I recently read a sociological study that examined the changing views on milestones that define adulthood in America. In the 1950s, one such milestone included marriage. In fact, one’s ability to perform within their designated familial role was the defining feature of an adult.
Today, researchers have found that the most important milestones to adulthood are considered to be completing school and having a full-time job. Surely we can attribute this shift to the rise of feminism and individualism in modern America, and the church is not immune to these cultural shifts.
Read moreIt’s incredible to think how many months have passed since we got that first email saying Covenant College would be online for a semester because of COVID-19, and how many things have happened since then. The world seems to be spinning out of control, and I think every single one of us has had plenty of those moments of feeling exasperated and disappointed by all the craziness, wondering when or if it will ever end.
Read moreCapitalism has been championed, largely, by democracy. We take it for granted that capitalism exists only in democracies. When we think of dictatorships, we think of socialist experiments like the USSR or Mao's China. If not that, we think of despotic dictators abusing the populace of resource-rich countries to benefit themselves. I am beginning to question these assumptions more and more, and beginning to consider that perhaps capitalism can really only function in a dictatorship.
Read moreWhen an article from last issue of The Bagpipe reminded us that students have sex on Covenant’s campus, our response couldn’t possibly be contained to one of three narrow definitions. Our emotions ran the gamut, because this is a highly sensitive issue that affects many people. Everyone on this campus experiences sexual struggles to some degree. And so, while the author’s woeful account of our sexual responsibility wasn’t at all accurate, it wasn’t completely baseless either, and this reality should be taken seriously.
Read moreCOVID-19 has changed nearly all of my college life except for one thing: my relationship with my roommate Olivia. As I’ve watched classes on Panopto, met with professors six feet apart on the Overlook and incorporated temperature checks into my morning routine, Olivia is the one person I haven’t socially distanced from. We share a room in our house off campus and take turns cooking meals. I still hug her every day and snuggle up on the couch next to her to watch movies. We study together, watch sunsets, take hikes and still stay up late talking about anything and everything in our lives, just like we always have. I thought our relationship was the one thing the coronavirus pandemic hadn’t touched.
Read moreI think I speak for many of my fellow students when I say that this semester has been exhausting. While it is wonderful to be back together in person again after a long six months apart, this semester has been a challenging one. Schoolwork has been compressed and piled on top of us more than ever, and the professors are feeling the weight of the sheer amount of work as well.
Read moreThere is an epidemic gripping Covenant College, and it is not COVID-19. Rather, it is a failure to understand the importance of church membership. This process of formally joining a church is an issue which confronts not only the students at Covenant College, but also Christianity as a whole. More and more, believers seem to be either unaware or unwilling to participate in the process of joining a local church, to their detriment. It is important to realize that church membership is a vital component of the Christian walk, and the primary way that God grows and sanctifies us.
Read moreI think it’s safe to say that at some point, we all have wondered if there is more to the world than what we can see. Every society seems to have stories of things that happen beyond explanation; ghosts are a common feature, but fairies, goblins, dæmons, djinn and plenty of other creatures have graced both our stories and our superstitions. To a certain extent, living in the West, we dismiss these stories out of hand, but to many people throughout time and space, these creatures are real and fearsome.
Read moreCreation care is a term often used by environmentally-conscious Christians when referring to the God-given mandate of stewardship. Political commentary has, unfortunately, created a division that pins environmentalists as liberals—which can be a major turn-off to a large portion of evangelicals. However, if more Christians understood the importance of caring for the earth and were committed to voting with the climate in mind, necessary change could occur.
Read moreI find myself thinking sometimes about what it will be like when we finally see God face to face, and what it will look like to see His saints together, perfect, in His presence, worshipping Him. I know that when we see God He will be more majestic and awesome than we could ever imagine. I don’t know exactly what it will feel like, but I know that the overwhelming joy and love we’ll feel that day will be more overpowering than anything we could ever come close to experiencing until it happens. I have to admit that in this very limited time we have here to do whatever our King might call us to, the times I feel most overwhelmed by the hope of that future glory is when I come before God in prayer.
Read moreInconsolable desire. Nostalgia for something we have never known. Homesickness for a home we cannot name. The pervasive edge to even our happiest moments, that makes even beauty hurt, and reminds us that those moments are fleeting. These feelings are wrapped up in the German word “sehnsucht,” a deep sense of longing for something we cannot quite pinpoint.
Read moreAs originally intended by the Founding Fathers, the Supreme Court was supposed to be weaker than both Congress and the Presidency. Alexander Hamilton said that the judicial branch “will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them.” If this statement still held true today, the rhetoric and controversy surrounding Supreme Court nominations would not be so inflamed.
Read moreSweden 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 moreOn 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 moreThree 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.
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