 | Letters
Bad Christian Sportsmanship
The Calvin v. Hope hockey game was appalling to me. As I watched the game Friday night I stood in shock at the language and expressions being used by Calvin students. ـMy fellow students eagerly participated in vulgar chants that echoed throughout the hockey arena. ـ
Calvin is a “Christian College” but I did not feel that we were representing Christ on Friday. I felt ashamed to be a part of the student body. ـMany parents and children attended the hockey game and heard the words we spoke, the chants we echoed, and they saw what Calvin was representing that night. ـ
Calvin students are responsible not only for their representation of the college but also God’s people. ـWe are attending a Christian college and our actions did not reflect any hint of Christianity. ـ
Colossians 3:8 says,”But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.” ـ
When you know that someone is a Christian, and you hear them curse or tell a dirty joke, how do you view them? Do you think their coarse language hurts their witness? ـYou bet it does.
God holds His children to a higher standard than the world, and He expects our speech to reflect our commitment to Him, and to holiness.
Kelly Goist ‘05
Humor not appreciated
I want to comment on the cartoon shown on page 14 of the Perspectives section on January 17, 2003. The cartoon is titled “The Little Differences” and compares Calvin to Grand Valley in a very degrading way to both parties.
My question to Chimes is; what message are you trying to convey with this cartoon? That Calvin students study the Bible and can’t identify a shot glass, while Grand Valley students are much more educated in the shot glass department, but completely unknowing as to what a Bible might be used for? Come down off your pedestal, Mr. Holier-Than-Thou! I am disappointed to see a publication from a Christian college put something like this in print. It shames our own so-called humble faith and does nothing to build up our brothers and sisters at GVSU. Believe it or not, there are Christians at work on that campus who are living as testimonies to Jesus; and- shock of all shocks- there are more than a few students at Calvin who know what a shot glass is used for, and exactly how to use one.
I hope that as we are looking at how to include people of all races, genders, and walks of life on campus at Calvin, we are not forgetting that we live in a world that stretches beyond 3201 Burton and on into the greater world, a world that also includes people of other faiths or no faith. Just as my European ancestry makes me no more or less superior to other races, our Christianity makes us no better than the students at a secular university.
Katie Hamstra, ‘04
(Editor's note: as indicated directly underneath the books shown in the cartoon, our cartoonist depicted two textbooks, not two Bibles.)
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