February 25, 2014
Corinna Tu ('13) and Christopher Wood ('12), both Harvard Alumni, Have Something Significant in Common: They Both Discovered Their Faith During Their Time at the University.
Prominent universities like Harvard are often viewed as places where students, attracted by the freedom of a nonreligious lifestyle and besieged by temptations and radical secular teachings, lose what faith they may have had going in. This may regrettably be the case for a great many students, however there are some who earnestly seek God during their college years to develop a relationship with Him and a foundation of faith. Through deep intellectual curiosity and rigor in authentic Christian community, students like Corinne and Christopher experience moments that cause them to question, and eventually believe.February 11, 2014
Christian Union Will Host Triennial Event in New Haven, Connecticut
At first glance, Baroness Caroline Cox appears an unlikely candidate to traverse the globe as a tireless campaigner for human rights and advocate for persecuted Christians.However, the former deputy speaker of the House of Lords and grandmother has crisscrossed jungles, deserts, and mountains in her quests to investigate oppression and alert the political elite of the United Kingdom and beyond to the neglected casualties of far-flung war zones.In March, Baroness Cox will serve as a keynote speaker for the Ivy League Congress on Faith and Action. Christian Union is hosting the triennial event from March 28 to 30 at the Omni New Haven Hotel in New Haven, Connecticut.
February 11, 2014
Kyle Duncan is Lead Attorney for Hobby Lobby Supreme Court Case
A Columbia University law alumnus says he simply wants to serve God as he prepares to enter the nation's highest judicial stage in his quest to champion religious liberties.In November, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear twin cases testing the strength of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The 1993 measure commits the federal government to safeguarding an individual's "inalienable right" to exercise religion.Kyle Duncan, Columbia LL.M. '04, is the lead attorney for Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., which is challenging a regulation within the federal healthcare law requiring employers to offer access to so-called morning-after pills.
February 11, 2014
Missionary's Testimony Inspires Penn Students
In November, students at the University of Pennsylvania heard a love story, not about a man and a woman, but about the love of a man for his God and the transformative power that inspired him to reach out his hand in friendship to the one who had tortured him for nine months.Dan Baumann served as a missionary in Afghanistan and traveled to Iran to share the Gospel, where he was arrested in 1997.
February 11, 2014
Events Educate Harvard Community about Misconceptions
While Sex Week at Harvard promoted tolerance and the "exploration of diverse and varied sexual activity," another group of students simultaneously held events that sought to warn the campus community about the dangers and misconceptions of pornography.White Ribbon Against Pornography Week (WRAP) was sponsored by the Harvard Catholic Student Association, the Anscombe Society, The Knights of Columbus at Harvard, and Harvard College Faith and Action, a leadership development ministry supported and resourced by Christian Union.
February 11, 2014
Marvin Olasky, Yale '71, Releases 25th Anniversary Edition of Groundbreaking Book
A quarter century ago, Marvin Olasky wrote Prodigal Press: Confronting the Anti-Christian Bias of the American News Media. Last year, with the help of journalist and colleague Warren Smith, Olasky, Yale '71, released the 25th anniversary, revised edition of the book, which continues to remain relevant, even in a vastly different media world."When Prodigal Press came out in 1988, it was a seminal book and had a huge impact on a generation of young Christian journalists," said Smith. "But in the past 25 years, much has happened. Cable news has proliferated. The Internet has dramatically changed both the news and the advertising environment. Satellite and Internet radio has tens of millions of daily listeners in the U.S. alone."
February 11, 2014
Andy Crouch Challenges Leaders in New Book
While Lord Acton may have believed "absolute power corrupts absolutely," author Andy Crouch, Cornell '89, believes that power can create beautifully.Crouch is the executive editor of Christianity Today and the author of a new book, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power. This fall, he spoke about the book during "An Evening Conversation with Andy Crouch and Mike Gerson" at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Gerson, a columnist with the Washington Post, was a speechwriter and advisor to President George W. Bush, Yale '68 and Harvard MBA '75.
February 10, 2014
Conference at Princeton Focuses on Marriage, Family, and Sexual Integrity
The long-term impact of falling fertility rates can wreak havoc upon a country's economic stability.Rather than experiencing doomsday scenarios of overpopulation, many countries, instead, are confronting economic stagnation because of declining populations of younger workers and, subsequently, consumers.That was one of the messages offered by Jonathan Last, a senior writer at The Weekly Standard, during the sixth-annual Sexuality, Integrity, and the University conference in November at Princeton University.
February 10, 2014
Searching for the Historical Jesus
The study of Jesus Christ and the far-reaching, immense impact of Christianity is a legitimate topic for study within the academy.That was one of the themes from N.T. Wright when the noted New Testament scholar visited Princeton University during the fall as part of a Veritas Forum entitled, "Searching for the Historical Jesus."Wright termed it "strange" to suggest Christ is off limits for scholarly inquiry at universities
November 8, 2013
A Path Marriage Proponents Should Take
By Ryan T. Anderson, Princeton ’04In a 5–4 majority opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy (Harvard Law '61), the Supreme Court in U.S. v. Windsor struck down section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defined marriage in federal law for federal policy as the union of one man and one woman. The Court held that the federal government has to accept state redefinitions of marriage for federal policies.The majority concluded its opinion by stating: "This opinion and its holding are confined to those lawful marriages." So while the federal government has been ordered to recognize all state-recognized marriages, the Court declared that "the definition and regulation of marriage has been treated as being within the authority and realm of the separate States." The states remain free—and should continue—to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.The Court got the case wrong. While there is little of value in the majority opinion, the three dissenting opinions signal the path that marriage proponents should take from here.November 1, 2013
Analyzing the Analysis: Is the Narrative Changing?
By Jordan Monge, Harvard '12The following story was reprinted with permission from Christianity Today.
My story is almost always met with surprise: How could an atheist convert to Christianity at Harvard, the bastion of secular intellectual elitism?
Now this reaction has some empirical justification. A recent meta-analysis of studies on religion and intelligence found that yes, overall, people with high IQs and test scores are less likely to be religious.
October 18, 2013
Leadership Development Ministry Co-Hosts Event with Harvard Humanists, Atheists, and Agnostics
Students of various faith backgrounds (and no faith backgrounds) gathered in Harvard's Science Center's Auditorium B on the first Sunday after the start of classes for a debate on the topic, "Can the Christian God Be Good in Light of the Suffering in the World?"For the second consecutive year, Harvard College Faith and Action (HCFA) and Harvard Community Humanists, Atheists, and Agnostics (HCHAA) co-hosted a debate. HCFA is a leadership development ministry supported and resourced by Christian Union.October 15, 2013
Students Serve ... and Learn
About 70 students from top-tier universities gathered in Manhattan to participate in Christian Union's fourth spring-break trip for undergraduates involved in affiliated Christian leadership development ministries.The trip offered seven major service projects, including three focused on relief efforts in hurricane-battered Rockaway Beach and one providing crisis pregnancy intervention and support."The students really appreciated opportunities to serve," said Teal McGarvey, a ministry fellow at Harvard University. "A lot of these studentsOctober 11, 2013
Ministries Reach Out with a Sense of Urgency
Timing is everything; especially when it comes to freshmen.The first few days on campus are filled with opportunities for the new students to make choices about relationships and social circles that will impact their college years, and beyond.That's why ministry leaders throughout the Ivy League are working tirelessly to reach out to freshmen and help them make intentional choices about being part of a Christian community.October 8, 2013
October 17-19
Event details and registration at www.lifeandtruth2013.comA student organization at Yale hopes to make a big statement this fall with its conference, Vita et Veritas 2013: Promoting a Culture of Life and Truth.Hosted by Choose Life at Yale (CLAY) from October 17-19, Vita et Veritas will welcome students from the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions.October 4, 2013
Princeton Relay Team Wins Indoor Championship
When the men's distance medley relay team from Princeton University won a national title at the NCAA indoor track and field meet, the victory was sweet, especially for Princeton Faith and Action (www.pfanda.com).Three of the four members participate in the leadership development ministry supported and resourced by Christian Union.October 4, 2013
Debate at Columbia University Features Apologist and Atheist
Belief in a supreme deity provides a solid foundation for embracing morality.Atheists, however, are only left with matter, energy, and the space-time continuum. Such elements are simply not enough to explain the existence of morality – or provide a basis for divine skeptics to claim atheism is compatible with the principles of objective morals.Those were some of the key points from David Wood when the Christian apologist debated atheist Kile Jones May 6 at Columbia University. The debate was entitled, "Good without God: Is God Necessary for Morality?"October 4, 2013
Dr. Ben Carson Says Political Correctness Is Damaging the United States
From low-income underachiever to prominent neurosurgeon, Dr. Ben Carson personifies the American dream. However, in his latest book, America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great, Carson, Yale '73, warns readers that the dream could become mere fantasy if freedom of speech is silenced by political correctness and the nation loses sight of the values, freedoms, and faith upon which it was founded.October 4, 2013
Authors Tell Students to Defend Liberty, Speak the Truth in Love
In speeches during the spring semester, writers R.R. Reno, Yale PhD '90, and Eric Metaxas, Yale '84, exhorted college students and the nation to be aware of the growing sentiment against religious freedom."We're in the midst of climate change—one that's getting colder and colder toward religion," said Reno when he addressed students at Hillsdale College in Michigan.October 4, 2013
