Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu/366

362 every one should be. The harm consists even more in that all through their course of study they find general and religious education constantly commingled, in direct contradiction to the assumption that religious freedom exists in America. The student has no way out of the dilemma but to assume that the freedom is simply a freedom as to which particular denomination shall for him be united with the state. The list of denominations from which he may choose is a limited one, inasmuch as of the seventeen denominations represented among the four hundred and seventeen avowedly sectarian colleges, almost three fourths of them are under the control of but four denominations, as will be shown from the following table, deduced from tables 29 and 32 of the U. S. Report.

The stigma of "godless institution" used as an epithet of reproach, is so often applied to the college of the state by zealous supporters of the private college as to actually give the student the impression that an institution which does not combine some form of religious teaching or influence, some Sunday school work, with its general instruction, is acting in opposition to the good of the country, rather than in conformity with one of its most cherished principles.

It may be that the student does not wish to ally himself with any of the religious denominations which maintain colleges, but attends one of these colleges since there is no restriction announced as to the church membership or religious affiliation of prospective students, but instead a distinct effort made to win any and all students of general good character. He will be subjected constantly to petty humiliations because he does not worship his God in the same formulas as do his fellow students. If he fail to attend even the "voluntary" chapel and Sunday services conducted by the college, not to mention the various prayer services, he realizes that his absence is noted by classmates and members of the faculty, even in the unlikely case that no comments are made. In order to escape isolation and a greater or less degree of