On Christian campus, an all-embracing framework

The Boston Globe reports:

The chapel at Wheaton College is jammed with all its 2,400 students for a compulsory midweek gathering.

Baseball caps are turned backward, and sweatshirts, jeans, and denim make these collegians 30 miles west of Chicago indistinguishable from most of their peers across the country.

But there is a distinction: The bowed heads, the silent prayers, and the robust Christian songs are an accepted part of campus life.

This is the college routine at Wheaton, the Rev. Billy Graham's alma mater, where students are banned from on-campus drinking, smoking, gambling, or engaging in premarital sex.

Open displays of affection are rare, and dancing is strongly discouraged outside a few school-sponsored events.

That code of conduct, Wheaton officials say, is a big part of the reason that ''intentionally Christ-centered" colleges and universities are thriving. Just as religion plays a greater role in politics, more students are being drawn to what Wheaton calls the ''integration of faith and learning."

The numbers are dramatic. At the 102 members of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, primarily Protestant and largely evangelical, enrollment surged 70.6 percent from 1990 to 2004. That compares with 28 percent for all independent four-year schools, and 12.8 percent for all public, four-year campuses, according to data from the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

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