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Harvard College today would be unrecognizable to Charles Eliot, the university president who, in 1886, controversially made morning prayers voluntary, branding the university as “Godless Harvard” for years to come. Current undergraduates hail from 80 countries with faiths ranging from Buddhism to Zoroastrianism. There are 29 chaplaincies and 30 religious student organizations on campus. Yet there is only one church and one minister to preside over major university events: Both are Protestant.

How did Memorial Church become such a central religious institution at Harvard? While the history of Harvard has always been intertwined with Protestantism, Harvard was not founded simply as a Puritan seminary. From the beginning, Harvard had no institutional affiliation with a denomination. The installation of lawyer John Leverett as university president in 1662 was a testament to Harvard’s secular—rather than religious—roots.

If every possible religion is already accommodated at Harvard, is it really a big problem if Memorial Chapel is affiliated with a particular Protestant denomination? This seems like a contrived problem.

You see this happen. A once dynamic faith becomes religiousity becomes vestigial religiousity becomes faux tip-of-the-hat-to-vestigial-religiousity becomes an empty church-shaped building that no one can agree on how to use.

They should just turn it into a big internet cafe and be done with it.

You are not going to come up with a standard common worship that 80 different religions are going to agree on, and its silly to think it should be a requirement. Its silly to think such a thing would be real, and if its not real, then there is no point to it.

The writer thinks he is arguing for diversity, but its the exact opposite. He fears diversity and wants a Disney religion to operate a Disney church. I’d rather see a real congregation meet there. Maybe more than one, but genuine. If thats not possible then raze it and build a basketball court. Something that will get some use.