Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Coffee with Dr. Harper

Dr. Harper
multnomah.edu
by Laura Joy Griffith 

           I am sitting at a round table in the back of Roger’s CafĂ© when Dr. Brad Harper comes striding into the coffee shop, waving at students and looking around for me.  Once he finds me and is settled into the chair next to me with a latte to warm his hands, I begin to ask him questions I think will be on the hearts of Multnomah students: “What do students talk about when they come to your office?”  After a moment of thought, he looks me in the eyes and tells me that at least once a semester, a Multnomah student comes out to him, confessing that they struggle with same-sex attraction.  Usually, he says, they have not told anyone else.  This, he presumes, is because being gay is taboo in the Multnomah culture, but he has always been open about the fact that his son is gay and that they have a great relationship.  “What do you say to them?” I ask, to which he replies simply, “Mostly I listen and assure them of God’s love.”  Listening and affirmation are key, he insists.  His job is not to give them answers so much as to walk with them as they explore what it means to live a life that honors God and find friends who love them for who they really are.Some Multnomah students—undoubtedly more than we presume—struggle with being gay.  
            A more mundane struggle—but one that is just as real and troublesome—is the difficulty so many students have with the school system.  Dr. Harper says that his ideal environment for teaching theology would be at a cabin in the wilderness with fifteen students who live together and work for their own survival.  But we don’t get to learn theology in that environment.  Instead, we learn it in eight o’clock classes and from Grudem’s Systematic Theology and by citing sources in MLA format.  This system works great for some students, but for many students, it seems to be constantly undermining their ability to succeed.  Realistically, Dr. Harper says, sometimes you just have to suck it up and jump through the hoops, because the ideal environment is impractical.  Nonetheless, both students who excel in the system and those who struggle must also remember that getting good grades is not the most important thing in life.  “You have to be careful not to equate success in the system with success at education or success in life, “Dr. Harper says.  Just because we’re good at school and work well in the system doesn’t mean we’re getting a good education.  We need to ask ourselves, “What does it really mean for me to be educated?”  It probably doesn’t mean getting straight A’s. 
            At Multnomah, we question and analyze so many of the beliefs we have grown up simply accepting.  Often it feels like the very foundations of our faith are being shaken.  (Wait, premillennialism isn’t the only view??!)  But through it all, we never want to lose our faith in the good God of the Bible.  According to Dr. Harper, Multnomah provides an ideal situation to explore without getting lost.  “Honestly,” he says, “I think you’ve got one of the best places on the planet to do that, now in 2015.”  Multnomah professors are careful to provide honest representations of opposing views, rather than setting up straw-man arguments.  Students need to realize how legitimate other views are so that when they get out into the real world, they don’t question the reliability of their teachers.  Multnomah is safe, Dr. Harper says: here you won’t be judged for asking questions, and you won’t be allowed to wander off into pluralism.  Multnomah encourages students to foster their relationship with Christ, keeping love for God and others at the center.  Bottom line?  “Hang on to Christ.  It’s not about the answers to all the questions.”

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

The Best of Instagram

Multnomah students like Instagram, and so do we!  Here are some of the highlights of this year.  To see more, follow @multnomahmuse!

Matching baristas in Roger's Cafe!  @beckaleckka
Stopping to smell the roses.  @brennajanecoy

Laughter and coffee is what it's all about, right?  @brittsyjanae

We do get some beautiful sunsets here at Multnomah.  @jraeellen

The pink mist is upon us.  @mirandagrace94

It has been a big year for Multnomah athletics.  Mostly because this picture exists.  @muhomecourt

Our men's basketball team played their best game on the road this year--at Regionals in California.  @prestonbrooks144

Taking a moment on the shores of Japan.  @schindernizzle

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Phidias' Zeus

by Hogan Schaak


Stone carved by patient visionary
Rounded and rigid and strong,
Why in the form of man
Do you vaunt yourself so long?

Not borne out to be buried
Or ere to woman married.
Eternal bachelor - Stealing lusty views.
Actor - ever waiting on your cues.

In image lies your trick,
Upon your vestige is your power.
For if frame by man be reached
Can not same greatness then be breached?

Eyeless. - beholder reflected in you,
Filling breasts with empty air
Till every head bears Caesar's wreath
And reigns - desert dwelling Chief.

You confidently scorn us
While inspiring with hope.
Gazing fraily feel I safety,
But too long wraps rounded rope.

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was a giant seated figure,
about 42 ft tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around
435 BC.  No copy of the statue has ever been found, and
details of its form are known only from ancient Greek
descriptions and representations on coins. (Wikipedia)

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Student Ministry Report: Colin Fenn

by Laura Joy Griffith
Colin Fenn
 

          Multnomah senior Colin Fenn is an intern with the Clark County Fire Department Chaplains, where he gains valuable experience for his career as a Navy Chaplain.  Colin’s involvement may qualify as a student ministry, but it is a lot more serious and demanding than the average student ministry.  “Chaplains respond to trauma within Clark County,” Colin explains, “at any time, anywhere in the county.”  It is not an easy task.  “When I go on call, I pray that I don’t get a page.  I pray for a quiet day where I don’t do a thing.  When I do get a page, I dread arrival.  Because when I’m doing my job, something horrible has happened.  Somebody has lost their husband.  Their wife.  Their child.  Their family.  Often in a violent, or unexpected way.  I’m glad that somebody is there to help ease the pain…I’m honored that God has chosen me to have a role in that.” 
            Colin’s ministry allows him to have a profound impact on people in need: “We make the immediate aftermath of a tragedy much easier to bear,” he says.  “We help [those involved] gather their support network, contact pastors, give encouragement and comfort as much as we can…Our impact is largely unseen, and hard to measure.  Sometimes it’s great, and sometimes we walk away wondering if we did any good at all.  But we do our best to make the lives of people affected by tragedy a little easier.” 
            Those involved in tragedy are often traumatized, but it’s not easy for those that must respond, either.  Spending so much time witnessing the aftermath of horror would be difficult for anybody.  “A unique challenge is keeping yourself emotionally healthy by separating yourself from the situation that you’re in, and still remaining empathetic as a means of support for a grieving family.  It’s necessary to be able to talk to a grieving wife or mother one minute, clean up a gunshot suicide the next minutes, and then, when finished, be able to go home, shower, and eat dinner and not take any of that home with you.”

            We are all grateful for people like Colin who are willing to face these challenges in order to help the hurting, for we would not want to have to deal with all the things he deals with.  “The things we do, see, and deal with are not for the faint of heart,” he says.  “It is the world, in all its brutality, uncensored.”  That is certainly not your average student ministry.