Scholar, singer, poet, priest

Collegian
The
Star Wars
deleted
scenes.
Page 5
Friday, April 15, 2016
Vol. 102, No. 17
The Grove City College Student Newspaper
Candidate’s father Cruzes by campus
Grayson Quay
Managing Editor
The Reverend Rafael Cruz, father
of Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, addressed a crowd in
Grove City College’s Crawford Auditorium on Tuesday night.
Junior Thomas Kutz, the cochairman of the Grove City College
Republicans,
introduced the Rev.
Cruz,
explaining
that the event did
not reflect the views
of the College or the
CRUZ
Center for Vision
and Values or constitute an endorsement of any candidate.
After Kutz’s introduction, Professor of Political Science Dr. Paul
Kengor said that he had received an
email on Friday saying that the Rev.
Cruz would be in Mercer and could
possibly make time to visit the College. Despite the short notice, Crawford Auditorium was packed with
students and community members.
Kengor and Cruz began their dis-
cussion with Cruz’s book, “A Time
for Action,” focusing at first on the
book’s depiction of Cruz’s childhood
in pre-Castro Cuba.
Cruz explained that he had fought
alongside Fidel Castro’s forces
against the Bautista regime, but that
he, like many other freedom fightCRUZ 2
NEWS ANALYSIS
Christian
response
to LGBT
questions
Molly Wicker
News Editor
Rev. Malcolm Guite visited campus last week and performed a poetry reading at Beans On Broad.
MOLLY WICKER
Scholar, singer,
poet, priest
Emily Leavitt
One of the most volatile
and important issues facing the Church today is the
question of homosexuality
as an alternative lifestyle.
Men and women dealing
with same-sex attraction,
along with their loved
ones, are looking for help
and understanding.
In his Sermon on the
Mount, Jesus contrasts
the fate of those who build
their foundation on solid
rock with those who build
on shifting sand. For those
who build on the latter, he
foretells a great fall (Matt.
7:27).
Evangelical Christians
find themselves living in
a cultural house built on a
foundation of sand. This
situation is currently accompanied by a host of
challenges, not least of
which is the difficulty of
finding one’s footing for
cultural witness and engagement. As Christians,
we are responsible for the
institution of marriage as
God intended it, just as we
are responsible for unborn
children, regardless of
whether abortion is legal in
a post-Roe v. Wade world.
Informed and articulate
Christians can make a difference in the same-sex
marriage
conversation,
but they must overcome
previously established and
deeply entrenched stereotypes. Far too often,
Christian claims to love
those who struggle with
sexual identity issues or
homosexual practices fall
flat because we fail to exemplify our words with actions. Love is not passive.
Jesus exhibited love to
those around him through
his actions. He washed feet
and talked with prostitutes
and attended the funerals
of dear friends. All human
beings deserve respect regardless of race, gender,
age, socioeconomic status,
C. S. Lewis, evident in several
references he made to Narnia, but his love and mastery
of words captured his audience.
At Friday’s event, topics varied from materialism
with “You got a new T.V.,”
a farewell to lost words in
the dictionary, critiquing
the logical ends of Rudyard
Kipling’s “If” and John Lennon’s “Imagine” and relishing words in crafting poetry.
“I want to invite words to
dinner with me,” explained
Guite. His perspective on
crafting poetry is much like
“arranging the chairs” at dinner – words need to be befriended and positioned to
spark the best conversation.
“During the reading I kept
wondering how he was able
to put words together so
magically. I am so glad that
we were able to bring a man
of such culture to share his
art with us,” senior Aimee
Lynch said.
A talented and engaging
scholar, Guite also emphasized God, faith and struggles with doubt in his poetry
and song.
“His poems show a reverence and care for the sound
and meaning in words and
they invite his listeners to
find moments of grace in the
everyday and the extraordinary” Dr. Kristen Waha, an
associate professor of English, said.
Several
poems
Guite
shared were based on specific scripture verses. These
are included in his new book,
“Parable
and
Paradox,”
which will be released in a
few months.
Guite also invited the au-
Life
The Lens
E!
Perspectives
Sports
If you haven’t heard what
Dr. Love has to say, check
out his piece this week.
Page 4
A little party didn’t kill
these students. Check out
Gatsby Dance highlights.
Pages 6-7
Children’s theater kicks off
this weekend with performances of Flat Stanley.
Page 5
Afraid of political correctness? This article will
do no wrong.
Page 9
Men’s tennis team is looking
strong and plans on
staying strong.
Page 11
Contributing Writer
“You have chosen wisely,”
Dr. Eric Potter told a packed
crowd in Beans on Broad last
Friday night. Over 70 people
chose to hear poet-scholarpriest Rev. Malcolm Guite,
the guest speaker of the English Department’s annual
Christian Writers Conference. And they were well-rewarded for that choice.
Guite, poetry and guitar
in hand, charmed everyone
with his performance of original poems, sonnets, ballads
and songs.
Guite is a bye-fellow and
chaplain of Girton College, a
constituent of the University
of Cambridge, England. His
particular interests include
Samuel Taylor Coleridge and
dience to participate in the
chorus of his song, “The
Green Man,” which alludes
to Christ as the vine.
“He is a marvelous poet: a
skilled wordsmith, who has
mastered his forms and who
offers up wonderful insights
and perspectives,” said Dr.
Potter. “He is a tremendous
reader – performer, really –
of his poems. Such energy,
such great expression. He is
truly a presence. And for all
his erudition as a scholar, he
is remarkably humble and
humorous.”
Laughter punctuated the
coffee shop regularly during
Guite’s narrative intervals.
“If poetry fails, I’ll try
stand-up comedy,” Guite
said.
Several students also had
RESPONSE 2
GUITE 2
Page 2
NEWS ANALYSIS
sexual orientation or any
other status that is secondary to being an image-bearer
of God.
Our first task as Christians
is to repent for the ways in
which we, as sinners, have
failed to love those members
of the Church that are struggling with same-sex attraction. In fact, in a culture that
has made sex and its accompanying sins the end-all-beall of Christianity, the actions
and attitudes of straight people toward gay people in the
Church are perhaps an equal
or greater sin.
Christians must work
diligently to love those who
struggle with sexual sin of
all types. In fact, we live in
a culture pervaded by sexual
brokenness. Before turning
to the sexual sins of others,
particularly those who deal
with same-sex attraction,
the Church must take a careful and critical look at itself
and its members. Too often,
we are quick to judge others who we deem “more sinful” than ourselves. Just as
a homosexual relationship
is deemed biblically wrong,
so is pre-marital sex, and
adultery and idolatry and lying. We must hold ourselves
accountable for our own sin
before we look for the sins of
others. The salvation of Jesus is the same to all sinners,
regardless of their sins.
For Christians looking to
extend grace to their neighbors struggling with sexual
sins, particularly those in
the realm of homosexuality, there is a temptation to
downplay biblical standards
in order to make Christianity seem more palatable. Tim
Keller writes, “Right now our
culture asks certain questions and we can’t help but
respond to them. We do that
in the most disarming way,
but to some degree we can’t
ignore the culture’s questions. We need to give biblical answers to the culture’s
questions. If we are going
to shepherd and teach, we
must give the most disarming and truthful answers.”
Christian love, as evidenced many times over by
Jesus himself, requires that
we make clear what the Bible
says about sexuality, primarily that any sexual activity
outside the biblical definition
of marriage is wrong.
This does not mean that
God condemns same-sex attraction in and of itself. In
fact, one of the stumbling
blocks facing Christians and
non-Christians alike, and the
source of much conflict, is
that the Bible does not give
us all the answers to all of our
questions.
However, the message of
Romans 1 is that such attractions are in fact evidence of
God’s broad, universal judgment against all of us (an
outward and visible sign of
an inward and spiritual problem). We live in a world where
things, including feelings,
are errant. God’s judgment
is not simply on outward actions, but on the rectitude of
the heart. Following this, sin
is not just a willful action, but
GUITE
the opportunity to share
their original poetry on Friday. Drew Brackbill, Daniel
Chapman, Julia Lyall, Bethany Mittelman, Grayson Quay
and Joseph Jang each read
for a few minutes while Guite
took a break.
In addition to students,
current and past English
professors were also in attendance at the Conference’s
Friday finale, including Dr.
James Dixon, Dr. Diane Dix-
The Collegian
an attitude of the heart that is
beyond and far deeper than
choice. This is why salvation
consists not of making better
choices, but of being rescued
by Christ in our sinfulness. If
it were the former, we would
not need Christ at all – just
more willpower.
Dr. Wesley Hill, an Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Trinity School
for Ministry in Ambridge,
Pa., author of “Spiritual
Friendship: Finding Love
in the Church as a Celibate
Gay Christian,” and self-described “celibate, gay Christian,” explained the common
misconceptions that plague
today’s conservative Christians and cause unnecessary
dispute.
“Many gay and lesbian
people perceive Christianity
as not just asking for certain
changes to their behavior,
but also for a suppression or
erasure of their identities,”
he says. “In modern Western
cultures, being gay or lesbian
– or bi, trans, queer or some
other parallel or identity –
is perceived as just that: an
identity. The very behavior
that Christians want to prohibit is seen, to homosexuals, as inextricably bound up
with their personhood.”
The problem, Hill explains,
is the oft-forgotten distinction between behavior and
identity.
“Unlike theologians from
an earlier era of church history who treated homosexuality as just one particular
instance in the broader category of lust, most of us in the
modern West today think of
homosexuality as a category
of persons, rather than a category of actions.”
For Christians who do not
affirm the morality of samesex attraction and want to
make a distinction between
attitude and action, a challenges arises. We must welcome and accept those who
are part of the Church (or
outside the Church) who
identify as homosexual or
struggle with same-sex attraction. Sexuality should
never be a barrier for those
who come to hear the Gospel.
As Christians, we may
never understand why people face same-sex attraction,
especially if homosexual behavior is not ordained by
God. Nevertheless, we can
seek to further understand
God’s greater plan, which
ultimately calls us to treat
those around us, no matter
their sexual orientation, with
dignity and respect. Furthermore, we can wisely choose
our words and actions. Ultimately, even if our words
and actions point to love, we
still run the risk of embarrassment or rejection. But
despite our possible shortcomings, we need to expect
and engage in conversations
with those who struggle with
the issue and with those who
seek to understand the struggle. What every sinner needs
is a change of heart, which
means a heart that labels sin
as sin, seeks the mercy of
God, and by God’s grace, has
a growing desire to live after
the image of Christ. on and Dr. Janice Brown.
Earlier last week, Guite
lectured on Samuel Taylor
Coleridge on Wednesday
night, spoke on prayer at the
Thursday morning chapel,
and discussed the Christian
writer on Thursday night.
The English Department
hosts a Christian Writers
Conference every spring semester, and has hosted the
C.S. Lewis and Inklings Society and the George Herbert
Society in past years.
April 15, 2016
AICUP celebrates
previous GCC President Jewell
The Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania
(AICUP) presented Dr. Richard Jewell with the Francis
J. Michelini Award for Outstanding Service to Higher
Education during an awards
ceremony at AICUP’s annual
meeting of its 89 member
college and university presidents on Monday night.
In a statement released to
the press, AICUP President
Don Francis thanked Dr.
Jewell for his years of dedicated service to independent
higher education.
“Individuals like Dr. Jewell who devote seemingly
endless energy to advancing
colleges and universities and
the students they serve, are
truly the backbone of the independent higher education
system,” said Francis. “The
Association of Independent
Colleges and Universities of
Pennsylvania greatly thanks
Dr. Jewell for his service to
our schools and to the communities we serve.”
Dr. Jewell served as president of Grove City College
for 11 years and also served
as the Government Relations
Liaison on the AICUP Board
of Directors. According to
Francis, “Dick Jewell was
perhaps the most important
non-elected official whose
advocacy helped secure the
Ready to Succeed Scholarship Program for middle-income students that will continue to benefit thousands
of students in the coming
years.”
The Francis J. Michelini
Award for Outstanding Service to Higher Education
is presented to individuals
who have used their talent
to strengthen independent
higher education’s ability to
serve students and communities. The award has been
given to 23 recipients since
its inception in 1992. Named
for Francis J. Michelini,
former president of Wilkes
University and AICUP, the
award celebrates the contributions of individuals who
have served as leaders within
the independent higher education sector.
The Association of Independent Colleges & Universities of Pennsylvania (AICUP), the only statewide
organization that serves exclusively the interests of private higher education within
the Commonwealth, exists
to complement and support
the work of campus leaders.
With a membership of 89
private colleges and universities within Pennsylvania,
the Association provides a
variety of services and programs tailored specifically
to the needs and situation of
independent higher education. A list of AICUP’s member colleges and universities
is included on its website at
www.aicup.org.
PATTY FOLKERTS
Rev. Rafael Cruz sits with Dr. Paul Kengor this past Tuesday to discuss life and politics.
CRUZ
ers, had been duped by Castro. Cruz, drawing a clear
parallel between Castro and
President Barack Obama,
described the Cuban dictator as “a young, charismatic
leader talking about hope
and change” and explained
that Castro initially promised
democracy and free elections
and only later revealed himself to be a communist.
Cruz was eventually captured and tortured, but was
miraculously released and
was able to flee Cuba for
the United States, where he
studied at the University of
Texas.
“My spoken English was
limited to ‘Tom is a boy,’
‘Mary is a girl,’ and not much
else,” Cruz said, adding that
when he first arrived, he had
to order food by simply pointing at it and saying “that.” He
learned English by going to
the movies every day for a
month and sitting through
each movie three times.
After graduating and embarking on a successful career in oil and gas exploration, Cruz became troubled
by the liberal policies of
President Jimmy Carter and
joined a conservative religious group called The Religious Roundtable, which
supported Ronald Reagan’s
presidential bid.
“It was the body of Christ
that elected Ronald Reagan,”
Cruz said.
Ted Cruz was born in 1970
and grew up in this highly
political household. According to Rev. Cruz, by age 13
the future presidential candidate was reading Adam
Smith, John Locke, Ludwig
von Mises and the Federalist
Papers and had begun giving
speeches on free-market economics.
In addition to sharing biographical details, Rev. Cruz
also commented on the current political climate and the
ongoing presidential race.
He accused GOP frontrunner Donald Trump of having
“no substance,” condemned
Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama as socialists and criticized President Obama’s recent agreement with and trip
to Cuba, calling it “a disastrous deal.”
He also advised Christians to be more politically
engaged, arguing that when
the righteous do not vote or
run for office, all that is left is
the wicked electing the wicked who will “legislate their
wicked brand of morality.”
He urged Christians to “stop
playing church” and instead
speak out on political issues, citing biblical examples
of prophets speaking to the
kings of Israel and arguing
that the politically-charged
sermons preached from the
pulpits of Colonial America
helped ignite the American
Revolution.
“It’s time pastors became
biblically correct instead of
politically correct,” Cruz said.
Kengor and Cruz spent
some time discussing threats
to religious liberty in America, which Cruz described as
“the only country … founded
on the Word of God,” citing,
among others, the example
of the Oregon bakery that
was ordered in July to pay
over $135,000 in damages
for refusing to make a cake
for a same-sex wedding.
Cruz also spoke out against
socialism, which he argued is
just another word for communism or Marxism, denouncing Vermont Senator
and Democratic presidential
candidate Bernie Sanders
and the system that seeks
to force people into a state
of dependence on “almighty
government.”
The crowd seemed receptive to the possible presidential patriarch’s message,
applauding and offering
murmurs of assent at several points. Some students,
however, were less enthusiastic. Junior Luke Bitner
took to Facebook to say he
was “ashamed to be a student of Grove City College,”
citing the Rev. Cruz’s remarks on evolution, samesex marriage and Barack
Obama’s national origins, as
well as Ted Cruz’s proposals
to carpet-bomb ISIS and patrol Muslim neighborhoods.
His status garnered 28 likes
within three hours of the
event.
After conversing with Kengor for around 45 minutes
and taking several questions,
Cruz wrapped up the night
with a warning for the audience.
“I lost my freedom once.
I’m not willing to lose it
again … If we lose this battle,
America will be destroyed
and there is no place to go,”
Cruz said.
The Rev. Cruz received a
standing ovation following
his final impassioned exhortation to the crowd to “take
America back to the glory
of God,” which led Kengor
to remark, “I see where Ted
Cruz gets his passion.”
Life
April 15, 2016
New
creations
Caleb Harshberger
Page 3
Trying to maintain affordability
Students will have to pay $100 lab fee next year
Victoria O’Brien
Life Editor
Staff Writer
Grove City College’s Center for Entrepreneurship and
Innovation will hold their
Showcase event this Saturday, April 16 from 11 a.m. to
12:30 p.m. in the Sticht Lecture Hall.
There, Grove City College
students will be displaying
the progress and innovations
they have made during the
school year.
The event, which is free
to attend, will feature teams
working through Venture
Lab, Computer Science and
Lean Launch Pad. Each
group will have roughly 10
minutes to present their
projects. These include apps,
virtual reality experiences,
physical products and other
ventures. Students as well
as members of the public are
encouraged to attend.
The showcase gives students real world experience
in creating and developing
entrepreneurial skills as well
as marketable goods and services.
“We’re so excited to open
our doors so that the community and prospective students can see the fruits of
our students’ labor from this
past academic year,” Yvonne
English, executive director of
the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, said.
“Perhaps there’s a key connection, potential investor
or strategic partnership out
there just waiting to connect
with our students, or maybe
there’s an individual who
decides to attend because he
simply needs a bit of inspiration. We’d like to see these
types of casual connections
between the community and
our campus happen more often.”
The showcase is a culmination of a year’s worth of these
students’ time and effort.
Anyone interested in attending the event or in learning more about the Center
for Entrepreneurship and Innovation can RSVP through
gccentrpreneurship.com.
The Grove City College
Business Competition presentations will be held later
this month on April 29 in
Sticht. More information for
this event is available at gccbusinessplans.com.
Grove City College announced a modest 2.95 percent tuition hike last month
that will be the smallest increase in 18 years. But students taking lab courses next
year will face an additional
fee.
To offset the cost of consumable laboratory materials, the College will charge
a $100 fee for laboratory
supplies. The College will
be implementing this fee in
the fall of 2016, giving students enough time to process the financial increases
with upcoming scheduling.
Students of all majors are to
be impacted by the $100 fee
at some point, since the College requires each student to
complete two science courses
upon graduating.
According to College President Paul J. McNulty ʼ80,
there are two specific rea-
son for the raise in lab fees.
First, the consumable products affiliated with labs are of
a significant expense to the
College. Second, in terms of
fairness, the lab fees mirror
the principle of not charging
students for the education of
others. The lab fee will selectively target students who
participate in labs.
Due to the raises’ short notice, there has not been an
excessive amount of initial
feedback from the student
body. McNulty desires to
ensure administration, faculty and students that other
departments were considered for monetary increases,
which have not been pursued
at this time. For example,
independent studies are offered to students at no additional charge. Supplementary costs, including extra
payments for professors, are
paid for by the College, not
students individually.
“Affordability has taken a
hit in most colleges, with the
average college tuition rising
3.5 percent annually,” McNulty stated.
Grove City College strives
not to lose their distinctive
affordability, choosing instead to keep tuition stable,
at which they have proven
successful over the last 18
years.
McNulty, along with the
executive board, frequently
reviews the budget, taking
the College’s statement of
affordability seriously. In order to satisfy students’ high
expectations of a rich and rewarding education, engaging
professors and welcoming
facilities, there are numerous
fiscal challenges that emerge.
If the College just focused on
affordability, then faculty,
classes and campus activities
would be significantly impacted.
“Grove City College, from
a Christian perspective, is
driven toward combining affordability with academic excellence,” McNulty said.
Such a statement has been
reflected in the College’s significantly low tuition rate
compared to its competitors.
Lee Wishing III, Administrative Director of The Center for Vision & Values, further explained this concern
by tapping into the College’s
history. Referencing the vision of the College’s founding
board of trustees, Wishing
reflects upon a quote from
Joseph Newton Pew (President of the Board of Trustees), Isaac S. Ketler (Founding President), and Samuel
P. Harbison (Trustee), which
can be identified on a stained
glass window in Harbison
Chapel. The statement reads,
“We dedicate this college to
the development of sound
scholarship and Christian
character in all aspiring
youth.” Wishing said he believes that the reference to
“all aspiring youth” is indicative of the trustees’ notion of
providing accessible and affordable education.
GCC drives Pa. economy
Grayson Quay
Managing Editor
Grove City College created almost 800 jobs and
contributed over $138 million to Pennsylvania’s statewide economy according to
a report by the Association
of Independent Colleges and
Universities of Pennsylvania.
The report focused on six
colleges in Northwestern
Pennsylvania:
Allegheny
I actually do quite a bit of research
to produce this column each week.
It is a good excuse to read all the relationship advice I would be scrolling through anyway. By Sunday,
though, my eyes are glazed into that
thousand-yard stare, commonly
known to soldiers who have seen
too much horror, while I continue
to schlep through fields of so much
atrocious relationship advice. Oh,
the things I have read…
Take, for instance, “10 Things
That Make Him Fall Even More
College, Gannon University,
Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Thiel College, Mercyhurst University
and Grove City College. Together, these schools created
2,901 jobs and delivered a total economic impact of $784
million.
“As the numbers show, the
six independent colleges and
universities in Erie and the
Northwest play an important
role in the regional economy,
creating jobs, partnerships
In Love With You,” recently featured by Cosmopolitan. Number
10 changed my life forever, as it is
an eloquent expression of great insight: “10. Any time you have one
of those Perfect Couple Days. These
are the days he keeps in the back of
his mind for whenever he’s annoyed
at you.” Be sure to write this down
so you will not forget – have perfect
couple days.
Number six is equally profound:
“6. Whenever he doesn’t get to see
you after a long period of time. Ab-
and business opportunities for Western Pennsylvanians,” AICUP President Don
Francis said.
The report focused on direct and indirect employment, state and local payroll
taxes, student spending, visitor spending, institutional
expenditures, construction
costs and employee payroll,
as well as other indirect impacts.
GCC’s institutional expenditures alone contributed
sence makes the heart grow fonder.
That’s it. That’s all I have to say
about this one.”
These are just two of my favorite
proverbs, and Cosmo, Glamour, and
Men’s Health have blessed us with
hundreds of lists like them. With
so much good advice, it is easy to
see why I am so happy, healthy and
completely secure in myself as a person. My name is Joanna Eberhart,
and my hubby and I just adore living in Stepford!
Actually, no; in reality, I find that
the more 10, 15, 250 Things I learn
about romance, the more confused
and dissatisfied I become.
Perhaps the answer is to find advice that is specifically Christian.
The Christian Marriage Bloggers
Association online (yes, it exists)
can direct you to thousands of blogs
to help you understand Ephesians 5
marriage. Personally, I was disappointed by this pastel-themed world
of gendered, supposedly Biblical,
formulas for Adams and Eves hoping
to recreate the Garden of awesome
righteous sex. The heavy-handed
titles tend to speak for themselves:
almost $60 million to the
statewide economy, almost
half the College’s total economic impact.
In addition to its statewide
economic impact, the College
also created 236 jobs by way
of direct employment and
supported another 542 indirectly, and paid $998,815
in state payroll taxes and
$287,970 in local payroll
taxes.
“Becoming His Eve” and “Be Strong
Act Like Men.”
So many books, magazines and
student newspapers now offer relationship advice it has become difficult to escape. Christian and secular
sources are oh-so-helpfully committed to solving our relationship angst.
The ground is saturated, and I find
myself too blogged down in the blog
bogs to keep up with 10 more things,
whether they be commandments or
tips and tricks.
Much time spent reading and
scrolling has revealed to me what I
think is the underlying assumption
of those who seek advice, myself included, and those who give advice,
myself included: Romantic relationships, if done properly, will give us
satisfaction.
We are distressed by our inadequacies, and foolishly turn to others, men and women who are themselves inadequate, hoping they will
finally complete us. Expecting this,
we cannot help but be dissatisfied
with the reality. If only we had a Perfect Couple Day!
April 15, 2016
The Collegian
Page 4
BARS dep’t. welcomes
new professors
Maria Dunsworth
Contributing Writer
The Biblical and Religious
Studies (BARS) Department
announced last Friday that
they will be welcoming two
new professors next year.
Since Dr. Iain Duguid left
Grove City College to teach
at Westminster Theological
Seminary at the end of last
spring, there has been only
one professor in the department who specializes in Old
Testament studies. Next
year, there will be three professors of Old Testament.
The department will expand to include Dr. Rebecca
Rine, who currently teaches
in the College’s writing program, and Dr. Seulgi Byun,
who will be new to Grove City
College.
Dr. Paul Schaefer said that
the BARS Department is very
excited for them to join and
that “they will add wonderfully to our department and
also enhance with breadth
and depth the kinds of classes we are able to offer …
particularly Old Testament
Studies, Church History …
Early Church Fathers and in
Practical Theology Christian
Ministries.”
Dr. Rebecca Rine will be
teaching a class entitled
“Sermons Ancient and Modern” in the 2016 fall semester. Although she has been
teaching at the College for a
year already, this will be her
first time teaching a religion
class. She currently teaches
the freshman writing course
and HUMA 102 (Biblical
Revelation).
Rine earned her Bachelor
of Arts in English, her Master
of Arts in Applied Linguistics
and her Ph.D. in Religious
Studies with an emphasis on
early Church fathers. Some
of her areas of expertise include ancient rhetorical and
educational culture, history,
theory and theology of Bible
study, professional editing
and pastoral and theological
writing.
She has worked as a professional editor, an adjunct
professor of religion and as a
research and writing specialist before coming to the College. She has researched and
published works on writing,
literature and Biblical studies.
In her email to department
students, she describes her
experience as coming from
two angles, “One, as a scholar of patristics (so, I study
the church fathers and their
sermons and commentaries)
and two, as an editor who
often works with pastors to
convert their prose from sermonic to literary form.”
The second professor new
to the department is Dr.
Seulgi Byun. He is currently
the director of post-graduate
studies at Oak Hill Theological College in London, England.
According to his Oak Hill
faculty profile, he believes
that “many Christians and
churches have a case of Old
Testament anemia and is
passionate about remedying
this spiritual loss by helping
students regain the life-giving message of the Old Testa-
CALEB HARSHBERGER
Celebrating springtime with
the April coffee house
BYUN
RINE
BYUN PICTURE FOUND AT WWW.OAKHILL.AC.UK/
ment.”
Byun was born in South
Korea to missionary parents and lived in Singapore,
Austria and Japan before
moving to the U.S. for university. He received degrees
from Harvard, Hebrew University, Gordon College and
Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and his Ph.D.
in Religion from Cambridge
University.
He has worked as a pastor
in Virginia and an adjunct
professor at Gordon College and has spent the last
eight years at Oak Hill. Byun
will teach “Evangelism and
Discipleship” and “Biblical
Books: Pentateuch” in the
spring 2017 semester, as well
as HUMA 102 and Hebrew
Language classes.
Like many other BARS
majors, junior Mark Capper
is looking forward to what
Rine and Byun will bring to
the department.
“If these are any indication of potential new religion
courses in the future, then
we in the BARS department
have a lot to look forward to
under these professors in the
coming years,” Capper said.
April 15, 2016
Entertainment
Page 5
Flat Stanley debuts
Jake Sziraky
Entertainment Editor
Children’s literature and
entertainment often leave
people with the impression
that they are sub-par. That
it was good enough for children, you know, the culturally underdeveloped ones,
but for us more intellectual
and sophisticated viewers, it
is simply not worth our time.
The 2016 Grove City College
production of “Flat Stanley,” however, is practically
guaranteed to be fun for the
whole family.
The stage show, “The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley,” is a musical series of
misadventures of the Lambchop family, most notably
Stanley Lambchop (played
by junior Robbie Davis), a
seemingly normal boy who,
due to a loose cork board
Echo holds
poetry
reading
Grayson Quay
Managing Editor
Students,
professors,
alumni and others came together Monday night for a
poetry reading in the Ketler
Hall Oak Room hosted by
The Echo, one of Grove City
College’s two literary magazines.
The Echo, which is published twice a year and includes poetry, short stories
and photography, invited every student who had a poem
accepted for the magazine’s
upcoming spring issue to
read at the event, which
kicked off the Arts Festival
that will run throughout the
week.
In an email to poets, Echo
Senior Editor senior Erin
Pechacek, who read a section
of 18th-century poet Christopher Smart’s poem “Jubilate
Agno” that described the poet’s cat Jeoffry in great detail,
encouraged student poets
to share their “excellent (insightful, moving...) contributions.”
Dr. Eric Potter, a GCC English professor and published
poet, opened the event with
a few thoughts on poetry
from poets T.S. Eliot (“poetry is not a career, but a mug’s
game”), Emily Dickinson (“If
I feel physically as if the top
of my head were taken off,
I know that is poetry”) and
A.E. Housman (“If a line of
poetry strays into my memory, my skin bristles so that
the razor ceases to act”).
Each participant had five
minutes to read original poems, favorite poems by other
poets or a mixture of the two.
Most, however, went over the
time limit.
The schedule was divided
into four blocks of four poets
each, with a 10-minute break
after each block to allow participants and attendees to
mingle, discuss poetry and
drink tea.
Readers included Professor
of English Dr. Sarina Moore
and her husband Johnathan,
Professor of Music Dr. Joshua Drake, Lewis T. Castle (a
pen name for a student who
asked that the audience not
disclose his true identity),
Joey Retucci ’11 and seniors
Dan Chapman, Drew Brackbill and Margaret Baker, who
won this issue’s Editor’s Pick
for best poem of the semester
for her poem, “Gold”.
in his room falling on him, is
rendered almost completely
flat. Some of the key highlights from the show are his
sailing through the sky as
a kite and being mailed all
around the world in an envelope.
The musical is based primarily off of the popular children’s books of the same title.
However, in the original stories, Stanley did much more
than simply become flat. In
the sequels, Stanley meets
a genie, becomes invisible,
goes into outer space and
even becomes flat a second time.
As
fantastic
and fun as these
other
stories
were, Flat Stan-
ley is definitely the story
with the most depth to it.
It explores the dynamics of
sibling rivalry, adapting to a
family member with special
needs and learning to make
do with what you have. And
the most important and remarkable thing about this
particular show is that it is
able to be condensed down
into a form that children can
not only understand, but can
also find entertaining.
Yes, the intended audience
for Grove City College Children’s
Theatre’s
rendition
of Flat
Stanley is children, but let us
not forget that it was written,
produced, directed and acted
out by adults. Even if the plot
is more juvenile, adults can
appreciate all the time and
effort that went into it. We
can appreciate the countless
hours the set builders spent
in designing and building the
world of the show – which
is particularly beautiful this
year - the actors who had to
learn all those lines and learn
all those dance steps till they
were flawless and even the
public relations team whose
job it was to make sure that
everyone knew what exactly
the audience was to expect when attending this show.
This show is
fun, endearing
and beautiful. No
matter what age you
are, “Flat Stanley” will not
leave you flat.
There’s more Star Wars?!
Star Wars Episode VII released with deleted scenes
Kyle Martin
Contributing Writer
“Star Wars Episode VII:
The Force Awakens” was released on Blu-ray, DVD and
Digital Download earlier this
month and came with an array of bonus features, including deleted scenes that offer unique insights into the
story.
The deleted scenes featured on the DVD last a total of about six minutes in
length.
Like most deleted scenes,
there is a strong reason for
each of them not to be included in the film’s theatrical
version, but many of them
still deserve attention
One scene shows Finn
clearly sparing a villager at
the onset of the movie, giving a stronger illustration of
his disillusionment with the
First Order. Another shows
Rey worrying about Finn’s
condition after being wounded in battle, which shows a
more compassionate side of
the enigmatic heroine. Another shows Kylo Ren angrily
searching through Han Solo’s Millenium Falcon on the
Starkiller Base.
Two action scenes are excluded from the film as well.
One scene shows Rey and
Finn in a speeder chase with
Stormtroopers. The other
shows the heroes fighting
their way out after being entirely surrounded by Stormtroopers under the cantina.
Both of these are exciting
scenes but certainly not important ones.
Most importantly, a scene
showing General Leia Organa, C3P0 and other classic
characters was cut from the
beginning of the movie. This
is an important exclusion be-
cause fans of the Star Wars
saga knew that these characters would be in the film, but,
in the final product, the characters were nowhere to be
found until almost the end of
the movie. Cutting this scene
helped convey the feeling of
suspense and the emphasis
on the new characters that
J.J. Abrams desired.
Overall, the deleted scenes
did not carry much importance as they did not introduce any major plotlines or
provide any stellar scenes.
Viewers often watch deleted
scenes and wonder as to why
a certain scene was not included in the film, but these
deleted scenes were certainly
not necessary.
Fans, however, should not
lose hope. Not all of the film’s
deleted scenes have been released, as J.J. Abrams has
been told to release the rest
of them at a later date.
SCREENRANT.COM
Pick
of
the
Week
Frankie
Cosmos
Sam Farley
Staff Writer
Although she may
have not been longawaited or ranked as
the best new music,
Frankie Cosmos (whose
real name is Greta
Kline) has succeeded in
putting together an album that captures raw
emotion, individualism
and her true self. In
her new album, “Next
Thing,” Kline strives for
something that is simply beautiful, yet also
entirely her own.
As one listens to
Kline, the content of
her music seems pretty
straightforward. Some
themes are noticeable
lyrically, but at first
glance they do not expand into much. Her
tracks vary from “If
I Had a Dog,” a song
that’s rather self-explanatory from the title, all the way to “Too
Dark,” a song about
self-esteem and control.
What makes Kline’s
music stand out is that
the more you listen,
the closer you become
to who she is. Kline
does not normally do
this, though. She often
tosses in creative and
distinct imagery that is
innocently accurate.
One of the best examples of that is from the
opening track, “Floated
In,” with lyrics such as,
“Now it would be bedtime if / I could close off
my mind / It just flops
onto you / Wet and
soppy glue ... You know
I’d love to / Rummage
through your silky pink
space cap.” She provides unusual imagery
that captures her emotion.
Frankie Cosmos also
has a very simple style
of music, something in
the fashion of what has
been on the rise in artists like Waxahatchee
and Eskimeaux.
She is typically not
much more than a normal low-fi band. Most
often, that means just a
guitar and a synth that
are hardly even mastered.
Greta Kline started
off with “Bandcamp”
and
self-recorded
tracks, and in “Next
Thing,” she did not lose
that feel at all. With
the closing track, “O
Dreaded C Town,” she
only uses her synth and
shows that this is her,
that nothing is changing and that her album’s
success requires nothing more than what she
is showing here.
Overall, Greta Kline’s
success as Frankie Cosmos has come from who
she is, her investment
into music and the simplicity of what she has
presented. Her album,
not even 30 minutes
long, has captured a
raw beauty through
simple, low-fi, acoustic
rock, and the refreshing knowledge that she
does it all for herself.
Page 6
Through the Lens
April 15, 2016
A little party never
killed nobody
PHOTOS BY ARIELLA CARTER
“There was music from my neighbor’s
house through the summer nights. In
his blue gardens men and girls came and
went like moths among the whisperings
and the champagne and the stars.”
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Great Gatsby
April 15, 2016
Through the Lens
Page 7
April 15, 2016
The Collegian
Page 8
‘The Intouchables’
http://goo.gl/S5jtYs
Kelsey Patton
Contributing Writer
We have all heard of the
story of an unlikely friendship. Two people who were
never meant to be together
end up miraculously hitting
it off. Been there, done that.
But this is a twist you have
never seen before, in a movie
that can induce “Champagnelike giddiness,” according to
movie critic James Berardinelli of ReelViews. You are
not going to want to miss it.
“The Intouchables,” a film
that came out in 2011 and
made its way to the U.S. from
France, is the story of two
lives becoming unexpectedly intertwined. Philippe,
played by François Cluzet,
is a rich, white, middleaged quadriplegic seeking a
caretaker and companion.
Driss, played by Omar Sy,
is a young, black, povertystricken man recently released from jail who is interviewing for the job, hoping to
be turned down and given a
signature on his application
to continue to receive unemployment benefits. While
interacting with Philippe in
the interview, Driss appears
to have no concept of his
handicap and treats him like
any other stranger. Philippe,
tired of being treated like a
fragile doll, is refreshed by
his attitude and offers him
a job as his caretaker, much
to Driss’s astonishment. The
movie follows their growth
which leads to an uplifting friendship, inciting both
laughter and tears.
The film, directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, was inspired by the
true story of Philippe Pozzo
di Borgo and Abdel Sellou,
both of whom are still alive.
The real-life Philippe describes Abdel as someone
who “didn’t feel sorry for me
– he was irreverent, cheeky
and had an outrageous sense
of humour. I suddenly found
I was enjoying life again, feeling like I didn’t know what
was coming next.” What begins as an unwanted job to
Abdel grows into a sweet re-
lationship that brings life to
both parties.
The film received seven
César awards, the national
film award of France, and a
Golden Globe for Best Foreign
Language Film. Film critic Peter Travers of Rolling Stone
said this of the film: “Sy and
Cluzet are superb actors who
demolish stereotypes about
race and social class by finding a common humanity in
their characters.”
The act of tearing down
these social and racial walls
is so evident in Driss and
Philippe’s relationship and
paves the way for a more
meaningful
connection.
Philippe’s desire for normalcy and adventure past the
confines of his wheelchair
along with Driss’s humor,
edge and realness greatly
contribute to their undeniable chemistry.
The directors do not shy
away from interspersing
heart-wrenching scenes with
lighthearted ones or including a look into the reality
of poverty and the life of a
quadriplegic.
“The Intouchables” is a
tender and surprising story filled with an incredible
amount of character development and a genuine rawness. Do not avoid watching
this film because of the English subtitles – in all honesty,
they add to the humorous effect! Allez regarder ce film!
April 15, 2016
Perspectives
Page 9
Who’s afraid of a little
political correctness?
Rio Arias
Staff Writer
On Monday, April 4, accomplished war veteran and
public figure Charles Wiley
was welcomed to Grove City
College to host a lecture entitled “An Old Guy’s Thoughts
on Millennials.”
The talk drew a number
of students to the event who
were interested to hear the
perspective of someone two
generations older than them.
The discussion opened
with the idea that we should
not criminalize those before
us for what we now recognize
as sins, but instead realize
that standards of right and
wrong change over time, so
grace can always be extended.
Yet this idea was troubling:
how should something like
slavery – which demeaned
millions to less than their humanity – be excused?
While it is true that culturally and historically there
are many justifications for
past wrongdoings, having
the conscience we have now,
it is wrong to excuse what is
clearly at fault.
God would not have
changed our hearts to recognize that our ways are of offense if we were going to just
dismiss a history full of malpractice.
We need to know with full
conviction that something
like slavery is inexcusable in
all time periods, but also acknowledge that others might
There was this underlying conclusion that
those who supported politically correct
ideology ignored the realities of life.
not have been able to come
to the same conclusion as us,
and learn how to better protect ourselves from the resulting ignorance.
The second major point of
the lecture, arguably what
most of it focused on, was the
idea that political correctness has become a shield that
people use in order to avoid
being offended or ensure that
nothing could possibly go
wrong.
The highlighted example
of the night was about sexual
consent. California Gov. Jerry Brown approved new legislation to make sure that updated sexual consent lessons
were incorporated to public
high schools, with emphasis
that both partners must express “yes” at every phase of
their engagement in order to
prevent sexual assault.
Wiley made light of the issue saying that “a girl drunk
on vodka” put herself in a
bad place to begin with, or
that “soon enough you’re going to need your attorney to
go out on a date.”
As redundant as this high
school graduation requirement might seem, there
is nothing radical or liberal about the idea that “yes
means yes” and most importantly, “no means no.”
It was hard as a young
woman to hear someone
make fun of an issue that has
touched people close to me,
especially since those who do
go forward with cases of assault are often disregarded.
“Why wouldn’t it be a good
thing to bring attention to
consent?” freshman Adena
Bowden asked. She proceeded to say that “a girl could
be drunk and mean yes, or
mean no. It’s very challenging and every situation is
unique, and it’s hard to prove
one side over the other. It
doesn’t mean that these situations should be taken lightly, victim or not. Challenging situations should not be
avoided, it wouldn’t be hard
if it wasn’t important.”
The issue of political correctness is a tricky one.
President Obama has spoken
on it before, saying “I don’t
agree that when you become
students at colleges, [you]
have to be coddled and protected from different points
of view.”
He also talked about the
importance of knowing how
to encounter those different from oneself, and defend
your views.
Yet at the end of Wiley’s
event, there was this underlying conclusion that those
who supported politically
correct ideology ignored the
realities of life.
In fact, when a student
asked a question about
whether the acknowledgement of such inoffensive
and neutral language was
necessary, the response was
that one should always learn
more about the opposition
to defend oneself, essentially
saying those who are politically correct are wrong.
But the truth is, political
correctness is more about
beliefs than race or gender.
It expands beyond using
the appropriate pronoun or
identifying a specific ethnicity, because it teaches people
how to interact with anyone,
no matter how different.
There is value in avoiding
the phrase “I’m going to kill
myself” when talking about
failing an exam, because if
the person sharing the conversation did know someone
who committed suicide, it
is going to affect them more
than a simple hyperbole
would have intended.
By not assuming other
people grew up exactly like
us and have the same expectations as we do, we open
doors to relationships and
understanding that could not
have otherwise taken place.
How better to glorify the
kingdom of God than to show
compassion to others, even if
they carry circumstances we
do not fully grasp?
Guite fever sweeps campus
100 Campus Drive
Grove City, Pa. 16127
[email protected]
[email protected]
Editor-in-Chief
Patty Folkerts
Managing Editor
Grayson Quay
Section Editors
News
Molly Wicker
Life
Caleb Harshberger
Entertainment
Jacob Sziráky
Perspectives
Colin Combs
Sports
Joe Setyon
Photography
Julia Williams
Design Chief
Nate Pittman
Copy Chief
Gabrielle Johnston
Copy Editors
Erin Pechacek
Becky Tzouanakis
Section Designers
Karen Postupac
Margaret Heidenreich
Bri Doane
Laura Counihan
Staff Writers
Stephen Dennis
Thomas Kutz
Rio Arias
Anne St. Jean
Kayla Murrish
Contributing Writer
Breanna Renkin
He claims he is not from
Middle Earth, but the long
silver hair and beard, melodious accent and the waistcoat and cane are undeniably
reminiscent of Tolkien.
Last week, Grove City College had the unique opportunity to welcome Malcolm
Guite to the campus for a lecture series as a part of the annual Christian Writers Conference.
It is difficult to know exactly how to formally address Malcolm Guite, as he is
both an Anglican priest and a
Cambridge academic, as well
as a prolific poet and a hugely
talented musician.
Anyone who happened
to attend chapel last Thursday can attest to the magical
quality that Guite seems to
possess.
The lecture series began
last Wednesday with a talk
on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s
“Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
He drew parallels between
the Mariner’s tale of despair and redemption and
Coleridge’s own faith journey, showing the importance
of observing the beauty of the
natural world and its echoes
and reverberations of heaven
– in Coleridge’s words, God
teaches “Himself in all, and
all things in himself.”
Guite’s Thursday morning
chapel used George Herbert’s
poem, “Prayer,” to illustrate
to us the natural, breath-like
quality our prayers should
possess, specifically the line
which describes prayer as
“God’s breath in man returning to his birth.”
We as humans are “God-
Annabelle Rutledge
Bradley Warmhold
Tim Hanna
Jon Matt
Josh Fried
Photographers
Andrew Irving
Rebekah Wheat
Cameron Holloway
Kirsten Malenke
Ryan Braumann
Advertising/Business
Manager
Reagan Georges
MOLLY WICKER
breathed,” and are continually being breathed into
existence by His divine imagination. Our prayers, Guite
observed, should reflect this
aspect of our being.
This topic carried over naturally to his talk that evening
in Sticht Lecture Hall on a
passage from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” that describes poetry as the process
by which “imagination bodies forth.”
The passage was first examined and explained, then
used to illustrate the object of
any true author or artist.
Guite further illustrated
the tension between what
the poet “comprehends” and
what he “apprehends” as being like two magnetically opposed magnets being forced
towards each other.
The energetic repulsion
between them is what the
artist achieves in attempting
to bridge the divide between
heaven and earth.
Using the words of the poet
T.S. Eliot, Guite stated that
“poetry is peripheral vision,”
and the poet’s struggle is to
begin with what we know for
certain and somehow move
beyond that to what we can
only intuit.
He resolved the question
with a simple but salient observation: that as Christian
writers, we have been given
the ultimate example of mediation between heaven and
earth, in the person of Jesus
Christ.
Yet again, Guite managed
to weave his practical knowledge of language and literature with his own gift for
musical prose, infecting his
audience with his own passion for the written word.
After the lecture, audience
members were given the opportunity at a dessert reception in HAL Atrium to purchase one of Guite’s books
of original poetry, consisting
mainly of religious sonnets,
and speak to the man himself.
The following evening,
there was a slightly more casual event at Beans on Broad,
where Guite read a selection of his poetry and played
some of his original, bluesyrock songs.
Perched on a stool, a borrowed guitar in his hands,
Guite transported his audience to various moments in
his life, masterfully captured
by the combined efforts of
his writing and melodious
accent.
Malcolm Guite managed to
transfix and inspire his Grove
City audience in a matter of
days, a testament to his talent as both teacher and orator, and to the great desire
there is at this College for
more of his kind.
We
who
experienced
Guite’s visit with enthusiasm find ourselves eagerly
hoping for more visits from
this amazing man, and who
knows? Maybe we can get
him to stay and teach a class
on Tolkien next time.
Staff Adviser
Nick Hildebrand
The Collegian is the student
newspaper of Grove City College, located in Grove City, Pa.
Opinions appearing on these
pages, unless expressly stated
otherwise, represent the views
of individual writers. They are
not the collective views of The
Collegian, its staff or Grove City
College.
GREEN EYESHADE
AWARD
This week’s award goes to
designer Karen Postupac for
her dedication and hard work
on the Collegian.
The
Collegian
Green
Eyeshade Award
honors
student contributors who have
demonstrated consistency and
excellence in their work.
The Collegian
April 15, 2016
Page 10
Flirting with Catholicism
Ryan Brown
If I am to remain a Protestant, I need a good reason why.
Staff Writer
The core of the Christian
life is being in a right relationship with God. That
sounds a bit vague because
that relationship is made up
of so many different parts.
It is made up of your moral
convictions and actions. It is
made up of the worship you
give. It is made up of your
conversations with God and
prayers to Him. It is made up
of the communion you have
with your fellow believers
and God.
Most importantly, it is
guided by what you think
about God. What you think
is most important: it shapes
and determines all the other
factors of your relationship
with God.
As a result, it is important
to me that I believe rightly
about God. Now, I was raised
a Protestant, and the biggest
issue to me had always been
whether or not I should or
could accept Catholicism.
Catholicism
always
seemed to me to be plainly
wrong, and I had not even
heard about orthodoxy until high school, but now that
I am in college, I find myself wrestling more with the
long theological traditions in
Christian thought.
If I am to remain a Protestant, I need a good reason
why.
First, an admonition to
Protestants. Even if you believe Catholics or Orthodox
Christians are wrong on certain things, please do not
make absurd claims about
their faith. They are just as
Colin Combs
much a Christian as you are.
They believe Christ died
for their sins and that his
death and resurrection are
what make grace and salvation available to us. They do
not believe that works save;
any merit that comes from
our works comes from the
grace Christ gave us through
his death to perform the
works.
Additionally, communion
and the other sacraments are
not any more a “work” than
saying the sinner’s prayer,
so unless you are a hardcore
Calvinist, you really do not
have any good grounds for
attacking Catholics for basing salvation on works.
So why am I not a Catholic?
First, there is the issue of
tradition. Catholics, Protestants and the Orthodox
all claim to have tradition
on their side, to be the true
representation of the early
church. I am no historian, so
take what I say here with a
grain of salt.
I do not buy that Protestantism is really a return to
the beliefs and practices of
the early church. I also do
not buy that the Catholics or
Orthodox really did an amazing job of preserving the way
the early church worshipped
or thought about things.
Doctrines clearly developed over time. Certain
heresies were being corrected even as early as Paul.
The Catholic and Orthodox
Church refined practices
over time to be more in line
with God’s will.
The problem is that they
disagreed over what exactly
God’s will was, and split.
Why could it not be that
Protestants are just a further
continuation of that process?
Catholics would say that
if they were, they would
not have split off from the
Church. God preserves the
universal body of the Church
and their divisions are a sign
of God’s disapproval. I do not
buy that, partially because of
the churches earlier than the
east/west split. Both branches seem to have equally good
historical arguments for being the original legitimate
article, as do the Protestants.
I know both the other
branches see tradition as being inspired, but I just cannot
do that; there are too many
different traditions that
could make claim. I must test
tradition by scripture; sorry
guys.
Tradition does give Catholics and Greek Orthodoxies
some weight, though. Before
looking at scripture, they
probably seem to have a better claim to being the inheritor of the early church. So
why actively reject them?
While tradition might be
important, it certainly does
not seem to be infallible. It
seems plain that scripture
and tradition can and have
contradicted.
It also seems more difficult to differentiate inspired
tradition from uninspired
tradition than to differentiate inspired scripture from
uninspired historical documents. Arguments around
things like the infallibility of
the Pope is obviously more
of a Catholic issue than an
Orthodox one, but the Orthodox have their own problems.
As a Protestant, Mariology
always struck me as weird.
Odd beliefs like her “perpetual virginity” seem to contradict the plain scripture. To
get around these issues, Jesus’ brothers and sisters are
dismissed as “cousins,” for
example.
I realize that nobody worships Mary, but it can sometimes come awful close and
seem a bit troubling. Ideas
about her being the second
Eve, or possibly even a “coredemptrix” risk elevating
her too far.
Problems of misguided
worship are not limited to
Mary, though, as the Orthodox also seem to run into
problems with images.
I love the mysticism that
goes along with the Orthodox Church, but I am sincerely worried about the risk
of idolatry with the focus on
iconography.
Sacraments pose a special
problem in Christianity in
general. Sacraments are undoubtedly important parts of
religious life; however, tying
them to the salvation process
seems especially strange.
I am not really sure how to
articulate my thoughts about
this subject cogently in such
a short space, besides the clichés: “Christ’s work is done
on the Cross,” “Christ is the
intercessor between God
and man, we can go to him
directly without sacrifices,
priests or sacraments.”
Now I realize these clichés
all somewhat misrepresent
Catholic and Orthodox beliefs, but I am troubled with
how they seem to flirt with
them nonetheless.
While on the subject matter,
transubstantiation
seems worth mentioning as
one of the bigger hurdles. It
requires the acceptance of an
incredibly specific and probably plain wrong metaphysical standpoint. I do not think
it makes any sense to require
Aristotelianism in order to
be a Christian.
This is all just a small portion of the things we can talk
about and need to talk about.
And we do need to talk about
it. Too many people stick
with their original theology by default, and while I
am critical here, I have an
increasing respect for these
traditions.
If you want to get closer to
the Lord, though, you need to
be willing to accept what He
has to teach you and where
He leads you.
I am not convinced that
I am being led to either Catholicism or Orthodoxy, but
I want to be open to the idea
that maybe my interpretation of scripture is wrong.
For me, that openness has
included other things too,
like more liberal views and
things like open theology,
but that is for a different article. Anyway, just talk about
it.
Are video games art?
Perspecitves Editor
Ah, that ancient question
that no one but YouTube
commenters take seriously:
are video games art?
This question has given
rise to countless forums and
discussions. Most sane, rational people just say “who
cares?” and call it a day, but
some people get caught up in
defending their favorite franchises as art.
It is a debate no one should
really take seriously and either answer will not really
change anything. Honestly,
it amazes me that people talk
about it in the first place.
We should note that when
we ask whether a video game
is “art” here, we do mean
high art. No one disputes that
video games are at least as
artistic as a third grader’s art
class, but we want to know if
it can be something cultured
and refined.
The late film critic Roger
Ebert famously said that
video games can never be
art. This response became
famous not only because he
answered in the negative,
angering a bunch of fanboys,
but also because Ebert was a
rather well-respected critic.
His argument is rather
simple. While video games
have definitely inspired some
types of visual and musical experiences, the “game”
nature of video games make
them inherently less artistic.
There seems to be some
weight behind this claim.
While people get defensive
about video games, no one
seems to dispute about other
games being art.
As popular as they are, no
one cries against the injustice of chess or Monopoly not
being seen on the same level
of the paintings of Leonardo
da Vinci. Why should other
games be any different?
Ebert further elaborated
that video games always
present a kind of malleability
that would ruin other forms
of art. Romeo and Juliet
would be destroyed by the
option to have a happy ending.
The silhouette of Juliet
did not appear in the sky
with cake and the message
“Thanks for playing!”
The inherent difficulties
of making video games as
art have not stopped people
from making artistic games,
unfortunately. If anything,
these failures tend to prove
Ebert right.
When games try to be art,
they usually do so only by
abandoning aspects that
make them games in the first
place.
Take the pretentious messes known as “Dear Easter” or
“Gone Home” for example.
Ignoring their many other
flaws, these games are simply
not games. They are walking
simulators with a narrative
imposed upon them.
In essence, it is trying to
be a movie where we just so
happen to be in control of the
camera.
Worst of all, they are simply not fun. A game that is
not fun is not art, it is just a
bad game.
Many people are optimistic about video games as a
form of art. Video games are
a rather new thing, after all,
and have yet to be fully explored.
It took a while for the artistic possibilities of movies to
be realized, after all, so why
should the same not apply to
video games?
This is comparing apples
to oranges, though. Movies,
in a way, can just be seen as
another form of a play, which
has been recognized as art
forever. Shakespeare’s artistic worth has never been
called into question.
Video games, on the other
hand, seem to face difficulties
in their very nature as games.
This strikes as a much more
insurmountable problem.
In spite of everything I just
said, I am not willing to rule
out the artistic possibility of
video games entirely.
While I do not think any
game has really reached the
status of art yet, I’m not convinced this is impossible for
them to do.
Video games seem just as
capable of telling stories as
any other medium. What is
to keep it from producing an
artistic drama or comedy?
I think Ebert correctly noted that video games are very
distinct from other art forms
in their malleability, in having “win” and “loss” states.
Granted, in most situations, Ebert would be right
and this kind of changeability would ruin the message
the artist is trying to convey.
I think this fact also opens
the doors for entirely new
kinds of expressions. Granted, this will be difficult to do,
but if someone can seamlessly tie in these game elements
into the broader narrative,
this can create a whole new
kind of experience, potentially even a highly-cultured
experience.
The challenge for games
to be accepted as art, then, is
not for them to come up with
a clever aesthetic, a good
soundtrack or even a good
story.
The challenge is to make
the “game-ness” of the game
part of that artistic experience.
HELP WANTED
Are you a writer, designer, or photographer?
Would you like to be?
The Collegian provides excellent opportunities for students who are interested in careers related to writing
and designing. Even if you are just interested in exploring campus events and issues, contact us. Writing for
the Collegian is an excellent way to build a portfolio of published work.
Email us at [email protected] for more information.
Sports
April 15, 2016
Page 11
Looking strong
Men’s tennis team stays in good shape
Ethan Paszko
Staff Writer
ROB AUDIA
Sophomore Zack Sprunger was terrific against Bethany College last
Wednesday, helping propel Grove City College to wins in first doubles
and third singles as part of an 8-1 overall victory.
Score
Check
April 5
Baseball: Hiram College 11,
Grove City College 7
The Wolverines had no
problems scoring runs
against Hiram, but they
could not keep the opposing offense at bay. Junior
Matt Waugaman had four
hits, while sophomore Drew
Landis hit a home run and
junior Andy Fritz drove in
two runs. Junior Nolan Myers started on the mound,
giving up three earned runs.
Men’s Tennis: Grove City
College 8, Waynesburg
University 1
Grove City improved to 2-0
in the PAC, winning easily
over Waynesburg. Grove
The Grove City College men’s tennis team
is a powerhouse in the Presidents’ Athletic
Conference (PAC). Since its inception in
1914, the team has won a total of 629 matches while only losing 310, in addition to winning the PAC Championship for the last 25
years in a row. A portion of these victories
comes from the current team, led by Coach
Jeff Buxton.
A team as dominant as Grove City College’s
men’s tennis does not achieve its high status
without grueling hours of practice, perspiration and dedication. Coach Buxton attributes
this dominance in part to the players: “We
seem to attract good players year in and year
out. Not only are they good players but they
are also good people, who believe in the program and are willing to put time in to make it
as good as it can be.”
The men’s team has played three matches
so far this spring season, each with the same
result: crushing defeat of the opponent.
Against Thomas More College, Grove City
won 9-0. They also won 8-1 over Waynesburg
University and 8-1 over Bethany College. One
might imagine that with the team’s fury of
victories, they would wear their egos on their
sleeves, but that is not the case.
“No one is out there just for themselves,
they are out there to honor each other, the
program, and God,” Buxton said. “And that is
really what we want Grove City Tennis to be
about … great tennis, not big egos!”
Perhaps the most significant strength
of the men’s tennis program is the unit co-
hesion and high level of morale the team
shares. Sophomore Zack Sprunger, one of
team’s best doubles players, explained why
he joined the program: “I absolutely love
tennis! I also love the friendships that I am
able to build through tennis – that is probably the main reason besides flat-out loving
the sport.”
Sophomore Jonathan Fleet, a mechanical
engineering major, said, “Our team is continually improving. Our team goal is Better Every Day, meaning that every workout, practice and match we look to improve our skills.
We have been a powerhouse in the PAC and I
don’t see that changing anytime soon.”
The Wolverines are preparing themselves
for a tough series this upcoming week as
they host St. Vincent College April 14, along
with Geneva College and Westminster College April 16. Despite the projected wins, the
players know they cannot become lackadaisical mentally.
“The past 3 matches we have been able to
secure a decisive victory. However, no team
in the PAC should be taken lightly. Bethany
came out much stronger than last year. Although the final match score was 8-1, we had
to battle for every point, which reflects the
tight match scores,” Fleet said.
With the PAC Championships looming
closer and closer – April 29-30 at the Pennbriar club in Erie, Pa. – Coach Buxton is looking to his captains to lead the team to victory.
“Throughout the year I have seen them
grow as leaders on and off the court. They
seem to be getting better at their role as each
week goes by. I can’t wait to see how this
plays out at the end of the season during our
Conference Tournament,” Buxton said.
City won all three of its
doubles matches and went
5-1 in singles play.
April 6
Grove City College 8,
Bethany College 1
Grove City won its third
consecutive match within
the PAC and is off to a
3-0 start. The Wolverines
played several hard-fought
matches, but managed
to win all three doubles
matches and be victorious
in each singles match except for second singles.
Water Polo: Mercyhurst
University 14, Grove City
College 1
Grove City fell to a Division
II opponent, Mercyhurst.
The only goal of the match
for the Wolverines was
scored by Ashley Parks. In
the loss, junior Abby Jank
won three of four sprints.
Softball: St. Vincent College
6, Grove City College 2; St.
GROVE CITY COLLEGE
All of Grove City’s home outdoor matches were cancelled on Saturday, as the campus woke up to
a layer of snow on the ground.
Vincent College 5, Grove
City College 2
Grove City lost two consecutive matches to PAC
opponent St. Vincent. Erika
Aughton started the opener
and gave up six earned
runs, while Megan Lynskey
had two hits. In the second
game, Aimee Wootton allowed just one earned run
in seven innings.
April 7
Men’s Golf:
Grove City’s “Crimson”
team finished second in
the MBA Invite, while the
“White” team finished
fifth. Jordan Alfery was the
leader for the Wolverines,
and he had the third best
score overall.
Softball: Grove City College
5, Mount Aloysius College 0
DAVE MILLER
Grove City College’s women’s softball team took on St. Vincent
College last Wednesday, and senior Megan Lynskey came up big
with three hits and two runs driven in.
Grove City earned its first
road win of the season in
this game. Erika Aughton
pitched a gem, a four hit
shutout in her best performance of the year. Aughton
also doubled in the first run
of the game.
April 8
Track and field:
Six men on the track and
field team secured wins at
the Oberlin College Bob
Kahn Invitational. Dan
Christiansen, Jonah Meyer,
Drew Thibault, Brandon
Ward, Quinton Reed and
Mike Cole were all victorious in their respective
events. For the women,
Melanie Packard and Elizabeth Donahoe scored wins.
Water Polo: Washington &
Jefferson College 15, Grove
City College 3
Freshman Abby Spicher
had two goals, while Abby
Jank had two assists, but
Grove City fell to the opposition. Grace Klimek and
Heidi Schmidt each had a
save in goal.
April 9
Baseball: Grove City College
10, St. Vincent College 7
Water Polo: Penn State
Behrend 12, Grove City
College 6; Washington &
Jefferson College 13, Grove
City College 3
Grove City scored a lot of
runs in this game, thanks
to an explosive lineup. Matt
Waugaman, Nolan Meyers,
and Shane Hammel each
picked up three hits, while
freshman pitcher John Bini
recorded his sixth win of
the season.
In the first game Grove City
played well for 12 minutes,
but the other team went on
a 6-1 run to end the game.
In the second game, Abby
Jank had two goals, an assist and a steal, and Allie
Schmidt made four saves.
Sports
April 15, 2016
Page 12
Golf season goes into gear
Golf team plays in first two matches
Joe Setyon
Sports Editor
After taking the winter off
following a solid fall season,
the Grove City College men’s
golf team is getting their
spring campaign into full
gear.
Last season the team finished third in the Presidents’
Athletic
Conference
for
the third consecutive year.
Led by head coach Melissa
Lamie, the team is gunning
for a first place finish and a
PAC Championship. Grove
City started off its season
with a spring trip to Hilton
Head that lasted from March
18-24. Since then, they have
playedtwo matches: the first
at Point Park on April 1, and
the second at the Grove City
College McBride-BehringerAllen Invitational on April 7.
The Wolverines started
off their spring schedule on
April 1, travelling to Point
Park University. They ended up getting defeated by a
score of 596-593. Cole McCook, freshman, had the best
round of the day for his team,
shooting a 77. Sophomore
Jordan Alfery was second
best, finishing just a stroke
behind his teammate with a
78. Meanwhile, sophomore
Connor Tipping shot an 85,
while junior Austin Eckhardt
and freshman Ryan Koenig
each shot an 88.
Next, Grove City returned
home for one of its most
important matches of the
season, the Grove City MBA
Invite. The MBA in its title
stands for three historically
significant men from GCC
men’s golf history: Milford
McBride, a longtime trustee
for the school, R. Jack Behringer, a former golf coach
and director of athletics for
the entire school, and Bill
Allen coached golf during
his time at Grove City. The
Wolverines divided into two
squads: White and Crimson.
Each of them consisted of
four men, and each played
very well. The Crimson team
posted an overall total of 312,
which was just one stroke
away from eventual winner,
St. Vincent College, While,
the White team took fifth
GROVE CITY COLLEGE
Freshman Cole McCook has impressed for the Wolverine golf team so far this year and looks to be
an important part of the squad as the season progresses.
place in the eight-team tour-
as his 18-hole score of 77 was
place, each of them shooting
nament, shooting 332 over-
third best individually. Ryan
a 78. Cole McCook finished
all. Jordan Alfery had the
Koenig and sophomore An-
in tenth place, shooting a 92
best day for the Wolverines,
thony Smaldino tied for sixth
overall.
Keeping the ball rolling
Baseball team off to best start since 2006
April 15-21
Joe Setyon
Sports Editor
After several consecutive
losing seasons, the Grove
City College baseball team’s
2016 campaign has been a
breath of fresh air.
The Wolverines are on fire,
winning their last nine contests. They are 17-7 overall,
including an outstanding 9-2
in the Presidents’ Athletic
Conference. The Wolverines
have done a great job putting runs on the board and
getting clutch hits when it
counts as was display in their
recent contests against Westminster and St. Vincent College. So far this season, they
have not lost a series to any
PAC opponent.
On Tuesday, April 5, the
Wolverines took on Hiram
College, a non-conference
opponent. Grove City wanted
to keep up the momentum
they had gained after winning their last five games.,
but in the end, they dropped
the contest 11-7, in 11 innings.
The Wolverines were trailing by a score of 7-5 in the
bottom of the ninth inning,
when senior Matt Waugaman singled and then driven
in by junior Andy Fritz, who
was promptly thrown out
trying to stretch his double
into a triple. Things did not
look bright for the Wolverines, but sophomore Drew
Landis hit a two-out, gametying home run to send it
to extra innings. However,
in the eleventh inning, Hiram scored four unanswered
runs, and Grove City could
not answer back.
Waugaman had four hits,
while Landis added on three
and Fritz collected two in the
losing effort. Meanwhile, senior Ryan Gallagher took the
loss despite an impressive
performance pitching three
innings of relief and alloweingjust three hits and a run
Support Your
Wolverines!
Baseball
Friday, 3 p.m., at Waynesburg University
(9 innings)
Saturday, 1 p.m., vs. Waynesburg University (DH)
Tuesday, 2 p.m., at Bethany College
Softball
Saturday, 1 p.m., vs. Geneva College
Tuesday, 3:30 p.m., at Washington & Jefferson College
Women’s Golf
Saturday, 1 p.m., at Thiel College Invitational
Thursday, at St. Vincent College Invite
GROVE CITY COLEGE
Freshman Shane Hammel has had a solid start to his Wolverine
career. He is batting .333, 2 home runs and 17 runs batted in.
with five strikeouts.
Grove City looked to rebound on Friday, April 8,
and they did with a 10-7 victory over rival St. Vincent
College. The Wolverines took
a 5-0 lead in the first inning,
thanks to hits from freshman
Shane Hammel, junior Nolan Myers, sophomore Tyler
Graham and Waugaman. In
the second inning Grove City
added on two more on RBIs
from Fritz and Hammel. St.
Vincent tried to crawl back
all game, but in the sixth inning Grove City got some additional insurance, scoring
three runs on a wild pitch
and a two run double from
junior David Laylock. St.
Vincent scored three more
runs, but junior Cameron
Lawson came in for the final
three innings, allowing just
two hits and no runs.
Hammel continued his
impressive freshman season, collecting three hits, two
runs and a couple of RBIs.
Waugaman and Myers each
had three hits as well, while
Graham and Micah Burke
added two apiece.
With that win Grove City
improved to 16-6, its best
start since 2006. After the
victory, Grove City returned
home on April 13 to take on
St. Vincent again, this time
in a doubleheader. After
dropping the first0-12, Grove
City responded by taking the
nightcap 8-4. Waugaman
and Hammelboth homered,
and freshman pitcher John
Bini improved to a 7-0 record, the best in the PAC.
The Wolverines will travel to
Waynesburg University on
April 15 for a 9 inning game,
and then take on The Yellow
Jackets in a home double
headeron April 16.
Water Polo
Saturday-Sunday, at CWPA DIII Championships
Track and Field
Saturday, 10 a.m., at Westminster College Invite
Thursday, PAC North Squad at Slippery
Rock University, 4 p.m.
Men’s Tennis
Saturday, 10 a.m., vs. Geneva College
(Senior Day)
Monday, 4 p.m., at Thiel College
Tuesday, 3:30 p.m., vs. Allegheny College
Women’s Tennis
Tuesday, 3:30 p.m., vs. Allegheny College