Digital edition available at facebook.com/thebeacononline
THE BEACON Volume 68, Issue 5
January 26th, 2018
Take Heart What Goes In Must Come Out “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” -Proverbs 4:23 Lately I have found myself thinking a lot about what it is that I am putting into myself. What I mean to say is that I have been thinking about the media, the music, and whatever else that I have been putting into my body, my heart, and my mind. I have also been thinking a lot about this verse from the book of Proverbs. I believe that what we put into our hearts, minds, and bodies is bound to come out. If we put negative, unhealthy, or sinful material in, that is what is going to come out. I am not all that great at taking care of my body a lot of the time. I am really good at planning and wanting to be good at eating healthy, working out, and all that goes along with that, but I am not so good at the following through. Without realizing it, I do the same with my heart and mind, too. I have good intentions; I plan to read my Bible every day, or I plan to go to a few chapels a week, or I plan to listen to the sermon podcast the next time I have a half hour to kill. Instead I make excuses, or I forget, or I lose track of time, or I watch an episode of Grey’s Anatomy for the umpteenth time. “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8 So, I am challenging myself, and you, to think about what is going into my/your body. What are you watching, listening to, reading, eating? Is it glorifying God? Is it creating good and lovely thoughts and words? Taylor Craig is a fourth-year Psych and BTh student. She is the founder of the devotional blog Take Heart Daughters
Spicy Crandall Memes
Contest Details Hello everyone! As some of you might know, Crandall is putting on a production of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. In celebration of the first show we have done here in a long time, we are going to be doing a ticket giveaway! If you want to win some FREE (every student’s favourite word) tickets to see the show, here’s what you gotta do: find, and take a picture of, the 8 pictures of Narnia characters that we’ve hidden around Crandall (Lucy, Edmund, Peter, Susan, Aslan, the White Witch, The Beavers, and Mr. Tumnus). Once you’ve found all eight pictures, post them to Instagram or Facebook and tag us in them at @crandalltheatreprogram. On top of this, you have to be following us on our social media sites (we will be checking!). We will do a draw a week after this edition of the Beacon comes out!
Crandall Poll: Chapel Hymns Throughout my 4.5 years of being a student here, chapel services at Crandall have always been a contentious subject. This is inevitable at a school like Crandall where we have students from so many different backgrounds and personality-based preferences, both among those who consider themselves Christians and those who do not. While there are multiple styles of chapel, two days of the week tend to do much more to define the idea of chapel than any of the other days. Tuesday and Thursday both tend to be music-based and are also the more popular of the weekly options. So, obviously, more people are likely to have more opinions and, really, if you’re doing a poll you either have to go utter foolishness or something that makes people angry, so here we are. The student body of Crandall is hungry for more hymns. Of the people who responded to the online poll (who usually consist of people with opinions, people with opinions about this specific thing, or people who just like polls), 60% were quite definite that they wanted more hymns. Only 6% were strongly opposed, while 17% were either game (but only for a few) or reluctant, but okay with a few more of the golden oldies. For those in favour, some simply were fonder of hymns. One respondent finds that “modern worship songs don’t make sense from a lyrical standpoint.” Another thinks hymns are more effective in that they “stick with those who hear them” better than other forms of music. One student, while enjoying hymns over “modern pop-rock worship songs,” simply appealed for more variety in music chapels. Dani Reimer is a fourth-year English major who will shortly be defecting to the History department (don’t tell the profs). Dani can frequently be found in the library taking naps or consuming copious amounts of chocolate.
Dystopia Now The New Counter-Culture The Pew Research Center has found that Millennials are significantly less religious than any generation before. Though we can agree that individuals must be given the freedom to determine what they believe, there is no denying the fact that our present social landscape has defined what is and is not acceptable, and has greatly contributed to the unfavourable depiction of religion—specifically Christianity. This cultural shift can be largely credited to the romanticization of nihilism and the corruption of the media. Generations ago, children were given stable and wholesome upbringings free from outer influence. Religion was often the glue that held the family together. However, this idyllic tradition has been changing steadily since the Baby Boom. Religion is now considered juvenile, irrational, or distorted; and at our current point in history, children are forced to pass into adulthood through a gauntlet of depravity and debasement with very little guidance or sympathy. In the media, Christians are frequently portrayed as either stuffy old codgers or religious fanatics. It’s certainly not cool to be religious, and while I don’t think it should be “cool,” I take issue with the fact that if one identifies as a Christian, they are reflexively placed into the category of dum-dum. What it means to be cool now is to believe that all religion is false, humans are worthless, and nothing matters. Celebrities become our gods and social media is our plain of existence. The media conditions us from the moment we turn on the TV or log into Facebook. Sexuality has been commodified by Tinder. You become a slave to your own desires because you’ve been told to ignore that part of your brain that tells you there’s more to life than another fashion-designer-makeup-cheeseburger-money item. Beneath the boot of society, proclaiming faith is an act of rebellion. Christian Arsenault is a fourth-year English/Education major. He can usually be found playing Runescape on World 72 near the Barbarian Village.
A Note from the Editor
If you’re reading this, CONGRATS! You’re either a human who reads the Beacon of your own volition (in which case, come see me for a hug and a cookie or something), or you actually listened when *someone* threw a copy at your face and muttered something unintelligible along the lines of “readyourheckinbeaconplease”. Either way, I’d like to officially say hi! I’m Kira, and I’m the new editor of the Beacon. When I was recruited initially to work on the Beacon, it was with promises of turning it into vegetarian, socialist propaganda, and I’m afraid I’ve yet to keep these promises. Instead, I’ve been lurking around, copy-editing for our previous overlord, writing polls about world domination and whatnot, biding my time. So what I’d really like you all to know as we move into this new season is that the plan to keep the aforementioned promises is moving much quicker, now that I have effectively defenestrated Dani. I hope you all await the glorious reign to come with as much enthusiasm as I do. Just kidding, though. Mostly. In all seriousness, I’m super excited to take on this new role in bringing you guys helpful hints, fun faculty interviews, prime memes, and everything in between. The purpose of this newspaper is to be the voice of the students, and my goal is to make sure that all of your voices are represented. So if you have opinions, questions, or concerns, I want to hear them. I want to know how we can make the Beacon your Beacon. With love from your friendly neighbourhood editor, Kira Smith
Happy New Year! Soma Church had an awesome Christmas party with a lovely devotional and some carol singing. We had a great end to the year of 2017, and we hope you did too. For the winter semester of 2018, we’re welcoming Angela MacKinnon as our new worship leader. We’re all very excited to have such talent on our team! That being said, two people on our team will be graduating this year. We will soon be looking for a couple of new members. If you think you might be interested in being on the Soma team in the fall, take some time to pray about it! We’ll be praying about it too. As winter goes on and the assignments start to pile up again it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, and even trapped. One of my favorite verses is 1 Thessalonians 5:11, which says “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as you are already doing.” Take a moment out of your day today to send an encouraging message to someone. They could use it, and you may feel a little encouraged too. God bless! Jessie Campbell is in her fourth year of the BA in Biblical Studies program. She likes cross-stitching and playing Animal Crossing.
Spicy Crandall Memes
Interview with Dr. Keith Grant What is the abbreviated version of your academic history? I came here and took a BA in history, then went to Regent College in Vancouver and took a Masters of Divinity and Masters of Theology, with the second one being in church history. This gave me the chance to go to oxford for a few weeks and do some research, which was a lot of fun. My Masters thesis ended up becoming my first book. So then I came back to Nova Scotia and worked as a pastor for ten years in a Baptist church, and all along I kept feeling like I had two halves of my vocation, one being the pastoral side and the other teaching and academics. So there was this moment in our family where we felt that, if I could make it work, I would go for my PhD. We applied and got a full funding package to UNB so I could get paid while doing my PhD, so we moved to Fredericton where I did my PhD for 5 years, then finished this summer and got the position at Crandall What led you to a career in history? Part of it was good teachers. I had some really good history teachers in elementary school growing up, as well as Dan Goodwin who used to teach here, who just made it come alive. I love how big ideas get worked out in local places, so I wanted to dig into the history of my region and see how my region is connected to the bigger world. Why are you such a wonderful person? *Insert laughing and blushing* I suppose I must thank my wife. When you live with somebody named Joy you are bound to come out all right. We have been married 20 years, and we met here at Crandall. And back then it was still called Atlantic Bible College. What is the dumbest injury you’ve ever had? Falling down the basement stairs backwards as I was trying to steal cookie dough from my mothers baking. I had forgotten that we had taken the hinges off the door the day before. So I fell down the flight of stairs, but I only hurt my little toe.
When you were younger, what did you want to grow up to be? A detective. Like the hardy boys, and I still think what I am doing is detective work— going into the archives, looking for clues, putting it all together. Who was your favorite hardy boy? Frank, the responsible older brother. Dark hair. If you could be any professor at Crandall who would it be, and why? Probably Stephen Dempster; he was my mentor when I was here as a student. I loved Old Testament and doing Hebrew. He gave me a love for the Old Testament and its stories, and I aspire to be like him and have the integrity and interdisciplinary thinking he has. If you could take any class at Crandall, what would it be? I believe Abram Steen has a class on Modern Novels, and I haven’t read a lot of the authors he teaches on, so it should be interesting.
Jonny DeJager is a 2nd year English major who grew up in Peru, and is thus unaware of Canadian social cues. He was also most likely attacked by a baby puma.
What’s on Your Mind?
SPECIAL EDITION!!
There’s only one thing on my mind right now: Crandall’s upcoming production of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe! Since I’ve been pouring so much of my heart into this beautiful story for the last four months, I thought I’d share with you a few discoveries I’ve made along the way. You never know what you’re capable of until you try. Back in September, I walked into my audition with nothing but a single show’s repertoire and an amateur’s passion. And yet, much to my delight and surprise, I was Photo by Layton MacCabe chosen to play Susan, a character I have loved and admired since I was a little girl! Thespians come in surprising varieties. You’d be impressed by the diversity of personalities that are drawn to the theatre! Our cast is as eclectic as they come, and yet we have all bonded through a mutual love for drama and an appreciation for C.S. Lewis. Some things are worth carving out time for. A theatrical production is no small time commitment. Between multiple rehearsals every week, costume hunts, set building, and ongoing promotional activities, putting on a play involves A LOT of creativity and teamwork. And yet, despite the extra demands on our schedules, I can assure you that everyone in our cast and crew would tell you that it was worth it. Throughout the course of this production, I’ve seen new friendships form and pre-existing ones strengthen. Many of the lovely, talented people I’ve bonded with over the last four months were merely acquaintances of mine at the start, and yet I now I have made memories with them that I will cherish forever. Speaking on behalf of our entire team, I dearly hope you will not miss the opportunity to share in our joy next month—I promise you won’t regret it! P.S. Look for some contest details elsewhere in the Beacon for your chance to win a pair of FREE tickets to a show of your choice! Allana Walker is a third year psychology major with aspirations of becoming a counselling therapist. She is addicted to dark chocolate, loves big words, and is always in the mood for a good pun.
Sweat it, Shred it, Best it: Learning How to Best Yourself Dear readers, Let me begin by extending my deepest wishes— HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you all had a restful Christmas season and are energized returning to classes! To inspire some enthusiasm and fitness goals for you all, the first “Health and Wellness with Mir” column will be a sweaty shredder workout! Perhaps one of your New Year’s resolutions was to develop a consistent gym routine? To help get your feet moving (in the BEST way I know how), try this HIIT session at your nearest gym! Circuit 1: 15 jump squats 15 weighted lunges 15 jump lunges 15 curtsey lunges (each leg) *Repeat 3 times
Circuit 2: 12 burpees 15 pushups 20 ball slams 20 weighted arm curls (each arm) *Repeat 3 times
I hope this inspires you all to get moving and break a sweat! Remember: keep your workouts fun and versatile! Best, Mir Miranda Roberts is a fourth year history major from Moncton, New Brunswick. She began her health and fitness journey a year and a half ago. She enjoys hiking, cooking, and weight lifting. She is an extroverted young adult who is looking forward to being a future archaeologist and professor.
Keeping Up With the CSA: The CSA meeting on January 11th covered a lot of ground. First, Jasmine led a crash course on how to fill out community practicum forms (online). If you have any inquiries regarding said forms, the members of the CSA should be able to help you. Next, the election was brought up. This should take place either in late February or early March. Every position will need to be filled, so if you have a passion for this school and its people, seriously consider being in the running. Concept: A book that contains pictures from all the fun events of the past school year. Guess what! The CSA has made that dream a reality for a mere $10.00. In late March, the Crandall Bookstore will begin selling 2017-2018 yearbooks. Make sure to buy a copy so that years down the road, your children can make fun of the clothes you wore and the way you styled your hair. Lastly, it was communicated that the CSA has a budget of $250 for CSA meetings throughout the year. Since September, there have been at least two cakes, Timbits, and other snacks of that genre to munch on that came out of that budget. Keep in mind that the amount of money that is dedicated to meetings for the year is almost the same amount that is allocated monthly for a small school-wide event, separate from the budgets for banquets, puppy rooms, and other larger events. This small events budget is $200 a month. Deanna Gallant is a 4th year English Major, Psych minor, and is in the Youth Leadership Certificate program. She naps a concerning amount and loves puns, Netflix, and peanut butter pie.
unrelated to the actual content that we are meant to be focusing on. Anywho, back to the trailer… Thomas, the main character (who is played by O’Brien), is faced with the ultiMaze Runner: Death Cure Official Trailer Review *spoiler matum to either save his friends in this screwed up world that alert in effect* they are facing or to save the entire human race. Now, I don’t -Deney: Let me just start by saying that I’ve read the books. know about you, but if I was told to make such a decision, I That’s right. I’m that person. Well, not entirely. You see, as would likely curl up into a ball and cry. Sorry, Fran. You’re is often the case with bookworms and movie adaptations, we on your own for this one. typically believe that the books are better. And, generally -And I, the valiant hero, would save both. Somehow… I speaking, we’re right. However, this time (and only this mean, there’s always a way to do that in action movies, time), the movies are better. *gasp* right? -Frannie: I, on the other hand, have not read the books (I -Touché. I will say, one portion of the novels that actually liked to not conform to those popular middle school book succeeded in making me catch a bad case of the feels, albeit fads— you know, rage against the machines and all), but I momentarily, is going to unfold in this last installment of the have watched the movies, and to be completely honest, I re- trilogy. So, that’s something to look forward to… Or, permember next to nothing about them. That is either due to the haps, to dread? fact that they didn’t strike me as great, or it’s because this -Honestly, I think that we need to start reviewing some dramovie is coming out years later. Not sure. But I’d like to be- mas or something considering that 95% of our demographic lieve it’s the latter. consists of the professors at this school (the other 5% being -Well, you didn’t miss much by not jumping on this bandus and the Beacon staff who are literally required to read it). wagon, my man. I also hardly remember the movies, but I do Here’s looking at you, Steen, Stackhouse, and MacDonald… remember thoroughly enjoying them, which, considering We’ll be sure to review some sports biopics starring, I don’t how much I came to despise the books, is a miracle. Now, know, Matt Damon or someone semi-relatable. But, on a enough blabbering and on to the review! The trailer begins more serious note, those of you who are into sci-fi should with a voice over and some fancy action shots… including consider seeing this movie. It is sure to deliver a lot of exthe shot that likely led to Dylan O’Brien’s head injury that citement! And, BONUS, it’s in theatres right now! delayed the film for three years. Presumably, the speaker who’s heard is that freaky lady from the lab who staged her Deney Taylor is a second-year business student focusing in death in the first movie. I can’t remember her name for the accounting. She is an antisocial recluse who rarely emerges life of me, but she works for WCKD. from the depths of the internet, but when she does it’s most -For some unknown reason, the group appears to be hijack- likely because she has to pretend to be a responsible adult ing a train car, and then the guy from The Dark Knight Rises (ugh). (aka one of the best movies ever) shows up. I just really like Frannie Branswell is a second year business major who isn’t Batman and it’s really the only part of the trailer that I care playing basketball this year, I know right?! She loves making about, I notice the actors and actresses in everything. Holy art, watching movies, and sleeping, all of which she sacrificrun-on sentence, Batman! es for school and good grades -Right. Batman. I swear, half of these reviews are just us bumbling around, talking about topics that are completely
Critic’s Corner
Spicy Crandall Memes
Leah Eisener is a third-year English student who laughs at her own jokes and enjoys memes more than the company of others.
CU Cooking: Chewy Double Chocolate Cookies Ingredients: 1 ¼ cups butter 2 cups sugar 2 tsp vanilla ¾ cup cocoa ½ tsp salt 2 eggs 2 cups flour 1 tsp baking soda Chocolate chips
Instructions: Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat well. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; blend into creamed mixture. Stir in chips. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 8 to 9 minutes (do not overbake). Makes 3 ½ dozen. Add or substitute crushed nuts. ** Cookies will be soft. ** They will puff up while baking and flatten while cooling. Sam Williams is a fourth-year science student. She’s very passionate about all things food, coffee, and penguins. Taylor Craig is a fourth-year psychology and BTh student. She’s a coffee addict, a food lover, and a nap advocate.
A Letter to the Editor A Comment Made in Chapel Recently/ An Answer to a Challenge “We shouldn’t look down our noses at people who are passionate in their expression of worship, because it is biblical. I would challenge those of you who struggle with that: where do you get the biblical basis for being stiff?” I wholeheartedly agree! We should not look down our noses at passionate expressions of worship, but who in the world is saying that worship ought to be devoid of passion? No one! This is an accusation often made of the caricatural old fogey who worships with feet planted and harrumphs at the raised hands of truly spiritual, spontaneous worshipers. But there is a false equivalence here. It may well be the case that neither the caricatural fogey nor the equally caricatural Charismatic is lacking in passion. The question is not one of passion but rather, as this quotation rightly points out, it is one of biblical basis. One of the goals of formal liturgical worship is to make worship on earth mirror worship in heaven. Revelation 4 offers an image of this where the courts of heaven dress (v. 4), speak (vs. 8, 11), and act (v. 10) in a premeditated and intentional way. This is remarkably similar to the description given in Isaiah 6 where the host of angels sing in unison: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” a text that is repeated weekly by many Christians in the form of the Sanctus.* In these throne room scenes, the pictures of worship demonstrate a heavily structured mode. This brings me to another point. The most recent printings of the LCMS liturgy have helpfully included footnotes for the biblical texts mentioned therein. The frequency of these footnotes is something I cannot stress enough. In nearly every tradition that uses one, the liturgy is almost entirely direct quotations from scripture organized into a beautiful divine drama and dialogue wherein God gives his gift of forgiveness and his people respond. The word of God as revealed in the scriptures is both the brick and the mortar of the liturgical worship model. One cannot be more biblically based than that. Thus, to those who look down their noses at passionate, biblical, formal, liturgical expressions of worship, the ball is now in your court. Where do you get the biblical basis for being so stiff? *Sadly, there is insufficient space to exegete the swaths of other textual evidence for liturgical worship. Here I have endeavoured to focus on one example which occurs throughout the text. —Vernon MacDonald
SHALLNOT Who We Are
While “shall not” is usually used as a command to refrain, to withhold, or to compromise, Shallnot holds to the opposite: Thou shalt not be silenced. Shallnot is designed to be a forum and an opportunity for students to express their ideas –Dani Reimer, Assistant Editor
My Heart Beats for God My heart is a pounding drum which beats the bass For the Love of God. My heart in each beat testifies of God’s existence,
Straight-A
All of us sun-dazzled fools who make mock And think we can touch the sky And steal the stars from their orbits. Flying can mean falling. Dust and ashes, ashes and dust, Molded and put on a pedestal. Some of us fly too high and fall. Some are black and scorched by the sun. Others pull out their own feathers Like self-destructive Icaruses That long once more for captivity.
The pooling of blood flowing into my arteries Are pathways of red Righteousness, Of crimson glory; of His Majesty, Each beat is accompanied by a breath—the Breath of Life, Of the Eternal, the Ever-present, and Everloving, I must not profane the breath with vile words, Or impure thoughts and empty actions,
I must feel Him in each beat and each breath Knowing Shalom is not just in the world but inside of me. - Shane Dickie
- Trochaic
Shallnot exists to express the views of all students from all walks of life. If you or someone you know has something to say—whether through pictures, essays, short stories, cartoons, poetry or any other form of art—please contact us at crandallbeacon@gmail.com with submissions.