Assessing Religious Friendliness at a Public University

Abstract

This study considers the religious atmosphere of a public, land grant research institution located in the southern United States. Specifically, the researcher designed the Religious Friendliness Questionnaire to assess the amount of comfort and safety that on-campus students felt when discussing and practicing their religious beliefs. With a sample size of 114, results suggested a safe environment for on-campus residents as a whole; however, there were significant differences when the Christian sample was compared to the non-Christian sample. The non-Christian sample appeared to feel less safe, less supported, was willing to talk about religion, and was more open to learning about other belief systems. Christians were less comfortable discussing their beliefs, received more institutional support, felt less pressure to change their beliefs, and were less open to learning about other religions.