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I heard that Swarthmore used to not admit Catholics and there's still a lot of anti-Catholic sentiment there.... is that true?

I heard that a Guy from my inner-Philadelphia Catholic school refered to himself as "agnostic with a catholic education" so he wouldn't be flamed every 5 minutes.

By Achat (Achat) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 12:03 pm: Edit

That does not make sense. Quakers are known for religious tolerance. Why would they discriminate against any particular group? They were the first to fight against slavery, for women's suffrage and for other social causes.

Swarthmore has Quaker roots but is also not affiliated with the Society of Friends anymore. But Swarthmore is also known to be a bastion of liberalism.

So it does not make any sense that Catholics would be discriminated against. Why would there be anti-catholic sentiment there?

By Interesteddad (Interesteddad) on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 01:46 am: Edit

That makes no sense to me, either. The entire Quaker heritage is, indeed, acceptance of all religions.

Swarthmore has a Catholic student group and weekly Mass is celebrated on campus. Here is a link to a description of the Catholic group.

http://www.swarthmore.edu/Admin/deans/catholic.html

If you follow the link at the bottom of the page, you can get to a website for the Catholic students' group with e-mail contacts for the college chaplin and the student head of the organization if you have any questions.

Now, on a practical level: Other than providing a place for worship, I'm not sure that religious beliefs are particularly relevant to college. If you choose to debate political views (be they on abortion laws or Palestian settlements), then you are debating political views and should be prepared to defend your views just like anyone else.

As I'm sure you are aware, Swarthmore is known as a politically liberal place -- as are most elite colleges and universities. Swarthmore probably leans that direction more than some. I would imagine that some political views widely held by Catholics would not enjoy a lot of support on campus. But, hey, some of my political views would not enjoy a great deal of support on campus, either...and I was raised in the Unitarian "faith".

Would I keep my mouth shut on hot-button political issues? Or, go toe to toe? I suppose that would depend on the particular context.