Sydney Martinez, Campus Carrier news editor

More than a century after Martha Berry founded her school on Christian principles, Berry College still embraces its religious roots.  But where exactly is the line drawn between heritage and inclusivity? While the college maintains its Christian principles, it no longer requires students, faculty or staff to share the faith, raising questions about how religious identity shapes campus life today. 

“In terms of religion, the school is rooted in the Christian tradition,” Chaplain Jonathan Huggins said. “We draw our inspiration, our wisdom, our direction from that tradition, while seeking to make space for other [religions] as well.”

That tradition traces back to Martha Berry herself, who began her philanthropic journey by opening a Sunday school for local children who lacked access to both a church and a formal education. The small class grew quickly, inspiring her to establish an industrial school for boys in 1902. 

Although Martha Berry was an Episcopalian, she refrained from pushing a particular denomination on her students, who came from diverse religious backgrounds.

 “[Martha Berry] used to take Berry students to different churches in the area because they came from different backgrounds,” Huggins said. “So, she wanted the school to have kind of an undenominational character.”

Martha Berry later started Mount Berry Church, a nondenominational Christian church, the which held services each Sunday morning. Attendance was mandatory for Berry students well past her death in 1942, remaining a requirement into the 1960s when religious life became voluntary.

“The college tries to make a dual affirmation,” Huggins said. “So, instead of watering down its Christian past and heritage, President Steve Briggs worked to be able to affirm that Christian heritage while also affirming an openness to others.”

Faculty members who have witnessed Berry’s evolution say the college has gradually moved from an overtly Christian environment to one that is more welcoming of pluralism and a diverse set of ideas regarding religion.

“I remember when I first came here, our faculty meetings would often begin with a prayer,” Professor of Religion and Philosophy Michael Papazian said. “We just don’t do that anymore. Public display of religion was more evident then than it is now.”

He added that this shift began under Briggs, who wanted Berry to sit between a strictly denominational school and a secular one.

“We still identify as Christian, but we’re not like crazy Christian, and on the other hand, we’re not completely secular,” Papazian said. “So, we’re trying to sort of stake out a middle ground, and I guess you could argue we’ve been successful in that.”

Papazian said that President John Scott Colley, who led Berry from 1998 to 2006, worked to establish the interfaith connections on campus. Following 9/11, the college founded the Interfaith Council in 2001, creating a designated space in Ford for interfaith meetings.

“Right after 9/11, the president said we needed to have a service in the chapel for people to express their grief and have an interfaith service,” Papazian said. “A lot of students and some faculty did not appreciate that. There was a lot of tension back then that our department experienced and also the chaplain’s office did as well.”

Michael Bailey, associate professor of political science, compared his previous teaching experiences at other schools to his experience starting at Berry in 1998.

“For the faculty to be a full-time tenure track faculty, you had to sign on to or agree to the tenets of three different confessions associated with the Christian reform tradition,” Bailey said of Calvin University. “When I came here, I would say it was overwhelmingly Christian. Southern Baptists were the modal group, and it kind of shaped much of the culture for the rest of the college.”

Gradually, according to Bailey, that changed.

“Over time, we’ve become a little bit more pluralistic,” Bailey said. “I am less acutely aware of religion being front and center of students’ discussions all the time.”

While Berry was founded on Christian principles, Bailey said that does not necessarily define the college today.

 “I would say that it is what I would describe as a Christian-friendly school that has a kind of connective chord with the Christian tradition,” Bailey said.

While faculty and administration emphasize balance between heritage and openness, students experience that balance in different ways. 

Sophomore Joseph Loh is a Christian student who participates in many religious activities across campus, including the Asian American and Pacific Islanders small group sessions held on campus. He said that although Berry does not have a denominational statement in their mission, the school emphasizes its Christian roots.

“[Berry] markets [itself] as a place based on Christian values,” Loh said. “We’re not officially a Christian college, but Berry in general is a pretty Christian-y place. If you’re not wanting that [Christian] experience, there are other experiences you can have at Berry.” 

Junior Rowan Pollock, whose beliefs align with modern Paganism, shared a different view. They said that although Berry is not exclusionary, the campus culture can feel implicitly Christian.

“I think the assumption is that everyone here is some denomination of Christian,” Pollock said. “I don’t think it forces you to do that, like sure there’s a bunch of clubs and activities and there’s the Chaplain’s Office, but [Berry] is not explicitly like ‘Hey if you’re not Christian, you’re welcome here too’.”

Pollock said that as Berry’s student body becomes more diverse, the college’s religious identity feels less central than in the past.

“I think in the past couple of years, the school has gotten more diverse that you can’t really say [Berry] is Christian,” Pollock said.

The Chaplain’s office now offers resources not only for its Christian population but also for students of other faiths, including Muslims, Jews and Buddhists. Religious life is entirely voluntary, with programming and campus ministry groups meeting throughout the week.

Now leading Berry, President Sandeep Mazumder has expressed a desire to continue balancing Berry’s Christian heritage with inclusivity.

“I think to say that we’re a school with Christian principles, as our mission statement does, I think we should take it seriously,” Mazumder said. “If we’re going to say it, then we should mean it, and I think Berry does.”

Mazumder said the college’s Christian foundation should remain a part of academics as well as community life. He suggested that classes and curriculum could further reflect Christian virtues through conversations about ethics and character.

“As we’re thinking about our classes and curriculum, one way we might [reflect our Christian foundation] is to think about the Christian virtues and how the Christian virtues show up in our curriculum as potential learning outcomes,” Mazumder said. 

Mazumder said he became a Christian later in life because it was during that time that he had space to wrestle with questions about the implications of believing in a loving, all-powerful God.

“Those are big, deep, hard questions, and having the space to ask those, I think, is important,” Mazumder said. “That was important to me in my upbringing, and I want us to have a space for our students to ask those questions.”

For Mazumder, Berry’s mission is one of compassion.

“It’s not about [Berry] trying to evangelize and make everyone a Christian,” Mazumder said. “That’s God who does that. Our job is to show [students] ‘Here’s how we can care for one another and love one another and have compassion.’ That’s how we live out our Christian faith here at Berry.” 

On an episode of “Church Potluck,” a podcast about the intersections of Christianity and contemporary culture, Bailey and other Berry faculty had a conversation about Berry’s ability to navigate religion and academics. He said that from their conversation, he understood that Mazumder chose to apply to be Berry’s president because of its Christian character and foundations.

“[Mazumder] has, I think, every intention of maintaining that tradition,” Bailey said. “Consistent with maintaining our tradition and our commitment to academics, [he’s] also strengthening that tradition.”