Clarion 2007-05-17 Vol. 82 No. 24

              Culture
Raspberry Monday
exhibit opens
-page 4
Sports
Kirby Carr finishes
record career
-page 10
Sports
First disc golf tournament successful
-page 10
THE   BETHEL  UNIVERSITY
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Volume 82 • Number 24
Lo resigns due to disagreements with
pending change in employee alcohol policy
Campus pastor Jim (Umf+) Lo felt staying under a change would leave him morally conflicted
By Cory Streeter
Jim (Umf+) Lo, resigning
as campus pastor following this
year, said he is leaving due io
personal convictions againsi an
immineni change to the employee alcohol policy.
After learning ihis spring
mid-semesier of a poiential future change, Lo said he began
fasting and praying for God
to take away his unease over a
change.
"I have asked the Lord that
if he warns me to stay here to
please remove this conviction...
because I wanted to stay here,"
Lo said. "I have loved the Campus Ministries staff and the ministry of preaching and teaching.
But [God] hasn't [removed the
conviction]."
"I feel as if this conviction
really is a God-given personal
conviction that I have," he said.
Lo's strong opposition to
alcohol stems from his experiences in international missions,
where he witnessed the horrors of alcohol abuse. "Having
worked overseas as a missionary
and having seen lhe ill effects of
whal alcohol did lo the church
'It
Happens
at Bethel'
Project addresses
reconciliation from
student perspective
By Briana Dalberg
There are iwo camps at
Beihel: the majority of white
studenis who believe that reconciliation on campus is encouraged solely by faculty, and
the students of color who feel
as if they are silent fighters for
reconciliation and social justice
that is ignored by the majority
of students.
Through the "Il Happens
at Bethel" group project, social
work sludents Courtney Knoll,
Allyson Rempel and Emily Hall
hope to bridge the gap between
these iwo perspectives they've
defined. Knoll, junior, described their ultimate goal was
to "get the voices of the students
of color, their testimonies, their
thoughts, out io lhe student
body lo truthfully say what they
experience at Bethel."
These stories are meant to
plant thoughts of change aboul
the social injustices occurring
within the student body. (Bold-
ed texts are excerpts horn the
project)
"As Tar as reconciliation
goes...Beihel is 25 years behind the rest of society." Without an answer...it happens al
Bethel.
"We [studenis] can say lhal
the faculty pushes il [reconciliation] and overdoes il and use
lhat as an excuse to not be excited aboul il," Knoll said, "but
the fact remains lhat racism is
rampant on our campus."
Knoll is concerned thai the
problem even extends beyond
It Happens continued on page
8
Photo by Danica Myers
"I've worked with people all through my ministry that have drunk.
To me, that's not the issue. For me, being a part of an institution
where I thought coming in that alcohol was not a part of it, that's
the issue, because it is changing."
-Jim Lo
and lo believers...for me, I had "I've seen  Lhe devastation     of his children—you knew on    African men who drank their
lo lake a hard stance [againsi al-     of a man drunk just coining in     a Friday nighl ii was going to     "home brew" until they went
cohol]," he said. and beating up every single one    happen," he said. He even knew    blind.
Lo said he came to Bethel
believing the Covenant would
coniinue to uphold his personal
conviction againsi the use of alcohol. He said there was no talk
of a change as he went through
the hiring process. "1 see a Covenant as nol just being a piece
of paper that I sign," he said, "I
feel as if in some ways that was
a contract. ..a contract that I was
making with God as well as with
Bethel University."
"I've worked with people all
through my ministry that have
drunk," Lo said. "To me, lhai's
not the issue. For me, being a
part of an institution where I
thought coming in that alcohol
was not a part of it, that's the issue, because ii is changing."
Lo expressed his joy for
the year he had as a part of the
Campus Ministries leam, but
knew continuing would nol
solve his problem. "If I stayed
here, I knew that it would continue to probably eat away at me
with the policy being relaxed,"
he said.
At off-campus speaking
Jim Lo continued on page 2
Brushaber reflects on his Bethel presidency
Photo courtesy of BGC History Center. St. Paul, MN.
Above: Brushaber walking alongside the Queen and King of Sweden at his presidential inauguration in
1982.
Below: Brushaber reading bedtime stories to eager students during the 1980s as part of a BSA event or
fundraiser.
After 26 years leading the institution,
President George Brushaber shows no
hint of stopping, even into retirement
By Marie Hansen
When George Brushaber succeeded Carl Lundquist as president in 1982, he asked Lundquist what it was like to be president
of the same college for his 28-year tenure. "He said, '1 don't have a
clue. It's been 28 different schools... It was never repetitious, dull or
boring.' At the time, 1 didn't appreciate the truth of that," Brushaber
said.
"These have been wonderful years," he said. "I've never been
bored, never found it routine. There's always something exciting
that gets my adrenaline going."
Brushaber, president for 26 years of his total 36 years of service, loves his occupation. "What do I do for fun? Hey, I go to work
at Bethel—that's fun. People may think I'm nuts, but that's just how
it is," he said.
"Where else can 1 get a job where I get to hear the best music
and go to the best athletic activities? And all the other stuff that goes
on at a campus like this? That's not work."
Brushaber sought io provide the best possible education, spiritual development and community for students. "Excellence is required because we're an offering to the Lord," he said. "If every
student bears the image of God, which I absolutely believe, and
every student is precious in the eyes of God, how can we not do
excellence?"
During lhe lasl 34 years, Brushaber watched and guided the
school as enrollment increased from 2,600 undergraduates to 6,000
total students.
"You didn't have to be too smart to grow the school," Brushaber
said. "What you had to do was be committed to excellence and
integrity. Colleges all around us were growing in the 1960s. The
real achievement was to do il and maintain our Chrislian focus and
commitment."
Brushaber raised a new building approximately every 18
months during his time as president. Raising funds for Bethel constituted the majority of his work.
"But I don'l have an edifice complex; they're just a means to an
end," he said. "I don't want a monument of brick. I want a better
chance for helping men and women to develop a life of Christian
faithfulness,"
Brushaber worked hard to hire quality facully. "All but two or
three or lhe people in the faculty are people I've hired or who have
been here since I've been here," he said. "1 lake greal pride in the
excellence of our faculty."
Brushaber also built an atmosphere of cooperation during his
time at Belhel. "I lake greal pride in the facl that we do not have
deep points of conflici between Lhe administration and the faculty,"
he said. "I think students get a much better education when there
isn'i a lot of dissonance in the air."
Brushaber's family supported him throughout his lime at Bethel, including his wife, Darlene, and two children, who attended
Bethel as studenis. "Our lives have been woven into this place in so
Brushaber continued on page 8
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