Is Forced Worship Real Worship?

Traditional undergrad students at Andrews are required to complete a minimum of 30 co-curricular education credits per semester, 12 of which must come from Thursday chapel attendance. While these Thursday chapels are supposed to provide a time and space for students to worship God, they are also required, with a monetary penalty if you don’t get all of your credits. This raises the question of whether this requirement makes chapel time forced worship? If so, is this forced worship real worship?

“I think that making it a requirement takes away from wanting to be there to worship,” said Rossy Nolasco (speech-language pathology and audiology and Spanish, junior). She also knows many people who only go to chapel to get the credit, and that some of them “don’t even pay attention or like being in the space.”

Similarly, Julianna Tkachuck (global studies, senior) said, “I wouldn’t really say that I feel very in the mood for worship in chapel.” During chapel, she usually prefers doing homework or gets absorbed into her own thoughts about food when she’s hungry. “My mind is definitely distracted with all the other things I need to do,” she explained. She prefers worshiping by doing community service rather than listening to songs and a speaker. 

Adolfo Portanova (medical laboratory science, sophomore) said his mind is usually divided into “half class, half worship” when in chapel. Joelly Tinoco (psychology and Spanish, sophomore) has two different approaches when thinking about chapel time: one is spiritual, and the other is transactional and functional. “I believe that taking a moment in a busy week to reset your eyes on God is a positive thing,” Tinoco said. 

However, the fact that she has to go to at least 12 chapels to get the minimum required chapel credits, or she would be charged $17 for each missing chapel credit, “makes that desire to meet God… become a chore rather than a genuine choice.” Tinoco concluded that she mostly sees chapel as something she “has to do,” so when she’s in chapel, she rarely thinks about worshiping.

Tkachuck also agrees that the chapel credit requirement makes her see chapel as “a task to complete rather than something to enjoy.” That’s why, as soon as she reaches the 12 credits, she stops going to chapel and instead uses that time to have lunch or take a “necessary nap.” She admitted that if she weren’t required to pay for missing chapel credits, she wouldn’t go to any. Nolasco agrees, saying sometimes going to the chapel is only about not paying $17 for each missing credit (which is a lot in her opinion)–and not giving more money to the university. “I will go to the chapel, so I don’t have to spend more money.”

For Andrew Rogers (secondary education, freshman), “chapels on Thursdays are nice, but I feel that requiring chapels for students is not something I completely support.” He also mentioned how this requirement is “a little skewed and could be unfair for non-believer students…because some students may not believe what we believe…they may not want to go to chapel,” Rogers explained. 

Some students also express that going to Proximity vespers feels different from going to chapel, and agree that their worship experience changes. Nolasco feels more engaged with Proximity vespers because it’s her choice to go or not, while she feels that with chapel “you have to go, or you’re paying.”

In a similar way, Tinoco realizes that since she sees chapel as something to mark in her checklist, she sometimes fails to focus on what is happening. “Meanwhile, because I choose to be at vespers, the attention span is more intentional, and my focus is genuine as I try to understand God’s word for the day,” she explained. 

Not all students disagree with the chapel requirement or have problems enjoying it. Rogers likes going to the chapel “because it can provide a new perspective on the Word and enlighten me about the religion that I believe in.” Besides, he thinks that some students may “see the worship service separate from the co-curricular and find great value within the worship service.”

Jean Elie Etienne (theology and Spanish for translation, senior) believes that “chapel credit is a way to teach new students to learn how to have a relationship with God.” For him, charging students for not meeting the chapel credits requirement makes sense since it is a way to make students respect and push them to complete the minimum of credits required. He doesn’t think that this can make students worship, but it’s a way of helping them to know God. 

He also mentioned that the students’ parents may have sent them to an Adventist university because they wanted their children to have more opportunities to come closer to God, and chapels can help with that. However, Etienne also acknowledges that he is no longer required to get the minimum of 12 chapel credits, and while he still goes to some chapels and enjoys them, he mostly uses that time now to study for exams. 

Portanova believes that whether going to chapel is a decision. For him, having to complete the 12 credits doesn’t make chapel and/or worship forced. “If I want to go, I will go, and I get credit. If I don’t go, then that’s on me, and I lose credit,” he explained. He also described the fine as valid because you need to “make back what you didn’t do.” 

Student opinion on chapel requirements vary. Some go to chapel for worship, others go for credit and may feel that the requirement makes the worship feel forced. Others are indifferent. Some people don’t go at all. Yet, it’s clear that many students do feel that the chapel requirement changes the way they approach worship. As Tinoco said, “I just think that making church an obligation… causes its meaning and beauty to lessen.”