Potential Touchy Subject!

[missnatural]

I'm going to rush in a little less than a month, and my major is religion. I have extremely personal reasons for this choice, and I'm a very devout Christian. However, I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable! (I'm not pushy, I promise. :]) If they ask about my major, is there a way I can discreetly discuss my reasons without stepping on any toes? I live in the South, deep in the Bible belt, and so I'm not TOO scared, but I would hate to make anyone uncomfortable.

By the way, I apologize if this is the wrong place or a repeat, I'm awful new and I'd be happy to fix whatever error I made.

[Splash]

Say your major is theology.

[IrishLake]

Just be prepared to answer the question "So why did you choose religion as a major?" Everyone has personal reasons for selecting their major. You could respond with something along the lines of "Well, I hope so someday be a ____________, or have a career as a ______________." And that should take care of that. Best of luck!

[missnatural]

Thanks muchly! :] I'm really new to the Greek scene, none of my family has been in it, and so answers like these are really helpful. I really appreciate it!

[Drolefille]

"I'm a theology major because the subject really interests me. I think I'd like to do X with it when I graduate but I'm not sure yet!"

Or replace the last sentence with "I'm not sure what I'll do with it when I graduate yet, I guess I have to figure that out."

[IrishLake]

Please browse through the recruitment section, and if your school is one of those where RECS are a must have, make sure you have them.

[missnatural]

Drolefille - Okay! Thanks so much. :] That works perfectly.

IrishLake - Haha, it is indeed. It's a very competitive rush, and I've got four so far, but there's a few that I'm still struggling to find. Trying to reach all my resources, though!

[IrishLake]

Reach out to the nearest local Alumnae Panhellenic group ASAP, thought it's better to have personal recs and not just info only recs.

Then ask neighbors, friends parents, friends of your parents, people from church, teachers, sunday school teachers, people you work with, etc. Then don't be afraid to ask the women who have written you recs if they know of any women who might write a rec for you from the groups that you're missing. And ask the men in your life too, they may know women who are greek.

[missnatural]

Oh, wow! Haha. I never thought of church.. Thanks!

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Splash

Say your major is theology.

Religion as a course of study isn't the same thing as theology.

Religion isn't that unusual of a major, is it? I know a number of people who majored in it (my brother, a doctor, minored it in so that he'd be better equipped to relate to his patients), and I've never known anyone else to give it a second thought.

[missnatural]

Well, I think there's six or so other girls studying it as the incoming class. I've just read that religion being discussed is a no-no during recruitment!

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by missnatural

Oh, wow! Haha. I never thought of church.. Thanks!

I've often said to ask whomever puts the bulletin together to include you in the prayer list, or say that you've graduated from high school, are going to Competitive University, and would greatly appreciate anyone who would be willing to help you with a rec. Your house of worship is probably THE biggest pool of cheerleaders for you that you'll ever had. I know that half of my recs unknowingly came from my church.

Don't forget your teachers, too!

[missnatural]

honeychile - Oh, man! The bulletin is just about my favorite idea ever. I'm really close to my church, and multiple other churches in the area, and so I'll keep an eye out.

But teachers haven't been all that helpful, haha! I'm VERY close to quite a few of them, but I'm in a very small town, and many women and even some of the men stayed quite far from the Greek life for maaany different reasons. I have gotten a few connections from them, though, so fingers crossed.

[Titchou]

What is meant by not discussing religion is to not discuss the particulars of a specific religion. The same for politics. If you were majoring in political science you could certainly tell them that. It's getting into the specifics of your politics or religion that may cause an issue. So since you could say I'm majoring in poli sci because I find the ins and outs of the political system in our country to be interesting, you could say you are interested in the religions of the world as a historical perspective, or whatever.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Titchou

What is meant by not discussing religion is to not discuss the particulars of a specific religion. The same for politics. If you were majoring in political science you could certainly tell them that. It's getting into the specifics of your politics or religion that may cause an issue. So since you could say I'm majoring in poli sci because I find the ins and outs of the political system in our country to be interesting, you could say you are interested in the religions of the world as a historical perspective, or whatever.

Yes. I think the idea of sort of off limit topics is so that you don't end up alienating your conversational partners, putting them on the defensive, or even just boring them.

But I'll note that it has always struck me as much more awkward for people to all of a sudden clam up when they realized they nearing a forbidden subject than it is just to go forward with sort of normal questions, but not focus or probe on the controversial.

There's no reason to force a topic on someone, but don't make something that's not usually conversationally weird suddenly loom really large simply because it's recruitment.