Stanley Rowland, Jr., in a news item in the New York Times, New York

There is widespread and deep interest in religion among college and university undergraduates today. This is in marked contrast to twenty years ago.

Educational and religious leaders report a surge of interest in religion among students in recent cars, and to an extent among faculty members. The principles of religions, mainly Christianity and Judaism, are seriously examined and discussed.

This information on attitudes toward religion on the nation's campuses was developed in a study. Educators and clergy leaders believe it is significant for at least two reasons: young people, while in college, often start building beliefs and attitudes that will be basic to their mature thinking; and from college students of today will come leaders of tomorrow.

Undergraduate concern for religion is reported by men close to students at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and George Washington Universities; the College of the City of New York, Hunter College, Queens College, and others. More than twelve hundred of the nation's nineteen hundred colleges and universities now have a "religious emphasis week" of some sort.

"Live interest and deep searching in religion" was found in talks with students and faculty members at three hundred colleges and universities across the country by the Reverend James L. Stoner, director of the University Christian Mission of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

... Half a dozen men close to students at Princeton University "agree wholeheartedly that today's undergraduates are deeply concerned with religion, and that sincerity of purpose is characteristic of this interest. ..."

Nicholas McKnight, Dean of Students at Columbia, summed up his impressions this way: "I've been in the dean's office here for more than twenty years, and never have I seen such a wide interest in religion among the students."

Men at New York University report a "wide and genuine concern for religious values."

The Protestant adviser at Hunter reports increased membership and a "good deal of concern for relating religion to other fields of knowledge." ... Some institutions have organized departments of religion in recent years. These range from large universities ... to small, liberal arts schools.

At Yale twenty years ago, some fifty students out of twenty-eight hundred were enrolled in three religion courses. A separate department of religion was established there in 1945. This year, five hundred undergraduates out of four thousand are enrolled in fourteen religion courses.

Princeton's first undergraduate course in religion was offered in the academic year 1939-1940. It attracted twenty-one students. This year seven hundred undergraduates are enrolled in religion courses.

[The study indicates that] the increased concern for religion on the nation's campuses is not reflected primarily in chapel attendance, which has shown no great increase. The major evidence of the concern falls under the headings of discussion, religious activity groups, and religion courses.

Vice President Richard M. Nixon in a talk as reported in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Pennsylvania

Vice President Nixon said ... [in his talk] that the lesson "taught us at Sunday School" may be the answer to "bloodshed, conquest, hatred, and revenge" in the world.

..." The basic ideas of love and brotherhood, so fundamental to all religious belief, contribute greatly to the understanding that leads to peace. When we respect and revere our fellow man as a child of God, no matter what his race, culture, or nationality, we take the first steps toward real friendship."

Rev. Wallace Williams in the Santa Maria Times, California

In the emergencies and dark places of life we must have God beforehand, or we run the risk of not finding Him at all when we need Him most.

All over the world people are searching for this confidence in God —only they don't know that this is what they are seeking. The major reason why many people find so little help from their religion is that they have never really committed themselves to serving and loving God and seeking out His will. Tepid commitment brings only lukewarm rewards. If you really want inward power and peace, then you must begin acting now as if God really matters. You must start taking seriously the matters of prayer and Bible study and church attendance. For these are the ways in which God reveals Himself to us and imparts His power to us.

From an editorial in the Belfast Telegraph, County Antrim Northern Ireland

Orthodox belief is no substitute for religious experience, for creeds alter and opinions change, but man's sense of being united with the Being who is the heart and Soul of the universe is the deepest and most fundamental thing in religion. To make men aware of their spiritual birthright, and to help them to claim it, is the great object of all evangelism.