Vol. XLIII—No. 28
Bethel College, St. Paul, Minn. Friday, May 23, 1969
Reieee.reead /96r- 69
THE CLARION
Published weekly during the academic year
except during vacation and examinatiion periods,
by the students of Bethel College, St. Paul,
Minn. 55101. Subscription rate $4 per year.
Editor-in-chief Margie Whaley
Associate Editor Chuck Myrbo
News Editor Marjorie Rusche
Feature Editor Faith Zwemke
Layout Editor Sue Bonstrom
Sports Editor Wally Borner
Business Manager Bill Goodwin
Circulation Manager Pat Faxon
Proof Readers Karen Rodberg
Mary Jo Heal.,
Photographer Ray Smith
Advisor Jon Fagerson
Reporters: Barry Anderson, Tom Ford, Dave
Greener, Barb Jahr, Joanne Joslyn, Jeff
Loomis, Jerry Loomis, Dan A. Nelson, Karen
Nelson, Frosty Peterson, Tom Stocking, Marie
Watson, Joy Whaley and Jim Youngquist.
Opinions expressed in the CLARION do not neces-sarily
reflect the position of the college or seminary.
daes oa
"
4 Id' (a poem for seniors and other bethelsprites)
nine months form our year. temperatures
plague-plunge to fifty below, swelter
to ninety above, plot against grasses.
but minnesota lawns creep from winter
into desperate life. botanists, scholars,
and sun bathers all drink it in nine months'
gestation ascends into birth pangs of joy.
days as grass. tender shoots,
crawling from prickly hot soil
into rain-battered autumn, grew
fast, four years ago. three autumns
more, and a spring, the green
shimmers again. but retreats.
days as grass. passed by, these mixed seasons here,
and their summaries. oncoming tundras, or
prairies, or forests await. and will flee, with
their citizens, quickly. days of grass.
how they flourish!
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Above and cover photo by Donovan Kramer
two
Bethel's "lonesome end" While many student authors across the nation are being criticized for using
profanity indiscriminately — merely to show the 'establishment' they aren't going
to be suppressed by society's mores — another group of aspiring young journalists
with honest Christian motives often receive all too little encouragement from their
ranks.
Wes Gallagher, general manager of the Associated Press, concluded an address
to a convention audience in Minneapolis with the following words: "The work of the
journalist is just as necessary to our society as that of the scientist, doctor, or the
highest public official. In these times it may be even more important. Journalism
offers young men and women today the greatest of challenges to make a worth-while
contribution to mankind. And for a job well done it will offer the greatest
of personal satisfactions, even though one will constantly find himself to be society's
"lonesome end."
In the past Bethel students with a flare for writing have often found them-selves
at "society's lonesome end" — academically as well as socially. Student
editors of the various publications at Bethel have long bewailed the lack of em-phasis
on communications translated into the curriculum of a liberal arts college.
And this lack of emphasis reveals itself in general attitude toward student
publications. It can also be noted in the few "extreme exceptions" of Bethel
graduates who pursue Christian journalism or writing careers.
Even this year there have been instances of apparent misunderstanding of
the role of a college publication and its relation to a learning experience. Such
occasions augment the inherent problems of shortages of money, staff members
and time. They further tend to discredit and discourage sincere efforts by volun-teer
students who attempt to provide a true picture of Bethel College.
When a Bethel faculty member approaches the editor of the student newspaper
with a threat, "If anything comes out in an article in this week's paper that I
don't like, I'll publish my own paper and blast yours all to bits," (and, believe it
or not, this actually happened recently), it's time to reinstate that basic function
of a student publication.
On the other hand, the CLARION wishes to express its appreciation to those
who have expressed confidence and honest concern in improving our scope and
quality this year.
With plans for experimentation in format next year, and the re-establishment
of a journalism course at Bethel, we have high hopes for the future—not only for
Bethel's publications but also for many students who will become enthused about
the potentiality of journalism and who will proceed to use this means effectively
to spread the Gospel throughout the ends of the earth.
A Bethel Photographer catches former vice-president Hubert Humphrey as he
moves to join a demonstration led by the Black Liberation Affairs Committee (BLAC)
at Macalester last Thursday. The demonstration was planned after 2 black students
had been refused housing.
Save those old
research papers!
Washington, D.C. — Congressman Rob-ert
Taft, Jr. (R-Ohio), Chairman of the
House Republican Conference Research
Committee, recently encouraged college
students to tackle pressing national and
international issues through intensive re-search
work and to forward their find-ings
to the Research Committee.
Taft said the Research Committee has
just set up a number of task forces that
will be exploring various issues deserving
high priority attention. These include
task forces on earth resources and popu-lation
control; labor law reform; agri-culture
and rural affairs; social security
and human needs; urban affairs; trans-portation;
education and training; inter -
national trade, and nuclear affairs.
The Ohio Republican urged students
who are doing research in these areas
to share their findings with those who
are in a position to do something about
them. In his words "Too often good
research work ends up in some dusty
file with a grade tacked on it and is
never seen or used again."
Taft noted that the House Republican
Conference has already signed on twenty
young scholars to work with the Re-search
Task Forces this summer. "We are
interested in youthful talent," he said,
"but we can only bring a limited number
of students to Washington. I'd like to
see more involvement with those who
stay on the campuses. Many are doing
research work that could be of tremen-dous
value to us in seeking solutions
to the many problems which confront
US.
Taft urged Campus Young Republicans
to tap their membership for academic
expertise. "The talent and resources are
already there in terms of course-related
projects, but it should no longer be con-fined
to the 'Ivory Tower.' We think
students are more than just members of
the academic community; they are mem-bers
of the national community as well
and can make a significant contribution
to it."
Students are requested to forward their
research findings to the House Republi-can
Conference Research Committee,
1620 Longworth House Office Building,
Washington, D.C. 20515.
three
True faith supersedes "other-worldly" concern
by Lynn Bergfalk, 1968 CLARION editor
The most beautiful prayer I have ever heard
or read was written by a Moslem mystic over one
thousand years ago. Its emphasis is rather dif-ferent
than that often found in evangelical Christ-ian
circles, and perhaps the difference reveals
our own shallowness.
I am reminded of another prayer that illus-trates
this. Just last fall the leader of the New
Folk closed their concert here at Bethel with a
prayer that ended, "Lord, my goal is to get to
heaven, and to take as many people with me
as I can."
Maybe that's not even half of what the Apostle
Paul meant when he wrote, "For me to live is
Christ. and to die is gain." Yet the strong empha-sis
on the Christian's heavenly hope deeply colors
our religious orientation.
PRAYER BY A MOHAMMEDAN MYSTIC
"Oh my Lord, the stars are shining and the eyes
of men are closed, and the kings have shut their doors,
and every lover is with his beloved, and here I am
with Thee.
"Oh my Lord, if I worship Thee from fear of hell,
burn me in hell, and if I worship thee in hope of para-dise,
exclude me thence, but if I worship thee for thine
own sake, then withhold not from me thine eternal
beauty."
Rabi'a of Basra, 8th century
The dangerous implication of this emphasis is that the
Christian life is not intrinsically rewarding, and that without
the promise of eternal reward, there is no reason to follow
Christ. But such an attitude is destructively selfish, and
threatens to reduce the Christian faith to nothing more than
fire insurance for the misty hereafter.
However sophisticated its expression, such sentiment per-sists
in evangelical circles. A self-centered and pervasive
"other-worldliness" shapes our understanding of Christian
living and evangelism. This preoccupation with "spritual"
things in ultimately dishonest, and we use it to escape mean-ingful
human involvement in the here and now.
Consequently, we have diluted the revolutionary impact of
the gospel. We do not hear Christ call, "Take up your cross,
and follow me." The modern evangelical restatement of Christ's
invitation jingles with heavenly gold and talks of Christ's cross
rather than our own. And its punch line is truly suave: "Now
that every eye is closed, and every head is bowed, do I see a
hand?"
But God demands utter dependence upon himself from
those he calls his sons. He wants from each of us a total and
unselfish commitment that finds expression in a truly dis-tinctive
way of life.
The key to such commitment lies in one's death to self;
as Christ explained in a parable, a seed must fall into the
ground and die before it can burst forth as a living, growing
plant. But we are not willing to pay this price; we want life
without dying. Hence we have deluded ourselves into accepting
a cheap counterfeit of what God offers us; we believe the
right sort of things in the right sort of way, secure in the
knowledge that our spiritual future rests in heaven.
Yes, we believe the right things in the right way, and our
salvation is assured. In effect, whether or not we admit it, we
believe for all practical purposes that salvation is a matter of
assent to correct doctrine. We than become spiritual people,
pietistically concerned with our own religious feelings, cen-tered
on a milk and water regeneration experience.
But—while it is true that salvation cannot be earned by
works—no one flys to heaven on cheap faith; true faith is
inseparable from works. And those who are trying to stake
their claim on the other side without getting their hands
dirty here have perverted the gospel. For understanding and
meeting the very human needs of our fellow men are at the
heart of the gospel.
Yet we insist on watering down the gospel until it becomes
a matter of sour collecting. Then, like a timid gunfighter, we
occassionally slip on our six-shooters and prowl beaches,
secular campuses, and public conveyances, notching our belts
for each new convert. The result is usually a few more Christ-ians
like ourselves.
I do not mean to unfairly disparage personal or mass
evangelism. But our attitudes here betray an "other-worldly"
concern that does not seem totally legitimate. What com-pulsion
we have for evangelism usually is rooted in the desire
"to save souls from going to Hell." We fail to see people as
people, we fail to see social injustice, we fail to see the world
in which we live. Because we are not turned outward with
true love and sensitivity to others and their needs, we con-veniently
avoid the concrete involvement in this world that
God expects of his children.
Our "other-worldly" orientation may also have led us
into a tragic deception concerning the end times. Interpret-ing
the "wickedness" of our present time as a fulfillment of
prophecy, many evangelicals believe that we are now living
in the last days.
But perhaps we should seriously ask ourselves whether this
could be an illusion, fed by the failure of the church to effec-tively
grapple with contemporary problems. Certainly we dare
not let an appeal to the "wickedness of the last times" justify
the irrelevance of a tradition-bound church and its inability
to adjust to the needs of a highly technological and urban.
ized society.
four
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There are books,
and then there are books .. .
for that list of books
you've been WANTING to read —
Northwestern Bookstore
in Har Mar Mall
211 N. Snelling
St. Paul, Minn.
Tel. 631-2622
ALSO BIBLES, GIFTS, CARDS, AND RECORDS
jq
"It's been a good year" for Tran Thuy Van
Van Tran
by Marie Watson
If Tran Thuy Van, a Bethel Seminary student, can say it's
been a good year, anyone can.
Van, a 1968 graduate of Bethel College, will see part of her
dream come true as she begins training in the field of medical
technology this summer. But amidst the delight this experi-ence
brings, Van relates some of the hardships that have
come her way this year, as she has been a student at Bethel
Seminary.
The Times Democrat of Davenport, Iowa, once described
Van — "She is five feet two inches, with an 18-inch waist.
She has the courage of a Goliath."
Van, from South VietNam, came to the United States for two
main reasons. "You got to have a dream!" sings Van, and her
dream is to become a doctor.
After receiving the highest score on the Vietnamese na-tional
baccalaureate exam, she learned of her scholarship
to come to Bethel. Through the aid of missionaries and
friends she was able to come to the United States.
She now has her pre-med degree from Bethel and antici-pates
going on in medicine. Her desire to become a doctor
stems from her experiences during the VietNam war where
she has experienced tragedy on many sides. Her home was
blown up after the family had evacuated only minutes earlier.
Van went home to VietNam last summer to find there is
heavy fighting within a block of where her family lives in
Long An, about 25 miles from Saigon. Her family has escaped
injury in the war, but Van feels that she must go and help
the people of her country who are being wounded and crip-pled
every day. To that war-torn country Van can bring not
only her medical knowledge to help them but also the
knowledge of "the Great Physician" and share with them
the blessings she has received.
Her second reason for wanting to come to the United States
was to have plastic surgery on her face. For some reason that
cannot be medically explained, one side of her face did not
develop normally. Due to the conditions in her country, the
proper medical help that would probably have restored her
face was not available. American doctors are completing the
last in a series of operations that are designed to build up
her face. This is being done by taking sections of her rib
and grafting them to her face. Van said "I know how Adam
felt when the Lord took one of his ribs."
Van is at the present time in Miller Hospital in St. Paul,
undergoing what is hopefully the last in the series of opera-tions.
This is the second time she has been in the hospital
this year.
Last month while Van was in the hospital, her apartment
was broken into and robbed, leaving her roommates and her-self
almost possessionless. A fire was blazing in the kitchen
when Van got home from the hospital. Then, Van got word
that week that one of her close friends in VietNam was
threatening suicide because her dressmaking business had
burned to the ground.
Despite the weakness from the operations, Van is doing
a lot of speaking for groups and all the money she receives
from these speaking engagments is being sent to her friend
in VietNam to start again her business. Van also sent her
sewing machine to this friend.
Van hears occasionally from her family and recently heard
that her younger brother had made a decision for the Lord
which is an answer to prayer for Van.
With all her problems Van still has a song and she says
"The Lord is so good to me. God is making this dream come
true and giving me so many good things."
Van says "I dream of a day when I can go home and cure
people. I want to love people, not fight."
- as her
dream
comes
nearer
to
reality
five
Christian college students in the 70's
Bill Carlson
by G. William Carlson
Instructor of political science
It seems to me that the Christian col-lege
student in the 70's is faced with
two major dilemmas which will need
creative insight and serious study. The
first is the viability of the democratic
system and the second is the creative
application of the Christ-experience to
a world which finds ethical absolutes
untenable.
Democracy, as a political system cov-ering
a large geographical area and
large mass population, is a rather new
political phenomenon. It is an experiment
which depends upon the good will of
men, rational behavior, relative economic
equality and general conditions of peace.
Today's democratic system is being
pressured by forces which may seriously
challenge the viability of the system it-self.
Such forces include the power and
spread of government bureaucracy, the
growing strength of the military-industri-al-
political complex with its own Ameri-can
political ideaology, the continued full
scale mobilization of armed forces and
the growing conflicts resulting from ec-onomic
inequality (subjection of econom-ic
minorities black and white) and ques-tionable
military involvement.
The first challenge of the students of
the 70's is to make the democratic system
a viable procedure which will effectively
ard humanely react to the pressures of
t: e modern age.
The second challenge for the Christian
student in the 70's is to revive a Chris-tianity
which will meet the needs of
modern existential man. Our society is
plagued by a void created by its inhu-
Virgil Olson
mane values — a void, which cannot be
rectified by man-made absolutes.
Life has been described as a man
fishing in a bathtub. A psychiatrist try-ing
to be of assistance, asked that man
if the fish were biting. The man said,
"No, you fool, this is a bathtub." Human
life in the 70's retains the dilemma of
the man taking the luxury of fishing
in the bathtub knowing he will never
catch anything.
Modern man, then, is plagued by the
problem defined in the Myth of Sisyphus
where he is consigned to roll a rock up
a hill knowing that as soon as it reaches
the top it will fall down again. Christian-ity
is the religion which allows man to
live creatively and meaningfully while
accepting the condition of modern exist-ence.
by Virgil A. Olson
Dean of the College
As I try to view the Christian student
who will come to Bethel College in the
70's, I see him as a person who will be
more urbanized, globalized, victimized
in insecurity than in any previous col-lege
generation.
He may be prone to think of the Chris-tian
life more in terms of personal rela-tionships
than institutional loyalties; of
Christian service in terms of worldly in-volvement
than in support of local church
programs; of Christian theology in terms
of the implication in the secular world
than in the ecclesiastical oikemene.
Urbanization will dislodge much of the
cultural parochialism which has been
sacredly associated with the rural, small
town America. Instant communication
Dave Shupe
within the "global village" will make the
student both calloused and/or harassed
over the intensifying human dilemma.
He will know a lot about suffering-talk
while he is satiated in affluence.
The cybernetic culture will code him
for blood type, bank account, driver's
license, grade point average, even to the
psychological analysis of his loves, hates,
fears, habits. Increasingly programmed,
the student will have to struggle for
meaning, self-hood, and a Christian
world view.
Bethel College could back into the
70's by wrapping itself in the cloak of
disbelief — "say it isn't so," or "this is
not our world," — or it can plan, pray
and pursue the objectives which are
related to the Lord's Prayer: "Thy King-dom
come, Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven."
by Dave Shupe
1969-70 Student Association President
In a recent speech, Senator Mark Hat-field
commented on the near possibility
of imagining in 1960, that now happy,
by-gone age of "we shall overcome," the
alienation and campus disorder in 1969.
To those writing of college students in
the '70's, his statement should be a
warning.
Our salvation, however, is the fact that
Christian colleges do not change as
quickly as secular universities. But as
everything around us changes daily (a
professor of mine recently noted that
in order to keep up on the news, he
must now read both a morning and an
evening paper), schools like Bethel must
also change, not in a sense of conformity
six
What
will they
be like
but to retain its prophetic function.
It is significant that the '70's, at
Bethel, will begin with the interim ex-perience.
It is my hope that not only will
the interim prove exciting to faculty
and students, but that it might be the
beginning of more extensive academic
reform.
For the sake of small college survival,
as well as academic excellence, colleges
like Bethel will need to cooperate with
neighboring colleges. Such occurrences
as the forming this year of the College
Libraries in Consortium (CLIC) point
favorably in this direction.
College students themselves will change
only slightly. Their issues will continue
to turn from the less parochial (e.g.
dress code), to the more urgent and
universal. Whereas technological special-ization
has been (and is) an obstacle
to a truly liberal arts education, another
will be the contemporary and urgent
social concerns, unless they can be
incorporated effectively into the liberal
arts education, as I think they can.
Marshall McLuhan says, "Our new
environment compels commitment and
participation. We have become irrevoca-bly
involved with, and responsible for,
each other." Christian college students
of the '70's will illustrate this, whether
the college program does or not.
by Marge Lachler
Missionary to Brazil
A recent communique from the Latin
American Inter-Varsity reflects that the
greatest practical issue facing the Chris-tian
student in L.A. today is to decide
what course of action he is to take in
the presence of the prevailing social
problems and of the ideologies which
purport to be able to cure them. The
university has become the place in Latin
Aferica where the sickness of the whole
continent is made evident and analyzed.
The church throughout Latin America
is looked upon by the college student as
a symbol of the past. The waning influ-ence
of catholicism is described as a
"de-christianization" of society. A Yale
professor has said that many Latin stu-dents
turn to communism not on the
Marge Lachler
strength of its call but because of the
absence of other voices.
The sincere evangelical university
student in Brazil aims to present Christ
to his peers and invite the response to
faith and discipleship. Feeling inadequate
for this mammoth responsibility, he is
also organizing a seminary-accredited
program to parallel his university stud-ies.
This layman's course will be taught
on Saturdays, holidays, and vacations,
and will complement the numerous
camps held in Latin America to prepare
and encourage leaders for the evangeli-zation
of each nation.
Perceiving the pulsebeat in letters
from students and I-V staff in Brazil
leads me to describe the prognosis for
1970 as exciting. Any student committed
to Christ has the answer to life; his
peers are open to hear. He can not keep
silent on such a momentous issue in un-certain
times.
The Latin American student who has
come out of cultural Christianity to a
vibrant, personal faith and virile, life
discipleship has no alternative — he will
live Christ — and perhaps die for Him.
by Greg Taylor
1968-69 Student Association President
Partly sunny with a chance of scattered
showers.
Christian college students of the
1970's?
Well, Linda and I were sitting on the
steps enjoying the indirect discourse
pertaining to the topic and waiting for
the one-o-clock to expire and this is the
way it seems: What Christians are and
do other than the good stuff we should
have in common above the rest tends to
be defined by the context. You know—
at the pagan (big) university we sit
around and do something and at Bethel
we sit around and do something else.
So we sat around and talked about the
Greg Taylor
Bethel student of the 1970's in particular.
Now we can say that the student ac-tivism
around here will increase almost
more than the tuition for the first
part of the decade, or that the social
like party stuff will continue to be
rather casual until we occupy the new
campus buildings, or that government aid
to students will make it easier for more
of us, or that the college will have a new
president in 1975 — but we won't be-cause
it's not really to the question and
because we have already.
Let's assume the urbanization of our
world continues or increases, then the
people who take our PO boxes will be
a little different. You see, urbanism
means another sort of life; already it's
gone a long way towards knocking out
the old good feeling, Swedish, mystical
aura, fellowship thing that holds Bethel
together over the ages. This stuff is for
the over-30 crowd of the Conference or
those of the rural areas who haven't
felt much of the urban influence yet.
But as urbanism spreads, the attitudes
will be different here.
"Alexis had a hard week and is really
a good guy and comes from Hinckley and
we know him and so let's try to help
him out instead of busting him for
eating fig bars on campus. (Interval.)
Ivan has short hair and prays with his
eyes open and we don't know him and
so he must have a bad attitude and
therefore we better enforce the tradi-tion
about fig bars in his case" . . . like
these things won't be heard much be-cause
all the people will be more Ivan
than Alexis.
People won't be swarming in because
the mystical aura hovers here; that cul-ture
won't have any soul for them. Peo-ple
will be here because of something
that's here and not there and that they
are interested in — even Christ though
they may not be Christians.
Warming trend due late next week.
seven
BETHEL FORUM
Morrill Hall again
To the Editor:
This is my personal reaction to a
previous letter of May 1 to the editor
which questioned the validity of an
article supporting the black students in
the U. of Minn. Morill Hall issue.
I always get a charge out of the con-servatives
who equate tradition with log-ic,
constituted authority with moral
rightness, and God with judge and jury.
I also consider this to be an unfortunate
situation. Dr. Greene appeared to be just
as "establishment," and unsympathetic
as the little old lady who told me she
couldn't stand seeing black students in
universities wasting her tax money (I
deduced from the conversation she would
rather maim and kill Commies with the
money).
It is sad that democracy has developed
into an intricate system of statutes used
to protect property as opposed to a
man's freedom to make individual moral
judgments and act upon them.
I think it's time for Christians to quit
witnessing for Bethel College, Uncle Sam
and immoral law structures (none of
which do I equate with Christ) and start
living like individuals making personal
moral judgements.
Barb Jahr
Music at Bethel
To the editor:
In reviewing the music program this
year, we note some interesting obser-vations.
Bethel's performance groups are excel-lent
and this can be attested by the tours
to the East coast and the Midwest. The
College Choir was selected as one of
three Twin City area colleges to sing in
Carnegie Hall in New York. Excellence
was demonstrated in the Twin Cities by
the series of five home concerts each
choir presents. Another area of success
was the Festival of Christmas which was
packed three times in spite of an admis-sion
fee. Our performance groups com-pare
favorably with other performance
groups in the Twin City area as seen: in
the exchange recital with Gustavus Adol-phuS.
..
eight
Is there a possibility that we are so
close to this situation that we don't ap-preciate
our groups? Is Bethel really a
liberal arts college or do we find our-selves
lost when we leave our areas of
concentration? What is the place of
Fine Arts in the School?
One area of concern this year has
been the general lack of support at con-certs
of performance groups. It is not
just a lack of support on the part of the
students but on the part of the faculty
and administration as well. When con-certs
are being directed by any of the
music faculty, if for nothing else, one
would think that the regular faculty
would be in attendance out of respect for
their colleagues—the music faculty is
generally well represented at non-music
functions.
Most of the concerts given by Bethel's
performance groups are admission free
and designed for the entire family. Pro-fessors
and administration could bring
their families for an evening of fine
musical entertainment without charge.
Would it shock the faculty to know that
their presence at an occassional concert
would be appreciated by the perform-ers?
Since student attendance is required
in the classroom, would it be unfair to
expect some attendance on the part of
some faculty and staff at the concerts?
Student attendance is far from enthus-iastic.
Most students give as an excuse a
lack of study time. Yet there seems to be
ample time for goofing off in the coffee
shop and the student lounges. Beside be-ing
good college concerts, they are easy
on the budget since most of them are
free or have a free will offering. Is it too
far for off-campus students to amble
back to the campus for an evening con-cert?
This is not a Plea for all students to at-tend
all the concerts—but all of the stu-dents
should attend some of the concerts
and _certainly all the faculty should come
occasionally.
How about an artist series for our
campus? Where is it? Our diet in chapel
this year has seen an abundance of rock
groups in comparison to one artist who
appeared. This presents a. pretty lean
diet_ and is starving our desire to gain a
liberal arts education. Pastor. Lawson has
done a fine job in preparing our •chapel
programs for us—but how can he find
variety if none of the students ask for
this type of an artist program?
Does music have a place in the liberal
arts program? Historically it had a high
place, and presently it holds a high place
in the little Christian Colleges. Are we
doing all that we can to see that we
receive a liberal arts education?
Marilee Benson
Do statistics lie?
To The Editor:
Many times it has been said that sta-tistics
can lie and, wouldn't you know it,
they can lie even when coming from
Bethel's own methods of social research
class. I refer to a discrepancy for which
I find no answer in last week's article
"Survey Studies Student Iteligiousity'."
Strangely enough the effort expended
in paragraph three of the article to
prove the validity of the statistics is what
prompted me to do a little checking of
my own. The discrepency as I see it is
this. The survey sampled 158 students
of which it was stated 100 were affected
by "Chapel Highlights" and 63% of
these 100 attended chapel at least three
times a week. Thus leaving 58 students
not affected by "Chapel Highlights" of
which the methods class says 60% at-tend
chapel three or more times per
week. Now 63% of 100 plus 60% of
58 equals 63 plus 35 or 98 students who
attend chapel three or more times a
week. Then I read that 88% of Bethel's
on-campus students attend chapel as stat-ed
but only 75% of the off-campus group
attends three or more services a week.
This last set of data suggests that at a
minimum 75% of 158 students attend
chapel at least three times per week.
75% of 158 is 118 students which is the
minimum number who attend chapel with
the stated regularity but previously we
were told just 98 students do so.
Honestly now, lying statistics at Beth-el!
Per chance a lesser evil — a printing
error. Forbid it, but maybe I goofed (if
so please assist my understanding, so-cial
research class).
Dan Versaw
(Editor's note: Since this is the last is-sue
of the semester., _the Clarion checked
with sources of the story referred to.
It was found that the statistics were
correct but somewhere along the line
the 88% figure was allotted to. "chapel"
attendance when:: it should have been
"church" attendance.)
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Christian values?
To the editor:
All members of the Bethel com-munity
are expected to accept for them-selves
Bethel's traditional non-conform-ist
pattern of total abstinence in (sic)
the use of tobacco, alcoholic beverages,
drugs(?), and other forms of conduct not
in harmony with the spirit of the college.
Students who do not find themselves
with this general Christian emphasis (sic)
will prefer other more strictly secular in-stitutions."
Bethel College Catalogue,
1969-1970, pp. 5-6.
These two sentences are familiar to
all of us. Yet one could easily be opposed
to them for various reasons. Some of the
opposition one might raise to them is
technical; some is the lack of explana-tion
of the parts thereof; some attacks
the basic premises involved.
Technical. How does one abstain "in?"
Most of us abstain "from." What does
"more strictly secular" mean? Most
schools which are more strict are not
more secular; most schools which are
more secular are not more strict. Who
says that students who "do not find
themselves with this general Christian
emphasis (sic)" will, in fact, "prefer
other . . . institutions"? It does not fol-low
from the previous statement.
Explanation desired. What about
drugs? As one who has on more occas-sions
than I'd like to count been up all
night studying and drinking coffee, I
have never felt guilty of anything worse
than the procastination that made it
necessary. And what are the "other forms
of conduct not in harmony with the spirit
of the college?" A more cynical person
would conclude that it is a catch-all
phrase such as "anti-proletarian", "anti-soviet",
or "counter-revolutionary" which
is used in the USSR, designed to trap
some undesired student.
Attack on premises. Since when did
abstinence from tobacco, alcohol, or
drugs become a "general Christian em-phasis"?
It may well be an emphasis of
health or economy, but to confuse ab-stinence
in/from these practices as
Christian is a disservice not only to the
brewery, distillery, and tobacco compa-nies
but, for instance, to our Southern
Baptist friends whose income is derived
from tobacco, and, of course, to Chris-tianity.
In the course of my tenure at Bethel,
I have seen several of my colleagues ask-ed
to leave our fellowship because alco-hol
has contacted their lips. But the same
zeal is not demonstrated toward people
convicted of academic offenses. It is be-yond
me how in the name of Christianity
a person who cheats on a paper, exam-ination,
etc. is permitted to stay in school,
while the student convicted of occas-sional
drinking (off campus, no less) is
asked to hastily remove himself.
Perhaps Christian values are the an-swer.
But if they are not, is not Bethel
running the risk of committing blas-phemy,
by setting itself up as a media-tor
(in lieu of the man Christ Jesus—Cf.
I Timothy II: 5) between God and
students.
Although I have lived with the state-ments
in the catalogue and I am not in
this letter advocating a change in the
policies therof, I do feel that the myth of
the "general Christian emphasis" should
be ended, and the sanctions imposed for
offenses thereof be made more equitible
in light of sanctions taken against vio-lators
of other types of offenses.
As I leave, I will remember to change
my Bible so that it tells of Jesus chang-ing
the water into Welch-ade.
Leonard Ray Sammons
nine
President Lundquist broke in and explained the Frykenberg
situation to Eric and asked what he should do. Eric suggested
that he could turn his machine gun toward the Seminary
building and blast a hole in the wall where the prayer room
was. He mentioned that the chimney was between the two
buildings and that he would have to blast that apart first.
President Lundquist answered, "While the magnitude of
the problem would seem to warrant such drastic action, the
possibility of harmful effects on buildings, chimneys, and stu-dents
renders those measures inadvisable." Eric looked be-wildered
until a secretary turned to him and said, "The Presi-dent
says, 'no.' "
Instead they decided that since Frykenberg is not vital to
the operation of the College, they would just wait and see
what happened. At last word, BARF is still maintaining a
vigil.
IMPOSSIBLE—that the Eric Frykenbberg Prayer
Room has been taken over by incensed Militent Bethel-ites?
machine gun nest on top of the fieldhouse, was beaming.
"I yust got vun, Carl," he said. "I yust got anudder vun.
He vas just about to step onto da grass und I plastered him.
I had to vipe out a whole tulip bed, und da lamppost too, but by Chuck Myrbo I got 'im. He'll never valk on da grass again — or on anyting
The most recently developed weapon in the arsenal of the else, either."
campus militant is the occupation of a building. It is also his
most effective weapon — a deadly wrench in the college
machinery. So it is no surprise to anyone that this tactic has
become almost standard procedure for rebel groups all around
Cie country.
But no one, absolutely no one, expected it to get quite so
quickly to Bethel College, that bulwark of ultra-establishmen-tarianism.
So it is easy to see why the nation was shaken
yesterday by the news that militants at Bethel had taken over
a college building and had refused to give it up until action
had been taken on their demands.
Late yesterday afternoon the students entered the Eric
Frykenberg Prayer Room on the second floor of Seminary
Hall and declared their resolve to stay. They had apparently
become incensed when a touch football game in the middle
of the campus had been broken up by a Swedish caretaker
screaming about possible damage to a bed of tulips.
The students, who had always assumed that the proper
business of a college is the training of students, and not the
raising of flowers, became even more irritated when they found
out that the caretaker (a man named Eric) had some sort of
police powers, and could enforce his commands. So they
glared at Eric, glared at the flowerbed, and walked off the
grass to form BARF (Bethelites Advocating the Re-evaluation
of the Flowers).
At a stategy meeting later in the afternoon, the committee
decided that they would never accomplish anything if they
did not take forceful measures, and decided to take over the
Frykenberg Prayer Room. When several of the students had
successfully occupied Frykenberg, a representative of the
group entered the President's office with a list of demands:
(1) We demand permission to use the mall for football or
frisbee or any other type of normal recreational activity,
regardless of its effect on the grass or the flowers.
(2) We demand that Eric be relieved of all police powers,
(3) We demand that 25% of the revenue from the parking
of cars in the middle of the campus during the state
fair be turned over to a fund to buy frisbees and foot-balls
for mid-campus sports.
President Lundquist immediately called Eric in for sug-gestions
about what to do. Eric, who had just come from his
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The Conwell Convocation Committee is proud to have
in Minneapolis, summer '69, this group of great Evangeli-cal
preachers. The Committee congratulates Wheaton
(the Bethel of Illinois) on a majority of five to one!
,;,<ftz JUNE 29
``. JULY 6
7 JULY 9
k, JULY 13
,,(Z ) JULY 20
JULY 27
AUGUST 3
SEPTEMBER 7
JOHN HUFFMAN
LESTER HARNISH
PETER MARSHALL
BRUCE COMPTON
WALLACE FISHER
RAYMOND LINDQUIST
RICHARD HALVERSON
LEIGHTON FORD
FFrankly, we don't have much room but the welcome
mat is always out for you. Please contact us for reserva-tions
— no charge, of course.
KNOX CHURCH
Where Lyndale Avenue South
crosses 48th
Minneapolis, Minnesota
TOP STUDENTS for the 1968-69 school year are (L-R) Richard Olander, Karen
Steinke, Janice Feldheim, Jeffrey Loomis and Lanny Boyd.
eleven
School year is
not over yet
Leading the events of the last weekend
on campus will be a Commencement Mu-sicale
at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, May 30.
The program will provide an opportuntiy
to hear outstanding student and faculty
musicians for the last time this year.
Saturday night at 6:30 the Annual
Alumni Banquet will be held in the
Fieldhouse. At this traditional event
members of the senior class are welcom-ed
into the Alumni Association. All
faculty members are honorary members
of the association and are invited.
Events of Sunday, June 1, will begin
at 9:00 a.m. with an outdoor Investi-ture
Service at Arden Hills for seminary
seniors.
At 11:00 a.m. Baccalaureate services
will be held in the fieldhouse. Speaker
Karl Lachler is a Bethel graduate and
missionary to Brazil. His wife is a mem-ber
of the college graduating class.
Commencement exercises at 3:00 p.m.
will require admission tickets. College
and seminary valedictorians, Lanny Boyd
and Lindon P. Karo, respectively, will
present brief addresses. Otherwise there
will be no formal guest speaker. Gradu-ating
with highest honors on this occa-sion
are Lanny Boyd, Janice Feidheim,
Jeffrey Loomis, Richard Olander, and
Karen Steinke.
A reception for graduates, faculty, and
staff on the campus lawn follows Com-mencement.
This year 182 will receive degrees from
the College and 33 from the Seminary.
MEN PART-TIME or FULLTIME WORK
Call 226-1039
BACK TO THE HOMELAND
Bev Pearson (L) and Sue Taft's student missionary travel will take them to
Sweden, the homeland of the Baptist General Conference founders.
in her county teaching Bible classes.
Sue is an elementary education major
and plays cello in the orchestra, is BWA
secretary and serves on the religious
committee. She hopes to go to the mis-sion
field eventually.
TUESDAYS AND
MIMI:MAYS
40 R DAY
ALL THE BUTTERMILK
PANCAKES YOU CAN EAT
rANcAn
BURNING the MIDNIGHT OIL?
The place to take a break
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FLAMEBURGER
1533 W. Larpenteur
OPEN 24 HOURS TAKE OUT ORDERS
Two Bethelites will go to Sweden
by Karen Nelson
Two Bethelite juniors are looking for-ward
to more than moving overseas for
the summer. As part of student mission-ary
activities for Beverly Pearson and
Sue Taft, the girls will help to relocate
a Bible institute.
Under the Greater European Missions,
Sue and Bev will help move the Scandi-navian
Bible Institute from Stockholm to
an estate in Saffle, Sweden, as well as
work on gospel team performances. They
are scheduled to fly to Paris June 1 and
to return on Aug. 24.
Bev hails from Montrose, S.D., where
her high school activities included band,
chorus, drama and piano accompaniast
for numerous performing groups. In her
church Bev served as church organist,
as an officer in state and local CYF and
was active in GMG.
A music education major at Bethel,
Bev is accompanist for women's choir
and various recitals and is choir director
at East Park Baptist Church. Her fu-ture
plans are to be a high school choir
director.
Sue Taft, a residence assistant in
Bodien Dorm, is from Michigan City,
Ind. She was in orchestra and active
in YFC during high school and served
as president of her church young people's
group.
Some valuable experience was hers
when Sue spent a summer as a Child
Evangelism summer missionary traveling
NEW LOCATION
But the same excellent value
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300 Physicians & Surgeons
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twelve
TOetbet = 196E3=69
by Tom Ford
SEPTEMBER
5 Dorms open for arriving freshmen.
8-10 Freshman Retreat at Big Trout Lake Camp.
13 "Moods '68" the year's first campus social event.
An experimental course, "Negro in American
Life," is inagurated.
20 CLARION attacks inequity in new dorm rent.
30 Marion James, sophomore, dies after five days
in a coma.
OCTOBER
1 CLARION receives All-American rating from
Associated College Press
Dr. Virgil Olson is officially installed as dean
of the college.
4 Campus shuttle bus makes initial run to Arden
Hills Campus.
Students for Urban Involvement group is
formed in response to "vacuum in Baptist urban
relations." Bethel Center closes.
7 WBCS begins broadcast season.
10 Architect Victor Christ-Janer speaks in Chapel.
Marcus Bell, Upward Bound associate director
at Macalester, lectures in Negro in American
Life class.
14 VOLUME I (underground newspaper) comes out
for the first time.
15 Candidate Richard Nixon in Minneapolis, draws
many of Bethel's Community.
17 Dr. Karl Karlson is voted Alumnus of the Year.
18 Administrative Council announces reduced rent
for new dorm, rebates made official.
Milt Williams, Well-known representative of the
Way Community Center, speaks before the
Negro in American Life class.
17-19 Homecoming activities begin with the corona-tion
of Queen Miriam Kling followed by Pep-fest
and Tug-of-war. Friday: Avant-Garde in
concert. Saturday: Frosh float wins judging,
Walter Judd greeted by lone picket, Leonard
Sammons.
21 The New Folk East are enthusiastically received
in chapel.
28 William Carlson, write-in candidate, wins run-off
election to become Freshman class president.
29 Senator Walter Mondale, addressing the Bethel
Community in Convocation, criticizes the neg-lect
of human needs.
•
•
ESTIVA
- Mgt i IMi1 lor Pr w
31 Milford Q. Sibley, professor of political science
at the University of Minnesotta, spoke on "Jus-tifiable
Dissent-The Courage of Christian con-science."
NOVEMBER
1 CLARION endorses Humphry-Muskie ticket.
2 Ylvisakers in concert on campus.
7 Leo Bohanon, official of the Urban League,
speaks in Convocation, Negro in American Life
class.
9 Nik Dag program features New Horizons.
11-13 Management Seminar co-sponsored by Bethel
meets at St. Paul Hilton to focus on hard-core
unemployed.
16 First occupants move into new dorm.
18-22 World Missions Week. Principal speakers in-clude
Rev. J. F. Sheperd, former missionary,
and Rev. Richard Varberg, missionary to the
Philippines.
23 NCATE grants "ultimate accreditation" to Bet-hel
Elementary Education Program.
Coeval provokes campus reaction with opening
issue.
28-2 U.N. Study trip is lead by Dwight Jessup.
DECEMBER
5 Dr. Leroy Augustein explores moral implica-tions
of recent medical advances in Convocation.
13-15 Bethel presents annual Festival of Christmas
with theme of "Joy Unspeakable."
JANUARY
23 Women's choir bucks snowstorm on tour.
31 First announcement is made of probable tuition
raise for the coming school year.
Nine students face disciplinary action; three
dismissed.
FEBRUARY
10 Leonard Ray Sammons gives Senior Recital.
12 Student Association defeats through referen-dum
a proposal for financial autonomy.
14 All Bethel girls receive valentines from the
"Nerve Center."
13-15 Debbie Atkins reigns as queen over Sno-Daze'69.
17-21 Founders Week. Speakers include: Bruce Lar-son,
Arthur Blessitt, Rosalind Rinker, Keith
Miller, Myron Augsburger, David Wilkerson.
A
