Proposal for a New Chapel Policy

Many students at Olivet Nazarene University, a liberal arts institution in the Wesleyan tradition, find themselves at one point or another frustrated with chapel. This frustration is understandable in a group mainly made up of people who have only recently crossed the threshold into adulthood and find in every regulation a step backward into the slavish dependency of their former childish lives. Beyond the simple fact of required attendance, many object to the tacit enforcement of certain worship styles. In a nation founded on the idea that people should be able to worship as they see fit so that religion would be reduced to a mere matter of personal preference and not impinge upon the political order, students naturally chafe at the idea of worshipping in one style all the time, even though that style was of course designed to appeal to their own contemporary tastes.

Thankfully, I have come up with a plan that will answer everyone's objections to chapel in a convenient and practical way. The conventional chapel services should still be offered, but without mandatory attendance policies. Those who attended would be counted present and would meet their chapel requirement; those who did not would have to account for two hours of solid God-worship throughout the week. This could be found in a church setting, in which case a signature from the appropriate church authority would suffice to prove one's attendance. Private devotions could also serve as a substitute for chapel: students could spend two hours a week reading the Bible, praying, or singing repetetive worship choruses to themselves. If students chose this option, a review of film footage from the cameras installed in every room would become necessary.

I realize that installing cameras in everyone's room and leaving them running twenty-four hours a day may seem unnecessarily expensive, but it would be much simpler even than a system that required one to turn on the camera for oneself and turn in the footage each week. In this arrangement, one would only need to alert the chapel office of the room number and the time frame, and the film would be checked to verify that worship had occurred at that time. Having the cameras running at all times would save students from the trouble of learning how to use them, and it would help students to be more spontaneous in their worship. One can easily imagine a student being caught by a movement of the Spirit and worshipping for two hours straight, then thinking, "I'm glad that that was caught on tape." He would then simply have to take note of the time range and write an e-mail to the chapel office after the Spirit's movement had passed, which is obviously preferable to having to fiddle with a camera while the Spirit is beginning his movement. The chapel office's highly trained student workers could then watch the footage in question. Any worker caught watching any non-authorized footage would of course be put on probation.

In conclusion, modern technology affords us a unique opportunity to meet the changing spiritual needs of today's young people in a manner that respects their dignity as Christian adults. Olivet Nazarene University's administration should avail themselves of this opportunity as soon as possible.