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Originally Posted by Titchou
You say "chapter" so I'm wondering if it was specific to them or sorority wide. I know that some of our chapters in the deep South still do chapter church every now and then but it isn't a national thing.
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That's a good point. There are some individual chapters that may have a group culture for a particular religion even when the national organization does not lean as heavily, if at all.
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Originally Posted by Thetalady
You seriously had not an inkling of the religious leaning of the organization prior to initiation? No saying grace before dinner, if you had dinner together. No prayers prior to new member meetings?
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Originally Posted by Throwaway234
I knew that some religion would be involved in almost any sorority because it's close to some people's hearts and creates a bond, but my chapter didn't really emphasize a specific one until we were initiated. It was after learning the rituals and attending meetings that I realized. I felt like the chapter and religion were deeply connected, so I felt conflicted and couldn't be true to them.
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Thetalady makes an excellent point. There are usually outward indications of religious leanings in the sorority history, blessing is sung before meals, etc. Though, I can't imagine that any sorority is going to disclose to their new members the precise contents of the ritual prior to the performance of the ritual. So, if one religion is highlighted during a portion of ritual, they would not have been able to tell you about it before hand.
OP, did you by any chance discuss your concerns with your sorority prior to dropping? I wonder if they might have offered an option for you to not have to recite any readings etc that make you feel uncomfortable. If you personally felt that your religious beliefs conflicted with the ritual or teaching or culture of your sorority, then I completely understand why you felt it would be best to withdraw. You must do what is right for yourself.
Though, I caution you from believing that that grass is greener on the other side. If you were to pledge again, how would you ever know what the new sorority has in *their* ritual before going through it? What if their ritual has even more "objectionable" content than the first? I almost wonder if the religion thing is an excuse....especially since you mention that you want to go through recruitment at a new school.
Look, we had a situation at a chapter I advise where one of the new members quit before initiation because she said that she is a deeply religious Christian and she felt that her participation in the sorority was in conflict with her values. Oddly, my sorority is one of the ones which seemingly is more "Christian" on outward appearances -- after all, our open motto is a Bible verse and our founders came from Christian families. Yet, we absolutely respected her feelings and she was released. She then promptly went and pledged another sorority which one might consider from outward appearances to have a "non-Christian" slant. We were kind of puzzled.
What we do know is that you cannot ever join another NPC sorority again once you have initiated into one. You might, however, like to look into seeing if there is a non-NPC sorority which specializes in your religion. I know there are Christian sororities, Jewish sororities, Muslim sororities, etc. This link might help:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultur...and_sororities
