March 2010 Archives

This year's speaker is Dr. Loma Meyer. Dr. Meyer became a part of CSP's faculty in 1967; she became an award-winning professor, director of instruction

*What follows are my notes from the lecture*

Faith is a living and daring confidence in God's mercy, and goes along with learning in both life and death.  This integration involves the inclusion of the whole person; one's heart, soul, and mind. Over time, there has been change, and the topic of the integration of faith and learning has become more pressing for the Concordia University family for the past few decades. This has been due in partial to the changing student demographic. Only 5% of CSP's students are church-work majors, compared with 93% in 1967 when Dr. Meyer started at Concordia. During the turmoil of the 1970's, it became apparent that the Lutheran education was in a tentative partnership with the liberal arts; both were separate, but influenced each other.  CSP's current mission statement indicates the integration of faith and learning. There are some people at CSP who feel that this integration is not as big of an issue as it once was. Learning strengthens faith; the mind can be an ally. Faith shouldn't be shoved into compartments; it should grow and influence everything. Martin Luther defined vocation to not only refer to one's job, but also to one's relationships with others. They key is the service of others; without that, the vocation is nothing. That is what CSP is about. While the faculty has a Christian world-view, they also must have a heart of service to other. The curriculum is not focused on just "can-do", but also "why-do." Students need to be instilled with a spirit of inquiry if they are to be successful in their life after college. The trick is to fit all learning into a meaningful whole: an integration of faith and learning.

Well, it was a pretty great lecture. Dr. Meyer illustrated her point of how faith and learning should be integrated by illustrating how that has been carried out through CSP's history. Aside from the CSP history, I agreed with basically everything she said, as all of that has crossed my mind at one time or another. It was slightly comforting to know that A. an esteemed education elder completely agreed with me, and B. CSP has been more active in integrating faith and learning than I thought. While it is a comfort to see that principle at work sometimes, there are some places where I see this integration of faith and learning lacking a bit. True, there can be slip-ups sometimes, but we must always remember: no matter how successful our DII sports are. no matter how groundbreaking our movements forward, we cannot forget our Christian roots. Ever. This is not saying that all students on campus should be Christian; but there should be no doubt in the mind of anyone on campus that this is a Christian university, and that all of our curriculum is founded on faith.  

The speaker this week, Rev. Dr. Mitri Rahab, is a "Palestinian Arab Lutheran Christian pastor" in Bethlehem, Israel. He's been the pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem since the late 80's. He speaks all over the world, and is at the forefront of the Christian movement in Palestine. 

Christians and Muslims in Palestine. Even though it seems like an anomliy for Christians to be in Palestine, there have always been Christians in Palestine, considering that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and all. Palestine actually used to be a Christian country at some point in history, although not for very long. The Bible is the book for the minority, not for the majority, even from its very beginnings. People assume that Palestinians used to be Muslim converted to Christianity...however, it is exactly the opposite. The number of Christians declined rapidly after the Crusades in the Middle Ages, because the Crusaders were not acting like Christians were supposed to act. 

Although Christians are a minority in Palestine, they are not a racial minority. Just because someone is from the Middle East, that does not mean that they are automatically Muslim. Christians and Muslims share one culture, and that is the Arab culture. Christianity is not German, not European...but Arabic. The Gospel was originally proclaimed in Arabic. Christians make up less than 2% of the population. Despite this, Christians run about 33%  of the health care in Palestine: hospitals, clinics, ect. This relates to what Jesus said about Christians - we are the salt of the earth. One does not put in a whole bunch of salt into a dish in order to make it taste good; one only needs a little bit to get the flavor. This is how Palestine is. Although the Christians are only a small minority, one is still able to see their great influence and flavor in the culture of Palestine.The main problem with Palestine is that no one, neither Christians nor Muslims or different political factions, is willing to work together. This is what Dr. Rahab has attempted to do in his university. He does not attempt to alienate the Christians by making them and island, nor does he try to Christianize the Muslims. Instead, he encourages Christians and Muslims to work together, side by side, to create something new. It could be a school project, music, art, mathematical formulas or a science experiment. It kinda reminds me of a song I sometimes sing in church..."And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they'll know we are Christians by our love."

I agree with Dr. Rahab completely on his vision for the school. It sometimes is baffling to me WHY people fight. My personality seems literally allergic to conflict between people at any time, although I do like to play devil's advocate in some discussions. Anyway, I digress. I do not understand these militant Christians, who seemingly try to force the Gospel down people's throats. One of my close friends in high school was like that. People do not respond well to violence. It's all about love. 

It kinda reminds me of a video I loved when I was younger, The Adventures of Frog and Toad. Toad was trying to grow a garden, and his seeds just would not grow, even though he screamed at them and commanded them to grow. He even sang a song about it:

"Sweet little seeds, why won't you grow?

It was only after Frog told his to talk nicely to his seeds, and Toad followed his advice, that his garden began to grow. (Isn't it amazing the things one can still remember from childhood? It's been at least 14 years since I saw Frog and Toad...)

Anyway, the point that I was trying to illustrate was that things grow better when they are shown love. This is actually true in plants, as well as relationships with animals and other humans. I really love how Dr. Rahab is instituting this principle with his university in Bethlehem. If only President Obama and some other world leaders would take the hint...