Christian Union: The Magazine
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March 1, 2015
Dartmouth Student Leads 24-Hour Prayer Time
On October 31, students at Dartmouth united their Christian peers to pray without ceasing for 24 hours.
The effort was led by Zachary Schmidt '15, who is active with Christian Union's leadership development ministry at Dartmouth and possesses a profound devotion to Christ and a passion for living a life of prayer.
Schmidt, who transferred to Dartmouth as a junior from the U.S. Naval Academy, helped organize a 24-hour concert of prayer, which both encouraged students to seek God wholeheartedly and also united the body of Christ on campus.
"We saw [this prayer initiative] as a great way to get the whole Christian community involved and united in one body to glorify the Lord," said Schmidt.
February 23, 2015
Making Sense of True Paradoxes
Christian Union: The Magazine recently interviewed David Skeel, the S. Samuel Arsht Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Pennsylvania. A speaker at Veritas Forums on various college campuses, Skeel is the author of several books on law. He recently wrote his first apologetics book, True Paradox: How Christianity Makes Sense of Our Complex World.How would you define apologetics?
At bottom, I think the Apostle Peter defined apologetics best, at least for Christians, when he admonished his readers to "always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15). That's how I see apologetics, as trying to explain why I believe Christianity is true, especially for those who think an ancient religion like Christianity can't possibly make sense of the complexities of our contemporary world.
February 22, 2015
Mwangi Thuita '17 Has a Passion for Serving
The Community Service Team with Christian Union at Cornell is working to share the Gospel in Ithaca, New York, and their acts of service are conveying what words alone cannot.The team serves the university's neighboring community through a variety of volunteer works, quietly modeling Christ's compassion for all people.
"Our students formed the Community Service Team because they wanted tangible ways to communicate the love of Christ," said Anna Shea, a Christian Union ministry fellow at Cornell. "They want others to experience, through their actions, that Jesus is alive—not just on the Cornell campus, but throughout Ithaca as well."
February 21, 2015
Scholar Exhorts Attendees at Harvard Catholic Center Event
Exercising the constitutional right to "authentic worship" at Harvard was heralded this fall with a lecture from noted scholar Father Peter Stravinskas.The Harvard Catholic Center sponsored the event, entitled "Give Me Freedom (Religious) or Give Me Death."
Stravinskas, editor of The Catholic Answer magazine and books such as The Catholic Response and The Catholic Church and the Bible, exhorted attendees to refute the bifurcation of religious freedom by a secular culture.
Stravinskas spoke about how society is seeking to replace authentic Christian worship and expression with a more politically correct and passive version of religion.
The right to assemble is tolerated, but the freedom to live out your faith with actionable belief and works is disallowed.
February 20, 2015
Cornell Alumnus Joe Holland Challenges Students to Walk by Faith
For believers, God's calling is not an isolated event. Rather, it often plays out as part of an amazing personal movement.Activist, attorney, and football legend Joe Holland offered that spiritual insight during an appearance on October 16 at his alma mater of Cornell University. The All-American football player spoke about the stages of fulfilling a divine commission during a public lecture in Friends Hall.
"It's not just something that happens, and that's the end," said Holland, Cornell '78, MA '79, Harvard Law '82. "It's a movement that God executes in your life."
February 19, 2015
Considering Nietzsche and Jesus of Nazareth
by Jesse Peterson
At the risk of an absurd reductionism, I'd like to propose an audacious thesis: that in Western history there have been only two distinct ethical philosophies. Every other ethic ultimately falls under the banner of one of these two. The two stances are represented by two teachers: Friedrich Nietzsche and Jesus of Nazareth. Their fundamental disagreement? What it means to be human, and what it means to love.The Ethics of Nature
There could hardly have been a more fitting philosopher to follow on the heels of Darwin's mid-19th-century discoveries than Nietzsche. Nietzsche translated into ethical-prescriptive terms ("ought") what for Darwin had merely been biological-historical description ("is"). Darwin's "survival of the fittest" in the war of nature became Nietzsche's "will to power":February 18, 2015
The Lambs help students grow in grace and truth.
by Sarah Camp, Contributing Editor
From marriage to ministry, Angela (Cornell, BA '99) and Allen (Cornell, BS '00 and MEng'01) Lamb know a good thing when they find it. For example, they met during their freshman year at Cornell and married during the summer between their junior and senior years. Allen was already a Christian when he met Angela; Angela came to faith in Christ at Cornell thanks in part to a suitemate who shared her faith.The young couple were led to follows Christ's ethos in college as they pursued integrity in courtship and dating, and fidelity in marriage. A supportive community and God's great grace helped them navigate their student years.
February 12, 2015
Penn Student Seeks to Establish Peer Counseling
Roy Lan cares about people.From assisting in cancer research and volunteering for the welfare of children, to participating in model UN at the University of Pennsylvania, the breadth of his compassion is evident. This semester, Lan is extending a helping hand even further as he spearheads a new organization that seeks to come alongside students that struggle to care for themselves.
As a response to the several suicides at Penn in the last year and a half, Lan is working to establish a student-run peer counseling organization for undergraduates. And he credits Christian Union's ministry at Penn with helping him develop the leadership skills needed to form the new organization.
