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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• Cultural Engagement

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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• Penn

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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• Cultural Engagement

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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A Princeton Junior Shares First-hand Experience By Cynthia Makachi It’s been a little over two years since I started my freshman year at Princeton in fall of 2020, and, though it was anything but normal, I smile back at what the Lord has done.  My first year took place between the four walls of my childhood bedroom. If I wanted to get to know my classmates or become involved in extracurricular groups, I had to intentionally join a zoom meeting, unmute myself from time to time, and not run away from the awkwardness of silence as others decided if they felt brave enough to speak too. 

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• Princeton

CU Ministry Director Delivers Opening Prayer By Anne Kerhoulas Christian Union Martus Ministry Director Cory Lotspeich had the honor of delivering the invocation at the University of Pennsylvania’s Veteran’s Day commemoration service. Lotspeich, who is a US Marine Corps veteran, was asked by the University to pray for the gathering and was delighted to be able to serve and represent Christian Union at the event.

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Faculty Who Disagree With Doctrinal Statement on LGBTQ Relationships Permitted To Teach By Anne Kerhoulas While it’s no surprise that universities nationwide reflect current sexual norms within our culture, many have been closely watching the hundreds of Christian colleges and universities as they draw a line in the sand. Will they accept our culture's sexual and gender revolution or will they adhere to biblical sexuality? Will our culture get the final word or will Scripture? 

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• Cultural Engagement

Practicing Intellectual Charity Leads To Productive Conversation By Anne Kerhoulas As the holidays approach, many find themselves growing tense at the thought of long meals across from people with whom they are permanently associated but could not disagree more politically, morally, or religiously. As our political climate continues to heat, perhaps we need to think more logically and practically about how to engage with those we disagree with; how we can listen, hear opposing viewpoints, and seek a greater understanding of a person rather than a personal victory in a private debate.  

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Tim Keller’s New Book Explores The Power and Challenge of Forgiveness By Anne Kerhoulas Forgiveness is hard. And for most people, it’s something we don’t do very well or often enough. Tim Keller wants to change that. Focusing on the power of Christ’s forgiveness for us that empowers us to forgive others, Keller invites us to walk faithfully in all that forgiveness is.

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How Speaking Well Of Others Changes Us   By Liz Thomforde Let no corrupt talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.  – Ephesians 4:29  Growing up you may have heard or even used the phrase, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” However, we know that this is not true. Words do hurt. In fact, I am sure it would not be hard for you to remember words that hurt or wounded you in a profound way. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”  

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• Seeking God