A liberal arts college, Carleton had been founded by the Congregational Church, but by the 1960s had become a non-denominational institution. Nonetheless, it still held a rule that "attendance is required at the College Service of Worship or at the Sunday Evening Program or at any regularly organized service of public worship." A number of students, including David Fisher, David Frangquist, Howard Cherniack, Jan Johnson and Norman Nelson believed that this rule was unnecessary, and as a form of protest decided to form their own religious group rather than attend any of the already existing ones. Thus they created the RDNA, having meetings near the athletic fields on the college grounds, and filled in this information on their obligatory 'chapel slips'. As Nelson remarked, "The sole motive was to protest the requirement, not to try for alternatives for worship… There was never any intention to mock any religion; it was not intended that RDNA should compete with or supplant any faith. We tried to write a service which could be attended 'in good faith' by anyone."