Healing the Land in Fiji
by sarah camp
"…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
– 2 Chronicles 7: 13, 14
One small hand slipped into mine. A second stealthy hand claimed my other hand. The young girls tugged me along the dirt path through the village, between small homes. Prayers and songs drifted from doorways. Cell phones served as our flashlights, guiding my steps only; the girls were sure-footed as they pulled and nudged me along. From the sky, heavy with darkness, stars erupted. They dangled so seemingly low amid the lengthwise haze of the Milky Way I wondered if I might disentangle a hand, reach up, and snatch one, just one, drop it my pocket, to remember a sacred night in Vunibao, Fiji.
"Courageous in the Ways of the Lord"
Cities Conference Features James K.A. Smith, Vince Vitale
At the Christian Union Cities Conference, scholar James K.A. Smith challenged young professionals to reflect upon whether they are pursuing faithful service or self-serving aggrandizement. Ambitions can propel believers to fulfill spiritual callings or throttle them into idolatrous practices, he said.
God Is at Work
Students, Christian Union Faculty Appreciate Ministry Center
by tom campisi
When the Christian Union Center at Columbia University was dedicated last fall, the ministry's Founder and CEO, Matt Bennett, said "generations of influential students, faculty, and alumni will be emboldened and equipped to carry revival and cultural reformation to the university and the world."
The impact of the building was felt immediately; the consensus among the ministry's faculty was that "God is at work in the new ministry center." Within a few days, Christian Union was able to engage more new students than in the previous year of ministry. At the close of the recent academic year, Ministry Fellow Ava Ligh said the Christian Union Center was a blessing that enabled students to experience a greater sense of community and provided a wonderful place to seek the Lord, study the Word, and grow together.
Bible Course Brotherhood
Opeyemi and Prudil Appreciated Comradery, Mentoring
Two recent Princeton University graduates, a computer science major and an electrical engineering major, are eager and prepared for the integration of faith and vocation.
Moyin Opeyemi '19 and Bryan Prudil '19 each credited their participation in a Christian Union Bible course with giving them confidence to be salt and light in the workforce. Opeyemi (computer science) is an associate product manager at Uber in San Francisco, while Prudil (electrical engineering) is a systems engineer at Raytheon in Tucson, Arizona.
A Class Day Discourse
Mwabe '19 Exhorts Graduates to Go beyond Comfort Zone
As part of commencement exercises, Harvard College selected a co-president of Christian Union's ministry for one of its top honors.
Eunice Mwabe '19 was one of two student orators for Harvard's Class Day. During her address on May 29, she encouraged recent grads to interact actively with people of diverse backgrounds.
Mwabe, who served as co-president of Christian Union in 2018-19, penned her speech as a reflection of her experiences as a foreign student at Harvard. Rather than operating in an echo chamber, the Kenyan urged classmates to spend time with people from a variety of backgrounds and seek out new experiences. Mwabe especially implored members of the Class of 2019 to show empathy to the disadvantaged and marginalized.
Huddle Up
Ministry Director Mentors Penn Football Players
Since fall 2017, Christian Union Ministry Director Tucker Else has been steadily gaining ground in his outreach to Quaker athletes, especially to members of the football team. Given their hectic training and academic schedules, Else offers flexible discipleship sessions to players.
"Time is such a commodity," said Else. "It's pretty easy for these guys to live and sleep football and academics."
Crossing Borders
Rodarte '19 Challenges Classmates to Be Change Agents
In her Class Day speech, senior Patricia Rodarte encouraged fellow Brown University graduates to go beyond borders.
Rodarte, a native of El Paso, Texas, grew up less than a mile from the Rio Grande, which marks the boundary between the United States and Mexico. She opened her speech by talking about the shared culture and interdependent ancestry and economies of El Paso and its "sister city," Ciudad Juarez, Mexico—despite being separated by a 10-foot-tall fence.
"There is a constant movement of people across their ports of entry…" she said. "Crossing borders is central to my region's identity."
"Why Suffering?"
Christian Union at Yale Hosts Forum
by cassandra hsiao, yale '21
On a rainy Friday evening in April, a hundred people gathered in Battell Chapel at Yale University to hear the answer to the pressing question: "Why suffering?"
Christians and skeptics alike have grappled with this question for centuries—how could a loving God allow for the existence of suffering? At a forum hosted by Christian Union, Vince Vitale and Michael Suderman of the Ravi Zacharias Institute presented some profound answers.
Vitale, educated at Princeton ('04) and Oxford, is the director of the Zacharias Institute. Along with Suderman, he has been traveling across the country, giving lectures at churches and college campuses alike.
The Equality Act Poses an Unprecedented Threat to Religious Freedom
Q and A with Andrew Walker
Andrew T. Walker is the Senior Fellow in Christian Ethics and Director of Research at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. He is also an Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics and Apologetics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The author of God and the Transgender Debate, as well as editor for The Gospel for Life Series, Walker resides in Franklin, Tennessee with his wife and three daughters.
What Is Religious Freedom?
by robert p. george
When the U.S. Congress passed the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998, it recognized that religious liberty and the freedom of conscience are in the front rank of the essential human rights whose protection, in every country, merits the solicitude of the United States in its foreign policy. Therefore, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, of which I served as chair in 2013, was created by the act to monitor the state of these precious rights around the world.
But why is religious freedom so essential? Why does it merit such heightened concern by citizens and policymakers alike? In order to answer those questions, we should begin with a still more basic question. What is religion?