For all the recent debate at OU over multiculturalism, one aspect that seems to have been, for the most part, overlooked is that of religious diversity.

I must admit, coming to Oklahoma from Denver, I did have some preconceived notions about what I would find here. I expected cowboy boots, 10-gallon hats and people saying "y'all" in every other sentence. Fortunately, I have encountered very little of this sort of thing. However, I was not prepared for the religious culture of the area.

The prominence given to religious display at and around OU is different from what I am used to seeing - and in many ways rather alarming. In Denver, religion is something that is usually kept at home and not put on public display.

I remember a situation two years ago involving Denver Mayor Wellington. He received sharp criticism over an appearance at a private gathering where participants prayed for an end to gang violence. Another example that comes to mind is the tradition of decorating the Denver City and County Building (city hall) with colored lights and a nativity scene, a display that, until about five years ago, was publicly funded. Eventually, the public outcry forced the sponsors to seek private donations to maintain the display.

In addition, I am used to seeing less religious homogeneity and more social mixing among members of different faiths than I have encountered in Oklahoma. In a city the size of Denver, it is a given that people of all sorts of different faiths are forced to live side-by-side. And this has bred an attitude of, if not endorsement, at least tolerant indifference of practically any sort of beliefs. Indeed, in 18-plus years, I cannot remember one instance of crystal healing, Wicca, Hare Krishnaism or other nonmainstream religions being referred to as evil or satanic. My high school had a large number of people who followed these religions, and they were for the most part accepted by their Christian schoolmates. We had no organized religious groups (such as Fellowship of Christian Athletes) and atheism or agnosticism probably claimed as many adherents as Christianity of any form. We also had the occasional Buddhist, Jew or Hindu.

Interfaith friendships and even dating were everyday occurrences, and in the halls one was more likely to hear a quotation from Nietzsche ("God is dead...") than from Numbers.

People always ask me thuogh, "What about Amendment Two?" (For those of you who don't know, Amendment Two to the Colorado constitution, which prohibits civil rights laws from covering homosexuals as a specific minority, was passed in 1992 by a state-wide referendum.) This initiative was roundly defeated in Denver and other urban areas, but was passed because of the support of rural farming communities.

The situation I have found in Oklahoma is vastly different. Here, part of the way most people define who they are is through their religion. I have seen numerous people at OU spend hours arguing the fine points of Christian theology, an activity that I had never before encountered. As for prayers before football games (sorry, I know this subject is trite), if the University of Colorado ever attempted it, the lawsuits would be filed before halftime.

One recent night at OU, some friends and I were discussing relationships. One of the people involved remarked that she would never date, much less marry, a non-Christian man, no matter how strong her feelings toward him as a person were.

The rationale was that non-Christians would not be part of God's plan for her. After getting over my initial surprise at this opinion, as well as wondering how anybody could know God's plans, I started to wonder what sort of environment would be conducive to the formation of this outlook. It seems that people who hold this point of view, with little exception, have grown up in a very sheltered community and have made no attempt to expand their contacts in society.

Following this conversation I made a point to observe the religious attitudes of more of the student body. What I discovered was that the opinion expressed that evening was closer to the rule than the exception among OU students. not everyone was quite so adamant, but social interaction outside the ivory tower was limited significantly by faith.

Of course, OU has a large population of non-Christian students, and many of these belong to religious student organizations. The trend, however, (and this, of course is a generalization) is for these groups to act as a refuge for their members from a foreign and at time subtly hostile majority. It would be, I think mutually beneficial if OU's non-Christian religious organizations made a more determined effort to find common ground with the Christian majority.

Some attempts have been made, such as a flyer I saw published by a Muslim student group that pointed out how Islam was compatible with Western values of freedom and individuality. While this attempt to reach out is commendable, similar instances have been few and far between. When people of all faiths attempt to retreat into their own homogenous circle, what results are differences, not the diversity everyone at OU claims to value so highly.

While at OU I have for the first time seen people displaying Bible verses (other than the now ubiquitous Ezekiel 25:17) in various places. I have heard intelligent people discuss the world's current geopolitical situation in terms of Biblical prophecy. Most disturbingly, though, I have heard non-Christians' beliefs derided as evil and sinful. One individual I talked to claimed that Hindus worship demons who are oppose to God and will therefore be summarily damned.

For all the recent lip-service being paid to acceptance of differences, the general perspective I have gotten on OU is of a religiously homogenous and often quite bigoted place. If we as people are to truly benefit from diversity, we must be willing to abandon our own biases and recognize that others are entitled to their own religious beliefs and that we have much to learn from one another.

On the positive side, coming to Oklahoma has made me re-examine some of my own biases. I am used to seeing devout Christians ridiculed as ignorant and often paranoid relics of a more guillable age.

However, many of the Christians I have met at OU are intelligent and interesting people, and I count many of them among my friends. As long as these people respect my choice to be different, I am willing to accept their own choice of beliefs.

I hope that I am able to give them as much of a different perspective as they have given me. The most important benefit of diversity is that it allows each of us to define more clearly who we are in order to coexist.

One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.