Clarion 2000-10-20 Vol. 76 No. 03

              '■—W''"&WK'<MW*Uk*^itX*V-*.',PJ9M—R '<   I
Runbcck—pg. 2   • Royal Cup events—pg. 8
Friday, October 20, 2000
Homecoming—pg. 10
■ -  IKii
! Si
%^f *L>
>
All the hype-pg. 14
The Newspaper of Bethel College
Homecoming football-pg.16     ' Soccer-pg. 18
Volume 76 • Number 3
RION
Bethel maintains
high ranking
By Bill Lent
Contributing writer
In their annual college
rankings, U.S. News and
World Report ranked Bethel
ninth among Midwest liberal
aits colleges.
Though the finish represents a drop of one place from
last year's rankings, Assistant
Director of Admissions Jay
Fedje remains positive towards the ultimate significance of the ranking's outcome.
"We are excited to maintain that level of competition
throughout the past few
years," Fedje said. "However,
we want prospective students
not to look at just the
rankings, but to look at Bethel
for its worth on his or her
own."
U.S. News and World Report has ranked schools for
the past 10 years, recognizing
Belhel for the last six.
Every year, the magazine
reviews all colleges and universities and classifies them
within categories, such as
academic reputation, student
retention, faculty resources,
student selectivity, financial
resources, alumni giving and
"graduation rate performance" to give prospective
students a guide to begin their
college search.
The magazine takes three
steps in ranking schools.
First, the colleges and universities are categorized according to mission and region.
After each school is analyzed
according to the aforementioned criteria, each factor is
assigned a weight that reflects
a numerical score. Finally, the
scores are assigned to each
school for their ranking.
For more information on
how the rankings arc configured, visit the U.S. News and
World Report Web site at
www.usnews.com/usnews/
edu/college/corank. htm.
World Challenge offers hope for children
By Kassidy D. Hagen
Staff writer
This year. World Challenge
focuses on the children of the
world and the hardships (hey
face.
World Challenge has shifted
direction the last few years under the leadership of Associate
Campus Pastor Darin Mather.
Initially, they were focused
only on general missions awareness, but the positive response
for hurricane victims in the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua
during the 1998-1999 school
year prompted a decision to have
more specific direction each
year.
For that reason, last year's
focus was on the needs of Ihe
Sudan, for which 24 thousand
dollars was raised.
This year (he concern is separated into four main areas that
will be addressed throughout the
year: vulnerability to violence,
vulnerability to .illness, vulnerability to exploitation and vulnerability to neglect. The first half
of this semester will deal with the
vulnerability of children to violence.
A look at'statisiics reveals
the impact of violence. Over 90
percent of war casualties are civilians, most of which arc
women and children. More than
300,000 children under 18 years
of age arc fighting in armed conflicts. According to Save the
Children, 10 million children
have been traumatized by war in
the last ten years.
It is sometimes overwhelming "to see how many issues
there are," junior Emelia
Wolfgram said, "yet God is providing through the programs out
there."
Senior Bethany Hanson said
lhat children's issues are "a salient topic, a poignant topic. It
touches home closer to people
here because everyone has a
younger brother or sister, or
cousins."
It is something lhai students
can connect to because "there is
so much here that they can do,"
said Hanson.
Afler three years of involvement, Sara Hoffman said lhat it
has been "really cool to sec how
God is challenging Bethel." She
also said lhat World Challenge
continued on page 3
The
Royal Mascots provide school spirit and memorabilia at the Homecoming football game.
Worldview forum presents homosexuality
By Jason Alexander Kroeker
Staff writer
At the Worldview forum on homosexuality Sept. 25, two men shared their stories
with students in the second floor lounge of
Heritage Hall.
About 120 sludents attended the event,
which was an attempt to foster a bridge between Bethel students and individuals from
the gay community.
"Sludents that were there had a great response," said Christine Osgood, resident director of Heritage Hall. "I was deeply moved
by how gracious they were."
The evening was not a debate or discussion. Its purpose was to provide insight into
two men's lives and hear what people outside of Bethel have to say about ihis issue
and how they arc affected by it.
According to senior Malia Hoffman,
resident assistant, there were some misconceptions aboul the event. One was that
Belhel or the residence life staff of Heritage
Hall was endorsing homosexuality. The
evening did not deal with doctrinal issues,
instead it was structured for Bethel to reach
out in love toward others and gain a better
understanding of a different group.
Marc Blakcsly and Naic Oyloe were the
two men who presented their life siories to
sludents. Blakesly is involved with the United
Church of Christ Coalition for Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgcnder Concerns. He visits churches to raise awareness of the difficulties homosexuals face and to foster understanding and love between people.
Hoffman learned of his ministry through the
Coalition's Web site.
Oyloe is a senior at Northwestern College and works wilh Outpost, a ministry in
Minneapolis lhat helps people who desire to
leave the homosexual lifestyle. He has spoken to a youth ministry class at Bethel previously.
"It allowed me to see another perspective," junior Matt Palmer said. "Everyone
was very respectful to the guys who shared "
Blakesly and Oyloe's presentations were
followed by a question and answer session.
Students wrote questions on sheets of paper,
which were then filtered through Osgood and
Hoffman to avoid disparaging or malicious
comments toward the iwo men.
"We should love everyone, just as Christ
loved everyone," Osgood said.
Hoffman was pleased with the empaihy
expressed toward the two men and that there
were no comments made during the session.
She said that since ihe forum Blakesly had a
much higher appreciation of Bethel.
"All ihe derogatory remarks I heard were
from students who didn't attend the event,"
Hoffman said.
Osgood and the Heritage residence life
continued on page 3