Month: April 2013

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Appointment of Dean Michael Jordan is “Slam Dunk” for College

Courtesy of www.houghton.edu
Courtesy of www.houghton.edu

After serving as Interim Dean of Chapel for the past semester, Dr. Michael Jordan has decided to accept the position permanently.

“I look forward to helping to shape Houghton’s spiritual life. I especially look forward to helping people see that our spiritual life is not something the administration creates for the students, but something that we create together as we give ourselves over to the rhythm of worship and work, study and rest, prayer and play.” said Dean Jordan.

Hailing from southern New Jersey, Jordan entered college at Houghton for undergraduate studies where he earned a B.A. in History and Bible with a minor in Linguistics. There he met his now wife, Dr. Jill Jordan, mathematics. After graduating from Houghton in 1999, he went on to attend Eastern Baptist (now Palmer) Theological Seminary where he graduated with a Masters in Divinity in 2002. He was a pastor at Exton Community Baptist Church in Exton, Pennsylvania from 2002 to 2009. During this time, he studied to receive his P.H.D. in Liturgical Studies from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. In 2009, he left his position as a pastor to come back to Houghton after Jill was offered her current professorship.

Jordan enjoys working at the college in a position of religious leadership. He said,”I’ve always enjoyed both preaching and the academy. Pastoring had a lot of the latter without the former; the people in my church didn’t always get my drive to study. Teaching as an adjunct on the other hand is great, but doesn’t let me explore my full pastoral side. The dean position will be great in allowing me to mix and enjoy both the academic and pastoral parts of my role here at the college.”

Dean Jordan hopes to serve the community as a “spiritual tone setter.” He wants to take chapel in a direction that is more deeply liturgical with a focus on worship and connection with God. Instead of having a chapel focused on information, he wants to see one focused on formation. He plans to provide more opportunities for communication between students and chapel speakers.

Jordan’s view of chapel in the next year is one that moves away from a previously consumerism-like model. As it stands currently, students tend to choose which chapels they attend based on who is speaking, who is playing worship, or any other small aspect of the service and decide whether or not that chapel will interest them. In the future, Jordan wants to make chapel into a practice and experience that allows the students at Houghton to take some time out of their day to give back to God and refocus on His teachings.

He jokingly refers to this as taking time to “paint pictures for God’s refrigerator” through our worship and, more seriously, as taking the time to lift our voices up to Him and devote our hearts to His glory.

When asked what he enjoyed seeing this past semester in chapel, Jordan recalled several highlights including faith journeys, the gospel choir’s performances, and the support he has received from the students as he has taken on the position. He remarks that even the complaints about chapel that he receives do not give the impression that they are personal, but rather critical of the institution of chapel as a whole.

In some ways, this worries the Dean. He would like the chapel to move from being a faceless body and towards being an accessible and organic part of campus. While he has avoided shaping the structure of chapel in his interim period as the dean, Jordan hopes that he can more deeply integrate chapel into the lives of students as something they can openly discuss and feel that their opinions are heard.

When discussing how Houghton has changed since his time here (’95-’99), Jordan remarks that very little has changed. “There is still the same mix of academics and Christianity that was present when I attended,” he said. One change he notes is the increase in mobility and accessibility to the outside world. The college is a lot less isolated than it was in the past.

 

When asked about social justice movements at Houghton, Jordan replied,“I’m a social justice guy.” The seminary he attended is very well known for its unique focus on social justice, which has shaped his views on Christians in society. Defining his goals for social justice at Houghton, he wants to call out sin to rectify it and, in his words, “make a world here that Jesus will recognize as good when He returns.”

Academically, Jordan would like to see more engagement with students about social and political issues. One source of engagement he views as being successful is the meeting of panels on social issues including same-sex attraction and sexual assault. The topics of these panels are often controversial and harsh, but Jordan sees them as bringing about positive change through open discussion.

“I hope students find me invitational: I know that they will not always agree with what I say, or my ideas, but I’m very open to the input of others and want to help us find our best way together,” expressed Jordan.

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Seniors Bid Farewell

The end of the semester is fast approaching, culminating on Saturday, May 11th with the Commencement of Houghton’s class of 2013.  Houghton will be saying goodbye to a diverse group of students with various majors and interests.  As this collection of individuals look ahead to the future, they also remember their experiences at Houghton.

Student athlete and senior, Mark O’Brien, commented on his participation on the men’s varsity basketball team as being definitive to his time at Houghton, having had a “camaraderie that is hard to replace.” He has been played on the basketball team since freshman year and attributes this part of involvement as having been influential to relationships he has made and the support he looks to as he prepares for graduation.

O’Brien is a business major with a Bible minor and thanks the business department for giving him direction. He said, “professors go out of their way to help you, give insight to the future and opportunities, and stretch you to try new things.”  To use the time spent at Houghton to the fullest, O’Brien said to “cast a broad net, and then narrow your interests to the things that you will enjoy the most.”

Alice Browning, a senior political science major with self-designed minors in human trafficking and supply chains and community development in an international context says that Houghton has influenced her world perspective.  Although her identity has stayed the same throughout her time as a student, Browning said, “I have been challenged to view the world in a more flexible and permeable way.”

An important aspect of Browning’s Houghton experience includes the time she has spent being able to explore many interests.  She said that she has learned that it is more important to “define the greater questions rather than being concerned with finding the answers.”  Next year Browning is planning on working with the Wesley Corps in Buffalo in helping with the resettlement of refugees.

Julian Cook, a senior studying religion and music describes Houghton as a place dedicated to self-discovery.  His experiences have greatly influenced his decision to attend Boston University of Theology in the fall and of pastoring, teaching, and leading in the future.  Cook has found the connection between his interests and said he sees the “value in traditional Christianity to not neglect questioning” as well as appreciating the “musician as a prophet and minister.” In looking back, Cook says to “endure past the questioning and get involved.”

Coming from a family of music teachers, senior music education major Maribeth Olsen said she initially chose Houghton for the  way she fit into the music program. Olsen said she has truly appreciated the ability to pursue activities outside of her major. This summer Olsen will have the chance to be a Highlander leader and is excited for this opportunity to interact with Houghton students after graduating.

Courtesy of Maribeth Olson
Courtesy of Maribeth Olson

As her time at Houghton draws to an end, Olsen has found it helpful to make a bucket list.  Her list includes the mundane and arguably for her the most rewarding, including: completing a Star crossword, getting on stage, sitting with Coach Smalley in chapel, going to Higgins’ Hole, and visiting the Red Barn.  Olsen is currently applying for various teaching positions and her search,” seeks small communities similar in their reciprocity to Houghton.”

For senior Sarah Jacoby, a double major in religion and humanities, off-campus programs have played a significant role in defining her passions and interests.  Jacoby spent a semester abroad during her freshman year as a participant in the London Honors Program.  She also participated in the City Semester Program in Buffalo for the spring semester of her junior year.  Both of these opportunities were “valuable and practical in making connections within [her] majors.”

Jacoby is hoping to work with Wesley Corps next year as well as other non-profit organizations in the future before attending graduate school.  With the approaching opportunities and possibilities, Jacoby looked back on the relationships she has formed at Houghton and said, “I have found people that I can return to – strong networks of people who are excited about my life.”

Senior Nathan White, having majored in intercultural studies with a double concentration in linguistics and TESOL, will be heading to Thailand this summer to do a graduate study in Linguistics.  While overseas, White will also be doing TESOL work and language development with people in “helping them to value their heart language.”

Entering Houghton as a transfer, White has found it to be a place where “intelligence and faith have a beautiful collision.”  He commented on his growth as an individual, not being afraid of the uncomfortable, embracing the awkward, and learning to be whole.  White attributes these qualities to those he has interacted with, including his host family in Tanzania, professors, and friends.  White said, “There are classrooms everywhere.  Behind every face there are glorious stories.”

 

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Science Honors Launches Balloons

After a year of hard work and long coffee-fueled nights, the 14 students that make up Science Honors have launched weather balloons they have constructed to take measurements of the upper atmosphere.

Leading up to the launch, Science Honors student Jonathan Yuly remarked, “It will be really exciting to watch what happens with our year’s project, and how future years will move forward with it.”

Each balloon was outfitted with its own set of sensors and instruments. The sensors were run by onboard processing chips called a BASIC Stamp Boards. These boards act as the brains of the boxes. They tell the sensors how to work and then deliver the information they collect to a radio that sends it back to the students at Houghton.

Four teams were collected from the students to design an experiment that would use the balloons and sensors to analyze data about climate change. Groups did experiments that ranged from measuring CO2 to the refraction of light through clouds and how it affects the sun’s rays hitting Earth.

The balloons were launched on Tuesday, April 23rd at nine in the morning after a short press conference. Unfortunately, as science is wont to do, the live experiment was met with many challenges. On the night before the launch, two of the radios on the boxes were fried after being overcharged with current.

R.D. Marek’s radio was one of the two that was ruined. At 2 am, in the Paine building, he was quoted as saying “I’m looking for a ‘Lazarus moment’.”

Eventually, he got it when his radio resumed normal function. The other radio did not however and that group’s balloon was not able to launch.

The teams prepared to launch 3 balloons from the quad on Tuesday morning when they were met with several unforeseeable misfortunes.

The first group to launch had no issues in launching their balloon. However, once it was up in the sky, they found that although it was transmitting data to the computer on the ground, the computer was not properly recording the data.

The next group was disappointed when their cut-down system, meant to release the box from the balloon in case of an emergency, was activated by a faulty radio transmission and cut the balloon from the box as it was beginning to lift off the quad.

Lastly, the third group found themselves similarly unlucky. When released, the knot that tied their balloon to the box came undone and the team watched as their balloon floated away.

The balloons, costing around $300 each, were not able to be replaced immediately and the two launches that failed were not able to relaunch.

Despite these issues, the crowd watching the launch still enjoyed getting to see the experiment unfold. Said freshman, Myra Mushalla,“I got to see many science honors students work on their balloon projects for a long time and getting to watch the launch off the quad was very satisfying, even for me; so I imagine it was great for them.”

The teams retired to the Science Honors Lab after the launch to watch the one successful launch travel northward on a GPS tracker that was linked to the box. Once the balloon showed that it was in a constant position for several minutes, the teams piled into three Houghton vans and drove to Dansville, NY to retrieve it.

A woman who owns the property where the box landed led the teams up into the woods where they found the box 50 feet up, hanging on a tree limb, unable to be retrieved. With this last disappointment, the teams got back into their vans and went out for ice cream.

Plans to retrieve this box have been set into motion, but at the present time, it is still swinging away from the top branches of a tree in Dansville.

news_sciencehonors

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Houghton College Equestrian Show Hosts Spring Shows

Courtesy of facebook.com
Courtesy of facebook.com

On April 20, the Houghton College Equestrian Center hosted its annual Western New York Dressage Association’s Challenge Series Show. This Saturday, April 27, the Equestrian Center will host its annual Spring Hunter-Jumper Show.

These two shows allow students to interact with outside riders, trainers, and judges every year. The Dressage Challenge Show is one in a series of shows, put on at different farms, that is sponsored by the Western New York Dressage Association (WYNDA), of which Professor Jo-Anne Young, Houghton’s Equestrian Program Director, is the Vice President.

Carrie Keagan, senior psychology major and equestrian minor, will be competing for her last time as a student at Houghton. She said, “The shows is a great chance for Houghton students to get a chance to compete against people outside of Houghton and see how they really match up against other riders. Most of us enjoy competing, and, as a group, we generally place very well in the classes.”

Last Saturday, students in Dressage, Competition Dressage, and those who practice and train outside of a class setting, competed on Houghton’s school horses. Students who board their own horses at Houghton have also competed in the past, but none chose to this year.

Historically, the highlight of the show is the Twelve-Horse Quadrille, which is a pattern ridden to music by twelve horse and rider pairs. Every spring semester, a different group of Houghton students learn the pattern and perform at the WYNDA Dressage show and at the Equestrian Program Senior Exhibition that will take place on May 10.

The first three levels of Dressage, Introductory, Training, and First Level were performed by many different riders at the show. The Junior High Scorer was Joanna Sudlow, riding one of Houghton’s schoolmasters, Entertainer. Kate Shannon, also riding Entertainer, placed first in the Senior Training Level One class, where she competed solely against riders not from Houghton College.

Dressage is one of the elements of the Equestrian sport that is performed at the Olympic level. Houghton teaches all its Equestrian majors the basic movements and theory behind the discipline, and, if they wish, students have the opportunity to learn movements that are performed at the Olympic level from Professor Young, if they choose to put in the time and perseverance.

Students from Horsemanship I to Mini-Prix Jumping Equitation (the highest level jumping academic course available to Houghton’s students) will be competing this Saturday. Classes will be offered in the under-saddle and over-fences categories. Under-saddle simply means that the horse and rider will compete with everyone else registered in their class at the same time and only have to go through the different gaits; there are no fences involved.

The spring Hunter-Jumper show also offers classes in both Hunter and Equitation categories. If the class is designated Hunter, then the horse and rider pair are judged only on what the horse does in the ring: the quality of its gaits and movement, its athleticism and conformation (or build), and several other technical factors. In an equitation class, the horse and rider pair are judged based upon the rider’s position and skills when riding, regardless of the horse, whether it behaves perfectly or takes off bucking.

The show ends with three jumper classes, which are not judged by the horse or the rider, but rather the speed that the pair can complete a course. The obstacles are higher and more complicated or distracting in jumper classes, and the goal is to leave all the fences untouched in the shortest amount of time.

Andrea Ypma, a senior, said, “The hunter-jumper show provides students a chance to show what they have learned over a variety of courses designed to test their skill.” Ypma has a vast knowledge of course design concepts and spent her internship at Thunderbird Equestrian Show Park in Canada, a facility that hosts high-level hunter-jumper competitions. She has helped to design challenging and interesting courses in the past.

Houghton’s Equestrian Center also hosts an annual USEF/USDF Recognized Dressage Show, a horse trial in the fall, which incorporates, dressage, showjumping and cross country, and a Christmas Hunter-Jumper Fun Show. All events are free to spectators, and the Equestrian students would love to see the rest of the college spend some time at the horse barn.

The program offers many excellent opportunities, the shows being just a few. Young said, “The Equestrian Program gives students a solid foundation in Equestrian Studies, based on the principles of classical dressage, and incorporating riding, teaching riding, training horses, and care of the horse. If you love  horses, and are willing to take the time and effort to learn to understand their culture and how to ‘speak their language,’  the amazing lesson horses at the Equestrian Center have some fantastic things to teach you.”

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Kerr-Pegula Update

On Tuesday morning, faculty and staff members met for an update on the Kerr-Pegula Project. Dave Smith, Vice President for Finance and Planning, presented to faculty and staff information that will be shared with the Board of Trustees on Friday, May 3rd as they decide how to proceed with the project. Smith’s presentation was focused on the financial aspects of the Kerr-Pegula Project, such as the total cost of the project, the funds raised thus far, and the plan for funding the rest of the project, if extra funding is needed. These are the factors that the Board of Trustees will weigh as they vote on how to move forward with or delay the project.

Courtesy of facebook.com
Courtesy of facebook.com

The Board of Trustees has already approved the three fields that are currently under construction, while the addition of a field house is pending Board approval. According to Smith, there is a range of options which will be presented to the Board, and two of these options would not involved added funding. Dr. Robert Pool, Vice President for Student Life, said only a very small percentage of the project will be financed by loans. He said, “I, along with all of the presidential staff, have looked at all the risks and costs, and it is a no-brainer: go forward.”

Skip Lord, Executive Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, said that the College has the gift (the original donation by the Kerr-Pegula family) and a plan for advancement. Lord supports the project not only because it will enhance intercollegiate athletics, but also because it has the potential to increase Houghton College’s visibility, improve enrollment, contribute to advancement goals, and expand intramural and academic programs. “It has the potential to impact Houghton in unique ways we have not even begun to imagine,” Lord said. He also said, “I am certainly hopeful that we will move ahead, but the Board of Trustees, in their wisdom, will make the decision.”

Like Lord, Lauren Niswander, Co-leader for Committee for Intercollegiate Athletics, reflected a large vision for the Kerr-Pegula Project. She said, “This is an awesome gift that we have been given, and it will help our campus ministry by opening doors to represent our athletics and academics.”

Connie Finney, Professor of Education, gave her opinion of the general support for the project. She said, “In my various conversations with faculty members, I have found them to be very supportive of the project.” Similarly, David Davies, Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory, stated, “I am generally in support of the Kerr-Pegula Project.”

However, some professors are more skeptical about the Kerr-Pegula Project. Benjamin Lipscomb, Professor of Philosophy, expressed concern over the funding of the project. If a significant amount of the funds come from loans, he said, “The financing of that debt will be an additional burden on the College and ultimately on its students.”  He affirmed the value of athletics but emphasized the importance of making sound financial decisions, especially because Houghton has been struggling with enrollment and finances. “The most disturbing aspect of going ahead without full financing,” Lipscomb said, is that the original vision was to have all the operating expenses covered by an endowment.” If the project is funded by loans rather than an endowment or funds the College already has, Houghton might jeopardize its financial and institutional values.

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Seniors Complete Honors Projects

Pursuing honors studies at Houghton is not just limited to participation in the First Year Honors Programs, East Meets West and Contemporary Contexts. Students also have the opportunity to complete a senior honors project in their final year at Houghton.

Courtesy of www.houghton.eduHonors projects are minutely detailed research studies of a topic of a student’s choice and are meant to mimic graduate school work. As such, the research and workload of an honors project is very challenging and is meant to go above and beyond standard 400 level independent studies. To even apply for an honors project, students must possess a minimum cumulative grade point of average of 3.25 and a minimum of 3.4 within their own major.

Often, honors projects result from experiences and studies in previous coursework. Senior Hannah Hanover, a writing major, is one such student who has undertaken an honors project this year based on her experiences studying abroad. After taking part in the Balkans semester last fall, she chose to write a historical fiction piece based around Jasenovac, a World War II concentration camp operating in the former Yugoslavia. Hanover said, “I was fortunate enough to visit the site of the camp while in the Balkans, and the museum there was very helpful and powerful in its scope.”

Sydnie Cunningham, a sociology major, has also completed an honors project that has resulted from previous study. She completed “a project examining how romantic roles and socioeconomic status influences women’s occupational choices in STEM fields.” This topic was partially inspired by collaborative research on similar issues regarding that subject. Likewise, Bill Clunn, a political science major, pursued an honors project entitled, “The Militant Politics of Poverty Policy; Flight Fight, Policy, and Rights” that was inspired after an internship he had completed during the Buffalo City Semester.

Overall, Hanover believes that the experience of the honors project has greatly impacted her future academic and career goals. “I wish to study the mid-20th century literature stemming from various conflicts in Europe, mainly Eastern Europe, and work at a university in the future,” said Hanover,  “As a fiction writer this was an exercise in exactly what I wish to write – historical fiction examining lesser-known conflicts (mainly in Eastern Europe) that could help Westerners understand the mindsets and values of those entirely unlike themselves.”

Clunn noted something similar, “Initially, I was interested in pursuing criminal law in grad school, but after completing this project I am now very interested in pursuing studies in poverty. I am going to be attending a law school in North Carolina where poverty is an important issue.”

Overall, the participants in the honors project recommended the experience. Cunningham and Clunn noted the benefits of completing a mock graduate study experience. Hanover also said, “Writing an honors project is an excellent way to discover your academic style. I realized many things about my work process that I can now attempt to remedy. It teaches you the flaws in your time management, the frustrations of prolonged projects, methods needed to push past writer’s block, and gives one a taste of graduate-length work.”

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Goodbye, International Students

Unbeknownst to most of us, the Student Financial Services Office (SFSO) and the Office of Admission have decided to slash financial aid for incoming international students. This decision is appalling, and deserves reconsideration.

            “We are giving more financial aid to international students than to our own,” one administrator crassly put it. Last time I checked, “our own” is the body of Christian believers, not the citizens of a given country. (Not even the US Army War College or West Point is that parochial.)

Inti Martinez-Aleman '07
Inti Martinez-Aleman ’07

This is a matter of equity and justice. Let’s look at a real example, a Honduran prospective student. What used to be a $15-20,000 financial aid package is now meagerly $8,000. That means this Honduran would have to shell out at least $28,000 every year—upfront cash!—which is enough to make a 50% down payment for a comfy house; in a four-year’s worth, one can get a decent 30-year retirement.

US citizens can get federal aid for their education, yet that concept is limited or nonexistent in countries like Honduras. Consider this country’s situation: the exchange rate is 20 Lempiras to 1 US dollar; the minimum wage is $2 per hour; you can buy a small home with $36,000—the Houghton annual price tag.

If we want Houghton to increase enrollment and diversity, cutting aid to foreigners is not the brightest idea. Currently, Houghton students are 96 percent US/Canadian and 94 percent White. This is virtually off the charts amongst American colleges and universities. With the misguided (at best) or jingoistic (at worst) “our own” parlance, these percentages might reach 100. Hooray.

What would our Founder think of this? Some suggest he’d send the Administration and Board of Trustees packing. Frieda Gillette and Kay Lindley put it differently in And You Shall Remember: the Houghton Charter expressed the goal of establishing and maintaining “…a seminary for the purpose of conferring a thorough education without regard to sex or nationality.” (emphasis added)

The Administration’s focus now is to enroll fifteen foreign students who are able to pay at least 80 percent of college tuition and fees; this is labeled as “full paying.” The goal is admirable and achievable, for which I have personally volunteered to try to get more Hondurans of this caliber for Houghton. The reality, however, is that most Christians from the Global South are not affluent.

Higher education institutions that take diversity and inclusion seriously have various endowed scholarships for international students, who collectively get hundreds of thousands of dollars to study in the US, paying close to nothing out of pocket. With the same vehemence and extent Houghton will raise millions for the Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex and renovating the Paine Science Building, it can also raise money to fund international student education. But it doesn’t.

Thom Kettelkamp and I were briefed on this matter by SFSO and Admission officials. They believe this policy will be temporary; once enrollment increases, it will be gone. Permanent or temporary, this policy runs diametrically opposite to our Mission, Philosophy, Charter, history and every other good thing Houghton is known for.

Say Houghton decided to slash financial aid for non-Wesleyan students, because they are not “our own,” they don’t pay enough, and there’s a limited budget. Wouldn’t we all be irate? Wouldn’t enrollment decrease dramatically? Of course, even if the cuts were temporary. For some reason, however, a similar red flag wasn’t raised when this anti-foreign decision was made.

For me, “our own” are Christian believers, regardless of nationality, denomination, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, bodily ability, socioeconomic class, etc. As a Christian college, we attract students of all denominations, but the fastest growing Christian population in the US or in the rest of the world is not middle-class, rural, Evangelical America. To increase enrollment from domestic and international Christian circles, which are the most numerically promising sources of students, Houghton needs to cater to them. If we are going to pretend to care about diversity and inclusion, let’s do the job right. And cutting aid to foreigners won’t help.

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Opinions

What’s Orthodox to Someone is Heresy to Another

As I come to the end of my undergraduate career at a private faith-based liberal arts college, I think it is appropriate that I reflect on my journey.

I am not sure what sort of Christian I am. I only hope I’m not a heretic. Where amongst the thirty thousand denominations do I fall? I agree with the declaration of the Nicene Creed, so I must be ok.

Courtesy of fotogalerias.universia.c
Courtesy of fotogalerias.universia.c

Throughout my life, I have been dragged through a slew of different denominations. My parents, coming from Gideon and Baptist backgrounds, joined the inter-denominational mission organization Wycliffe Bible Translators. The first four years of my life were spent in a non-denominational Congolese Church. This was quite the Charismatic experience, as I’m sure you can imagine. I recall a story of a woman, supposedly practicing sorcery and possessed by a demon, who barged into the Church hollering in a man’s voice. They say it took seven men to drag her out and beat the demon out of her.

After this, we moved to France, where I was put in a private Catholic school for the following 11 years. I attended Catechism. I was taught that the Saints would intercede for me. I went to confession. I partook in the Holy Communion.

Also in France I attended an Assemblies of God church with my family. Within the first few months I could mimic word for word the “bidi-bidi” sounds that they claimed were Tongues and could also give the interpretations that would always follow.

Around this time, my parents became intrigued by what was happening in Toronto. John Arnott prayed his famous prayer “come Holy Spirit, come;” And thus began the infamous Toronto Blessing. After this, my family joined the Vineyard movement, a neo-charismatic movement stemming out of the Calvary Chapel.

After I moved back to the States, some close friends of the family invited me to attend the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. This is a charismatic non-denominational mission organization that emphasizes post-tribulational premillenialism. Led by a former Kansas City Prophet, Mike Bickle, the movement focuses on the end times.

I am no theologian; however, I’d hazard a guess that I have come across quite a few views that stray in some ways from orthodox Christianity, yet in each of these everyone maintains that their views are most in line with that of the early Church. I find myself distraught. I can’t help but to wonder what heretical views I uphold. Are gays Christian? When does human life begin? Is paedobaptism wrong? Is credobaptism necessary? Do demons exist? Are revivals psychological? Does God carry on personal relationships with everyone? Does God have a plan for my life?

Spiritual people always try to point to scripture. They tell us to base our beliefs on the word of God. Unfortunately, there are verses for and against each one of these questions. I don’t have any answers. I don’t know whether demons exist. I don’t know whether I should be re-baptized, or what happens when I take communion. I don’t know why God has been silent.  I find comfort in Thomas’s doubt. But I recognize that for some people, these questions, when unanswered, put Biblical faith at risk.

Rather than continue preaching these ambiguities—that is, all the doctrines that cause division amongst Christians—for which two thousand years have taught us that there are no conceivable resolutions, let us, as Wolterstorff writes, “endure holding on to God… join with God in keeping alive the protest against early death and unredemptive suffering… own our own suffering… and join with the divine battle against all that goes awry with reference to God’s intent.”

At the last supper, Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another. This was nothing new. He had instructed his followers to do this time and time again. Yet a few hours before his death, he tells his followers that they will be recognized for how they treat others.

Ultimately I am no longer afraid of being a heretic because, as one wise blogger once wrote, “what is orthodox to someone is going to be heresy to another.”

Throughout my time at Houghton I have heard, on at least three different occasions, individuals make reference to being Catholic and “converting” to Christianity. This makes me cringe. Was it their Catholicism that made them unchristian? What if I stated that I used to be Evangelical but then I became a Christian? I used to be Charismatic, but then I got saved. The fact is that Catholics are heretics, and so are the Eastern Orthodox, Baptists, Wesleyans, Mennonites, and the 30 thousand other denominations. We are all heretics to someone else. None of us hold the keys to the mystery of the universe. But we can choose how we are going to treat our fellow heretics: with Love.

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Welfare Recipients, American Stereotyping, and the Inactive, Loud Church

Courtesy of www.eirigi.org
Courtesy of www.eirigi.org

Are you living off of welfare? The answer is not as obvious as you might think. Presently, Houghton College and the federal government are two of the greatest welfare distributors in Houghton, N.Y. Welfare according to our friends at Webster’s Dictionary is “aid to people in need: financial aid and other benefits for people who are unemployed, below a specific income level, or otherwise requiring assistance, especially when provided by a government agency or program.” We in Houghton are not like ‘those people’ who are unemployed. We have jobs. Well, we have jobs subsidized through the federally mandated work-study program which is not a natural byproduct of our free-enterprise capitalist society. My income is subsidized every time I work and if you work somewhere other than Subway or China Star then you receive a welfare benefit through the federal work study program too.

        But perhaps you don’t work on campus but instead you receive a weekly or monthly stipend from your parents. I will not argue that you are lazy because you do not work. This benefit is not earned; rather it is inherited because you fit into a special class of people: “mom’s and dad’s child.” Your mother and/or father are very gracious with the welfare they impart on you. Few people would say that it is wrong for parents to impart benefits to their children simply because their children are their children. What about those of us who receive federal grants or federally-backed loans to cover the cost of tuition at Houghton? Aren’t these forms of aid welfare also? Perhaps you are beginning to realize that many if not most of us are here because we depend on the goodness of another person, a government, or an institution. When you start that small business and you receive your ‘subsidy’ that too is welfare. A select group or person receiving a benefit that only that group or person is ‘entitled’ to is a basic qualification for all welfare recipients. Houghton college students are largely living on welfare.

        Unfortunately here at Houghton College when we visualize a stereotypical welfare recipient we see a lazy, black, unmarried mother of 8 not a white college student. Even so we make an exemption because to us the federal government can ‘subsidize’ wealthy fortune 500 businesses, oil companies, coal companies, banks, and colleges but if it gives any money to a woman raising three children on her own then it acts unethically. Would we continue to advocate the destruction of the modern American welfare state even if it meant that people would die? I am not being melodramatic. For some children the only meal they receive each day is given to them through the federally mandated free or reduced lunch program. The food stamp program was established to provide for children who had lost their fathers in warfare. The federal government asserted that children face many disadvantages when growing up without a father. Regardless of the choice their mother made or whether a child’s father left or died should a child suffer for the ‘sins’ of his or her mother or father? Furthermore, it is historical fact that the institution of marriage was forbidden for black slaves in the South. Should we wonder why it is an uncommon institution in the poor inner city communities which grew when southern agricultural industrialization forced former slave-sharecroppers north?

        Don’t get me wrong, the modern American welfare state is a flawed system which does perpetuate some levels of dependency. However, as my grandmother always says, “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” I would wager that you might be in favor of dismantling the entire welfare state. Perhaps you believe that private institutions would take the place of the welfare state and do a better job as well; our nation’s history shows that just isn’t the case. The failure of Elizabethan Poor Laws in the late 18 and early 19th centuries encouraged the federal government and founding generation to leave the issue of provision for the poor to the state and local communities. For over 150 years local communities handled the issue as best as they could. Then the 1930s came and we realized that our economy is based on more than just a few isolated communities.

If tomorrow the Christian church stepped up to the plate and knocked the issue of poverty out of the park then I would say “Amen!” If tomorrow lines of suburban families stood near abortion clinics and offered to women headed inside to raise the unborn children of those considering aborting them I would say “Amen!” However, presently many communities have more rhetoric than they action. A lukewarm church gets spit out every time. What is your temperature today?

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Arts

Things to Eat: Garlic Scape Pesto


How ironic that I wrote this piece on the same day as the National Day of Garlic, the feature food of my article.

Garlic, a relative in the onion family and native to central Asia, has been consumed by humans for more than 6,000 years. Known for its medicinal qualities, garlic has been used over the centuries for currency, to ward off evil spirits, as an aphrodisiac, and more.  Most commonly it has been used as a seasoning that is a frequent flavor booster in world cuisines.

As a self-proclaimed “foodie,” I have been using garlic in savory dishes since I can remember learning to cook. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I discovered that you could use more than the bulb of the garlic plant.  Garlic “scapes” were introduced to me by my son, Andrew, who did an internship four years ago at a sustainable agriculture center in upstate New York.

The scape, or garlic curl, represents a stage of growth common to the hard-necked variety of garlic.  As the underground bulb grows and begins to harden, the plant sends up a dense green shoot the consistency of asparagus that curls as it grows longer.  Snipping off this curly shoot (the scape) at this stage, before it produces a flower, allows the garlic bulb to grow larger.

Garlic scapes are considered a vegetable and have a mild garlicky flavor.  While my favorite way to use scapes is in the pesto recipe below, it can be used in hummus, sliced thin and sauteed, and even added raw to salads, and other vegetable dishes.

Garlic Scape Pesto

1 cup garlic scapes (8 or 9 scapes), chopped (remove flowering end)

1⁄3 cup walnuts

3⁄4cup olive oil

1⁄4to 1⁄2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1⁄2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Ground black pepper

Mix all together in a food processor and blend to a fine consistency.

The pesto is delicious tossed with warm pasta or spread on as the bottom layer on a pizza before adding other toppings.

You can freeze the pesto or refrigerate it for up to one week.

Garlic scapes usually appear for a few weeks in late spring or early summer at local farmer’s markets.  Doug and I planted our first crop of garlic last November and today the plants are several inches out of the ground.  I will be watching for our own scapes and also at the markets again this summer so that we have a fresh batch of pesto in the freezer for use next winter.