by Clay Smith | Apr 4, 2012 | News Slider
Should it be a crime to be homeless? Many Lipscomb students think not, but a new state law makes it illegal to “sleep, cook or camp on state property.” More than a hundred Nashvillians attended the Rally for the Right to Exist in the Legislative Plaza on Sunday, arguing that the new law criminalizes both the homeless and Occupy Nashville protestors. At least 15 Lipscomb students camped out in the plaza overnight to protest the law. Gov. Bill Haslam signed House Bill 2638/ Senate Bill 2508 into law in March. Violators can face up to a year in jail or a fine of up to $2,500 or both. Proponents of the law say that camping in public places is damaging to public property and that the public’s camping increases health and sanitation problems. The Rally for the Right to Exist was created to address the repercussions the new law has for the homeless community. The Rally featured a potluck dinner, “teach-ins,” a documentary screening and culminated with an overnight “sleep-in” on the Legislative Plaza. Some policy makers in Nashville have said that the law was only intended to target Occupy Nashville Protestors, not the homeless. However, many Lipscomb students feel that the new law is detrimental because it “socially profiles” the homeless. “Certain things that are just a part of daily living can be criminalized for the homeless,” said Grant Winter, a senior American Studies major. “Sitting down on a sidewalk can be considered ‘obstructing a passageway.’ A homeless person who cuts through a private driveway might be charged with trespassing where someone who doesn’t ‘look homeless’ would never be...
by Emily Snell | Apr 2, 2012 | News Slider
Lipscomb’s chapel office has scheduled daily activities to help students reflect on the last week of Jesus’ life, prior to the celebration of Easter next Sunday. Assistant Campus Minister Keela Evans said the staff wanted to create events that mirror the life of Christ each day of his last week on Earth. “We really wanted to walk through what the week leading up to the cross was,” she said. “We wanted it to be a teaching experience for our students, not just events, but letting them see the week leading up to Easter.” Evans said the campus ministry staff intentionally designed the events to give students an opportunity to experience Jesus. “There are some students on campus that don’t know Jesus at all and don’t believe, and we want to love them and honor them but share the gospel with them,” she said. “We want to really focus on community repentance. It’s not just about my sins, but it’s about us as a community walking toward the cross together.” Evans recognized that students who’ve gone to church their entire lives can find it difficult to deeply engage with annual holidays like Easter. She said she identified with that problem until a few years ago when her perspective changed. “This is the day we celebrate Jesus being absolutely free from the grave, free from death, beating death and being raised and resurrected,” she said, encouraging students to soak in the reality of Easter’s meaning. “It’s more about knowing that the Holy Spirit raised Jesus Christ himself from a murdered death. And now he is living among us, he is living...
by Brynn Watkins | Mar 30, 2012 | Opinion
Style is found everywhere, from the hectic streets of New York City to the rolling hills of Tennessee. Style even appears at Lipscomb University. These are our stories – your stories. This is Lipscomb Street Style. Name: C A L L A N D O W N I N G Year: Freshman Style: What / I / Like Inspirations: menswear The Style Rookie Vogue 1. black shorts and demin shirt- Southern Thrift 2. shoes-Anthropologie 3. earrings-Etsy 4. brooch- Disney Store Name: E L L E N I V Y Year: Freshman Style: Simple / Quick / Comfortable Inspirations: Ruche Stylebooks 1.skirt-gift 2. shirt-Goodwill 3. shoes- Off Broadway Name: M E L I S S A W I L S O N Year: Freshman Style: Frothy / Comfy / Colorful Inspirations: Neutral Milk Hotel Colors Fairy Tales 1.shirt and skirt- Old Navy 2. earrings-Gift 3. shoes- found ...
by Hunter Patterson | Mar 30, 2012 | News Slider
Stories are designed to transport readers to faraway places, be it Narnia or banks of the Mississippi River. But this weekend, the stories have come to Lipscomb while the university hosts the Southern Literary Festival. Running through Sunday, the festival includes several workshops and readings by notable authors such as Mark Jarman, Mark Richard and Kathy Rhodes. While this is the 76th year for the festival, it is the first time that Lipscomb or the city of Nashville is hosting the event. The festival was started because most smaller schools, colleges and universities of the South did not have the resources to bring in the greatest artists of the region. The festival got its start when those schools and universities began to pool their resources. English professor and president of the Southern Literary Festival Dr. Dana Carpenter said that the university is “incredibly excited” to be hosting the event for the first time. “It’s an insane amount of work,” Carpenter said in regards to planning the festival. “I’ve got notes from the last eight years, and for the last two years, I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about what needs to be done.” And all of Carpenter’s hard work is about to pay off. Representatives from 36 member schools arrived on campus this weekend, the largest number of participants in the festival’s history. While schools all across the South will attend the festival, Carpenter urges students, as well as the public, to take advantage of the events. For more information and a full schedule, visit the Southern Literary Festival’s...
by Crystal Davis | Mar 30, 2012 | News Slider
You would think walking in to a Green Hills movie theater at 10:25 on a Sunday night that it would be empty. Not that night! It was full! Friends with Kids, the new movie with several members of the Bridesmaids cast, had minimal promotion in Nashville, but apparently it was a smash. Newcomer Jennifer Westfeldt and Jason Scott find themselves the only single people in a group of close-knit friends. The movie addresses that sensitive time of people’s lives when they make the transition between life without major responsibilities to life with families and kids and all that comes after. Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig, Jon Hamm and Chris O’Dowd round out the cast and provide most of the comic relief. Westfeldt and Scott play best friends who decide they want to have kids after their close friends have children and embrace married life. The movie addresses the good times and the rough times throughout the journey of Westfeldt and Scott having a child and raising it in a divorced-parent-like style. It gives some alternative views of how to raise a family in a non-traditional lifestyle. It’s not something most people are familiar with coming out of a Christian school, but it has become more and more the norm in the last couple of generations. This R-rated film includes some scenes with semi-censored sexual activities, which may be offensive to some people. There’s an abundance of foul language, not appropriate for a younger audience. I think all of these situations are intended to be funny and thought provoking; the director tries to produce a bigger picture–a romantic comedy wrapped up in the...
