by Cate Zenzen | Feb 13, 2018 | News Slider
February is Black History Month. Lipscomb has plans to celebrate and commemorate through a variety of events. Freshman Deranique Jones is encouraging Lipscomb students to participate. “It’s all about proximity,” Jones said. To do so, she said people can read books, listen to podcasts, watch movies and talk to people who are different from their normal friend circles. Jones also stressed her belief in the importance of learning the history and looking beyond slavery to recognize how far the country has come and to acknowledge how far it still has to go to make everyone feel welcome. “At the end of the day it is history,”Jones said. “You need to be able to understand American history. It’s not covered in history books like it should be.” Jones also discussed her personal role model, Angela Davis. “She made it OK for black women to be how they wanted to be,” she said, adding, “not conforming to style norms like hair-straightening. She took the privileges she had and fought for herself and for all black people.” Lipscomb will be hosting several events on campus in reverence of Black History Month, providing opportunities to honor men and women like Davis who decided to combat oppression. The first of event, dubbed, “Don’t Touch My Hair,” will take place Thursday, February 15 at 5 p.m. in Swang 234. It is a beauty event designed to discuss the culture surrounding black women’s hair. February 19 and 20 will be a 24-hour prayer event starting at 8 a.m. in Bennett 181 with a focus on reconciliation within our nation. This event is open to all and...
by Cate Zenzen | Jan 31, 2018 | News Slider
Andrew Forsthoefel has walked over 4,000 miles across America but decided to make a stop at Lipscomb on Tuesday night in Collins Alumni Auditorium. A recent college graduate himself and author of Walking to Listen: 4,000 Miles Across America, One Story At a Time, Forsthoefel spoke to Lipscomb students about how he was once in the same place a lot of students find themselves in — just what exactly should I do after graduation? Forsthoefel said his journey began when a simple thought crossed his mind. “What if I just walked outside my mom’s back door and didn’t stop?” With a backpack equipped with an American flag on one side, and an Earth flag on the other, Forsthoefel started an 11 month trek across the country. Carrying his essentials on his back, along with a mandolin, he presented himself to the world with a sign reading “Walking to listen.” Forsthoefel noted that his beginning thoughts were full of assumptions and anxiety as he became aware that throughout his life he hadn’t been truly alone, so he did not know how he would deal with the solitude and what he would do if he came across danger. Forsthoefel said he had to overcome the fear of approaching strangers and abandon prejudices and stereotypes by asking himself a question. “How can I expect people to trust me with their stories and their truth if I’m not willing to trust them?” Forsthoefel’s journey took him from Philadelphia to New Orleans and then to Half Moon Bay, CA. On the way, he said he met all sorts of people. A question he left the audience with that...
by Cate Zenzen | Jan 24, 2018 | News Slider
To open The Gathering on Tuesday, campus minister Cyrus Eaton introduced a new opportunity on campus — Come and See. Come and See is a student-led ministry with a focus on encouraging students to promote unity through the life of Jesus. Five small groups that will meet once per week are available for students to join. The Gathering’s guest speaker this week was Rick Atchley, the Senior Teaching Minister at The Hills church in Ft. Worth, Texas. Atchley’s message addressed approval and its capacity to be either a freedom or a burden. He began with an anecdote of an Easter sermon, referencing John 11 when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and asked for his burial clothes to be removed. To open his message, Atchley posed a question to the student body. “Is it possible we have received eternal life if we are still walking around in bondage?” Atchley followed this question, noting that Lazarus could not freely be alive again without letting go of his past as a dead man. The minister also told a story of how he once asked his congregation to write down the burdens that they were dealing with personally. After looking through all of them, he found the most popular burden to be an issue of self-esteem, or what he referred to as “the fear of man.” Throughout his presentation, Atchley gave examples from his childhood, highlighting times when he chose to be “cool” rather than doing the right thing. “Our sick desire to be liked leads us to do things we don’t like,” Atchley said. By seeing the look in the eyes of the “dumb girl”...
