sacrifice goats in your basement. I’m
not doing anything radical. I just have
unanswered questions.”
Finding a good fit
Some students have found them
selves bouncing around within a reli
gion.
Jessica Reddick, a senior family
science major, tried many forms of
Christianity before settling on
Lutheranism.
She attended the First Plymouth
Church for six months, and then
looked briefly into Catholicism
before joining a Lutheran church.
“I tried to avoid the people attend
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ing and just experience the different
religions, so I could make a final
choice,” Reddick said.
Even though Reddick said
Lutheranism is the best fit for her
beliefs, she still attends other reli
gious ceremonies outside of the
Lutheran denomination.
“It is always good to go out of
your comfort zone and experience
something different and new,” she
said.
“I identify myself as a Christian
first and foremost. Lutheranism is
my denomination, but Christianity is
my religion.”
Reddick grew up in a non
Christian family. Her mother
believed in a form of God, but she did
not believe in Christ. Reddick fol
lowed her mother’s beliefs until
adulthood.
“I began to ask my friends about
Christianity, and it sounded like
something I wanted to be a part of,”
she said. “I gathered bits and pieces
from them because I had a lot of
questions without answers.”
Reddick has experienced some
awkwardness in her family. The fact
that her mother and brother are non
Christians has lead to some difficul
ties.
“My family has shown support of
my personal beliefs, but it is hard for
me to be in a non-Christian family,”
she said.
“I really want to share beliefs
with them and pray together, but we
don’t have that spiritual bond. It is
very hard.”
Reddick said her friends are still
motivating factors in her religious
growth.
“I think that my friends are part of
God’s plan for my life,” she said.
“They have always been there for me
when I was lost.”
Whitt said because of an unfamil
iar community and peer influence,
the college environment incites reli
gious change.
“The influence of friends is really
important as to what religion people
choose,” he said.
“Social networks lead students to
change.”
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Hagel takes part
in panel on Kosovo
OMAHA (AP) - Nebraska Sen.
Chuck Hagel on Tuesday was part of
a bipartisan congressional delega
tion meeting with NATO leaders in
Belgium to discuss the status of mil
itary operations in Kosovo.
Hagel and other lawmakers
joined Secretary of Defense Bill
Cohen and Vice Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph
Ralston at NATO headquarters.
A news release from Hagel’s
office said the delegation also will
travel to Ramstein Air Base in
Germany to review humanitarian
relief efforts and Aviano Air Base in
Italy to visit U.S. and allied forces.
“Talking to NATO leaders and
U.S. allied troops will give us a bet
ter sense of what’s going on and give
us an up-close look at this problem,”
Hagel said.
Hagel, a member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee and a
Vietnam veteran, has been critical of
the Clinton Administration’s reluc
tance to commit ground forces in
Yugoslavia.
Heightened military action by
NATO is justified because of
increasing Yugoslav attacks against
ethnic Albanians, Hagel said this
week, calling Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic “a butcher, a
tyrant” who should be dealt with
appropriately.
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