Sweden was spotlighted earlier during the pandemic for choosing not to enforce lockdowns this spring and instead trusting its citizens to follow public health protocol when in public. Sweden is once again in the news for its approach to care for its elderly who are sick with COVID-19.
Read moreWhat Does it Mean to be White?
On October 7, I attended my first Conversation about Culture and Race where the question “What does it mean to be White?” was the center of the discussion. This may make it sound like I am doing a review on the new Conversations about Culture and Race that the Multicultural Group is hosting this year, but I am not. Rather, my hope here is to express some of my thoughts on this topic.
Read moreBarbeque - Sauce or Activity?
Three weeks ago, our Christian Mind class covered the topic of language. Somehow, as we were talking about it, the conversation turned to dialects of English, with Dr. Green pointing out that we all speak different dialects. I was amazed when, in the next few minutes, the room came alive with students sharing their different types of speech and the words they grew up with. There were Western, Southern, Eastern, and my own Northern dialects.
Read moreComing Back
My first impression of college during COVID-19 was not a good one—I suffer from “sweat-staches,” and masks don’t really make that problem go away—but as I scaled Lookout Mountain to return to campus on the first day of classes, I was home.
Read moreBillboard Evangelism
Most everyone who has spent some time in the United States is familiar with the Christian advertising adorning our roadsides and street corners. “Turn to Jesus,” one may find at a bend in the road. “Jesus offers PEACE, HOPE, REST!” says another, and. “After you die, you will meet God.” Then, there are some of the more extreme examples: “turn or burn,” “lust drags you down to hell,” and “every knee will bow, even the Democrats.” What should we as Christians make of these signs?
Read moreCombating Racism in America
In 1960, the anti-racism protests had a clear vision. They demanded that the racist policies of segregation be eradicated, and that voting rights were protected for minorities. A system of boycotts and peaceful demonstrations effectively brought about the abolition of segregation and the prohibition of withholding voter rights based on ethnicity. These actions, supported by leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., were effective because of their tactics of peace.
Read moreLoving thy neighbor when everything has changed
There’s something about monumental moments that reveals us. When our whole lives are thrown off kilter, the pressure exposes what really lies under the customs and conventions that guide us through our daily routines. I’ve learned a lot about myself during this pandemic. Perhaps more than anything, it has revealed how quickly I pass judgment on other people. I judge people for being too careful or not careful enough, for avoiding any contact with the world or for gathering in groups, for constantly monitoring case counts or for ignoring dramatic spikes.
Read morePrevent a Twindemic: Get a Vaccine
Getting a flu vaccine is also a practical way to love your neighbor, and especially the most vulnerable, which is inescapably in line with Jesus’ model to love the “least of these.” Vaccinating is a means of protecting your neighbor from the flu virus. If vaccinated, you have a lower likelihood of getting the flu and, thus, passing the flu to someone else. This reasoning informs collective protection of individuals who cannot get the flu vaccine, such as very young children.
How the Bible Should Influence Our Conversations
Can you truly love someone who holds different political beliefs than you? Can you engage in healthy conversation with a brother in Christ, even if he is on the “wrong side of history”? We live in a world of disagreement and hate. Our generation thrives off of controversy. We constantly condemn and call each other out on social media instead of engaging in honest discussions.
God Is With Us through COVID-19
It’s safe to say that 2020 has not gone exactly how any of us had planned. Seniors couldn’t have the graduations they hoped for. People lost jobs. School went online and maybe worst of all was the fact that people all over the world were affected by this horrible, deadly virus.
Read moreFaces of Health Inequality
What does health inequity look like?
In February 2016 I spent three weeks in Cambodia with a short-term medical missions team. The purpose of the medical team was twofold: give the med students a glimpse of rural tropical medicine, and encourage the local church by visiting villages of local missionaries.
Now You Know: A Reflection on the R-Word
I talked to a professor at Covenant, Mrs. Cynthia Young, about the issue of the r-word after I heard someone use it in reference to music. As professor of the Education of Exceptional Children class, Mrs. Young is very knowledgeable about the exceptional community. Isaiah, her son and seventh child, now twenty-two, has Down syndrome.
The Grove Walrus: Part 2
We only see a woodland walrus again a couple of weeks later, when we four head to Amsterdam and Belgium for a week’s respite from essay writing. It’s a moment of peace—the beginning of October, clear skies illuminating the cows loitering in the field outside, sunrise gleaming through the back window of the bus.
Read moreThe Jonas Brothers 3D Concert Experience and Nostalgia
It’s been roughly eleven years since the ‘Jonas Brothers 3D Concert Experience’ movie came out in theaters. I lived in a little town in Massachusetts at the time, and our primary movie theater was the one in the mall. One night, shortly after the movie was released, when my little sister, probably around five at the time, was in bed, my mom snuck me out of the house to go see the movie with her.
Read moreThe Grove Walrus: Part 1
Isabel swears I’m not thinking clearly, but I keep insisting that there’s this magnificently large, green, blubbery walrus in the bushes outside of the house. We call it the Grove, the section of hedges that curtains our little house from the main house. It’s a lovely place, but crowded.
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