CU Gloria Social Action Team Explores Environmentalism and the Gospel By Anne Kerhoulas What does climate change have to do with Jesus? For many people, the answer is nothing. But as environmental activism and climate policy become more central to the world stage, Christians are speaking into the conversation with a simple but profound truth: environmental stewardship is a call placed on every Christian. 

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Sunday Worship Is Just One Place We Experience Jesus  By Anne Kerhoulas In Exodus 33, Moses speaks with God face to face in the tent of meeting. But in their conversation, Moses says that he needs God’s presence with him all the time. It is God’s presence that sets Israel apart. It is God’s presence that leads, guides, delivers, and provides for them. Moses is in the presence of God in the tent of meeting, but he needs the presence of God all the time. 

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A Cornerstone Partner Visits the Ministry at Brown   By Don Stahl   Ever wonder, “what is that ministry really like?”    As a Cornerstone Partner, I certainly knew something of what Christian Union seeks to do, and saw lots of evidence that it was genuinely touching the lives of the next generation of leaders. But in my experience working with over 100 non-profits and ministries throughout my career, I have found there is nothing like “showing up!” So, by prior arrangement, I did. Am I glad I went!

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Secular Authors Criticize Modern Sexual Ideology By Anne Kerhoulas Two recently released books by secular authors argue that the sexual revolution has not brought the sexual freedom and empowerment that it promised. Rather, it has created identity crises, rampant assault and abuse, the degradation of women through pornography, and the disintegration of marriage. While Christians who believe in the biblical sexual ethic may not be surprised by these findings, it’s important that secular thinkers are beginning to re-evaluate what sex and sexuality are for and what it means to flourish in sexual relationships.

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What Makes Christian Leadership Unique By Chuck Hetzler, Ph.D.   But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  – Matthew 20:25-28

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CU Alumna and Hamilton Cast Member Finds Identity in Christ By Ashley LaLonde Growing up in the heart of New York City, I often struggled to connect with other believers. Though my parents were both faithful Christians, and we attended church nearly every Sunday, almost all my close friends were people of other faiths or no faith at all. I often felt like the oddball. I loved Jesus and knew I had a relationship with him, but I would frequently downplay it with others just to fit in. 

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ChatGPT Just Transformed Education By Anne Kerhoulas Chat GPT arrived at the end of 2022, bringing with it a slew of problems—both ethical and practical—to the university setting. The AI program is capable of producing high-quality written content and is adept enough to imitate specific voices, styles of writing, and even well-known authors. This powerful tool is now posing an unprecedented threat to education, and educators from middle school to the university setting are scrambling to adjust to a new world. 

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Choosing To Forgive Rather Than Be Easily Offended   By Michael Racine, Writer and Ministry Fellow, CU Lux   Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.  – Proverbs 19:1 The biblical proverbs are so very practical. They don’t try to ennoble us with any Kantian notion of moral virtue detached from self-interest; rather, they tell us what wise, insightful people do to make things go better, and what ignorant fools do to make things worse. If we will only pay attention to these instructions and remember them, we won’t need a heroically self-sacrificial heart to put them into practice; we all naturally want to see life go more smoothly.

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CU Vita Leaders Pray Weekly With Other Ministry Leaders By Anne Kerhoulas   It’s 7:15 on Monday morning and the sun hasn’t yet risen. Most Cornell students are still in bed, groggily awakening from the weekend to face another week of classes and problem sets and essays. 7:15 on Monday morning is a bleak time for most, but for a handful of CU Vita students and leaders from other campus ministries, it’s a time to be awake, alert, and engaged. It’s a time for prayer—prayer for revival on campus. And for the group that gathers, it’s one of the most important times of their week.

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CU New York Hosts Dr. Ryan T. Anderson   Christian Union New York invited Christian Union Alumni, CU New York participants, and friends of Christian Union to gather on November 29, 2022, for a virtual forum with Dr. Ryan T. Anderson. Drawing on the best insights from biology, psychology, and philosophy, Dr. Anderson offered a nuanced view of human embodiment, a balanced approach to public policy on gender identity, and a sober assessment of the human costs of getting human nature wrong. 

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Penn Sophomore Became A Christian Through CU Martus  By Anne Kerhoulas What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. -1 Corinthians 3:5-7 For every Christian, the Lord appoints servants whom he uses to bring about our faith. Whether you grew up in a Christian home or an atheist home, God, in his perfect plan and kindness, placed individuals in your life who would speak the gospel to you, embody the love of Christ, help solidify theology, and love you into the kingdom of God.  For Stanley Liu, who grew up in Los Angeles in a secular household, the Lord appointed the Boy Scouts and a Catholic girlfriend to plant and Christian Union Martus to water. 

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Ignoring Religion Fails To Prepare Students Anne Kerhoulas While it may not be surprising to hear that Christianity is declining in America, religion as a whole is actually growing throughout the world. China is on track to have more Christians than America in the next decade in spite of being an openly atheistic country. In the Middle East, the Islamic revival is producing more pilgrimages to Mecca than ever before. In Latin America, a once predominately Roman Catholic region, pentecostalism is booming. Even in America, though Christianity is waning, new-age spirituality is increasingly popular, and more and more people are religiously unaffiliated but interested and open to spirituality. 

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Can A Christian Nurse Participate In Gender Reassignment? By Anne Kerhoulas It’s becoming a question more and more believers in healthcare will have to face: can a Christian doctor or nurse assist in gender reassignment surgery?  In this article for Desiring God, John Piper addresses the question from a biblical perspective to help believers understand the gravity of their actions as well as their responsibility to God and his creation. 

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Start Your Year Off With A Great Book By Anne Kerhoulas  Our 2023 book recommendation list includes an array of Christian books. From classic theology to leadership development to biography, there is sure to be something that will encourage your spirit this new year.God in the Dock is a collection of essays and speeches from C.S. Lewis. Its title implies "God on Trial" and the title is based on an analogy made by Lewis suggesting that modern human beings, rather than seeing themselves as standing before God in judgment, prefer to place God on trial while acting as his judge.Recommended by Chris Coppernoll, Ministry Director, CU Nova 

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Orthodoxy’s Commitment To Truth and Love By Anne Kerhoulas Truth and love often seem at odds in our culture today. Everyone has their own truth and wants the freedom to believe what they want. So to hold fast to the truth and conviction of orthodox Christian faith is challenging. All too often believers settle for bland acceptance of everyone’s truth as being valid in the name of loving them. But as Trevin Wax argues in this article for The Gospel Coalition, this radically opposes the pursuit of sound theology and doctrine as presented in the gospels and New Testament. 

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Why the Practices Are Both Challenging and Invaluable By Anne Kerhoulas Silence and solitude are unpopular disciplines. In our fast-paced, technologically connected, over-worked world, who could possibly have the time and energy to prioritize being alone in silence? And if we had the time, who would choose it? 

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A Jazz Musician Found His Way In CU Lumine By Isabella Campolatarro There’s a Christian aphorism, often attributed to St. Teresa of Avila, that “God draws straight with crooked lines.” Christian Union Lumine student Michael Manasseh ’23 has experienced this truth first-hand.

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A Network Helping Alumni Connect and Flourish By Anne Kerhoulas Christian Union has served undergraduate and graduate students at some of the most influential universities in the country for decades. But what happens to these students after they graduate? The transition from college to the working world is not only challenging on a personal level, but it is also one of the times individuals are more likely to walk away from their faith. 

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Author and Scholar Joseph Laconte Discusses C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien Projects This article was originally published in the Tristate Voice. Blake Whitmer ’23 is a Dartmouth student.   Joseph Loconte, PhD., is an author, Senior Fellow in Christianity and Culture at The King’s College, and the Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at the Heritage Foundation. In 2015, he wrote the New York Times bestseller A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War. In 2016, he wrote the award-winning op-ed “How J.R.R. Tolkien Found Mordor on the Western Front.” His most recent project is a documentary on Lewis and Tolkien, with an emphasis on the way that war shaped their friendship and writings. Tri-State Voice writer Blake Whitmer recently sat down to interview him about his work.

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Our Speech Is Part Of Our Witness   By Mike Vincent, Ministry Fellow at CU Nova Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.  – James 5:9 The world loves to complain about the Church. There's an abundance of negative words from non-Christians aimed at our beliefs, our moral values, how we talk, and how we live. Such negative speech and attacks can be discouraging. How much more so when they come from within the Church! We who are supposed to be united in Christ are sometimes just as guilty of complaining against His Bride. Nothing destroys unity more quickly than complaining against those with whom we are supposed to be united.

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