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Presentation raises questions
By Cory Fechtelkotter
Published:
Monday, April 7, 2003
Media Credit: scott theisen
Dan Adler speaks about racism and prejudice in the perspective of Jesus and Christianity. Algar spoke Friday as part of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship�s �Christians are Hypocrites� program.
"Christians Are Hypocrites!" proclaimed posters hanging all over Atwood. The posters went on to claim that "they don't care about people like they say they do" and "all they care about is money" and "They worship a Jew, but they live lifestyles of segregation and underlying racism." Few would expect these claims to come from a Christian organization, but InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) is responsible for the ads. The posters invited students to come see if the claims were "how Jesus intended it" through a series of three speakers on campus.
Stacy Brumbahh, senior and co-outreach coordinator for IVCF, explained the seemingly odd advertising campaign. "I think it catches people's attention first of all and it also affirms many people's beliefs," Brumbahh said.
"On the advertisements, there are many statements about Christians that people assume and have a negative view of Christians, and the thing is, most of them are true. We aren't negating those claims, we're not saying Christians are perfect. We're saying, 'yes, there is problem, but let's look at it further, let's go past those assumptions and past those criticisms and look at Jesus Christ and how he intended it."
Three speakers were scheduled, but Thursday's speaker on homelessness was cancelled due to weather. The other two speakers spoke about domestic violence and racism on Tuesday and Friday, respectively. The uniting theme was the responsibility of Christians and non-Christians alike to understand what the religion is really about.
"A lot of people think that activism and Christianity can't go together, but Christianity needs activism, and it's frustrating when Christians don't embrace activism as they should," said Nina Bregl, senior and member of IVCF. "I think oppression is something that is not talked about as much as it should be, especially from the pulpit. And often times, instead of fighting against oppression, Christianity sometimes perpetuates it. A lot of evil things have been done in the name of Christianity and it's up to us to truly follow Jesus. There is a difference between Christianity and following Jesus. If you truly follow Jesus, you will have a heart of service and a passion for justice."
Dan Adler, director of the Twin Cities Heart of the Cities Ministries, spoke on racism and was particularly vocal about what Christianity is and is not. "I think to make a real clear statement that though we have many negative historical things that have happened in the name of Christianity, racist things, prejudice things, Christianity is not about that," Adler said. "All of those things are distortions of what Christianity is about. And the bottom line is 'What did Jesus teach?' and that has to be the basis of our judging of Christianity. It's incumbent upon you to be active against these things (racism, prejudice) if you're truly going to follow Christ."
Reactions among the students were largely positive. "It was interesting the way he (Adler) tried to differentiate between Jesus Christ as an individual seeker of truth and Christianity as an organized religion," said Samrat Ghrel, junior. "What I got from that was more of Jesus as an individual seeker of truth, it is no different from what Buddha did or other individual seekers of truth who strode toward enlightenment."
Organizers and speakers also hoped that the presentations would make Christians take a closer look at themselves, and encourage non-Christians not to judge something based on the actions of a few of its members.
"Since so many are so skeptical about Christianity and Christ, my challenge would be to really investigate who Jesus was and what he was about and judge things based on that," Adler said. "A lot of people haven't done that, they have just seen ugly things done in the name of Him and written Him off."
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