Frats and Sororities - A fight for your soul?
 

I recently visited the infamous "Becky Smith" site. After briefly skimming the site and looking at the links that are posted, I realized that this person is equating sororities to cults and initiation rituals to demonic worship. This got me to thinking - are there a lot of people who feel this way? What have sororities and fraternities done to earn such a reputation? Are these simply the musings of a person who felt so gilted by Chi-O as to twist its actions into "satan worship? Or did something go truly wrong? Are some members (and plegdes) taking Greek letters SO seriously that they literally "worhship" them and are willing to degrade and humiliate themselves to become "in"?

I am Greek and I LOVE my sorority, but I'm concerned because more colleges/universities are banning GLOs and more websites like "Becky's" can be found on the web. What are your thoughts?

The attempt to link secret organizations to cult activity is nothing new. People are always afrad of what they don't know. There have been several movements in the history of the US to try to out secret societies.

If you think the greeks have a bad rap, the Freemasons have gotten the worst, as they are probably the most well known secret society in the US.

Often it's fundamentalist religions that appear to fear secret societies. I have a cousin who dabbled in fundamental chrisitanity about 6 years ago and the ladies praying over him actually made reference for god to "forgive him" that his grandfather was a mason. After I asked them what it was about and they gave me an explination about the "no other god before me" business that we've heard ad nauseum before. Someone once told me that Catholics felt the same way, but that was fourth or fifth hand. Anyway, I cannot attest to the validity of that information. Then of course, people once thought JFK would be a puppet to the pope, so what have you. I am sure it runs pretty stong in the fundamentalist communities. You never see presbyterians, epospicals, methodists, or baptists going off on secret societies. If you were REALLY interested in researching this, you could email the major demonitations for a statement of policy on the subject. I am going to ask my rabbi for some info on the subject.

Short of a gallup poll or something, no one would have any way of estimation, much less knowing how many people feel this way. You have to remember, that the internet is the ultimate soapbox of free speech. When people don't feel their message is getting out there, often the internet and new forms of media become a virtual bully pulpit for them.

Colleges and Universities that are attempting to "reign in" GLO's are doing so in an enviroment of a litigious public. Hazing, Alcohol abuse, and discipline issues are the main reasons schools are taking a more proactive role. Do an on line search on the subject, you'll be hard pressed to find one instance of school intervention in a greek system because of suspected cult activity. So frats and sororities havent really earned such a reputation. It just might seem that way. In the SHSU instance, I haven't seen any mention on the part of the university, state, local or federal officials of cult activity. That might change, but as of now, the articles deal strictly with the alleged rape and alleged hazing.

DISCLAMER: This email was an honest attempt to help PhoenixGrad get another viewpoint on the subject. It is not an attempt to begin a flame war. This is just my opinion and observations, which I am entitled to. I will not respond to flames, or hate mail.

God I hate that greekchat.com has come to where I need to post that.


[This message has been edited by lifesaver (edited October 16, 2000).]

Like who? I mean other than "Moulder & Scully" http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif



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"Alpha Chi Omega - If you only had 2 wishes, what would your second one be?"

Phoenix-- Some relgions feel strongly about ANY organization that you pledge any sort of allegiance too. There's also relgions that don't allow their members to say the Pledge of Allegiance in school. My mom was raised Wisconsin Synod Lutheran. So she wasn't even allowed to join the Girl Scouts! http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/rolleyes.gif

lifesaver-- I totally agree with your statement about fundamentalist religions having the biggest problems with secret societies. But, I'm a little confused about something. Aren't Orthodox Jews considered fundamentalist? I ask because my great, great, great grandfather (I can't remember if it's two or three greats. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/confused.gif ) was not only an Orthodox Jew but also a Master Mason. Which has baffled me because Masons have a strong Chrisitian background. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/confused.gif http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/confused.gif

Actually, there are several branches of Orthodox Judaism. Some are truly fundamentalist in nature but most are traditional, not fundamentalist and that makes a huge difference.

As far as the Masonic thing. My father was a Mason for a while and I asked him about it. There are two types of Masonry. One is Christianity based and the other, Scottish Rite, is more Judeo-Christian oriented. They speak of a higher power, not a 'named' diety that would only be associated with a singular religion.

My father left the Masons, not because of his Judaism, but because he was a member in the 60's and they wouldn't admit an African-American friend he was sponsoring into the local group. Go, Dad! http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif

Barb

Thanks for pointing that out PT! - I am a reformed Jew, I have been to a few Orthodox temples in my day. Us reformed jews aren't that up in arms about stuff. But now thta you mentioned it, I can totally see how Ortho might have a problem with secret groups. The interesting paradox is that Orthodox judiaism is full of secret orgs. and secret societies (historically). I'll ask my rabbi about the ortho stance on secret socieities next time I get off my lousy butt in time for the sabb. services. or morning prayers.

Thanks PT & Lifesaver for clearing that up for me! http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif

The religions and beliefs of the ancient Greeks are not ANTI-Christian or Satanic, per se. They are PRE-Christian. There is a difference.

The founders of many fraternities and sororities (NPHC, NPC, IFC) used ancient cultures as an influence in their chapter's rituals, ceremonies and philosophies... but I guarantee you that they weren't promoting Satanism at the turn of the century.

To have a truly open mind means to be able to respect (even if disagreeing) with the beliefs of different people.

BRAVO!

Hey now, don't go making fun of Mulder and Scully. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/wink.gif

I'm sorry, but isn't this topic getting a little tired. PhoenixGrad, you have a very valid question, but whenever anyone brings up a good question or makes a good point about something (anything) carol_whoeversheistoday feels compelled to go over the same stuff over and over again. It is becoming beyond annoying...it's just very sad.

Anyway, while I'm writing I might as well throw in my two cents about the topic. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif I agree with what someone said about how many people are just afraid of what they don't know. For those who are not Greek all they know are the stories they hear (and unfortuantely, today's media almost always ignores the positive stories and goes straight for the few negative stories (and there actually are very few in comparison to the positive stories). Thus, uninformed people hear the bad stories and come to the conclusion that the Greek system is bad. If they would do their research they would realize that many fraternities and sororities were founded on Christian (and some on Jewish) principles. ALL fraternities and sororities (at least to my knowledge) were founded basically on the basis of friendship, scholarship, and bettering oneself (even the ones that were not founded on the principles of any religion). Does this sound like a cult to you? I seriously doubt it! I love my sorority and I love being part of the Greek system...hopefully someday we can enlighten people to the idea that being Greek is a positive thing. It certainly has been for me. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif