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I've found this topic to be quite interesting.
*I'm going to be as vague as possible because I don't want to give anything away unitentionally. What I'm about to say isn't secret, but I just want to try to be vague to be safe. If, after reading this, you feel you need to make a corrective statement, or say, "Hey, the religion you're referring to is Buddhism" - fine, go ahead, like I said, I'm just being vage to be safe.*
Background: I am Presbyterian. When I was pledging, we never learned that we were founded as a "Christian" or "non-Christian" sorority..anything like that really. We did learn that a few of our Founders were members of a certain denomination. I had never heard of this denomination, so I didn't think much of it. When we got to the initiation ceremony, we did not have to worship space ships or drink the venom of snakes or anything like that. I never had a problem with anything that I learned or was revealed to me.
Okay, so I was reading this thread yesterday, when I realized that I still had never learned anything about that denomination of those Founders. Well, I did some digging, and it turns out 7 out of 10 of our Founders were this denomination!!! I would then assume that our ritual and a lot of our stuff is based on principles of this denomination.
So I proceed to do some research on this denomination, and I have to say that its beliefs are pretty much opposite (well, not all, but one biggie) of what I believe. However, a lot of the ideals of this religion could be classified as Christian or non-Christian (you could find this ideal in any Christian religion and you could find it in any non-Christian relgion). So I don't have a problem with those ideals...and I noticed a few of those have a heavy influence on a lot of the stuff our sorority is based on. So no, I don't really have a problem with anything. Not yet anyways. Suffice it to say at the next initiation ceremony I'll be paying extra-special attention to see if I hear something that is like, "oh, okay, now I know where that came from, and I disagree with it." But even if I do find something, I'm not going to run out and desister because of it.
Am I making any sense?
I did not join my sorority based on what religion it was founded upon...and if I had, well, there may not be a sorority that coinicides with everything I believe. And if there is, it may not have been on my campus when I attended, so I might not have gotten the chance to join. I don't think that by my joining something that has been influenced by this certain religion makes me now a firm believer in this religion - I'll just embrace it as part of the history of Alpha Xi and chalk it up as epanding my horizons, so to speak. It does sadden me that I may never get to meet our Founders in the "afterlife" (because what I believe and what they may have believed is different). Also, just because they were a certain religion doesn't mean they didn't strictly adhere to its principles - I know that as a Presbyterian I agree with most things but there are a few issues on which I take a different stance. I think AXOAlum said it best by saying that my sorority life is separate from my religious life.
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