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October
2004
Gary and Marlene Cameron
Our
calling is to challenge and equip Christian graduate students to be a
redeeming influence among the people, ideas, and structures of the
university and professions and to come alongside faculty to encourage
them in their vocation with prayer and resources. Thank you for having
the vision to join us in such a calling.
¨
Law
student ministries
The Christian Legal Society (CLS)
has had a student chapter at UM, but it has waned in recent years.
During September, I met regularly with the new student leader of CLS who
is uniting about 12 Christian law students to become a visible presence
in the university community. Their three-fold goal is to 1) cultivate
spiritual growth; 2) facilitate opportunities to show Christ’s love in
the community through word and deed; 3) address what it means to think
“Christianly” about the call to this profession. Recently, the
National Executive Director of CLS visited Miami and was hosted at a
reception by local CLS lawyers in Coral Gables. When I met him he was
quite pleased to find GFM staff coming alongside the UM law students to
offer spiritual mentoring and resources. We both viewed this as a
“divine appointment.” Also
attending the reception were two law students from FIU’s newly formed
law school who are interested in building an FIU fellowship. We plan to
meet in the future.
¨
Asian Scholars
The new semester brings new faces as the Asian
Scholars Fellowship continues meeting weekly. Josh, a Chinese
scholar at FIU, shared with me how he and his wife began to explore
Christianity.
Another
student, working on his Ph.D. in accounting, recognized changes in his
own life since his baptism in August. He intends to go back to China
when he is finished with his degree. The book of Exodus is well liked
and generates a lot of discussion. It is our privilege to see believers
getting stronger and see inquirers keep coming back.
¨
Veni,
Vidi, Da Vinci.* In spite of all the
hurricane tension, the “Decoding Da Vinci” lectures, which we co-sponsored with several
faculty members and other campus ministries, went well on September 10th. About 80 attended, most of whom
were students from UM and FIU. Dan Brown’s best selling novel, The
Da Vinci Code, is not academic material by any standard, but it
is being discussed in scholarly settings because, as one of the speakers
explained, "in The Da Vinci
Code, imaginative detail and false assertions are presented as facts
and the fruit of serious research, which they simply are not.” One
University of Miami professor I spoke with helped to promote the
lectures by awarding extra credit to students in his class for
attending. The speakers had very good presentations. It was also a great
set-up for the November lecture with Dr. Phillip Jenkins, a well-published author and Distinguished
Professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State. Jenkins will
address the historicity of the Canonical Gospels. This lecture will be
at UM on Friday, Nov. 19th at 3:30 PM and is open to the public. Contact
me for more information.
*Ben
Worthington’s book, The Gospel
Code, is helpful reading in
debunking The Da Vinci Code.
The
Question of God
If
you saw the PBS special, The Question of God,
you had a close view of how Harvard professor Armand Nicholi has asked
students to compare two worldviews: the spiritual journey of C. S.
Lewis, Oxford literary critic, (“the quintessential sheep”), and the
journey into atheism of Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis,
(“quintessential goat”), a self-confessed “Godless Jew.”
Professor Nicholi has taught this popular course for 25 years and, at
the end of September, we had the opportunity to sit in this class, via
public television. We could observe how a small group of thoughtful
people from different academic backgrounds and worldviews examined and
discussed these influential men and their own lives in light of atheism
and spirituality – mainly, Lewis’ kind.
Are
you ready for these kinds of
dialogues? Though many
viewers would agree with one of the group’s participants that there is
“no supernatural, only the natural explanation,” many others would
welcome enthusiastically the view that the rational is not the only
approach to understanding. Spirituality is greeted enthusiastically –
any kind of spirituality. Consider the Dalai
Lama’s significant impact on South Florida recently – who
lectured at Nova, FIU, and UM. This is his second visit to the city in
five years.
Always
be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the
reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and
respect. (1 Peter 3:15)
Praise:
Since your prayers for our retreat in
July, we have had a renewed joy and
consistency
in our family’s prayer
times. Thank you!
Please
Pray for
q
The formation of law student groups both at UM and FIU. Pray that
Christian faculty will feel called to encourage these law students.
q
Those in the Asian Scholars Fellowship in the
Engineering Department at FIU,
who are investigating the claims of Christ while engaging with a
Christian community to study the Bible at the university. Pray also for
the committed faculty members supporting these students.
q
The students in the pharmacy school at Nova University who are having a rough start with their small group
due to class cancellations on account of the hurricanes affecting
Broward and Palm Beach Counties. Pray also for the committed faculty
members who are supportive of these students.
q
All Christian faculty in our universities. We need to be reminded of
their strategic place of witness. They need our constant prayer.
q
Our children, who are leading a weekly small group at FIU, and for the
IV staff who are encouraging them to live for Christ in the context of
the university.
q
Provision
for this ministry.
“The
average Christian does not realize that there is an intellectual
struggle going on in the universities and scholarly journals and
professional societies. Enlightenment naturalism and post-modern
anti-realism are arrayed in an unholy alliance against a broadly
theistic and specifically Christian worldview.
Christians cannot afford to be indifferent to the outcome of this
struggle for the single most important institution shaping Western
culture. It is at the university that our future political leaders, our
journalists, our teachers, our business executives, our lawyers, our
artists, will be trained. It is at the university that they will
formulate or, more likely, simply absorb the worldview that will shape
their lives. And since these are the opinion makers and leaders who
shape our culture, the worldview that they imbibe at the university will
be the one that shapes our culture. If the Christian worldview can be
restored to a place of prominence and respect at the university, it will
have a leavening effect throughout society.
If we change the university, we change our culture through those who
shape our culture.”
-J.P. Moreland
Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview
“I believe in God as I believe the sun has risen, not because I can
see it, but because by way of it
I can see everything else.”
~ C. S. Lewis
“…[I]n the long run
nothing can
withstand reason and experience,
and the contradiction which
religion offers to both is
all too
palpable.”
~ Sigmund Freud
University of Miami
Florida International
University
Nova Southeastern
University
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