Christian Union Magazine: Winter 2019

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Christian Union the magazine :: winter 2019

The Arts and the Gospel page 4

Max McLean in “C.S. Lewis Onstage: The Most Reluctant Convert”

Christian Union Day & Night: The Great Experiment Christian Union New York: Intern Matt Allen, Princeton ’18 The Spiritual Climate on Campus: News from some of the nation’s leading universities

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table of contents

volume xvi issue iv

Christian Union

the maga zine :: winter 2019 16

in e ach issue Letter from the CEO / 3 Q and A / 6 Stewardship News / 34

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4 The Arts & the Gospel

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win t er 2 019 fe at ure sec t ion Q and A with Max McLean / 6 A Theology of Making, by Makoto Fujimura / 9

12 From the University to the City

on the web

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cover photo: Max McLean as C.S. Lewis in “The Most Reluctant Convert” Photo credit: Jeremy Daniels

36 The Spiritual Climate on Campus

updat e s fr om l e ading univer si t ie s Dating 101 (Brown) :: A Statesman and an Orator (Dartmouth) :: A Platform for the Pro-Life Movement (Harvard) :: Stanford’s Christian Roots :: Directed Study of Scripture (Yale) :: News-in-Brief from each university, and more

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This magazine is published by Christian Union, an independent Christian ministry.

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Extending Grace and Mercy (Penn) / 14 Big Green Bible Course / 16

chris tian union univer sities Princeton / 18 Brown / 20 Columbia / 22 Cornell / 23 Harvard / 25 Stanford / 26 Yale / 28 Harvard Law / 29

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New York Christian Union / 32

c h r i s t i a n u n i o n d ay a n d n i g h t

The Great Experiment Returns / 35

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volume xvi issue iv winter 2019

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letter from the founder and ceo

Appreciating B the Arts

2019

every artistic field. In December I was privileged to attend my first live performance of George Frederick Handel’s Messiah by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. I once read how Handel wrote the score for this entire work in a matter of days, stating afterward that it was a spiritual experience and He felt the hand of God upon Him the entire time.

Some recent health challenges have made me all the more appreciative of the goodness and beauty of God in all that He does. I want to thank the many people who prayed for me and helped me. I had emergency ruptured-appendectomy surgery October 31 and, over the following three months, had four visits to the hospital, two surgeries, and several weeks at home, with nurse visits every 12 hours to administer medication. Family flew into town to take care of me for several weeks, for which I am very grateful. The good news is that now I am fully recovered, my primary nurse came to faith in Christ, and I recently received a clean bill of health. Thank you, Lord, that you are not only the giver of artistic gifts, but the healer as well!

Sincerely in Christ,

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Matthew W. Bennett matt bennett is the founder and CEO of Christian Union. He earned undergraduate and MBA degrees from Cornell, and launched Christian Union in 2002 in Princeton, New Jersey.

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y the grace of God, we’ve seen a renaissance in the appreciation of the arts in Christian circles over the last thirty years. As a teenager, I remember occasionally encountering Christians who opposed the arts, believing that they were corrupt and intrinsically a vehicle for anti-Christian values. Not being very artistic myself (my siblings got the music and visual arts talent), this anti-arts perspective held by some believers didn’t impact me personally, but I saw the effects on the body of Christ. As a young man I came across Exodus 31:1-11 and found the passage remarkable. Verses three and four show that artistry comes from the Spirit of God: “I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs…” It’s sobering and enlightening to consider that artistry comes from God Himself. Of course, it can be corrupted like everything else, but, in its purest form, it is intrinsically good because it is sourced in God Himself.

There is still some resistance to Christians in the arts, but thank God for believers like Mako Fujimura and Max McLean, two artists who are featured in this issue. Sally Lloyd-Jones, a writer in New York City, also stands out as an inspiring example. Her book, The Jesus Storybook Bible, has sold over a million copies and has enriched the lives of millions of children. It’s hard to imagine what the world would be like without the incredible contributions of Christians in music, visual arts, literature, poetry, and

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feature section :: winter 2019 Q and A with Max McLean / 6 The Theology of Making, by Makoto Fujimura / 9

The Arts & The Gospel For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

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charis - tears, 2018. silkscreen in 26 colors with gold iridescence and diamond dust. produced exclusively for waterfall mansion gallery; printed by gary lichtenstein studio.

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image credit: makoto fujimura,

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Dutch theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper once said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” In this special section, Christian Union: The Magazine features Max McLean and Makoto Fujimura, two Christians who are using their God-given gifts to impact culture through the arts.

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feature section | the arts and the gospel

Q and A with Max McLean “Stealing Past Watchful Dragons”

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ax McLean is an award-winning actor and founder and artistic director of Fellowship for Performing Arts (FPA). Based in New York City, FPA produces theater from a Christian worldview to engage diverse audiences.

Among his numerous credits, McLean adapted for the stage The Screwtape Letters,

Audio Publishers Association and his stage work has received praise from various media outlets, including the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Wall Street Journal. christian union: In the fall, C.S. Lewis Onstage: The Most Reluctant Convert was performed at Brown and Princeton

UC-Berkeley, where 1,600 people filled the auditorium, including 800 students.

Regarding our focus on universities, the Campus Initiative opens a new avenue for Fellowship for Performing Arts to pursue its mission of producing excellent theater from a Christian worldview to engage a diverse audience.

During their college years, young women and men are very likely as open as they will ever be to entertaining new ideas and allowing their assumptions to be challenged. We feel The Most Reluctant Convert fits very well in that economy. Plus, after each performance, I host a talk-back session where we can process together what we’ve just experienced. It’s a tremendous opportunity to let art and the truths of the Christian faith meet these young people where they are.

CU: Why does Lewis resonate with col-

lege students/intellectual seekers?

MM: First, as we learn in The Most Reluc-

Photo credit: Alex Barker

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In February, Max McLean and the Fellowship for the Performing Arts produced “A Man for All Seasons” in New York City.

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C.S. Lewis Onstage: The Most Reluctant Convert, The Great Divorce, Mark’s Gospel, and Martin Luther on Trial. As an actor, he created the roles of Screwtape (London, New York, national tour) and C.S. Lewis in The Most Reluctant Convert (New York, national tour) and Mark in Mark’s Gospel, for which he received a Jeff Award—Chicago theater’s highest honor.

McLean’s narration of The Listener’s Bible received four nominations from the

universities as part of FPA’s Campus Initiative. How was the show received?

Why the focus on universities?

Reaction on campus to The Most Reluctant Convert was gratifyingly positive. Audiences represented a diversity of attitudes toward Lewis and the Christian faith, which is exactly what we hoped for.

Some students were encouraged; some were challenged. We also performed at

max mclean:

tant Convert, Lewis’ journey to faith covers many of the same bumpy roads most people travel. He faced a difficult upbringing, from the early death of his mother to being raised by an overbearing father who could be quite harsh. He endured the horrors of the trenches in World War I. He was a committed, articulate atheist who, as he said of himself, was dragged “into the kingdom kicking and struggling.” Truly, a reluctant convert.

The flawed humanity in need of grace that he openly shares in his writings resonates as much now as it did more than 60 years ago. In fact, every year he sells more books than he did the year before.

Second, while he was a towering intellect and rigorously honest in academic

pursuit of any subject, he simultaneously had an ability to relate profound truths in a way that is not only accessible to almost anyone, but also engagingly winsome.

He’s the very example of what we hope to do with FPA productions—to present a view of the Gospel that is honest, multi-layered, and winsome.

expected a preachy bore, not this deliciously witty, theatrical treat that still resonates and amuses the day after.” He went on, “I expect that, like the first, [the next production] will be entertaining, very well-staged and imbued with serious Christian thought and an earnest invitation to introspection.”

The second critic began by stating that

CU: What advantages do artists have in

“stealing past watchful dragons” that pastors and church leaders do not? Is that happening in today’s culture?

MM: This has certainly come full circle.

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There was a time when so much great art came out of the church (and actors could not be buried in a church cemetery!). In today’s polarCU: You recently quoted ized society, an artful preLewis’ phrase of “stealsentation of Christian truth ing past those watchful can be the “front door” dragons” when it comes through which someone to overcoming stigmas enters or returns to faith. and preconceived noOne couple in the Midtions. How does FPA west invited three neighboremulate this, especially ing couples to their home in today’s culture, where for three nights over three claims of absolute truth weeks to read a Lewis book are looked down upon? together. The fourth week, they attended The Most ReMM: We begin with careluctant Convert and have ful attention to selecting continued discussing their works we think can acexperience. complish this. Next, we Had they asked their strive to execute our arneighbors to a play at their tistic vision to the highest Photo credit: Jeremy Daniels church, instead of the leadlevel of excellence our Max McLean as C.S. Lewis ing performance venue in budgets allow. Part of their community, would achieving this is to attract the outcome have been different? he was “Jewish by birth, liberal by convica first-rate cast and creative team.

Plus, I believe that art hints at the deeption, and an atheist by observation and Still, I’m aware that, despite the best of er structures of reality. “God has placed introspection.” He went on to express “how intentions, for some the notion of a “relieternity in our hearts,” Ecclesiastes says. much I admire the approach of Fellowship gious” play might send up a yellow flag.

Art has a way, as you mentioned earlier, of for Performing Arts...They do their work During our first New York season, several sneaking past the “watchful dragons” of through a careful combination of good reviewers expressed this skepticism in print. skepticism and cynicism to fan that eternal storytelling—craft comes first...allowing One critic, upon discovering our worldspark. any message implicit in the material to view, wrote “my heart sank.” Another made And, yes, it’s happening in today’s cultake care of itself.” the understatement that presenting plays ture. Our work is an example, but there So, if we choose the right work to share from a place of religious conviction “to a are many artists in film, music, and more the right message and do so with excellence, general audience is no easy thing.” who pursue similar goals. There needs to we feel we’ve done our job.

In both cases, it was the work that led be more. them to reconsider. The first declared, “I

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feature section | the arts and the gospel

CU: FPA recorded the Audio Bible many

CU: How has playing such a wide range

years ago, and today you are the voice of several translations on Bible Gateway. How did you approach that responsibility?

of roles (Lewis, Screwtape, Gospel of Mark) affected your own spiritual formation?

MM: I’ve been fortunate to spend extended amounts of time with the Bible and the works of Lewis in preparation for performing them, which includes memorizing great parts of them.

MM: Prayer plays an important role in every aspect of Fellowship for Performing Arts, and that goes beyond my personal prayer life.

As a staff, we meet weekly to pray for upcoming performances, among many other things. And we have a dedicated Prayer Team that petitions God for each performance.

We strive to be aware that our responsibility is to do the best work we can and never lose sight that it is the Lord who animates our efforts for His purposes.

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As an actor, you are taught to respect the text, and that is nowhere more important than when the text is the inspired word of God. The play based on Mark’s Gospel is that book in its entirety, Photo credit: Lancia E. Smith but for Convert and “C.S. Lewis Onstage: The Most Reluctant Convert” was presented The Screwtape Letters, at Brown and Princeton universities this fall. hours were invested in Lewis’ writings to select the right material that honors his intent MM: With humility. The wired and digiand makes for good theater. tal age we live in means God’s Word can Those experiences certainly deepened be heard almost anytime, anywhere. As an my understanding of the Gospel message, actor, you are taught to respect the text, God’s love and power, our enemy’s wiles, and that is nowhere more important than and our need to rely on God. when the text is the inspired Word of God. I heard recently that The Listener’s Bible is being used to teach English in China.

CU: What role does prayer play in prepaJust another example of how art and truth ration for your performances? can combine to create opportunities.

CU: What is a Bible verse that comes to mind when you think of the arts and Christianity, and why?

MM: Ephesians 2:10 has been a foundational verse for me from FPA’s founding over 25 years ago until now: “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

At FPA, we feel the good work we are to be about is using every talent we have to introduce people to a Christian worldview of reality. Artistic expression is our vehicle for being “God’s handiwork” and, hopefully, prayerfully, seeing Him use us for His kingdom. | cu

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A Theology of Making by makoto fujimura

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n my studio, I make art. The term “Theology of Making” (the title of my upcoming book) amplifies how this human act is connected to the divine presence. Simply put, when we make, God “shows up.” Therefore, before I begin a discourse on what God has done to make even our broken shards of life invaluable essences of the new creation, let me began by describing the creative process that an artist knows well, and how God the artist reveals a vision beyond the “fixing” of our lives, a type of theology.

“In the beginning, God created…”

(Genesis 1:1). It is one of the large themes of my new book to see the redemptive act of God, the ultimate act of Christ’s sacrifice at the cross of Calvary, through the lens of creation and the Holy Spirit’s work to awaken in us the potential of the new creation. My focus is to see this entire Gospel narrative be affirmed. Further, we are invited as God’s co-heirs to co-create into that future (Romans 8:16). Much has been made of the “spirit of the world” as a force of willful rebellion against God’s will and creation. Imagination and art have been seen as suspect, as human arts have been

our “flesh” is at work in our lives to draw us away from our true selves as God has intended. Theology of Making can help us understand the effect of idol making connected with the “flesh.” When we treat human institutions or nature as God, or

Photo credit Windrider Productions

Makoto Fujimura

when we rely on human ego alone to determine our future, we are creating idols which attempt to replace God at the center of our being and our hearts. We must seek to move toward restoring imagination and creativity, as based in the sanctified

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realm of the Holy Spirit and as made possible by Christ’s sacrifice and the Holy Spirit’s gift as an invitation to co-create into the future of God. There has not been much written about

To co-create means to be invited to a dance, invited by God’s grace to be on the stage, to step into a journey of new creation that we do not yet fully understand. For mysterious reasons, God chooses to depend on fallen creatures to steward God’s gifts, as poignantly signaled by the incarnate child in the manger who, though he was God, needed human help to survive.

Through this weakness and vulnerability, God incarnates into the world full of danger and violence.

Many will assume that the word “redemption” includes this invitation to co-create into the future. But often, the term “redemption” is understood as our return to a perfected state, rather than the new. There has been much theology written on redemptive purposes for salvation, purposeful goals, but when it comes to this new creation which the various writers of

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For mysterious reasons, God chooses to depend on fallen creatures to steward God’s gifts, as poignantly signaled by the incarnate child in the manger who, though he was God, needed human help to survive. Through this weakness and vulnerability, God incarnates into the world full of danger and violence. associated with the “spirit of the world” (a common translation of the Greek word stoicheion) or “flesh” (from the Greek sarx) rather than the Holy Spirit. For this artist, the spiritual battles are certainly real, and

exactly what it means to “co-create into the future of God.” By “co-creating” I do not mean that somehow, we have the equal weight of power or knowledge to “co-create” with God. God is the greatest power there is, so what does it mean to co-create?

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(Left to right) Countenance Azurite and Golden Countenance by Makoto Fujimura, 2005

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the Bible point to, we have very little in the way of a theologically developed thesis.

I have found a harbor in Bishop N. T. Wright’s exquisite theological writings, particularly the “New Creation” chapter in his recent 1,600 pages of discourse entitled Paul: A Biography.

The typical theological path is Creation – Fall – Redemption – Restoration. “Restoration” can assume the path back to Eden. Restoring a broken world is a noble goal, and yet biblical promises go further than even that ideal. Theology of Making modifies the sequence to Creation – Fall – Redemption – New Creation. Of course, the redemptive purpose is the central tenet of the Christian Gospel; Jesus came to “liberate us from our bondage to decay” (Romans 8). Yet, in my journey of creativ-

ity I have learned that darkness will also shed light on the depth of grace that we can journey into. It is through the lens of creation that we can understand the fall.

The Holy Spirit can transform us into people who abound in the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5). Such fruit, if it is truly the Spirit’s operation, will be manifested in culture as well as individuals. Thus, “Culture Care” is the vision to manifest the “Spirit-filled Life” into the heart of culture.

Through the lens of the New Creation, we can fully understand what that manifestation will look like, and come to know deeply the redemptive purposes of God. St. Paul writes in his epistle to the Galatians: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control” (Galatians

5:22). What I offer as “Culture Care” is a consideration of the work of the Spirit in culture. In other words, we ask not just how you or I may be doing as a follower of Christ; we also ask audaciously, “How is our culture doing?”

It seems clear that for all the talk in the church about being filled with the Spirit, and despite our individual focus on personal spiritual formation, we exhibit very little evidence of such spiritual fruit as the body of Christ and in the larger culture.

We may argue that we should have these qualities in the church, but cannot expect that to spill over into the world. Okay… then, I ask, what does the world perceive to be the culture of the church? The world sees Sunday morning as the most segregated time of the week. Instead of exhib-

those that have it right, and therefore residing only in a cultural milieu that is “safe for the whole family.” (Although there are merits to creating a “safe place” for families culturally, I state here what the gospels present as the need for us to also meander outside of the “pen.”) This false dichotomy of an anti-culture stance, based on a scarcity mindset, can undermine the promise of the Gospel toward the abundance of God, and lead us to put earthly power struggles at the center of theology. In such a culture wars mindset, contrary forces vie for domination, and perhaps even believe in a false sense that we can control the outcome and shifts in power and identity.

This often creates a warlike mentality based

from the culture wars mindset. The salvation offered through the sacrificial atonement of Christ on Calvary is at the heart of the re-creation story that leads us toward the new creation. The Bible is all about making, first through God’s own act of creation, that leads to a series of our mini-creations called Moses’ Tabernacle and, eventually, Solomon’s Temple. This making of temples leads to the church becoming the temple of Christ after Pentecost.

When we make, we tap into the generative possibility that flows out of Genesis 1, and encounter the Spirit’s reality to manifest in our brokenness; we also realize that even shattered vessels can, under the

When we make, we tap into the generative possibility that flows out of Genesis 1, and encounter the Spirit’s reality to manifest in our brokenness; we also realize that even shattered vessels can, under the Master’s illumination, lead to new creation.

Master’s illumination, lead to new creation.

A creative journey allows for exploration of a divine plan for our “deep calls to deep” journey (Psalm 42) even through darkness, doubt, and suffering; there is a relationship between such redemptive purposes and a call for us to create into the new creation.

This call has been part of the Spirit’s guidance on my journey as an artist. Christ’s sacrifice leads to the beautiful, into the heart of new creation. | cu

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This article was adapted from artist Makoto Fujimura’s upcoming book, Theology of Making.

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in fear. Only a deeper examination of the Trinitarian perspective on relationships and community, which leads to abundance of God, will allow us to connect with the true depth and colors of God’s redemptive purposes in our journey toward the new creation.

For all of us steeped in modern thinking that creates dualities and contraries, even the statement above can be a huge challenge to read and process. Spiritual battles are real, and yet our pitting of Christian soldiers against the “enemy of culture” may be exactly what the enemy is using to distract us from being makers and mercy givers. Thus, we should consider delving into what philosopher Esther Meek calls our need for “epistemological therapy” to define and reframe God’s making in and through love. It is crucial to create an alternative to seeing salvation and culture

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iting qualities that Christians understand to be the fruit of the Spirit, today the world perceives Christians as exhibiting an outward face of hatred instead of love, fear instead of joy, anxiety instead of peace, a judgmental stance instead of forbearance, jealous exclusion instead of kindness, narcissism instead of goodness, fear-filled cynicism instead of faithfulness, rage instead of self-control. The world does not see us as being “filled with the fruit of the Spirit” people.

Theology of Making is a journey to be Spirit-filled in making, so that our culture, as the larger manifestation of our communal journeys, can find its way to these qualities of love.

One blind spot in modernity must be mentioned before attempting to come to understand our theology and the Gospel.

We create false dichotomies even in trying to understand the Truth. We have a tendency to communicate the Gospel as a “heaven vs. hell” rational proposal. Such an approach assumes a deeper dichotomy: one is on the right side, or decidedly on the wrong side by claiming to be an atheist. It makes the false assumption that we can, in our own wisdom, know we are on the “right side” of the Truth. We create Christian culture as the antithesis of secular culture that we understand to be linked with that damnation to come. In this false model, we must defend “our culture” from heathens invading our zones and affecting our children. This naturally gives birth to a culture-wars mindset.

Culture within the church will certainly be of different values than the broader outside culture. But the Biblical narrative of the Good News is not about our black and white judgment of who goes to heaven and who might end up in hell; we do not get to separate the “sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25) ourselves. It’s not about boycotting people and ideas tied to the wrong culture, and only supporting

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from the university to the city

Developing Bold Christian Leaders

By God’s grace, future leaders and the influential universities they

chris tian

attend are being transformed each day through Christian Union Bible Courses,

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personal mentoring, coaching, the leadership lecture series and other events,

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and engaging outreach. As these students grow in grace by seeking the Lord

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diligently, they will be equipped to engage culture effectively. This is at the heart

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of Christian Union’s work at Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. chris tian

as these students graduate, christian union’s ministry to its alumni and

and the Clapham Circle in the early 1800s. Pray that God will bring similar change to the U.S. as new networks of leaders emerge and engage today’s culture.

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used by the Lord to bring sweeping change to England through William Wilberforce

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York City and Washington, D.C., their impact will be multiplied. This model was

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developing networks of young professionals in key cultural centers, starting in New

cities

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their peers—Christian Union Cities—will help them take the next step. By

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13 Brown students Victoria Shulte ’19 and Meagan Peters ’18 photo credit: david navedah

christian union universities

Extending Grace and Mercy Loo ’18 Enjoys Working for Philanthropic Foundation

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by tom campisi, managing editor

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A few months later, in the fall semester at WharA student at The Wharton School at the ton, Loo sensed that God was not calling her to University of Pennsylvania, Stephanie Loo return to Goldman Sachs. was ideally positioned for a career on Wall “It was a very difficult decision to make, but I Street. A 2017 summer internship with Goldman ended up turning down my offer, trusting that He Sachs led to the promise of a job offer with the would open another door for me,” she said. prestigious financial firm post-graduation.

A door did open. Although In addition to valuable field she received other job offers, Loo experience, the summer internbelieved that she would best use ship in New York also provided her God-given talents and pasLoo ’18 with a networking opsions at The Grace and Mercy portunity that would alter her Foundation in New York City, vocational path. Loo was inwhere she was hired as an assovolved in the Goldman Sachs ciate. Today, Loo primarily Fellowship, which met weekly to works on grantmaking, where read the Bible and Christian the organization takes a longbooks, such as Tim Keller’s Counterm investment approach to the terfeit Gods. The “Just Show Up” ways it partners with non-profconcept, which requires no prior Stephanie Loo, Penn ’18, bypassed it organizations. Loo’s portfolio reading or homework, was introof grantees consists primarily of duced to the Goldman Sachs a career in finance to work with The Grace and Mercy Foundation. organizations in the mercy minFellowship by The Grace and istry space (homelessness, incarMercy Foundation, a private ceration, barriers to employment, etc.). family foundation that makes investments through “I was not looking for a job in philanthropy, but grants and hosts Public Reading of Scripture and when the opportunity came to work at the Grace Just Show Up events on a weekly basis. and Mercy Foundation, I knew I resonated with its At one of the Goldman Sachs Fellowship meetmission—to support the poor and oppressed, and ings, Loo met Bill Hwang, CEO and co-founder of help people learn, grow, and serve,” she said. “I felt “Christian Union gave me a great foundation that God was calling me here to work with incredible grantees.” of developing spiritual disciplines, a love for With a degree in economics and concentrations Scripture, and an understanding of the need in Management and Operations, Information, and Decisions (OID), the Queens, New York, native is for community in order to flourish.” prepared to help extend grace and mercy to non-profit organizations. She is thankful for the professionArchegos Capital Management and The Grace and al and spiritual development she experienced at Penn.

Mercy Foundation, and Sumi Kim, president of The “At Wharton, I developed a strong sense of workGrace and Mercy Foundation. ing with excellence and an understanding of how “Immediately, I was drawn to the impact that business can and should be used for human flourArchegos Capital Management and The Grace and ishing,” Loo said. “A lot of my management classes, Mercy Foundation have had through their thoughtespecially, taught me how to work effectively in teams ful investments, both in the marketplace and in the and how to problem solve.” philanthropic world,” she said.

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Grace and Mercy, said her business acumen and Loo recalled the spiritual growth she experienced spiritual maturity have been assets to the organizawith Christian Union as a freshman and sophomore. tion. Archegos Capital Management and The Grace “Christian Union gave me a great foundation of and Mercy Foundation are located in the same office. developing spiritual disciplines, a love for Scripture, “Stephanie is very comfortable with both staff and an understanding of the need for community and partners from our for-profit and social profit in order to flourish. I’m grateful for the opportunisides of the firm,” Bryan said. “She is well versed in ties I had—to be mentored and to mentor, to discuss many areas and is comfortable initiating conversaand share about difficult issues, and to learn how to tions with people from all professional and cultural integrate my faith into my studies and work,” she said.

The biggest impact came in Bible courses.

“I learned so much, week after week,” Loo said. “Christian Union Ministry Fellow John Cunningham was able to pull gems out of Scripture and helped me to understand certain passages of the Bible in ways I hadn’t before. He asked difficult, deep questions that really made us think critically about the Gospel and what God was saying to us through His Word. Additionally, the community aspect was an importA Just Show Up book club, hosted by The Grace and Mercy Foundation in New York. ant piece as well. John and his wife, Caitlyn, always opened up their home backgrounds. This is very important since we are to us and had us over for dinner.” integrated with the staff and work of Archegos in At the Grace and Mercy Foundation, Loo has many different ways. Second, she is genuinely infound a similar regard for Scripture reading and terested in the work of our partners, working with intellectual engagement. In addition to working with the poor and the oppressed.” a wide array of non-profits such as International Loo is pleased to work for an organization where Justice Mission, NYC Relief, and Bowery Mission, she can use her business background to help make the Public Reading of Scripture groups and Just investment decisions within the non-profit space. She Show Up book clubs bring together Christians in also appreciates “the culture of excellence and integManhattan. rity that runs throughout Archegos Capital Manage“We encourage people to gather regularly in ment and The Grace and Mercy Foundation.” community for extended periods of time to listen “I have learned so much, both from the people to and read Scripture and great books together. It’s I work with and from the practice of regularly being been such a formative part of my own spiritual in Scripture and learning from great books,” she growth, and we’ve seen the ways that this has imsaid. “It is through this culture that we are able to pacted many communities—workplaces, schools, see great investment results and returns, both in the churches, and families,” she said. for-profit and philanthropic world.” | cu Richelle Bryan, Stephanie’s direct manager at

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Big Green Bible Course Seasoned Football Players Lead the Way by catherine elvy, staff writer

Dartmouth football players Brandon Hester, Andrew Hunnicutt, and Nathan Nunez are sharing a game plan for life with teammates via Christian Union’s ministry. The three upperclassmen are encouraging Big Green players to attend weekly Bible courses and receive Christian leadership development training.

“We’ve been adding to that group every year,”

“Most of the freshmen are trying to find community anyway,” said Nunez, a linebacker. “They are welcome to hang out with us.”

Hunnicutt, a wide receiver, agreed, noting that freshmen settling in at Dartmouth can feel lost or lonely.

Christian Union Ministry Fellow Chase Carlisle credited the three men who serve as his assistant

Photo credit: Dartmouth Athletics

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Drew Hunnicutt ’19, Nathan Nunez ’19, and Brandon Hester ’20 are key leaders in Christian Union’s Bible Course for Dartmouth football players.

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said Nunez ’19. “The football players have a tightknit community.”

During their freshman year, Nunez and Hunnicutt ’19 were part of a Christian Union Bible study that served as a forerunner to the course now catering to the demanding schedules of football players.

Today, the men marvel at how their vision for team cohesion has resulted in regular gatherings of 10 or so players. “It helps us to grow as men at Dartmouth,” said Nunez, who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in engineering sciences.

The veteran players especially made a point of welcoming freshmen as they arrived for training camps in late August, inviting them to gather at Christian Union’s ministry space in Hanover where they chowed down on pizza while watching preseason NFL games.

Bible course leaders for their dedication, both on and off the playing field. “They’ve reached out to their teammates,” said Carlisle. “They’ve grown the Bible course and have been a solid, steady, faithful presence on their team.”

The 2018 season was especially sweet for the Big Green, which celebrated a 9-1 record and finished second in the Ivy League behind undefeated Princeton.

During a cold, rainy homecoming game in November, Dartmouth defeated Harvard, 24-17, for its first conquest against the Crimson in 15 years and first at home since 1993. Hunnicutt, a Texas native, also rejoiced after logging a 102-yard receiving day on Memorial Field.

The homecoming breakthrough over Harvard was extra glorious because Dartmouth graduated about half of the starters on offense and defense from the

2017 team. The high turnover had prompted the 2018 Ivy League Football Preseason Media Poll to predict Big Green would finish sixth in the division.

Given the intensity of the 2018 season, Carlisle praised the trio at the core of his Bible course for astonishing discipline. “Football is almost a full-time job,” he said.

Carlisle noted the student-athletes also are “amaz-

Drew Hunnicut

are forming deep connections with one another.

Given the common struggles of football players, especially with time management, players often bond as they tackle collegiate life. During Bible course, the men discuss “how to walk as a man of God on an Ivy League campus,” said Hester. Having a community of Christian peers has been “really good for me,” Nunez added.

Nathan Nunez

All of that translates into opportunities for spiritual brotherhood. “It’s taking an existing relationship and dynamic and letting it go deeper,” said Carlisle.

Likewise, the football players are grateful for their platform, both in and out of the locker room. “Other students know who the football players are,” said

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Hunnicutt. “Football players have a great influence on campus.”

Still, as he bonds with teammates, Hunnicutt reminds them of life’s bigger playing field. “It’s not all ‘how you do on the football field,’” Hunnicutt said. “Football is important, but it’s not the main reason to go about day-to-day life.”

“We are strengthened by our faith connection.” | cu

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“They’ve reached out to their teammates.

They’ve grown the Bible course and have been a solid, steady, faithful presence on their team.”

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ingly teachable” and demonstrate steady growth in faith and character. “They want to know Christ and be good men,” he said. “These guys are very easy to love.”

While Hester, Hunnicutt, and Nunez each arrived at Dartmouth with a spiritual foundation, each also has taken their faith to a new level while on campus.

“This is where I made my faith my own,” said Hunnicutt, a government major.

Hester ’20 echoed those comments, noting his relationship with his Savior is “stronger now than it’s ever been before.”

The California native expressed profound gratitude for the spiritual coaching he receives from Carlisle. “He’s always reaching out to us,” said Hester, a wide receiver who is majoring in sociology. “I don’t know where I’d be without Christian Union.”

Carlisle also has been a source of guidance for Nunez as they meet for coffee or burritos in the Upper Valley. “Chase puts himself at a level where he can talk to you about anything,” said Nunez.

Not surprisingly, Bible course participants also

Brandon Hester

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Basic Training Christian Union Hosts Bible Course for ROTC Students by catherine elvy, staff writer

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Christian Union’s ministry at Princeton University is helping to bolster spiritual readiness for a group of students who plan to serve in the U.S. Military.

The ministry is in its second year of hosting a Bible course that caters to the rigorous schedules

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principal, highlights the importance of maintaining personal identity in Christ, along with the significance of character and spiritual development. “We talk through issues of being a Christian in the military,” said Babij, the mother of a staff sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps and wife of a ma-

Christian Union’s ministry at Princeton University hosts a Bible course that caters to students enrolled in Reserve Officer Training Corps. (From left to right) Katherine French ’22, Talitha Wisner ’20, Emma Pannullo ’20, Mikayla Blaska ’19, Robert Doar ’22, and Paul Spiegl ’19

and responsibilities of undergraduates who are enrolled in Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) to become military officers upon graduation. Each week, students receive robust biblical insights and Christian leadership coaching.

“These students may go out to some of the most challenging regions of the world. They need to be prepared to demonstrate what Christian leadership entails in difficult situations,” said Jayne Babij, a Christian Union ministry fellow.

During weekly gatherings, Babij, a former school

rine-turned-pastor.

Such conversations are important because of the leadership roles awaiting ROTC students. “Throughout ROTC, you go from being at the very bottom of the chain of command to being a leader within four short years,” said Paul Spiegl ’19.

In fall 2017, Babij helped launch the Bible course after fielding an inquiry from a student who was exploring options for a military career. Today, most of the students who regularly attend the sessions also participate in Christian Union’s traditional Bible cours-

es, which usually are set up by class year and sex.

Among topics, the ROTC students probe the similarities between following Jesus Christ and serving in the U.S. armed forces. As well, they discuss the ways believers transform as they pursue disciplined prayer and studies.

In addition, Babij tries to provide glimpses of the realities of active-duty service, some of the anxiety disorders that can accompany combat, and issues that often impact military families, especially during lengthy deployments. Her objective is to encourage students to become prayer warriors while also juggling the physical and mental hurdles of military training.

said. One result of this intense regimen: “you get better time-management skills,” said Blaska.

Blaska is fond of noting how her involvement with Princeton’s ROTC program is a reflection of her family’s emphasis on service. “We are here to serve, not to be served,” she said.

As well, Princeton’s Army ROTC embodies the university’s motto, “In the Nation’s Service and the Service of Humanity.” Since the foundation of the U.S. Army, Princeton students have stepped up to the nation’s defense, and graduates have served in all of the country’s conflicts.

In fact, the university briefly became a battleground site in 1777 in the midst of the Revolution-

Princeton’s Army ROTC embodies the university’s motto, “In the Nation’s Service and the Service of Humanity.” Since the foundation of the U.S. Army, Princeton students have stepped up to the nation’s defense, and graduates have served in all of the country’s conflicts.

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ary War when the Americans achieved a strategic victory during the Battle of Princeton. In 1783, the newly formed U.S. Congress received Gen. George Washington at Nassau Hall, where modern commissions take place. Since 1919, Princeton has hosted one of the Army’s original ROTC programs.

Spiegl expressed gratitude for how Christian Union’s mission dovetails with ROTC’s objective of providing training for leaders. “We try to support each other and grow,” he said.

As such, the Georgia native is ready to embrace his post-graduation military career. “We serve something greater than ourselves,” Spiegl said.

While serving their nation, Christian soldiers encounter “amazing opportunities” to reflect Christ’s Gospel and principles as they deploy to every corner of the earth, Babij said. | cu

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Mikayla Blaska ’19 expressed gratitude for the abundant support and spiritual training she receives from Christian Union. The ministry fellows have “really helped me grow in my faith,” said Blaska.

They “always make themselves available to me as a resource,” she said.

Likewise, Blaska appreciates the ministry’s core emphasis upon Christian leadership. “It’s important in developing our leadership style,” said Blaska, a psychology major. In addition to ROTC labs and academic coursework, she is also a middle infielder on Princeton’s softball team.

Given her wide-ranging responsibilities, Blaska stands out for her commitment to excellence as a Christian, student, athlete, cadet, and future soldier.

ROTC undergraduates participate in intense training, including field exercises, hands-on leadership workshops, and classroom instruction.

“My teammates and friends on campus really respect what we’re doing and going through,” she

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Life after Graduation Christian Union Hosts Alumni Panel Discussion by tom campisi, managing editor

Being a leader with Christian Union at Brown helped Ayisha Jackson make a smooth transition to urban missionary when she graduated in May. Jackson, an engineering major, said the ministry’s emphasis on a seeking-God lifestyle and rigorous Bible study prepared her for her work with Renaissance Church in Providence, Rhode Island.

Jackson returned to campus in the fall as a participant in Christian Union’s Life After Graduation panel discussion, which included three other members of the class of 2018 who are active in vocational ministry at Brown: Gianna Uson, an intern with

Photo credit: Phil Anema

“We discussed seeking different opportunities to grow yourself in a particular ministerial calling full-time after college,” Jackson said. “Even if it’s temporary, it will still contribute greatly to your spiritual life and walk with God for years to come, which is something a few of us attested to already experiencing.”

Uson, the moderator of the panel, concurred with Jackson. The computer science major from Hayward, California, joined the Christian Union at Brown team this summer.

“I told the students that it’s good to have dreams, goals, and maybe even a five-year plan, but to hold

Photo credit: Meagan Peters

Photo credit: Phil Anema

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Recent Brown alumni Ayisha Jackson, Gianna Uson, and Isaac Whitney

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Christian Union; Isaac Whitney, an intern with Athletes in Action; and Katie Hay, an intern with InterVarsity.

Panel members talked about the benefits and challenges of life after college, the importance of being part of a church community, and the role faith plays in their lives.

For Jackson and other panelists, being active in vocational ministry may not have been part of their plans when they came to Brown four years ago, but they talked about being open to God’s will and trusting in His providence.

to these things loosely and be open to whatever God has for you. Know that God can change your plans and trust that He has your best interest in mind,” she said.

Whitney, who graduated with a degree in economics, encouraged the students to trust in the Lord, beyond their abilities and dreams.

“As Ivy League students, it’s pretty natural for us to shoot for the stars and work our butts off for certain prestigious careers,” he said. “That was certainly my mindset, and still is to an extent at times.

It is a rite of passage to load up your schedule with

will for me to be a reflection of Him and His plans for restoring the world.”

Whitney reflected on how valuable it was to become part of a Bible course in his freshman year.

He appreciated the close-knit nature of the small group and how Christian Union helped him make “huge strides” in his faith walk.

“I really learned how to read and study the Bible unlike before,” he said. “I was given opportunities to lead Bible studies and pose certain questions and challenges, which has helped prepare me for the leadership role I’m in now. More tangibly, I have found myself consulting old Christian Union resources I was exposed to as a student. Even now, I meet with CU at Brown’s ministry fellows (Matt Woodard, Justin Doyle, and Laurel Copp) and get advice and resources from them.”

“Real Christlike strength is having the For Jackson, the culture at Renaissance ability to surrender all our plans to Church, which includes an extensive daily devotional and prayer time, is similar God’s will and understand that God’s to that of Christian Union at Brown. She ways are better than ours…” also noted how a summer trip to Israel, —Isaac Whitney, Brown ’18 organized by Christian Union, and the ministry’s rigorous, academic approach to Scripture have helped the Bible come alive. counsel of these recent graduates of our ministry— “I have been able to sustain a thirst for the Word,” they are proof that God has certainly been at work she said. “[Freshman year] I was excited about how here at Brown,” he said. much I was learning, and how much encouragement Whitney, Uson, and Jackson were integral memI was getting to look at the text and concepts of the bers of Christian Union at Brown when the minisfaith through historical, theological, socio-economtry was in its formative stages four years ago. Each ic, and cultural lenses. Christian Union taught me credited Christian Union for the role it played in how to seek after truth and revelation in God’s their spiritual formation.

Word.” | cu “My time at Brown would not have been the same without Christian Union,” said Uson.

“Christian Union gave me a community of believers who loved and encouraged me to see God in everything and keep my hope in Him. Christian Union also helped shape my worldview—including life, work, and community. Through Bible courses, ministry fellows, and my peers, I learned to see the value of my studies, interactions with people, and everything big or small as intimately tied to God’s various extracurriculars and résumé-builders. But real Christlike strength is having the ability to surrender all our plans to God’s will and understand that God’s ways are better than ours, and so are His plans.”

Whitney also stressed to the students that, although hard work is still required, “our ultimate identity and sense of worth must come from Christ.”

“We must learn to trust in Him wholly. I never planned to be doing what I am now, but I am so incredibly thankful that God brought me into this position.”

Justin Doyle, a Christian Union ministry fellow at Brown, said the alumni did a great job.

“I was proud as I sat and listened to the wise

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Christian Unity at Columbia Ministries Enjoy Thanksgiving Meal by tom campisi, managing editor

Three juniors with Christian Union at Columbia led a team that prepared and served a Thanksgiving meal in the fall semester, uniting several campus ministries for a memorable celebration.

The dinner, held on November 16 at Wein Hall, was organized by Shazzarda Davis, Barnard ’21, Anne-Marie Tehn-Addy, Columbia ’21, and Callum Kiser, Columbia ’21.

know one another. A spirit of friendly competition kicked in during a playful round of “Christian bingo.” Towards the end of the event, Davis shared that a few students expressed gratitude to be “in a positive space where others shared the same love for Christ.”

“The event centered around being surrounded by fellow believers, who we do not get to see throughout the semester. We wanted to follow the example

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Christian Union at Columbia hosted an Interfellowship Thanksgiving Dinner in November.

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“We spent countless hours together and put so much effort into asking other people to bring food and invite their friends,” said Tehn-Addy, an English and history major from Los Angeles, California.

Although Davis, who is from Brooklyn, and Kiser, a Long Island native, live nearby, the leaders on Christian Union’s Socials Team were aware that most Columbia students are far from home. The goal was to create a “loving, home-away-from-home” atmosphere. The team also wanted to foster community on campus among believers. Christian Union at Columbia hosted an inter-ministry Thanksgiving dinner last year, and is now seeking to make it an annual tradition.

“We had a great turnout this year,” said Davis, an urban studies major. “Many people came, not only to eat, but also to meet other believers.” The event planners provided each table with questions to generate conversation and help students get to

from Christ’s ministry by breaking bread (and turkey) with each other.”

“With all this work, nothing could compare to the utter joy the three of us felt as we stood and watched everyone together, fellowshipping as the body of Christ,” said Tehn-Addy. “It was so fulfilling.

Seeing a glimpse of community on Columbia’s campus has made us excited for fellowship events to come.”

Among other highlights of the current academic year, a Christian Union teaching fellow is helping to lead Bible courses and mentor graduate students at Columbia University. Nick Nowalk, who helped launch Christian Union at Harvard in 2008, relocated to Manhattan in 2016. He quickly began hearing from Harvard College alumni whom he mentored during their undergraduate years, including some who had transitioned to graduate studies at Columbia.

As Christian alumni from Harvard and other leading universities began to network at Columbia, many expressed interest in regular discipleship. At the beginning of the 2017-18 academic year, Nowalk began holding weekly Bible courses for about 10 students. By May, Nowalk was ministering to about 40 students in two coed studies.

As news of the meetings tailored to Columbia grad students spread, Nowalk began to field inquiries about additional opportunities.

In particular, graduate students in the medical arts voiced desires for a dedicated Bible study. Such individuals spend the majority of their classroom and clinical shifts at Columbia Irving University

Medical Center, about 60 blocks north of Columbia’s Morningside campus.

In spite of the distance, Nowalk recently launched a Bible course for students based at the medical center, which is home to medical, dental, nursing, public health, and other programs.

Many of the Columbia grad students were also part of Christian Union Bible Courses as undergrads.

Among them, Grant Kleiser said he participates in a graduate Bible course because he missed the enriching studies of his undergraduate days. “It’s my favorite method of exploring my faith and getting closer to God,” said Kleiser, Penn ’17. | cu

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Seeking God, Seeking Justice Arce ’19 Has a Heart for Public Service by catherine elvy, staff writer

how calling myself a follower of Jesus has implications” for all of life’s arenas.

The organization’s ministry fellows “have a breadth of knowledge that I’m grateful for,” said Arce. During Bible courses, the prelaw student has

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appreciated opportunities to probe difficult subjects such as racism, justice, and mental health, from a biblical perspective.

Such topics dovetail with Arce’s vocational goal to support the dignity of marginalized individuals via legal strategies. The son of two attorneys is eye-

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Through his involvement with Christian Union, Arce has embraced a “heightened consciousness of how calling myself a follower of Jesus has implications” for all of life’s arenas.

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A Cornell University senior is establishing the groundwork for a legal career centered around his passion for aiding refugees and immigrants.

“As a Christian, I’m called to love my neighbor and the marginalized,” said Chris Arce ’19.

Arce, who is actively involved with Christian Union at Cornell, plans to use his leadership talents and drive to pursue a career in the public sector.

Arce serves as co-president of Cornell Interfaith Council, and has served as co-president of the Puerto Rican Students Association at Cornell and as vice president of Cornell Welcomes Refugees.

After arriving at Cornell, the native of upstate New York was pleased to discover a vibrant faith community via Christian Union. The government major currently leads a Bible course for sophomore men.

Through his involvement with Christian Union, Arce has embraced a “heightened consciousness of

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that included three nationally broadcast talks, plus student-led discussions for local audiences.

As one of the speakers for the Cornell event, Arce delivered a talk entitled Persisting through Pain.

Arce shared about the need for modern believers to care for their neighbors.

Adding to his character and background, Arce is proud of his Puerto Rican heritage. While serving as co-president of the Puerto Rican Students’ Association during 2017-18, Arce became fluent in the issues impacting the Caribbean island.

During his stint at the helm of the Puerto Rican campus organization, Arce helped raise over $4,000 and gather supplies for Hurricane Maria relief efforts.

Furthermore, Arce served as a peer mentor when Cornell hosted 60 students from the University of Puerto Rico during spring 2018.

Photo credit: Corinne Kenwood for the Cornell Sun The undergrad has worked to fosCornell University senior Chris Arce is preparing for a legal career focused upon service to refugees and immigrants. ter awareness of the issues impacting Puerto Rico. During visits in December 2017 and July 2018, Arce was struck by the ongoing hardships impacting Watching Arce mature in his faith and vocationdaily life, including the lack of refrigeration. al endeavors has been a joy for Geoff Sackett, Chris“You definitely see the income inequality that’s tian Union’s ministry director at Cornell. there,” said Arce. “There are still just a lot of people “Because of his faith in Christ, Chris cares about trying to pick up.” The student’s relief efforts led to people and particularly about people who are disrecognition from New York Governor Andrew Cuoadvantaged because of some form of injustice or mo in spring 2018. calamity in their lives or in their communities,” said After completing law school, Arce would like to Sackett. bolster Puerto Rico’s infrastructure, either through Arce has even carved out a reputation and platshort- or long-term stints. “I would like to work form on campus, given his remarkable efforts to with community leaders,” he said. recruit assistance for Puerto Ricans in the aftermath Arce wants to set an example by serving as a of Hurricane Maria and his leadership in a fraterco-laborer with Christ. “How are we serving God? nity and other venues. “His peers listen to him, not Are we approaching life with humility and as a seronly because he is passionate and thoughtful, but vant to all people?” he asked rhetorically. also because he is witty and winsome,” said Sackett.

Sackett commended Arce for his far-reaching Such abilities helped Arce land a spot as one of vision, especially on behalf of the disadvantaged. “I three student speakers on behalf of the Cornell chapam excited to see how the Lord will use Chris to ter of Q Union. At the ministry’s annual large event advance justice in public spaces, both here and in October, 25,000-plus Christians gathered on abroad,” he said. | cu college campuses and cities for a shared experience

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ing options to center his career around public-interest matters such as immigration, justice reform, housing issues, or healthcare. During summer 2016, Arce interned for U.S. District Court Judge Nelson Roman of the Southern District of New York.

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Texts-4-Toasties Harvard Students Deliver Answers to Tough Questions by catherine elvy, staff writer

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In the midst of the potent stresses of final pleasantly surprised at the reception they received exams, students involved with Christian to their service as faith ambassadors. “Christians can Union’s ministry at Harvard College have a way of assuming that people don’t want to stepped forward to deliver nutrition and encouragehear the Gospel or are closed off to a relationship ment to their classmates. with God,” said Parker. “When About 30 students from the we are obedient, God opens ministry helped serve 150-plus doors in ways that are really hot sandwiches as part of a surprising.”

Texts-4-Toasties event. The unWhile questions varied dergrads formed the backbone widely, many focused upon of an effort by The Harvard familiar themes of suffering, Ichthus to gather student believsexuality, the origins of the ers to grill and distribute hot universe, predestination, and sandwiches to classmates texeternal damnation. In cases of ting spiritual queries in excomplex theological queries, a change for late-night fare. pair of students delivered both Before final exams, the Ichhot food and multiple perspecthus encouraged Crimson stutives on issues. dents across campus to submit During final exams, students involved In reflecting on his first questions about Christianity in with Christian Union’s ministry at Harvard foray into Texts-4-Toasties’ exchange for replies plus sand- College, including Collin Price ’19, delivery service, Price recalled wiches made from cheese, Nute- ministered to their classmates as part of a being nervous as a sophomore lla, or marshmallow fluff. The Texts-4-Toasties event. about the prospect of not havcampus publication offers a ing all of the answers. HowevChristian perspective on issues, literature, and culture. er, he ended up being “really encouraged by The seasonal event also served as an ideal training discussions we were able to have with people.” ground for believers to practice sharing their faith, Once a complex question on evolution promptsaid Christian Union intern Tyler Parker ’17. “It is a ed a meaningful dialogue and subsequent follow-up wonderful activity to get people out of their comfort zone for the sake of evangelism,” said Parker.

“Christians can have a way of assuming that Students echoed those comments. “I am always people don’t want to hear the Gospel or are excited by Texts-4-Toasties because it is an easy way to initiate meaningful and exciting discussions with closed off to a relationship with God. When our fellow classmates,” said Collin Price ’19, a team we are obedient, God opens doors in ways leader with Christian Union’s ministry at Harvard. that are really surprising.”

“Texts-4-Toasties is really a unique event because it makes sharing the Gospel effortless.”

— Tyler Parker, Harvard ’17 On December 13, Price was among the student volunteers who assembled at staging stations in dorm with copies of Tim Keller’s Making Sense of God: An kitchens to grill and deliver tasty toasties along with Invitation to the Skeptical. “We definitely did not have answers to theological queries. all of the answers, but we ended up having a really Many of the Christian Union participants were fruitful discussion about the nature of God,” said Price.

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Likewise, Douglass Bryant ’22 noted he was compelled to participate in Texts-4-Toasties in an effort to help Christian Union’s ministry expand its reach among Harvard’s diverse student body.

“It was great to see many thoughtful questions being submitted, which benefited those looking for answers, but also us who had to formulate those answers,” said Bryant. “I was pleased at how receptive all of those whom I went to visit were.”

As such, the California native, who is studying neuroscience, said he looks forward to participating in the event again.

In some cases, hungry, sleep-deprived undergrads merely requested late-night snacks. In those cases, student believers offered prayers for peace and retention along with words of encouragement. In other situations, student requests for sandwiches sparked rich conversations about common misconceptions surrounding Christianity. Some of the

conversations opened doors for opportunities to point a student to a local church and other spiritual resources.

On the practical side, the sandwiches helped energize students studying for exams and working on essays, projects, and oral presentations.

“It gets really stressful around here during finals,” said Parker.

“Students, especially Harvard students, have a sense that what they accomplish simply is who they are. We get a lot of opportunities to express to them that what they accomplish is way less important to God and to understanding that He loves them. He wants a relationship that they do not have to earn.”

Some of the Text-4-Toasties encounters proved to be divine appointments.

“Many times, the Holy Spirit showed up in ways that were unexpected,” Parker said. | cu

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The Case for Kindness Christian Union Caritas Distributes Care Packages

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by tom campisi, managing editor

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Caritas, Christian Union’s ministry to students at Stanford University, pumped life into “Dead Week” in early December.

Dead Week is a time of intense studying and reduced social and extracurricular activity preceding final examinations. In an effort to help reduce stress and bless fellow classmates, Christian Union Caritas delivered care packages to the dorm rooms of approximately 150 students. The packages contained candy, hot chocolate, stuffed animals, information about Christian Union, and a copy of Lee Strobel’s short book, The Case for Christmas.

“The goal of the outreach was to show God’s generosity and to get a brief and compelling Gospel presentation into students’ hands,” said

Justin Woyak, a Christian Union ministry fellow at Stanford. “It was a huge success.”

A few weeks before the outreach, Caritas’ student leaders sent a mass e-mail through various student organizations, announcing the opportunity to receive the care packages. The signup list was limited to 150 students. That limit was reached in only 90 minutes.

When it came time to deliver the care packages on the Sunday and Monday of Dead Week, over a dozen students involved with Christian Union Caritas took several hours out of their study time to hand out packages to 20 dorms on campus.

“We had a great time assembling the packages together (and enjoying homemade cookies), but

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Students involved with Christian Union Caritas delivered care packages to dorms before final exams.

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people an easy pathway to learn about who Jesus is.” the real fun was delivering,” said Woyak. “A lot of Woyak commended Nathalie and the campus the students expressed how joyful it was to knock kindness team for their initiative, creativity, and hard on people’s doors and give them something free that would be enjoyed. Almost everyone who received a gift bag Ministry Fellow Justin Woyak commended Nathalie and the was so grateful.”

“I received several texts from campus kindness team for their initiative, creativity, and people I had barely talked to hard work on the care package outreach. Likewise, Nathalie previously, thanking me for the packages and describing how it expressed appreciation for the leadership training she made their week,” said Natha- has received and the spiritual growth she has experienced lie, a sophomore with a double major in economics and polit- through Christian Union Caritas. ical science. “The recipients work on the care package outreach. Likewise, Nathwere incredibly grateful when they received their alie expressed appreciation for the leadership training packages.” she has received and the spiritual growth she has ex“We wanted to show Christ’s love to Stanford perienced through Christian Union Caritas. students in a time of need, and also wanted to give “I cannot put into words the effect Christian Union has had on my college experience at Stanford. I came into Stanford unsure about my faith and my relationship with God. Christian Union gave me an immediate community of people who are striving towards and struggling with the same goals,” she said.

“Bible courses have helped me read God’s Word in an entirely new light, and other members have been such an integral part of my college life. Christian Union, more than anything, has been an amazing community, encouraging in my relationship with God, and reminding me of my value as a daughter of God.” | cu

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The Emergence of a Leader Tokarz ’20 Is President of Choose Life at Yale by catherine elvy, staff writer

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A Yale College upperclassman looks back with awe as he describes his early encounters with campus peers who challenged him to weigh the depth of his commitment to the pro-life movement.

Since those pivotal exchanges during his freshman year, Dan Tokarz has championed the pro-life cause at Yale and beyond. As president of Choose Life at

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“We talk about the big difference we can make with the talents God has blessed us with,” said Tokarz.

Christian Union especially has imparted to Tokarz the importance of being intentional about his relationship with Jesus Christ.

“I’ve developed a deeper reliance on God and trust in God and what He has called me to do,” Tokarz said.

Christian Union Ministry Fellow Michael Racine described him as a “model of faithfulness and humility” and a “joy to teach.” Tokarz fulfills ministry responsibilities “without seeking attention” and “will cheerfully offer a thoughtful and encouraging testimony” when asked, said Racine, Brown ’07, Yale Divinity School ’15.

Tokarz, a mechanical engineering and applied math major, marvels at how his skill sets and influence have grown. For Christian Union’s ministry at Yale, he serves on the executive team as co-leader of the organization’s communications efforts. The Chicagoland native’s burgeoning resume also features gigs as vice president of Yale Undergraduate Sports Photo Credit: Cody Min Analytics Group and Catechesis instructor at As an undergraduate at Yale College, Dan Tokarz ’20 has championed the pro-life Saint Thomas More: The Catholic Chapel and movement on campus.

Center at Yale University.

But the heartbeat of Tokarz’ collegiate bio Yale (chooselifeatyale.org), Tokarz ’20 actively encenters upon his labors of love on behalf of Choose courages students to take practical steps to reflect Life at Yale. During a life-changing exchange with their dedication to pro-life efforts, especially within peers in The Federalist Party, Tokarz was struck by their campus and home communities. the staggering statistics surrounding pregnancy ter“There is value in the human person that’s worth minations. By one count, more than 56 million protecting at every stage,” said Tokarz. abortions have taken place in the United States since As his influence and duties across campus exthe landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of Roe pand, Tokarz recently paused to credit the mentorv. Wade in 1973. As a fitting tribute to the role that ship he receives from Christian Union for Yale’s conservative debating society played in kindling strengthening his leadership skills, intellect, and his fervor for the pro-life outlook, Tokarz recently spirituality. assumed chairmanship of The Federalist Party.

At Yale, the Midwest native discovered a small, Human life is a divine gift and deserves reverenbut tight-knit contingent of believers, including a tial awe, dignity, and respect, Tokarz said. “If you core group from Christian Union. really believe this position is true, then it’s a really

big deal,” he said. “That’s something that’s worth fighting for and dedicating yourself to.”

As such, Tokarz served as communications director for Choose Life at Yale’s annual conference in late September. More than 130 people, included 75 students, attended the sixth-annual Vita et Veritas gathering, which was headquartered at Saint Thomas More. Christian Union served as a major sponsor for the conference, which featured a powerful lineup of speakers, including bioethicist and physician William Hurlbut, Stanford ’68, MD ’74.

As he handled major organizational and logistical efforts for the event, Tokarz simply wanted students from Yale and other colleges to feel supported as they affirm the pro-life outlook. “We are not alone,” Tokarz said.

Likewise, Tokarz and other students from Choose Life at Yale journey to Washington, D.C., every January to participate in the annual March for Life.

“We’re all taking time away from our lives for this one goal we care about,” said Tokarz. “We really do need God’s help.”

Additionally, Tokarz recruits undergraduates to join him in volunteering twice a month at the St.

Gianna Pregnancy Center in New Haven. “That experience has really shown me the power that we have to make a difference,” said Tokarz. While duties often vary, Tokarz enjoys helping to babysit the children of clients who are taking new and expectant mother classes or receiving other services.

“There is value in the human person that’s worth protecting at every stage.”

—Dan Tokarz, Yale ’20 As he looks ahead to life beyond Yale’s gothic arches, Tokarz is entertaining ideas to use his fascination with data management to pursue a career on the technical side of the theme-park industry. Not surprisingly, he also plans to use his formidable skills to continue to embrace pro-life causes, whether that involves donating diapers to local pregnancy centers or descending upon the nation’s capital for the massive March for Life rally.

“I’ve always felt called to use my talents in a way that makes the world a brighter place,” said Tokarz. | cu

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by catherine elvy, staff writer

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gland.

Now, the longtime pastor will have a chance to mentor law students and encourage them to seek God fervently via his new position with Christian Union. This fall, Yim stepped into the role of the ministry director for the organization’s ministry at Harvard Law School.

“I always had a heart for New England,” said Yim, who grew up in New York City and attended seminary in Massachusetts. “When this opportunity came up with Christian Union, my wife and I felt a pang in our hearts. God has always been faithful, and we felt like it was time.”

After more than 11 years of pastoring in Upstate New York, Yim relocated his family to coastal Massachusetts during the fall.

“We sensed that our assignment in New York

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Since his seminary days of two decades ago, Justin Yim has been fervently praying for revival to ignite across New En-

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Harvard Law Ministry Director Has a Passion for Revival

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A New England Homecoming

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ital District. In addition to launching and serving was done, and it was time to return to New England,” as lead pastor of the Halfmoon campus, Yim helped said Yim, who graduated from Gordon-Conwell Grace Fellowship expand into East Greenbush and Theological Seminary in 2002.

Saratoga Springs.

Yim is excited about the prospect of watching “That was a transformative time in my life,” said God transform the lives of some of the nation’s Yim. brightest legal minds at Harvard Law School. “The Following 11 years at Grace, the Yims sensed a sky is the limit,” said Yim. “God is doing something divine appointment to return to New England. Afunique at Harvard. There is a lot of activity that is ter prayer and geographical research, the couple really encouraging. You just want to be a part of relocated their four children, ages where God is moving.”

8 to 16, to Newburyport, MasIndeed, Yim’s life story is a sachusetts, a scenic, historic town testament to the providence of 40 or so miles north of Boston.

God. He was born in South KoProvidentially, Yim learned rea, but grew up in Queens, New of the opportunity to serve with York, as the son of a missionary Christian Union’s ministry to to the local Korean community. students at Harvard Law after His father hailed from North resettling in Massachusetts. The Korea, where he was once jailed nature and mission of Christian for his Christian faith. The elder Union’s ministry deeply resonatYim managed to escape to South ed with Yim, who is enthusiastic Korea, where he met his wife, a about discipling emerging pronurse and solid prayer warrior. fessionals. “My passion is to As early as 14, Yim sensed a ground people in the power and calling to the ministry. Still, Yim’s Longtime pastor Justin Yim recently truth of God’s Word,” said Yim. father insisted that his son make became the ministry director for At Harvard, he wants legal certain of a divine calling and Christian Union’s ministry at Harvard student believers to learn to “apencouraged practical collegiate Law School. ply God’s Word in real time.” As courses. With that, Yim earned well, he desires for aspiring lawyers to approach the a degree in psychology from the University of Rochjudicial realm as persons of faith. ester in 1989 and waited until 1995 to begin seminary In a nod to his rich pastoral background, Yim studies. noted he is akin to a spiritual entrepreneur. “I love After completing a graduate divinity degree, Yim the challenge of building a foundation that will far headed to Greenland, New Hampshire, where he outlive me,” he said. served in a series of pastoral capacities at a local As for his prayers of two decades ago for New church. During 11 years with Bethany Church, Yim England, Yim is humbled to play a role in ushering labored as youth pastor, worship arts pastor, and revival amid Harvard’s iconic arches. “I sense that young adults pastor. He notes that once he simulGod is moving within the Harvard community,” he taneously held three positions. said. “I want to be in the sweet spot of what God is While in New Hampshire, Yim married the fordoing.” | cu mer Melissa Schafer, who currently works in Deloitte’s consulting division as a senior manager.

During his tenure at Bethany, Yim also watched the church triple in size to become home to 2,000-plus worshippers.

In 2007, Yim joined the expanding team at Grace Fellowship Church, which now operates four campuses of 3,000-plus congregants in New York’s Cap-

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christian union cities

International Affairs Princeton Alumnus is Serving the City by catherine elvy, staff writer

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Christian Union ministry intern has enjoyed a season of amazing celebrations, including a new position allowing the recent Princeton alumnus to combine his twin passions for ministry and cultural redemption.

In September, Matt Allen ’18 became an intern for Christian Union Cities, which offers an enriching slate of leadership development opportunities and other resources to professionals in New York City and Washington, D.C. “I’ve been loving the position,” said Allen, who grew up in a Christian household in the idyllic town of Plymouth, dubbed Britain’s “Ocean City.”

Like Allen, many participants of Christian Union cities are alumni of top-tier universities. In June, the Englishman completed a degree from Princeton in

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Allen is helping Christian Union Cites provide young leaders, especially emerging professionals, with a steady offering of forums, lectures, and conferences. The ministry, which aims to create networking opportunities for believers by industries and geography, plans to host its second annual Cities Conference in June in New York. public and international affairs. In October, he married the former Rachel Pyfrom ’19, a senior from Maryland who is studying social policy in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

While the Allens are quick to note the unusualness of undergraduate studies and marriage within Princeton’s wrought-iron gates, both also feel privileged to serve as a witness to the beauty of Christ’s covenantal love for the church.

“It’s been a real season for celebration,” said Matt.

In the flurry of activity following their marriage at Princeton Meadow Church, the couple moved into a former graduate student unit inside Whitman College, where Rachel serves as a residential college adviser.

As he settles into his new duties, Allen is helping Christian Union Cites provide young leaders, especially emerging professionals, with a steady offering of forums, lectures, and conferences. The ministry, which aims to create networking opportunities for believers by industries and geography, plans to host its second annual Cities Conference in June in New York.

“I enjoy the topics of the salons so much,” said Allen, who is producing a newsletter for Christian Union Cities. “These are the people I want to get to know.”

For Allen, the internship at Christian Union’s office in Rockefeller Plaza is an extension of his appreciation for the intersection of social and policy issues with Christianity. As such, the native of England’s south coast of Devon seized the opportunity as a way “to engage directly with society, see change, and do some more writing.”

In fall 2019, Allen plans to commence graduate studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he will focus upon culture and conflict in a globalizing Europe. More specifically, he hopes to reflect the redemptive nature of Christ’s Gospel in discussions about European culture and ways to help it flourish.

Scott Crosby, ministry director of Christian Union Cities, described Allen as an astonishingly quick learner. “It helps that he is curious and not put off by jumping into new things with the expectation that he will figure it out and will learn a lot along the way,” he said.

As well, Allen is playing a crucial role in the ministry’s communications strategy, especially as the organization recently expanded into Washington, D.C. He also assists Crosby in his efforts to provide

Photo credit: Sonya Katarina Isenberg

Matt Allen, Princeton ’18, also pictured at right with his wife Rachel (Pyfrom) Allen ’19, is an intern with Christian Union Cities.

2019 :: christianunion.org

Union’s ministry and Worship House to attend the ceremony. More importantly, scores of “younger students have spoken to us about how much they are inspired and excited,” Allen said.

As for his career plans after graduate studies, Allen is prayerfully contemplating a variety of options.

“God has been putting urban ministry on my heart,” he said. “A lot of what works in New York is transferable. I am excited to see if that becomes a part of my future, as well.”

Moreover, the Allens are considering funneling their talents and training into global missions.

“Our future is still very much unknown,” Allen said. “My life has been a bit of a wild ride so far, and I don’t anticipate it slowing down anytime soon.” | cu

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up-and-coming professionals with Bible courses and mentoring.

Such duties dovetail with Christian Union’s vision to expand God’s kingdom within influential cities.

They also provide a practical segue to the mentorship Allen received during his involvement with Christian Union’s ministry at Princeton University.

Allen also served as co-president of Princeton Against Sex Trafficking and he took part in Más Flow Dance Company. As well, the Allens bonded during their collaboration with the Worship House ministry at Princeton.

While the Allens originally planned to get married in summer 2019, the duo decided to bring the date forward by more than a semester. Through their sacred union, the couple hopes to send a message that “we value this so much that we’re willing to do it at a time when other people don’t think it makes sense,” said Matt Allen.

The couple invited participants in Christian

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stewardship news

All Things New by cheryl ennis self

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race and peace to you, from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is truly an honor to introduce myself as one whom God has recently called to serve at Christian Union in the role of Vice President of Development.

My name is Cheryl Ennis Self, and for the past 26 years, I have had the privilege of working for three Christian organizations. Most recently, I served for 16 years at World Vision, a global Christian organization that ministers to the poorest of the poor in nearly 100 countries.

In that capacity, I visited and worked in 36 countries, mostly in remote parts of developing nations.

While the living conditions were dire, I did meet believers in all parts of Africa, Asia, and the Americas who learned to place their trust and hope in Jesus Christ. Those villagers were supported by local churches and by their long-term relationships with World Vision’s Christian staff who lived in their communities. Indeed, the joy of the Lord was evident in some of the most dismal circumstances because God is able, His Spirit is all powerful, and His sons and daughters are faithful to serve others with the spiritual and professional gifts He has given them, for His purposes. In Christ, we are all made new.

When Christian Union first reached out to me in early 2018, I was instantly gripped by the critical mission to develop and connect transformative Christian leaders. What a powerful ministry with the vision to seek a spiritually vibrant nation marked

by Christian values! On the surface, this opportunity felt very different from my previous roles, yet the common denominator is the power of the Holy Spirit helping people to overcome their separation from God, for all eternity.

God loves each and every soul who heeds His call, repents, and steps into new life in Christ. The amazingly talented leaders whom God draws into Christian Union Universities, Christian Union

Cities networks, and the Day & Night online prayer community are called to serve Him in the unique ways that He has chosen only for them.

I have come to understand that growing Christian leaders also requires a long view of ministry – years of discipleship, encouragement, and ongoing guidance after graduation and into the workforce. Please accept my deepest thanks for your faithful, long-term engagement with Christian Union, and for your financial support to enable this important ministry to reach thousands more students, alumni, and young professionals in the years ahead. I look forward to meeting many of you in this new year. | cu

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away: behold the new has come.”

2 Corinthians 5:17

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Delivered to your e-mail inbox every other week.

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The Great Experiment Returns by whit hazelton

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whit hazelton is the marketing director of Day and Night, Christian Union’s online ministry promoting spiritual strengthening across America through prayer, fasting, repentance, evangelism, and dedication to seeking God.

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In response to feedback from participants, the Great Experiment is returning March 1-10, 2019, in a more compact, but intense format. A variety of Christian leaders and teachers will exhort and encourage participants through live-streamed video devotionals every morning and night of the ten-day event. Participants will also receive prayer and Bible-reading guidance through daily e-mails, and, of course, challenge themselves to draw near to the Lord in a focused and concerted way through the five commitments of the Great Experiment.

May God pour out His Spirit and answer our cry for spiritual renewal both in us personally and in our land!

Christian Union invites all Christians across America to sign up for the March 2019 Great Experiment at www.dayandnight.org. | cu

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• “ We are in day four and I am absolutely astonished at the reaction I receive sharing Christ with Uber drivers. I have now shared with six drivers in Madrid and Barcelona. Their reaction has been entirely positive and I have shared with people from Catholic, Evangelical, Mormon, Orthodox, and Muslim back-

grounds. They all relish the conversations; I keep arriving late at meetings because, as several have now commented, ‘I could talk about this for hours.’ I always finish with ‘May God bless you’ and most have returned the blessing.”

• “Started a weekly women’s Bible study on what it means to truly follow Christ.

I’ve begun fasting one day a week.”

• “My Joshua Challenge was creating a community event called the Concert of Prayer to pray against suicide and for the youth of our nation. There were many obstacles that stood in the way, but God forged a path through all of them.”

• “Taking part in the Joshua Challenge has renewed my relationship with God. My husband and I have become closer through our reading of the Bible and daily prayer.

We have a new outlook on life through God’s love and forgiveness. I was able to forgive those who had hurt me and to heal broken relationships.”

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n October 2018, Christian Union’s online ministry, Day and Night, again led Christians from across America—not just students—in The Great Experiment, a month-long effort to pursue God wholeheartedly for spiritual renewal. A record 4,500 Christians across America signed up to carry out a five-part commitment involving increased morning and evening prayer and Bible reading (inspired by Luke 18:1-8), daily repentance (Hebrews 12:1,2), obeying the Holy Spirit (Psalm 143:10), elevated faith (Joshua 1:8-9), and evangelism (Acts 1:8).

New for October 2018 was a component called The Joshua Faith Challenge, inspired by Joshua and Caleb, who were known for their courageous faith in God (Numbers 13-14:38). Joshua and Caleb were not afraid to enter into the land God had promised, even though many mighty nations lived there. They were eager to obey God and take on whatever challenge He called them to face.

For the Joshua Faith Challenge, participants sought the Lord for a specific, unique challenge they would take on that month. It was to be something unusual and daring that would stretch their faith. One participant wrote, “I shall endeavor to share Christ with every taxi/ Uber car that I take during the month,” while another committed to “giving two or three times the normal giving amount in October.” A man in New York City wrote: “At my club, there are nude pictures of a couple of women on a bulletin board in the men’s locker room.

God has put it on my heart to reach out to management and have them taken down.” We followed up with him and learned that he was successful in getting them taken down!

Throughout the month, participants shared their testimonies with Christian Union:

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the spiritual climate on campus

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Yale students photo credit: phil anema

reports from some of america’s most influential universities

The Spiritual Climate on Campus The following articles were written to keep readers informed about the spiritual atmosphere at some of America’s leading universities. Some stories will encourage you by highlighting ways God is working through other (non-Christian Union) ministries and alumni. Other articles— on news, trends, and events—are included to help motivate you to pray for these institutions, their students, faculty, and staff, and for all of the Christian ministries that work at these schools. ......................................................................................

BROW N | On Campus

Dating 101 the resulting pain. From there, she started to work towards bringing back “low-stakes dating” by normalizing casual coffee dates among her students and encouraging people to get to know each other through one-on-one conversation.

Professor Cronin concluded her talk by giving every person in the room the same dating assignment and detailed instructions she gives her students. These include having the

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going on a date. At Brown, she shared what led her to implement this dating assignment and what she has learned from the countless response papers she’s received from students over the years. When talking to a few of her senior students years ago, she realized everyone’s personal life fit into three categories: pseudo-married relationship, engaging in hookup culture, or decidedly single. It shocked her to see society’s lack of a dating script and

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n November, the Brown-RISD Catholic Community (BRCC) hosted a lecture with Boston College Philosophy Professor Dr. Kerry Cronin, who spoke on the topic of dating.

The event caught the interest of over 70 people, including BRCC regulars, Christians from other ministries, and non-Christians.

Dr. Cronin is well-known at Boston College for giving her students the unconventional assignment of

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CATHOLIC COMMUNITY HOSTS POPULAR LECTURE

By Ayleen Sanchez, Brown ’20

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academia. Though her idea of dating was not too far off from Dr. Cronin’s, she appreciated the emphasis on being proactive and courageous. She also said the talk “kind of normalized how scared people are and, in a way, that was comforting.”

Alex Sekula, a regular attendee at the BRCC meetings, was shocked to hear how accurate Dr. Cronin was in her descriptions of the relationships on college campuses. “When she talked about pseudo-married couples and stealth dating, it described a lot of Similarly, a non-Christian student, what I’ve seen on campus, and I was iting physical touch to an “A-frame” hug, and ending the date after 90 who has preferred to remain anony- surprised that she was aware of it givmous, shared that she was intrigued en that she is not a college student,” minutes.

An engaging speaker, Dr. Cronin by the event because of the lack of he said.

Dr. Cronin’s captivating talk and shared stories of humorous moments dialogue around dating, especially in playful commentary, her students experienced along with her focus on when completing the asemphasizing the posisignment. In his response tive—a respectful, slowpaper, one of her students going dating script, indescribed his experience stead of condemning the of asking someone out on negative hookup cula date “as a predator apture—allowed people proaching its target,” from all backgrounds to something which Dr. Crorelate to what she had to nin was quick to correct say and consider taking up in person. Another studating as she described it. dent, unaccustomed to For weeks after the event, actively refraining from her talk and dating were physical touch, panicked common topics of converand gave his date a high sation, extending beyond five after walking her to the people who attended her apartment building at the event. Hong said three the end of their coffee of her friends outside the date.

BRCC are planning on Anya Hong ’10, a completing the dating Catholic, said Dr. Cronin assignment. Sekula alpresented many wellready went on a date. And, structured, logical points finally, the anonymous and concrete examples. student said she was open Her biggest takeaway was Photo credit: Jason Cheong to doing it, that is if she that a coffee date is just a Boston College Philosophy Professor Dr. Kerry Cronin is “simple way to spend time known for giving students the assignment of going on a date. went ahead and “decided to be brave.” | cu with someone that you’re first date during the day in a public space where conversation is possible, avoiding a setting with alcohol, lim-

interested in and doesn’t have to have any implications of future dates or relationships.”

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Dr. Cronin’s captivating talk and playful commentary, along with her focus on emphasizing the positive—a respectful, slow-going dating script, instead of condemning the negative hookup culture—allowed people from all backgrounds to relate to what she had to say and consider taking up dating.

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BROW N | On Campus

Life Trainer G R A N D S TA F F ’ 8 9 S E R V E S AT H L E T E S V I A P H O N E A P P

By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer

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disciplines. Agresti is the president of powerful words of Hebrews 4:12: “For Just Facts, a think tank dedicated to the word of God is living and active, publishing rigorously documented sharper than any two-edged sword…”

“In God’s Word, life is radically facts about public-policy issues.

With regular use, the Life Trainer different,” he said. “With the overflow app promotes Christian growth and fitness. “We’ve seen unbelievable progress in the spiritual maturation of individuals,” said Grandstaff.

The phone app provides Bible verses to assist with more than a dozen common areas of struggle and temptation, as well as key verses to promote character and spiritual development.

“It’s fascinating to see how lives are being changed,” said Grandstaff. “The FCA Life Trainer is really bearing great fruit.”

The main curriculum behind the Life Trainer’s spiritual fitness plan reflects res e a r c h f r o m t h e T. Ray Grandstaff ’89, pictured here with his wife Stacey, ministers to Center for Bible En- athletes through the FCA Life Trainer app. gagement. The Nebraska entity found scriptural reading to be a better pre- of a relationship with Jesus, your life dictor of moral behavior than tradi- is characteristically different.”

Grandstaff’s personal involvement tional measures of spirituality such as with Fellowship of Christian Athletes church attendance and prayer.

Grandstaff is quick to point to the dates back to his junior high days in

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Brown University alumnus is providing customized devotions to athletes across the nation, a practice that mirrors his life’s calling.

T. Ray Grandstaff ’89 recently marked four years of service with the Life Trainer phone app that he helped launch and maintains on behalf of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Just like a personal fitness trainer, the Life Trainer app attempts to meet the spiritual needs and goals of believers in a variety of faith stages.

“We developed it because of the need to follow up with and follow through with young people who were coming to faith in Jesus,” Grandstaff said.

The former Brown University defensive back now serves as Arkansas director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), a position he has held since 2012. Grandstaff’s professional involvement with FCA dates back to 1989.

As for the Life Trainer, the application’s menu includes Scriptures, devotionals, and prayer reminders. In 2018, the free, confidential, and customizable phone app reached 20,500plus users. Among the app’s diverse followers, about 34 percent describe themselves as active followers of Christ.

Brown alumnus and author James Agresti ’88 has written 21 devotionals for the Life Trainer’s apologetics application. Much of the material derives from Rational Conclusions, his book evidencing factual support for the Bible across an array of academic

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Greenwood, Arkansas. “God made me an athlete,” he said.

At Brown Grandstaff participated in FCA, Cru, and other ministries.

“I felt like the Lord was calling me to Brown,” said Grandstaff. “I remember stepping onto Brown’s campus and falling in love with that school.”

Notably, he was associate producer of the hit film Woodlawn, a sports drama that was released in 2015. It was based on the story of former NFL running back Tony Nathan, a gifted African-American football player who joined the predominantly Caucasian football team at Woodlawn High

The phone app provides Bible verses to assist with more than a dozen common areas of struggle and temptation, as well as key verses to promote character and spiritual development.

As a collegiate believer, Grandstaff relished opportunities to share his faith.

Indeed, Grandstaff, also a father of four, has devoted much of his professional life to spreading the gospel via modern communications tools, mostly to teens and young adults.

School in Alabama in the early 1970s.

Coming full circle, Fellowship of Christian Athletes played a remarkable role in ushering the teachings that helped promote healing and unity at Woodlawn.

Among his vast ministry, media, and entertainment credentials, Grand-

staff also served as producer of a very popular syndicated radio show. Between 2011 and 2013, he helped reach thousands of teens and young adults through his stint as executive producer for Dawson McAllister Live and TheHopeLine.com.

Still, one of Grandstaff’s greatest joys is teaching coaches and athletes about the love of Christ and mentoring them on ways to serve and reach teammates and peers with the transformative gospel message.

That’s where biblical literacy comes into play. Through the Life Trainer, Grandstaff wants to equip Christian athletes to finish strong in life’s race.

Ultimately, “there is one relationship that is necessary,” said Grandstaff.

“We need to cultivate and point people to Jesus.” | cu

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The Pope Who Would Be King

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In his new book, The Pope Who Would Be King: The Exile of Pius IX and the Emergence of Modern Europe, Brown alumnus and social science professor David Kertzer details a major turning point in the history of the Catholic Church.

Kertzer ’69, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is one of the Brown faculty’s bestselling authors.

After receiving his

Ph.D. from Brandeis University, he taught at Bowdoin College until returning to Brown as an anthropology and history professor in 1992. Kertzer, the Paul Dupee Jr. University Professor of Social Science, was provost from 2006 to 2011.

Students Naïve About Drinking Dangers New research from Brown University shows that college students do not fully grasp the types of specific drinking behaviors that present the greatest risk of blackouts.

Given the serious nature

of alcohol-related memory impairment, Brown researchers conducted a series of focus groups to understand better student knowledge of the consequences of blackouts and so-called brownouts.

The findings showed that some students do not understand that biological factors — including biological sex and genetics — play a role in the risk of blackouts.

Researchers want to develop modules for prevention programs to address the risks of the highvolume, fast-paced drinking.

Consequences can include missed classes, overdoses, mental health problems, and sexual assault.

COLU M B I A | On Campus

Building Bridges M I N I S T RY H A S A H E A R T F O R I N T E R N AT I O N A L S T U D E N T S

By Samuel Jones, Columbia ’21

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multicultural group of Columbia University students gathered around a roasting lamb on a spit and discussed Christianity on a fall Saturday in New York. The event was one of the highlights of the semester for Bridges International, “a caring com-

Columbia University, University of Michigan, University of Texas, New York University, and Brown University, to name a few.

Kevin Niemann is one of the team members of Bridges International at Columbia University. Niemann and

mester. John was raised in a non-Christian country, and his grandmother was the only Christian in the family.

It was a tough decision for the young man to study abroad, but when he left home, his grandmother gave him a golden command. “Find the Chris-

Bridges International at Columbia hosts an annual mutton roast picnic to kick off the school year.

:: christianunion.org

tians! Become friends with the Christians!” she proclaimed.

While this young man sought out the Christian community for friendship, Niemann recollects another story of a young woman, “Kate,” whose connection to Bridges helped bring her to Christ. Defeated by her studies and resigned to go home on Christmas Eve, Kate’s bags were packed and she was ready to go. That same day, she found out that the airline had mishandled her ticket payment, leaving her with no ticket home.

Distraught, Kate went to a Christmas party that night where she met several of her friends, who also happened to be part of Bridges Interna-

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his wife moved to New York City six years ago to help foreign students tackle the disorientating and often disheartening experience of living in the Big Apple. While Niemann upholds that the ministry’s main focus is to boost cross-cultural friendships and community support, being able to introduce non-Christians to the teachings of Jesus is where the mission is rooted.

“95% of the people that participate in Bridges are not Christians at all,” Niemann says, “They are seekers, open to exploring the Bible in various ways.”

Niemann grins as he tells a story of a graduate student, “John,” that he met at the beginning of the fall se-

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munity of Christ-followers committed to serve, promote social connections, and engage in spiritual conversations with international students.”

Bridges, which seeks to develop these students for worldwide leadership impact, began in the mid-1980s.

As more foreign students started to come to the U.S. for higher education, especially from China, Bridges saw the need to help these students integrate into American society. Hence, not only does Bridges organize events such as the mutton roast, the organization also brings together young people from all over the world, looking to support and encourage them in their new home.

Today, Bridges has platforms at

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tional. Kate’s friends invited her to a Christian conference the next week.

Now, with a pocketful full of cash from the mishandled flight, she was happy enough to sign up. Niemann says that each time he saw Kate at the conference, she was deeply engaged with students and inquiring about why they would choose to be Christian.

When Kate returned to Columbia, she burst into the Bridges International Center and proclaimed: “I have decided to follow Jesus!” Niemann is happy to add that she is now plugged into her church and has been water baptized.

Niemann sees the work of the ministry relating back to the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20:

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”

But, instead of going across the world, Bridges seeks to be missionaries to those nations who stand right next to them in the classroom and on campus. | cu

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COLU M B I A | On Campus

Liberalism without God? V E R I TA S F O R U M F E AT U R E S R . R . R E N O A N D P R O F E S S O R M A R K L I L L A

By Nathan Barlow, Columbia ’20

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’15), a Christian Union alumnus and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, served as the moderator.

Lilla and Reno agreed on the problems that democratic society faces in the decades to come, but their solu-

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he fall semester’s Veritas Forum at Columbia featured R. R. Reno of First Things magazine and Columbia Professor of Humanities Mark Lilla in a discussion about the relationship between Christianity and liberalism. Luke Foster (Columbia

Photo credit: Christophe Dellory

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Photo credit: First Things

At this semester’s Veritas Forum, Columbia Professor Mark Lilla and First Things’ editor R.R. Reno discussed what Christianity has to offer a liberal society.

tions formed the substance of their differences. Following the moderated discussion, audience members were invited to continue the conversation at various tables.

Reno addressed the question, “Does the liberal project require Christianity?” He sketched two dimensions of a liberal society: empowerment and protection. Historically, Christianity naturally merged with the broad structure of these twin projects because it emphasized covenants, the desacralization of earthly authority, and the fact that God calls individuals to salvation. A post-Christian liberalism instead has tended towards excessive empowering of the individual, an “empire of desire,” in his words. For Reno, allegiance to God and obedience to Christ help society maintain a common project. As an example, he explained how the absence of common religious ideals led to results like the deep rip in the American fabric surrounding the 2016 election. A liberal society, therefore, is incomplete in a post-Christian culture.

anthropological divide and took up the question of how liberal societies can achieve the renewal they self-evidently need. Both agreed that the United States needed a revival of solidarity to bring us together and overcome our fractured situation. They argued in different ways that modern society’s problem is not a lack of virtue, but the wrong kind of virtues.

Reno recalled G. K. Chesterton’s quip, “The modern world is full of the old

Near the end of the discussion, moderator Luke Foster posed a question undoubtedly on the minds of many in attendance—doesn’t this emphasis on solidarity and the “we” run the risk of excluding the particular needs of individuals? Throughout the night, Reno had argued that Christian thought provided a “double moment”—at the same time, individuals and their missions matter greatly, but we can also have our ul-

Lilla focused on what he saw as the individualism of American Christianity, while Reno argued that societal leaders had abdicated their authority and lost the confidence of the led.

Christian virtues gone mad.” Lilla, an outspoken liberal opponent of identity politics, concurred. They agreed that secular society had emphasized a set of its own virtues.

Both continued to identify realms where a vision of the common good needed renewal. Lilla focused on what he saw as the individualism of American Christianity, while Reno argued that societal leaders had abdicated their authority and lost the confidence of the led.

timate faith in God’s providence. This tension, he argued, was required to uphold this very balance between the “we” and the individual “I.” Lilla, too, agreed that both solidarity and individuality were possible to hold at once.

In the end, Lilla may not have gotten the challenge to his liberal anthropology that he wanted. But through their agreements the interlocutors revealed that Christianity provides many of the resources necessary for democratic renewal. | cu

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Dr. Barker, born and raised in New York City, completed a doctorate in philosophy at the Center for Thomistic Studies (Houston).

He holds an M.A.

from the University of Paris (the Sorbonne) and a B.A. in Classical and Romance Languages from Harvard University, which included studies at the University of Seville, Spain.

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“What Makes a Person Good?”

The Thomistic Institute and Columbia Catholic Ministry cohosted a lecture entitled “What Makes a Person Good?” on November 15 at Corpus Christi Church. The event featured Professor Mark J. Barker of Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans.

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Lilla responded by casting doubt on the premises of the conversation, contending that Christianity was not a required common value of a successful free society. He also argued that our conception of “liberalism” might need adjusting. For Lilla, opponents of liberalism fail to address its claims about human nature. Lilla’s liberalism is primarily a way of living in the world that often entails the political structure, but it is crucial not to merge the two. As he presented it, his opponents too often took society for granted and criticized the seeming effects of liberalism without substituting their own underlying anthropology. Thus, he concluded, we can find the resources to rescue democratic society within the liberal tradition on its own. He recommended the values of republican citizenship and mutual duty. In order to show that their religion was necessary for liberalism, Christians would first need to show the insufficiency of the liberal conception of human nature.

Throughout the discussion, he held that his Christian critics had failed to do this satisfactorily.

Reno’s rejoinders aimed to show further why Biblical values unite with successful liberalism, but quickly the speakers set aside their fundamental

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COR N E LL | On Campus

Korean Faith, Friendship, and Fraternity C H U R C H E N A B L E S S T U D E N T S T O W O R S H I P, E M B R A C E E T H N I C H E R I TA G E

By Francine Barchett, Cornell ’19

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mericans from immigrant families face unique challenges as college students. One is in finding an accommodating house of worship, says Sung-Hoon Ahn, an elder at Emmaus Road Church at Cornell.

“At Emmaus, we serve students who come from an international back-

tional backgrounds.

Today non-Koreans play a role in Emmaus’ 35-member student ministry. One of its members is of Indian descent, while the current pastor is Caucasian. In the fall, Emmaus united with the First Ithaca Christian Chinese Church’s English Ministry

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Emmaus Church is the English-speaking division of Korean Church at Cornell (KCC).

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ground, either from family or other circumstances,” he explained. “Our church provides a fitting environment for them.”

Emmaus Road Church is the English-speaking division of Korean Church at Cornell (KCC), which leads weekly services at Anabel Taylor Hall. Although the church began in the 1970s for the benefit of Korean Americans, its mission has always included all students from interna-

to host its retreat. Chinese students currently make up about half of Emmaus attendees.

“When I first came to Emmaus, there were more Chinese people than Koreans,” recalled Christy Chong, a Korean-American junior majoring in chemistry who has been with Emmaus since her freshman year. Chong admitted that the church can seem like an East Asian “cultural bubble.” Yet since she was raised by parents who

grew up in Korea, she is comfortable within that community.

However, to balance her Emmaus life with interactions with believers of diverse backgrounds, Chong stays involved in other Christian ministries.

“Cornell was the first place and time in my life that I met genuine Christians who were not Korean,” she said.

Emmaus may be a perfect church for freshmen hoping to hang out with believers who also grew up with kimchi, Korean skin care appliances, and K-POP, but Chong asserts that something else attracted her there.

“I met several extremely strong Christians who were seniors at the time,” Chong reflected. “Their faith drew me in. They made me want to stay and grow to become as strong as they were.”

Chong has since been involved with Emmaus’ praise team, Bible study, and a women’s accountability group. Her friends have also participated in Emmaus’ spring break mission trips, which have gone to the Dominican Republic and Guatemala in the last few years.

While students not brought up in Latin American, Asian, African, or other “cultural bubbles” may see no point worshiping in a specialized Christian community, Emmaus experiences suggest that they might be missing out on something.

“Emmaus Road Church tries to provide Bible-centric messages and fellowship,” declared Ahn. He said the church’s core values of being Gospel focused, Christ-exalting, and Bi-

ble-saturated make it an institution accessible to anyone professing faith in Christ.

Chong agrees, adding that Emmaus’ church leadership makes a big

difference: “I really appreciate my pastor’s bold preaching style. I learned a lot of hard biblical truths from him because he wasn’t afraid to say them.”

She continued, “The only real

evidence that we are a Korean church is that we are affiliated with KCC and are served Korean food every Sunday.

I invite my white friends regularly and they have never felt excluded.” | cu

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COR N E LL | On Campus

Hip-Hop Dreams R U S S E LL ’19 S I G N S W ITH R E C O R D L AB E L

By Zachary Lee, Cornell ’20

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a 60’s Smokey jazz club, but his upbringing gives him a perspective seldom heard in hip-hop.”

Indeed, with tracks like “Get Back,” a groovy and up-tempo cut, and “Birthday,” a boom-bap track reminiscent of older styles of hip-hop, Russell has comfortably inserted himself with contemporary sounds, while doing something completely and uniquely him. In October, he dropped his debut project: a collaborative album with Ruslan entitled Via Text.

Described as “organic” with “varying styles,” the 10-track LP is proof not only of how far Russell has come musically, but that he can go bar for bar and chord for chord with hip-hop’s elite.

Despite this momentous achievement, Russell keeps it humble, joking that the celebrity life has not hit him yet and that he still attends classes like every other Cornellian.

“People sometimes come up to me and compliment me about my music,

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result. Likewise, each area has crafted an understanding of the racial and socioeconomic systems that shape the world, for the benefit of some and to the detriment of many. These are the themes that he hopes to tackle in his music.

Russell’s signing, like his upbringing, was unconventional. In 2017, King’s Dream signed alternative, R&B, and pop artist Jet Trouble, a Dallas native. Jet and Russell went to church together and like a good friend, Jet played some of Russell’s music for Ruslan, who set up a FaceTime call.

When it came time to officially sign the answer was obvious. “Paul is one of the most naturally talented artists I’ve met,” Ruslan said. “I always wondered if it’s nature or nurture when it comes to folks that have ‘it’ and if you know Paul’s story, it seems to be a combination of both. He has a unique God-given vocal cord that makes it feel like he’s straight out of

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ornell has many students who write and produce their own music and perform at local venues, but few can say they are officially signed as a recording artist. Paul Russell ’19 is the exception. This summer, Russell was announced as the newest artist with King’s Dream entertainment, a lifestyle brand and record label inspired by John 10:10 and founded by hip-hop artist Ruslan.

Past and present musicians have seen both critical and commercial success and have performed nationally and worldwide. Russell’s music fits right in with the label’s catalogue, and his melodic hip-hop vibes and fresh outlook on life makes him stand out.

For only being 21, Russell has experienced a lot. His family moved around in the Atlanta area before finally settling down in the small suburb of Allen, Texas. He credits his transient background as integral to developing his musical style, having adopted a love for jazz and blues as a

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Photo credit: Zach Sperazzo

Paul Russell ’19 was signed by King’s Dream Entertainment over the summer.

or request that people play it when I’m around, but that’s about it.” He thanks Ithaca for helping build a taste for the “small basement-esque music.”

If you listen to any one of Russell’s tracks, his faith likewise is immediately evident. In a time where a lot of debate happens on how overt or covert one ought to be with expressing faith in art, Russell is refreshingly honest.

On campus, he regularly attends a Bible study and interacts with students from a variety of faith backgrounds. He hopes that as people listen to his story, they will see how God shaped him through it.

“I want people to know me and I want to be honest and tell my story,” he said. “I also know that God has given me this platform for a reason, so I’m following Him. I see Him using my story to fulfill the purpose

He’s put on my life.”

Russell is grateful for where he is and excited for what is to come. “Before this summer, I was often afraid to share my music with people or to try to grow my connections in the music world because I didn’t want to be stereotyped as the wannabe rapper type,” he said. “As a black kid, I’ve grown up being afraid of that. I was almost too afraid to go through with working with King’s Dream, but now I’m really glad God helped me overcome that fear.”

It is encouraging to see that others believe in him, too. “After spending time with Paul, it’s obvious he’s a solid dude with a vision to help people,” Ruslan said, “If people lend their ear, they’ll probably be won over, regardless of their faith background or worldview.” | cu

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Love Transformed

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An episode of Cornell’s “What Makes Us Human” podcast series explored the complex relationship between love, early Christianity, and contemporary wedding practice.

“Love Transformed,” which aired in October, featured Kim Haines-Eitzen, the H. Stanley Krusen Professor of World Religions and director of the Religious Studies Program. HainesEitzen is a specialist in early Christianity, early Judaism, and religion in late antiquity.

The series is produced by the College of Arts and Sciences in collaboration with the Cornell Broadcast Studios and features

audio essays written and recorded

by Cornell faculty.

Measureless Hosts Outreach Concert Measureless, an a cappella group at Cornell, hosted its fall concert on November 11 at Klarman Hall.

The concert, the ministry’s largest outreach of the year, also featured guest performers and testimonies from members about how God is working in their lives. A Christian Union grant helped underwrite the event.

“We know that this period in the semester can be one of darkness and despair for many students, and we hope that through our music—which speaks of God’s love and the hope we can have—students will be introduced to Jesus, or grow closer to a relationship with Him,” said Ryan Kim, of Measureless.

D A R T M OU T H | On Campus

Evaluating Prose and the Bible TEAM USES SCRIPTURE TO HELP STYLE TRANSLATION RESEARCH

By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer

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Prose Style Transfer with the Bible for the October issue of Royal Society.

Among the other architects of the

Credit: Pixel Creative

Dartmouth computer science researchers studying text translators recently turned to the Bible to gather data.

high-profile project, Rockmore, Princeton ’84, Harvard Ph.D. ’89, is Dartmouth’s associate dean for the sciences. As for Riddell, the Indiana University academician was a fellow

are not novel, the Dartmouth effort represented the first to harness the linguistic content within the wide body of scriptural translations. Other text sources, including Shakespearian plays and Wikipedia entries, proved sub-optimal as data sets for computer-generated style translations.

As an added benefit, the Bible is already thoroughly indexed by consistent book, chapter, and verse numbers. The predictable organization of the material across versions eliminates the risk of alignment errors that could be trigged by automatic methods of matching textual versions.

Rockmore went so far as to call the Good Book a “divine data set” for this and future projects. “Humans have been performing the task of organizing Bible texts for centuries, so we didn’t have to put our faith into less reliable alignment algorithms,” he said.

For the project, the team initially looked at 34 stylistically distinct Bible translations, ranging in linguistic complexity from the King James adaption to the Bible in Basic English version. While the King James Version features a distinctive, archaic voice, the Bible in basic English is meant to

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in Dartmouth’s Neukom Institute from 2013 to 2016.

In late 2018, the trio generated headlines after being the first team of researchers to utilize the Bible to advance the field of computer-generated style translation.

While so-called parallel datasets

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—Keith Carlson

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“The English-language Bible comes in many different written styles, making it the perfect source text to work with for style translation.”

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hile Internet tools to translate text between languages are widely available, style translators have lagged behind. Until recently, application developers have been frustrated in their efforts to improve style translators because of the challenges associated with acquiring adequate quantities and calibers of data.

Big Green scholars turned to the Bible, which provided “a large, previously untapped dataset of aligned parallel text,” according to Dartmouth researchers.

“The English-language Bible comes in many different written styles, making it the perfect source text to work with for style translation,” said Keith Carlson, a doctoral student in computer science and lead author of the research initiative.

Each version of the Bible contains 31,000-plus verses, which the researchers used to produce more than 1.5 million distinct pairings of source and target verses for machine-learning training sets.

Carlson heralded his team’s advancements on behalf of the intersection of the technological and literary sectors and future applications.

“While we present these data as a style-transfer corpus, we believe that it is of unmatched quality and may be useful for other natural language tasks as well,” wrote Carlson for Royal Society Open Science.

Carlson teamed up with Dartmouth Professor Daniel Rockmore and Indiana University Assistant Professor Allen Riddell to pen Evaluating

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be understood by readers with limited vocabulary.

The academicians then took into account some practical and legal considerations.

Upon closer examination, the men “found that seven of these collected versions are in the public domain and thus can be freely distributed,” Carlson noted. Additionally, the license for the Lexham English Bible allows for free distribution.

Thus, eight public versions created the corpus at the heart of the Dartmouth style-translation project.

The Dartmouth trio took on the ground-breaking initiative because individual languages offer multiple ways to convey similar concepts.

“Our systems aim to produce text with the same meaning as the original, but do so with different words,” said Carlson.

Dartmouth College has a rich

history of innovation in computer science. The term “artificial intelligence” was coined at Dartmouth during a 1956 conference that created the actual discipline. Other advancements include the design of BASIC — the first general-purpose and accessible programing language — and the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System that contributed to the modern operating system. | cu

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D A R T M OU T H | On Campus

A Statesman and Orator DANIEL WEB S TER IS DARTMOUTH’S MOS T INFLUENTIAL ALUMNUS

By Rick Beyer, Dartmouth ’78 Editor’s note: In recognition of Dartmouth’s 250th anniversary in 2019, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine named Daniel Webster, a devout Christian, as the college’s most influential alumnus. The publication’s Top 25 can be found at www. dartmouthalumnimagazine.com. Reprinted with permission.

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ven U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall had tears in his eyes that March day in 1818 as Daniel Webster reached the climax of his impassioned four-hour argument. Webster, class of 1801, fixed his intense gaze on Marshall and uttered the words every Dartmouth graduate knows: “It is, as I have said, sir, a small college, but there are those who love it.” Trustees of Dartmouth v.

Woodward was one of more than 200 cases Webster argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, many of them landmark rulings that shaped our interpretation of the Constitution. But the orator and statesman known as “the godlike Daniel” left a far greater imprint.

A swarthy complexion and jetblack hair earned this Salisbury, New Hampshire, native the nickname

selected as the valedictory speaker.

Soon after, he took up the law. Told that the field was too crowded, he allegedly replied: “There’s always room at the top.” That’s certainly where he wound up.

“For over a century and maybe more,” current U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts told Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, “Daniel Webster represented for Americans what a lawyer was, both good and bad.”

Webster was a prolific Supreme Court advocate, often arguing more than 10 cases a year. The court frequently drew on Webster’s words in decisions that staked out broad powers for the federal government.

Portrait of Daniel Webster (Black Dan) by Today a small bronze statue of Francis Alexander, oil on canvas. him adorns the lawyers’ lounge at the high court. “The gaze on “Black Dan.” His titanic ego was ev- the statue is so stern it always had the ident early—he skipped his Dart- effect of scaring me,” says Roberts, mouth graduation because he wasn’t who frequently argued cases there

before being appointed chief justice.

“I suspect Webster had that effect on others in real life.”

Webster reached his greatest heights in the U.S. Senate, where he fought to preserve the union in the face of a growing North-South divide.

Today New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen sits at Webster’s Senate desk.

“It’s humbling to have the desk of someone with such a profound legacy,” she says. “Webster’s great speeches in defense of our union delivered many timeless truths that are just as relevant today as when they echoed through the old Senate chamber.”

Webster’s fierce eyes, deep voice, commanding presence, and carefully researched arguments produced a stunning impact. His powerful speeches in Congress and around the country cultivated a national spirit

that had barely existed before.

In January 1830, he gave perhaps the most eloquent address in Senate history: his celebrated reply to South Carolina Senator Robert Hayne, who had proclaimed that states should be able to ignore or “nullify” federal laws they disliked. Webster’s fiery dissent: Nullification would rip the country apart. “Liberty and union, one and inseparable, now and forever!” he thundered, earning him the accolade “Defender of the Constitution.” In far-off Illinois, newly minted lawyer Abraham Lincoln was among those he inspired.

Webster could be arrogant, profligate, and venal. He made many enemies—John Quincy Adams said he had a “rotten heart.” He hungered to be president, but when he ran in 1836 he came in the last of four candidates.

Webster was secretary of state for three presidents. He negotiated an important treaty with Great Britain and established a self-defense doctrine still used in international law. At age 68, back in the Senate, he made his last great speech on behalf of the Compromise of 1850, seeking to forestall a crisis between North and South. “I wish to speak today not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American,” he began. Secession was averted, but the respite was fleeting—war came a decade later.

Webster’s stand cost him dearly. His supporters repudiated him as a traitor.

The senator resigned but remained resolute. “I shall stand by the union… with absolute disregard of personal consequences.” As fitting an epitaph as any for one of the towering statesmen of the 19th century. | cu

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Integrare Hosts Expert on Millennials

Dartmouth College will commemorate the 250th

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Dartmouth Celebrates 250th

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complicated relationship with Christian faith and the church.

A Christian Union grant helped underwrite the event.

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Dr. John Seel

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Cultural analyst John Seel was the featured guest when Integrare at Dartmouth hosted its quarterly, outreach-oriented dinner for professors, administrative leaders, coaches, and select students on November 5 at the Hanover Inn. Seel, the former director of cultural engagement at the John Templeton Foundation, is a consultant, writer, and cultural renewal entrepreneur.

Integrare also hosted a byinvitation breakfast the next morning for campus ministry leaders, local pastors, and key lay leaders. Seel talked specifically about his research and writing on Millennials and their more

anniversary of its founding throughout 2019 with a slate of celebrations, academic and arts programming, and a service opportunity for the entire Dartmouth community. The theme of the 250th celebration is “Honoring Our Past, Inspiring Our Future.”

The college was founded in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, a Congregational minister from Connecticut. Wheelock, the first president of the college, wanted to establish a school for native Americans that included secular and religious training. He also created the school’s motto, “Vox clamantis in deserto” (“a voice crying in the wilderness”).

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H A RVA RD | On Campus

From College Station to Cambridge “ M Y F A I T H H A S G R O W N S T R O N G E R AT H A R VA R D ”

By Lauren Spohn, Harvard ’20 Editor’s note: The following article is reprinted with permission from the Harvard Ichthus, a journal of Christian thought and expression produced by undergraduates (www.harvardichthus. org). Lauren Spohn, a junior, is an English concentrator.

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came to Harvard armed with C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity and Timothy Keller’s The Reason for God. I came prepared for professors to attack my beliefs and for peers to laugh at my faith in Jesus Christ. My parents, pastors, and friends told me with wrinkled foreheads that the Ivy League is where Christians go to “get secularized.” Gear up your apologetics! Find a church fast—if you can find one! Harvard, they warned, is strictly atheist.

But they were wrong. Harvard is not atheist; it is agnostic—which makes it easy to be a Christian, but much harder to be a follower of Christ.

For the past seven years, I have lived in College Station, Texas, the proud home of Texas A&M University, where most people believe in Aggie football almost as much as they believe in God. Kyle Field Stadium, glorious in its $450 million renovations, dominates the suburban skyline. All roads converge at a college apartment complex, a Tex-Mex chain, or a church. Pick-up trucks are slapped with cross stickers, social media bios are covered with Bible verses, and most conversations begin with “Howdy!” and end with “Gig ’Em and God Bless!” So, after my acceptance letter arrived in the mail, I spent

my last months in Texas preparing for a cultural and spiritual shock. I was moving from the epicenter to the fringes of cultural Christianity, and I expected to be confronted, challenged, and criticized for my faith.

The reality has been much less dramatic, for better and for worse. There are almost as many churches in Cambridge as in College Station. They are different—some have rainbow flags in

Lauren Spohn

the windows and meet in mini-cathedrals, others have no windows and meet in Porter Square—but most streets still converge at a church. There are enough Christian ministries on campus to spell the whole alphabet with their acronyms. I thought finding a Bible study would be difficult for a lack of options, not an overwhelming variety of them. No one has ridiculed, scoffed, or thrown stones at my faith.

Deans, proctors, teaching fellows, and

peers have discussed religion with tip-toeing respect. I have received countless e-mails extolling Harvard’s religious diversity and encouraging open acceptance of all faiths. No one has made a comment, gesture, or micro-expression that hints at intolerance.

No one has even asked why I am a Christian. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, the proud home of Harvard University, most people believe in respecting what others believe— almost more than most people believe what they believe themselves.

In this sterilely respectful environment, following Christ should be easier than it is in College Station. Surrounded by cultural religion at home, I often dozed into an attitude of “Christianity by osmosis.” In College Station, it was the norm to be a Christian; it was easy to tune into Peace 107.7, listen to radio worship songs 24/7, and feel in touch with God simply by conforming to the gospel culture.

Complacency in my relationship with Christ was a frequent, dangerous consequence of this effortless accessibility to the Christian mainstream. But never forced to take initiative in my faith, I often slipped into spiritual stagnancy. I was always a Christian, but taking my spirituality for granted frequently kept me from following Christ in a personal, ever-deepening relationship.

Harvard’s religious agnosticism, where diversity is the highest good

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itan woman, and in Matthew 28, He commissions us to bring the gospel to all nations of the world. But true love can only be founded in Truth— with a capital “T.” How can we claim to love God’s people and yet permit them to live cut off from “the way, the Truth, and the life” (John 14:6)— in the name of religious tolerance? If we are following Christ in a deeply personal relationship, our faith is more than a distinguishing characteristic or our purpose in life. It is who we are; it is the reason for life at all. In respecting peers of all religious backgrounds, we must remember we are called not to tolerate, but to love in Truth, in Jesus Christ, who we claim as the only Lord and Savior.

From College Station to Cambridge, and from cultural Christianity to religious agnosticism, being a Christian is easier than being a follower of Christ. Traps of complacency and truth-dilution lie at every step of our walk with the Lord, and I thank Jesus Christ every day for His unfathomable grace—without which I would surely fall into every snare (and still manage to almost always do). But God’s Truth—redemption through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ—is bigger than Texas A&M’s mainstream culture and Harvard’s diluted veritas. Though any college campus cuts a difficult path, Jesus already walked the most difficult path. He has already picked up the cross, and it is up to us—no matter where we are—to pick up our own cross daily and follow Him. | cu

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my identity that is no different—no more spiritual or valuable or true— from the next student’s belief in another faith, or lack thereof.

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis warns against this abuse of the personal possessive pronoun. Men, he writes, have learned to say “My God” in a sense not really very different from “my boots,” and at Harvard, “my concentration,” “my extracurricular activities,” or “my hometown.” To value all religious beliefs equally is to dilute all beliefs to limp, lukewarm identifiers.

If all spiritual convictions share the same truth-value, they become little more than preferences, things we participate in like extracurricular clubs, or items we wear, like boots.

Only at this heavy price can Harvard embrace all religious faiths as equally valid. Only by denying Truth with a capital “T” can our college community—as a faculty speaker mentioned at Freshman Convocation—pursue its “varying standards of truth.” Harvard is agnostic not because it flatly denies the existence of veritas, but because it insists veritas exists everywhere—and thus nowhere at all. Living in this community, it is no more difficult to be a Christian than it is to be a Muslim, or an atheist, or a Hindu, or an agnostic, or anything else. Everyone has a right to his or her own truth.

But living in Harvard’s agnosticism, following Christ is harder. We are undoubtedly called to love those of different faiths. In John 4, Jesus shares the water of life with a Samar-

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and intolerance the lowest vice, should offer the optimal opportunity for spiritual growth: a balance between the hostility of an atheistic environment and the complacency of a Christian culture. With no open assault on my faith, I have never been discouraged, and with no cultural assumptions, I have never slipped into superficial religious feeling. I have been forced to take initiative in my relationship to Christ, to actively seek the Lord if I want to know Him, and as a result, my faith has grown stronger than it likely would have in College Station. The Christian friends I have met here, in the same absence of negative and positive religious pressures, have challenged and encouraged me to hungrily seek Christ. As I have lived in this environment that neither attacks nor presupposes my beliefs, but simply accepts them, my faith has changed from my family’s faith and my culture’s faith to become my faith.

From this, Harvard’s religious agnosticism seems almost more conducive to spiritual growth than Texas A&M’s cultural Christianity. But by accepting all beliefs at face value, this university still makes being a Christian easier than following Christ. On a campus where all religious convictions are embraced as equally valid, it is easy to start using the wrong possessive pronoun when talking about God. In so many conversations, “my faith” has become a way to distinguish myself from others. I am tempted to itemize “my belief in Christ” as I do “my home culture” — it is a part of

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H A RVA RD | On Campus

A Platform for the Pro-Life Movement S T U D E N T O R G A N I Z AT I O N I S A C T I V E , E N E R G I Z E D AT H A R VA R D

By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer

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tudents involved with a Harvard versary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s always surprised we have a pro-life University organization are step- decision in the landmark Roe vs. group on campus.”

With a commitment to protecting ping up to champion the value of hu- Wade case. The overall goal of the man life. On campus and beyond, march – considered the nation’s most life at the forefront, Harvard Right they are quick to use their status as attended display of activism – is to to Life was busy and fruitful during the fall semester. Once a Harvard students to lend month, students involved credibility and voice to the with the organization venpro-life movement. tured to central Boston to In recent months, offer sidewalk counseling student participants in outside a Planned ParentHarvard Right to Life hood facility. (harvardrighttolife.org) In September, thirteen have funneled their talents Harvard students trekked and passions into offering to Yale University for Vita a public witness on behalf et Veritas 2018, a conferof the unborn. In January, ence focused on the interthe students displayed section of science and the their collegiate banner for th pro-life movement. In the 46 -annual March for recent decades, anti-aborLife on the National Mall. tion leaders have increasThey also made arrangeingly rallied the power of ments to attend Students scientific evidence to profor Life of America’s Namote their cause. The sixth tional Conference in Upannual Vita et Veritas per Marlboro, Maryland. conference drew 130-plus Kelley Babphavong people and featured a ’20, former president of powerful lineup of speakHarvard Right to Life, ers. Major presenters insaid, contrary to popular cluded William Hurlbut belief, “There are a lot of Pro-life activist Lila Rose (left) and Kelley Babphavong ’20, (Stanford ’68, MD ’74), millennials who do care past president of Harvard Right to Life a renowned bioethicist about pro-life matters.” and physician, and NikoTrumpeting collegiate voices at the March for Life is para- overturn the decision that legalized las Nikas, co-founder, president, and general counsel of Bioethics Defense abortion in the United States. mount for pro-life activism.

With their crimson banner and Fund.

“We’re marching in solidarity,” In November, the student orgaBabphavong said. “It’s always really matching T-shirts, members of Harmoving. It’s a good bonding trip for vard Right to Life typically generate nization hosted a Boston Leadership us to get to know why being active in attention during the annual pilgrim- Workshop on behalf of Students for the pro-life movement is important.” age. “It’s always a reaction of shock,” Life of America. About 75 students The annual event marks the anni- said Babphavong. “A lot of people are from across the Northeast attended

the event on November 10 at Harvard’s Student Organization Center at Hilles. Workshops centered on helping undergraduates to improve leadership and communications skills and better articulate their viewpoints amidst current events. Major speakers included Abigail Young, New England regional coordinator for Students for Life of America, and Kate Maloney, the Northeast regional coordinator.

Babphavong and her Harvard peers sought to offer solidarity and support to their college visitors in their efforts to affirm the pro-life outlook on their home campuses.

In another highlight for Harvard

Right to Life, Babphavong appeared on a CBS station in Washington, D.C., after marching for several days in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in NIFLA v. Becerra.

While interning over the summer in the District of Columbia, the government major offered a pro-life viewpoint to WUSA 9 in reaction to the top court’s opinion.

On June 26, the Supreme Court handed a victory to the pro-life community after ruling California cannot compel crisis-pregnancy centers to display signs about state-sponsored abortion services. Many of the centers have a religious mission.

The court’s decision was a high point for Babphavong, who devoted her summer to The Heritage Foundation’s Young Leaders Program and Students for Life of America’s Wilberforce Leadership Fellowship.

Given the need for greater awareness in the pro-life arena, Babphavong is mulling options to devote part of her career to the cause. The Rhode Island native became passionate for respecting the dignity of all life after attending Vita et Veritas at Yale.

“The idea of abortion being safe, legal, and rare is just not the case anymore,” she said. “We need to push back, especially on college campuses.” | cu

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Under Construction Jams with Living Waters

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Spiritual practices during childhood and adolescence may serve as protective factors for a range of health and well-being outcomes in early adulthood, according to a study from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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Benefits of Spirituality

Individuals who attended weekly religious services or practiced daily prayer as youths reported greater life satisfaction in their 20s. They were less likely to experience depression, smoke, use illegal drugs, or have sexually transmitted diseases, researchers found.

“Many children are raised religiously, and our study shows that this can powerfully affect their health behaviors, mental health, and overall happiness and wellbeing,” said data scientist Ying Chen, Sc.D. ’16. The American Journal of Epidemiology published the study in September.

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On November 16, a cappella groups Under Construction, of Harvard, and Living Waters, of Yale, teamed up for the “Underwater Jam” in the Science Center at Harvard University. The concert was held on the eve of the 135th edition of “The Game” between the Harvard and Yale football teams, which was played at Fenway Park in Boston.

Founded in 1992, Under Construction seeks to “combine musical excellence with a mission

to spread the good news of Christ’s love for everyone.” The group’s name is derived from Philippians 1:6: “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

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P E N N | On Campus

Worshipful Harmonies

FULL MEASURE , NEW SPIRIT OF PENN GLORIF Y GOD WITH CONCERTS

By Cassandra Jobman, Penn ’21

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ull Measure, the University of Pennsylvania’s only Christian a cappella group, showcased its love for the Lord during its winter concert, Searchlight. On November 17 at

Full Measure’s mission statement reads: “In acknowledgement and celebration of God’s sovereignty, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we seek to worshipfully compel others to know

and long and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God.”

Photo credit: Tonjanika Smith

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The New Spirit of Penn Gospel Choir

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Meyerson Hall, eleven voices joined in harmony as one member, Gloria Kim, took center stage. Above the spontaneous shouts and yells from the crowd, Kim smoothly belted Lauren Daigle’s song, “You Say.” In addition to songs by Daigle, the event also featured music by Hillsong Young and Free, Tori Kelly, and Coldplay.

Kim, a sophomore nursing major, has been with Full Measure since her first semester at Penn. After meeting the group during an orientation event, she was “drawn to the mission and community.”

Jesus more through music and our lives.”

Founded in the Spring of 1991, Full Measure was formed “to bring a Christian message into the burgeoning a cappella scene on the Penn campus.” The name “Full Measure” is derived from Ephesians 3:16-19, “I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power, through his spirit, in your inner being, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and high

In preparation for concerts, Full Measure has weekly rehearsals. These practices are not only focused on logistics, but on praying for one another and creating space for authentic fellowship. Kim said members are like a family, constantly encouraging one another to “love and serve the Lord.”

Despite the seamlessness of their most recent concert, Kim said it was nothing short of a miracle due to some complications. Full Measure entered the semester unsure if the performance would even happen. However, Kim credited God’s provision for surpassing the group’s needs and “or-

helped underwrite the event.

“Through music and dance, we hope to inspire believers and seekers alike to learn what it is like to cast their burdens on Christ and let the Spirit guide their paths,” said Ajiboye.

The New Spirit of Penn Gospel Choir was founded in the 19881989 academic year by Ashon Crawley, ’02. The choir’s statement of purpose reads: “As a group focused on ministry, the New Spirit of Penn New Spirit of Penn GosThe New Spirit of pel Choir shall spread the Penn Gospel Choir (NSP) word of the Lord through celebrated its 20th anniversong and help to serve as sary in style. On Saturday, a catalyst for change in December 1, the group Full Measure is Penn’s only Christian a Cappella group. the spiritual lives of those hosted its fall concert, affiliated with the Univer“Forever Faithful,” at the temporary hits. The songs were ac- sity of Pennsylvania, as well as in the Iron Gate Theatre in Philadelphia.

“We are thanking God for how companied by appearances by surrounding communities.”

The theme verse for the 20th anfar NSP has come and how far it will alumni, praise dances, and testimogo. The theme was ‘Forever Faithful’ nies. The concert also provided an niversary concert was Hebrews 10:23, because God has been so faithful for opportunity for people to give their “We must continue to hold firmly to us throughout these 20 years,” said lives to Christ in the form of an in- our declaration of faith. The one who vitational. A Christian Union grant made the promise is faithful.” | cu Bosede Ajiboye.

chestrating everything to work out according to His plan.”

“It was surreal,” she said.

As Full Measure led the crowd in worship during Hillsong’s “Broken Vessels,” the Lord’s presence was undeniable. Among the harmonies of voice and lifted hands, Full Measure’s mission to share Christ through worship was indeed accomplished.

At the concert, NSP reached out to college students and those in the Greater Philadelphia community with a variety of music in the Gospel genre, including original songs, medleys, and adaptations of traditional and con-

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“We are beset by rising antiSemitism — make no mistake about it; Growing intolerance — make no mistake about it; and inexcusable vitriol from elected leaders, erosion of our values and the civil norms of a decent society,” said Gutmann, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian.

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Penn President Amy Gutmann, University Chaplain Rev. Charles Howard, and Hillel Senior Jewish Educator and Rabbi Joshua Bolton were among the speakers at a vigil on College Green this fall that

honored the lives of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting victims. On October 27, a gunman killed 11 worshipers and wounded six others at the Tree of Life synagogue in eastern Pittsburgh. One of the victims was Penn alumnus Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz (C’73, M’77), who was killed when he attempted to aid the injured.

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PR I N C E T O N | On Campus

The Case for Being Chaste

O R G A N I Z AT I O N H O S T S S E X U A L I T Y, I N T E G R I T Y, A N D T H E UNIVERSIT Y CONFERENCE

By Jon Garaffa, Princeton ’20

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starting first by living them out.

“LFN seeks to uphold the dignity of persons above all, and that resonates deeply with my Catholic faith, which calls me always to think, speak, and act out of love and for the good of others,” said Julia Mosby ’19, former co-president of Princeton’s Anscombe Society, an affiliate of LFN. “We can’t be perfect, but we can, as communities, come together and seek love in a way that helps us grow together and as a society.”

The conference consisted primarily of speakers that came to champion these causes, each with a question and answer Attendees of Love and Fidelity Network’s 2018 conference: Sexuality, session after their keyIntegrity, and the University note. Dr. Tim Rarick of Brigham Young Dame, Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, University Idaho spoke on how faand the University of Pennsylvania, therlessness and a highly sexualized culture are connected, encouraging as well as Princeton.

Advocating values of traditional young men to prepare themselves for marriage, chastity, and healthy dating, the demands of fatherhood in the the Love and Fidelity Network (LFN) future. Princeton’s own Professor Robhopes to counter the common ideas ert P. George (Harvard Theology ’81, toward sexuality that prevail at uni- Law ’81) gave some special remarks versities, particularly the hook-up on how challenging it can be to mainculture. Instead, students are taught tain these traditional beliefs and what to value marriage as an institution that courage is needed to fight for what is supports a stable family and combats right. Finally, students were invited many societal problems. A core issue to take part in an interactive panel discussed is how one can bring these with three professionals to discuss how values to light in a university setting, they navigate both professional life

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n the weekend of October 26, students from a wide range of colleges across the country came to Princeton to attend the annual Sexuality, Integrity, and the University Conference hosted by the Love and Fidelity Network. Students in attendance came from universities like Notre

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and family life with their spouses.

“The speakers were excellent, but what made the conference great was the ample opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals,” stated Tommy Martinson ’21, president of Princeton’s chapter of the Anscombe Society. “There was a networking event in which a number of college groups set up tables to talk about their efforts on campus. This network of other campus organizers has given me much insight and encouragement for my own efforts to promote marriage, family, and chastity at Princeton.”

While neither explicitly religious, LFN and Anscombe have many religious members. The conference was a success for advocating the moral life, encouraging its attendees to follow values not only espoused by Christ, but also found in the natural law written on our hearts (Romans 2:15).

“I must say first that the ideas LFN stands for are not religious in nature,” stated Martinson. “Children are best served when they are raised by a mother and father who truly love one another. Pornography and the hookup culture both pose threats to the family, contributing to increased divorce rates, fatherlessness, and unhappiness.” The conference had a strong emphasis on statistical support for these claims, with backing from both social science and hard science.

“One of the highlights for me was getting to hear the sociological research on what we were exploring,” stated Alexia Martinez ’20. “Tools like

science and research help us understand God’s truths. I appreciated being able to hear research, start discussions, and ask questions on the effects of pornography and the problems brought to light by the #MeToo movement. This helps me better understand why I believe what I do about respect for each other as human

persons and gives me tools to start conversations with others.”

Already, students are realizing the new way of life offered to them by these values. “Once, someone I barely knew told me that after a conversation we had at an Anscombe anti-porn event, he resolved to stop watching pornography,” declared

Martinson. “Who knows how many people his life decision will affect?”

Clearly, the Love and Fidelity Network is fighting the good fight in preparing students for a lifetime of challenging questions as future leaders in the home and workplace. | cu

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PR I N C E T O N | On Campus

The University and Intellectual Life

W I T H E R S P O O N I N S T I T U T E H O S T S T H O U G H T- P R O V O K I N G S E M I N A R S Jon Garaffa, Princeton ’20

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The Witherspoon Institute, while not a religious organization, has had a profound influence on how students come to understand their faith at Princeton.

is and the Abolition of Man; Heroes and Saints: Myths and Legends; and Rhetoric: Living Well and Speaking Well.

The Witherspoon Institute was founded to aid the public in understanding how a civilized society is grounded. It encourages students to examine their sphere of moral influence on the world. As a research institute, it seeks to tackle modern problems by examining them closely through a combination of philosophical, political, and economic approaches. Unique in its approach is its affirmation of an objective truth and its emphasis on living a noble life in pursuit of that truth.

The seminars have grown

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art of Princeton’s intellectual tradition is its roundtable discussions, or “precepts,” complementary to its lectures. Many courses meet weekly in small groups to discuss the material taught in class, going deeper into the readings and asking difficult questions. With this comes the benefits of a more intimate talk, where other students’ perspectives can be heard.

This semester, the Witherspoon Institute’s Center on the University and Intellectual Life offered four biweekly seminars for intellectual formation. An exemplary model of this smaller roundtable style, these seminars eventually brought in up to 25 students at a time, with some students regularly attending all four. The four seminars offered were: On Becoming Somebody: Attachment and Responsibility; Passion and Freedom: C.S. Lew-

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since their start. The conversations started at Witherspoon often continue long after each session has ended.

“Remarkably, the tremendous surge in popularity that Witherspoon has enjoyed during these past few years is not the result of intensive advertising

Witherspoon, while not a religious organization, has had a profound influence on how students come to understand their faith. “Last year, Witherspoon gave me the opportunity to crystallize the insights that I had gained during my undergraduate

The Witherspoon Institute was founded to aid the public in understanding how a civilized society is grounded.

It encourages students to examine their sphere of moral influence on the world. campaigns or blasting listservs,” stated Joe Perez-Benzo ’17, research associate of the Institute and teacher of the rhetoric seminar. “Rather, Witherspoon has spread exclusively through word of mouth. Friends bring friends, roommates bring roommates. This organic growth has created a vibrant community of friends dedicated to the perennial human questions at the Witherspoon Institute.”

years about arguing for the truth of faith by relying on our God-given reason,” said Perez-Benzo. “Christians at secular universities need to study the vast two-thousand-year intellectual tradition of Christianity, from Paul and Augustine to Aquinas and Newman, so that they can present the most compelling case for Christ using the resources of reason, given that most of their peers will reject the au-

thority of revelation.”

Witherspoon also values the arts as a look into our human condition.

It hosts the Witherspoon Shakespeare Society, which evolved out of a popular poetry seminar last year. “The interest in the Witherspoon Shakespeare Society has astounded me,” said Perez-Benzo. “That there are students who eagerly await spending a Thursday night reading and acting out an entire Shakespearean drama inspires me. I was especially moved when one of the students told me earlier this year that reading through Much Ado About Nothing was one of the most fun nights of his life.”

Notably, many students who have been a part of the Witherspoon Institute seminars have later come to believe in God or have become more orthodox in their Christian practice.

Overall, the Witherspoon Institute continues to spark crucial dialogue on campus about choosing the righteous path in life. | cu

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Manna Lecture Focuses on Immigration

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As a highlight of the fall semester, Manna Christian Fellowship welcomed a University of Cambridgeeducated scholar to deliver a public lecture at Princeton University on immigration issues.

Alister Chapman On November

8, the ministry hosted an appearance by historian and author Alister Chapman at McCormick Hall. Chapman gave a talk entitled Immigration: How It Became the World’s Dominant Political Issue, and What We Can Do About It. Among topics, Chapman examined the economic, political, and geopolitical factors propelling immigration into the spotlight in the United States and across the globe. During an earlier dinner with students, Chapman also discussed faith and ambition among Christians.

Vespers Service On December 9, students involved with Athletes in Action, Manna Christian Fellowship, Princeton Christian Fellowship, and Princeton Faith and Action assembled for an inter-ministry Vespers service at McCosh Hall.

Manna Executive Director Joel Ristuccia delivered a holiday message, and the students enjoyed a selection of Christmas carols and Scriptures.

S TA N FORD | On Campus

Stanford’s Christian Roots FOUNDERS SOUGHT TO INS TILL “LOVE OF GOD AND HUMANIT Y”

By Justin Woyak and Sarah Camp

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ture was Memorial Church, overtly Christian in its design and ornamentation. Concerning its services, Jane Stanford said (in an address in 1902 which formally amended Stanford’s founding charter), “theological questions, services, and observances upon which the sects differ should not be entered upon, so that members of

Faith, Hope, and Charity.

Because the Stanfords stated a chief object of their university was to instill into students’ minds “a love of God and humanity,” they erected Memorial Church as a place where “all those who love Our Lord Jesus Christ” might worship, and placed love and charity at the corners of its

Photo credit: Shutterstock

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foundation.

While Stanford’s unofficial motto on the university seal—die Luft der Freiheit weht, “The wind of freedom blows”—seems unrelated to Christian doctrine, the context of the original utterance is that of Martin Luther’s trial at the Diet of Worms. “The wind of freedom blows” is a quote from humanist Ulrich von Hutten, which he uttered while Luther was on trial at the Diet of Worms.

Stanford’s first president, David Starr Jordan, translated some of Hutten’s poetry and published a short

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every church may worship and receive instruction …. All those who love our Lord Jesus Christ may partake of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper at stated intervals in the Memorial Church.”

The three theological virtues— faith, hope, and charity—adorn the lower facade of Memorial Church in the form of four angelic figures. The final and preeminent virtue of the triad—charity (from the Latin caritas; 1 Cor 13:13)—is doubled (by the synonym “love”) so that the four figures (from left to right) are Love,

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alifornia senator, former governor, and railroad magnate Leland Stanford and his wife, Jane, founded Stanford University in 1885 in honor of their only son, Leland, Jr., who died of typhoid the previous year.

In the founding grant, the Stanfords assigned eighteen duties to the Board of Trustees. The fourteenth reads: “the Trustees … shall have power, and it shall be their duty … to prohibit sectarian instruction, but to have taught in the University the immortality of the soul, the existence of an all-wise and benevolent Creator, and that obedience to His laws is the highest duty of man.”

In a letter to the trustees accompanying the founding grant of the university, the Stanfords wrote: “the object is not alone to give the student a technical education, fitting him for a successful business life, but it is also to instill into his mind an appreciation of the blessings of this Government, a reverence for its institutions, and a love of God and humanity, to the end that he may go forth and by precept and example spread the great truths by the light of which his fellow men will be elevated and taught how to obtain happiness in this world, and in the life eternal.”

The Stanfords stipulated that the school be nonsectarian. In today’s parlance this may mean secular, but in the Stanfords’ context it meant the school was to be “entirely free from all denominational alliances,” or non-denominational. The crowning jewel of Stanford’s original architec-

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biographical sketch of him. Of Luther’s stand and Hutten’s response, Jordan wrote: “Now came the great Diet at Worms, whither Luther was called before the Emperor to answer for his heretical teachings, and before which

peddlers! Touch no longer the altar with your desecrating hands. What have ye to do with the alms of our fathers, which were given for the poor and the Church, and you spend for splendor, pomp, and foolery, while the children suffer for bread? See you

The rallying cry to freedom in education, as in life, was mirrored in the frontier-like atmosphere of the western United States where Stanford was established. he stood firm and undaunted, a noble figure which has been a turning point in history. ‘Here I stand. I can do nothing else. God help me.’ ” Hutten, on his sick-bed at Ebernburg, not far away, was full of wrath at the trial of Luther.

“Away!” he shouted, “away from the clear fountains, ye filthy swine!

Out of the sanctuary, ye accursed

not that the wind of Freedom is blowing ? (“Sehet ihr nicht dass die Luft der Freiheit weht ?”) On two men not much depends. Know that there are many Luthers, many Huttens here.

Should either of us be destroyed, still greater is the danger that awaits you; for then, with those battling for freedom, the avengers of innocence will make common cause.”

Jordan claimed to be energized not by the unique truth claims of Christianity per se, but by “Protestant individual daring.” Applying “individual daring” to higher education, he sought to advance “the growth of man.” Jordan claimed another key element of the Protestant Reformation, the right of “private interpretation” (which was intended to mean “of Scripture”) in the more purely humanist sense, to be the “recognition of personal individuality.”

The rallying cry to freedom in education, as in life, was mirrored in the frontier-like atmosphere of the western United States where Stanford was established. The institution, founded with a nod to God and His laws, relished its unconventional status from the outset; it launched as coeducational, non-denominational, and avowedly practical. | cu

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Lessons and Carols

Grace Campus Ministries

A Festival of Lessons and Carols was held on December 7 at Stanford’s Memorial Church. The service of Advent and Christmas readings and music was based on the famous Lessons and Carols Service held annually at King’s College, Cambridge. The event, sponsored by the Department of Music and the Office for Religious Life, featured the Memorial Church Choir and the Stanford Chamber Chorale.

Grace Campus Ministries, a Christian organization associated with Grace Bible Fellowship in the Silicon Valley, hosted several events in the fall in addition to its weekly Bible study series. Some of the highlights included a Welcome Barbecue in September and a retreat in October.

Grace Campus Ministries “exists for the purpose of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, teaching the Bible, making disciples, and training future leaders on Stanford campus.”

Derek Brown is an associate pastor who oversees Grace Campus Ministries.

YA L E | On Campus

Directed Study of Scripture B I B L E I S R E Q U I R E D T E X T F O R YA L E C O U R S E

By Cassandra Hsaio, Yale ’21

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Isaac. How can a benevolent God order Abraham to kill his son? Given the breadth and depth of literature on such questions, I think it was inevitable that they would have entered our discussion,” said Han. It’s questions like these that drew the director of the program to teaching DS in the first place. Professor Kathryn Slanski has served on the DS faculty for about 14 years, and has enjoyed challenging students to think from points of view they’ve never considered before.

“We have asked you, six times a week, what do you think about justice? Or being asked to sacrifice your son by God? We ask you, again and Photo credit: Cody Min again and again, these really ticipating a degree of criticism, cyn- hard things,” said Slanski. “We ask icism, and reduction of the text to you to think about what you think... something lesser,” he said. “However, and demonstrate how you got there.”

It is not only the critical analysis my professor, David Quint, did an excellent job maintaining a degree of of the text that at times presents roadrespect for the Judeo-Christian faiths, blocks for students, however.

“It’s hard for a lot of students to while also pointing out the seeming contradictions in Scripture that have approach these works with the same kind of critical analytical tools that been written about for millennia.”

However, this didn’t mean com- they’ve brought to Homer or Livy or pletely smooth sailing—the class wres- Aristotle. To put the Bible under the tled with reconciling God’s goodness same microscope is often a source of discomfort for various reasons— to His actions in the Old Testament.

“There were certainly moments in they’ve been exposed to the Bible in Scripture that brought out skepticism a religious context or a family context, and questions regarding the problem [and] that brings with it a lot of weight of evil from non-believers, and ready and significance that is unique to the explanations prepackaged by Sunday biblical text,” said Slanski.

Directed Studies professors are schools from students of faith, such as Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of based in a variety of departments, Bible in the history of Western culture.

One would have a very hard time teaching Dante or Milton to students who had no knowledge of the Bible.”

While Han understood the importance of studying the text from a literary standpoint, he was wary of the outcome arising from discussion of Christian texts among non-believers.

“I entered my Literature class an-

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2019 :: christianunion.org

he shelves in Timothy Han’s dormitory room are lined with books, separated by class. Plato and Aquinas bookend the philosophy shelf. Herodotus and Plutarch can be spotted on the history shelf. And on the literature shelf, tucked between Homer’s fantastical adventures and Ovid’s collection of Greek mythologies, is the Bible.

Han is one of the 160 firstyears who is enrolled in Yale’s Directed Studies course, an interdisciplinary study of the Western canon through the lens of literature, philosophy, and historical/political thought. The pace is fast—DS moves through about a book per class—so taking four classes out of the calendar to study the Bible is noteworthy. Students study Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, and Romans in their first semester.

Yale is not the only university to engage the Bible as a literary text— Columbia’s Core Curriculum also includes Ecclesiastes, Exodus, Deuteronomy, and 1 Samuel on its literature syllabus. The Bible has been on Yale’s DS curriculum since its foundation in 1947.

“Since the DS curriculum is largely focused on the history of western thought, the Bible needs to be there— its influence is unparalleled,” explained Professor Kirk Freudenburg, who specializes in Classics and is one of this year’s Literature faculty for DS. “The main goal is to get students to appreciate the profound importance of the

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the spiritual climate on campus

from Comparative Literature to Religious Studies to French. Slanski’s scholarship is Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and Humanities.

While she is accustomed to examining the Bible in tandem with mythological stories of the time, Slanski has grown aware that not all students are comfortable with this approach.

“As a teacher, I’ve learned to be aware that there could be 18 different anxieties looking at me from deer-in-the-headlight frightened eyes,” said Slanski. “I’ve actually found it very rewarding to begin my lecture talking about the challenges to studying the Bible. Let’s talk about what makes it hard for us to treat this text the way we do the other texts in the syllabus. Let’s honor those differences and respect them, giving them some voice in the room. This actually adds value to the work that we do by acknowledging to each other in this shared community of readership how much is at stake for people.”

For Christians in the class, studying the Bible has provided opportunity to

witness to their friends outside the lecture halls. Non-Christians were also more receptive to talking about their views on faith. Ryan Bronston, who identifies as agnostic, wouldn’t change anything about the way his sections were conducted, calling them informing and engaging. He said he would be open to continuing the conversation about God beyond the syllabus.

“I haven’t really had any conversations about Christianity with classmates outside of class, but I’d really like to! I think this is due at least in part to the fact that we scrutinize these texts in such an academically-driven fashion, that we forget that we’re people with and without personal connections to religion in the first place,” said Bronston.

These conversations not only happen between students, but also with their professors.

“One of the great pleasures and privileges of teaching humanities is sharing and learning about what is important to people. And learning how to talk about God,” said Slanski.

“When students are grappling with being asked to study the Bible as a text in an academic context, there are breakthroughs that happen there.

Every student I have had that kind of conversation with has come out stronger because of that.”

Isabella Zou’s breakthrough emerged from the interdisciplinary nature of the course, in putting her classes in conversation with each other. Her studies of philosophy, such as Plato’s “Form of the Good,” Aristotle’s “Unmoved Movers,” and even stoicism have revealed to her aspects of God that she first discovered through the Bible. “[Directed Studies] has challenged me to immerse myself in uncertainties and think analytically through the swampiness,” she said, referring to her innumerable questions and incomprehension about the nature of God. “But even though I fully believe there are countless aspects of God I’ll never comprehend, this practice of reasoning has actually helped me more fully to appreciate the extent of His complexity.” | cu

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YA L E | On Campus

Volunteering at Vox Church

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the magazine

YALE STUDENTS FAITHFULLY SERVE ON SUNDAYS

By Cassandra Hsaio, Yale ’21

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A

t 7 a.m., College Street Music Hall looks serene in the morning light as a small group of people enter its doors. Only a block away from Yale’s campus, the venue is familiar to most Yalies as a weekend hotbed for musical acts, from Billboard Top 50 artists to underground indie bands.

On Sunday mornings, however, the space is transformed into Vox Church by a small army of volunteers, Yale students included.

This means hanging up banners, arranging chairs, and setting up welcome tables stocked with coffee and free biblical resources. This means hooking up the proper equipment for livestream purposes, as Vox broadcasts to five other locations in New England. This means preparing the area for the children’s service and the nursery. But most importantly, volunteering at Vox means offering the warmest handshakes and hugs, the

brightest smiles and salutations.

Vox Church was started in New Haven in 2011 by Lead Pastor Justin Kendrick, his wife Chrisy, and a small group of friends. The mission is “to spread the lifestyle of authentic Christianity for the glory of God and transformation of our cities.”

Despite the flurry of college midterms and extracurriculars, Yalies can always be found at Vox Church, giving up their time and energy as volunteers.

throughout the school year.

The simple act of serving is enough to loved by God.” “It’s been a blessing for the church Loye added that serving offered put smiles on their faces. to have so many young people from “My role is incredibly fun to fill— the opportunity to step outside of the playing with several cute babies for Yale bubble. The servant team is com- all over these universities stepping into about an hour and a half!” said Viv- posed of people of all ages from a that role of volunteering,” said Vician Armitage, Yale ’20, who has served variety of socioeconomic back- toria Joseph, one of the Servant Team in Vox’s nursery. Her love for children grounds, with rich life stories to share. captains. “It’s a blessing from God to “The diversity of our outside com- have these Christians from all over makes the hours fly by.

Not only do volunteers give up munities is a great picture of heaven,” the country coming—they’re here from August to May and they really time on Sunday, but they also spend said Loye. just want to help and serve!” time planning outreach For Tim Adamson, a first events and calling new visiyear Ph.D. student who helps tors throughout the week. with offering and ushering, his Ayomiposi Loye, a fifth-year calling comes from Matthew graduate student, has expe20:26: “Whoever wants to rienced firsthand the love of become great among you must God through Vox Church be your servant.” Lillian Yuan and spends a couple hours a ’21 agrees, adding how she sees week giving back. volunteering at Vox as part of “Being at Vox has been building God’s kingdom. a wonderful home where I Photo credit: Adam Ramsay “I feel very convicted of have been challenged to dig Yale students enjoy attending and serving at nearby Vox the fact that every member of into the spiritual disciplines, Church. the church body has a role to to love my neighbor as myplay to further God’s glory self, and to live with an eterFor the leaders of Vox church, the and spread the Gospel,” said Yuan. “As nal perspective,” explained Loye. “I serve because I love being a small part presence of university students has people who believe in the good news of creating an atmosphere where peo- been vital in building up the commu- of Christ, it’s our calling to spread that ple can grow and worship; where they nity. Yalies have proved to be depend- word and also the joy and love that can feel seen and know that they are able, valuable resources for Vox comes with it.” | cu

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2019 :: christianunion.org

In early December, Yale University held a series of recognition events to honor the amazing life of former President George H.W. Bush. On December 5, fans, athletes, and university officials stood to hail the longtime public servant and war hero during a home basketball game.

Bush died on November 30 at age 94. After service as a U.S.

years, where they also welcomed their oldest son, George W. Bush (Yale ’68, Harvard MBA ’75), who served as president of the United States from 2001 to 2009.

The elder Bush’s father, Prescott, graduated from Yale in 1917, and a granddaughter, Barbara Bush, was a member of the class of 2004.

In the 50th Reunion Book for the Class of 1948, Bush reflected his inspirational life of achievement.

“My priorities now are largely friends, family, and faith,” he wrote. “I count my blessings every single day.”

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Yale Remembers George H.W. Bush ’48

Navy pilot in World War II, he arrived on campus in 1945 as an economics major. In 1948, teammates on the baseball team chose the celebrated aviator as their captain.

“Yale has lost a loyal friend,” said Yale President Peter Salovey, Stanford ’80, Yale Ph.D. ’86.

“Throughout his lifetime, President Bush exemplified the values of service and leadership we seek to foster at Yale.”

George and Barbara Bush lived in New Haven for about three

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pa rt ing shot

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Harvard || Photo credit: Sara Beth Turner

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Through your generous giving, Christian leaders are being developed to change culture.

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Jose Reyes

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