[EJM23]

Within the last few years I attended Harding and was involved in a social club. I originally came to Harding to play football, not for the social, spiritual or academic aspect that Harding claims to have. I found the majority of students at Harding to be extremely judgmental, and ignorant concerning what the Bible says about certain issues, using what their parents have told them as a foundation rather than scripture. I transferred to Auburn University after a semester (close to 12x bigger than Harding, and yes, a public university). Believe it or not, the friends I have here have better spiritual foundations than most at Harding and the social experience of a bigger school has been way more beneficial. I planned on pledging from the start, and I'm from the southeast so I know how serious they take things here, I knew that hazing was a possibility. I stumbled upon this msg board and found it hilarious how uneducated some people are about hazing. I do not condone hazing. However, the military hazes (yes, i understand men in fraternities aren't being trained for war, but it's a growth experience regardless and there's a lot that people don't understand), and 48 of the top 50 CEOs in America belonged to Fraternities (and yes were probably hazed.) Hazing can be classified as anything as having pledges drive actives around, having to be at events early in the morning, even having pledges get information about actives lives such as hometowns and interests is considered hazing. I am a brother in the nations largest fraternity and am in the second largest chapter nation wide, and never was i asked to eat anything, drink anything, consume alcohol or anything extreme like i'm sure most of you think goes on during pledge ship. Pledging is a great experience and though it is extremely busy, you form lasting friendships and are humbled and although I do not condone hazing I think in the long run it's beneficial, if you have never been through a tough pledge ship, you would never understand. I know that most people at Harding look down upon national organizations ( ex. SAE, Sigma Chi, SigEp) but the bond goes beyond the University. I have had job offers at big firms run by alumni of my fraternity, we've received significant financial assistance from alumni to fund our philanthropy events (all contributions going to make a wish foundation)... So many beneficial things come out of being a part of a national organization, and yes there are guys that match the stereotype of a "frat guy" but there are at Harding too. I am not trying to say one is better than the other, but it seems to be everyone on this board is a harding alum and knows little about fraternity/sorority life. I feel bad for the sigs as they had their brotherhood taken away from them for probably a ridiculous reason, being that harding is a ridiculously strict and borderline judgmental university.