The tide is changing at UC Berkeley. There is a Jesus movement arising...
The recent article below comes from the official student newspaper at the UC Berkeley campus, the Daily Californian. The article is about a week of debates between all the different groups on campus: muslims, socialists, jews, communists, christians, etc. The article that circulates throughout the entire student population says that the best speech on Sproul Plaza that week was by a Christian who simply shared her faith. She ended by asking all those who don't believe in Jesus to please raise their hands. Most of the plaza rose their hands including the writer. She looked into their eyes and with all sincerity said, "I LOVE YOU."
The writer ends the article by saying:
I’ve been on the receiving end of a few punches in my life, but nothing ever hit me that hard. I don’t know exactly what kind of politics or religion or philosophy that is—but whatever it is, where can I sign up?
People are hungry for the love of Jesus on our campuses. Wanna help them sign up?
(For full article, click here)
SCOTT LUCAS
The recent article below comes from the official student newspaper at the UC Berkeley campus, the Daily Californian. The article is about a week of debates between all the different groups on campus: muslims, socialists, jews, communists, christians, etc. The article that circulates throughout the entire student population says that the best speech on Sproul Plaza that week was by a Christian who simply shared her faith. She ended by asking all those who don't believe in Jesus to please raise their hands. Most of the plaza rose their hands including the writer. She looked into their eyes and with all sincerity said, "I LOVE YOU."
The writer ends the article by saying:
I’ve been on the receiving end of a few punches in my life, but nothing ever hit me that hard. I don’t know exactly what kind of politics or religion or philosophy that is—but whatever it is, where can I sign up?
People are hungry for the love of Jesus on our campuses. Wanna help them sign up?
(For full article, click here)
SCOTT LUCAS
Thursday evening: Sometime around the fourth or fifth speech a thought occurred to me. I was watching hard-line socialists and moderate democrats, observant Muslims and fundamentalist atheists, Christians and Jews, top campus officials and little freshmen all move a little bit closer to each other. Last week I wrote that we like to keep ourselves in comfortable boxes instead of engaging each other across our differences. Well, over the course of the past week, we began work on that engagement. It’s what politics is at it’s finest. Weeks like this give me hope for the rest of the year.
A common refrain this week was that the right-wingers were motivated by hatred. I think that’s not quite it. More than anything, I felt fear emanating from their ranks. I don’t fault them for feeling it; I fault them for letting it rule them.
I can conclude only by ceding the floor to my friend Tinley Ireland, who gave, for my money at least, the best speech of the evening. Just as the sun set, shining right into her face, she stood up on the steps of Sproul Hall on that same consecrated spot where earlier in the day the fear-based community had shouted itself hoarse about the people “over there” who are just waiting, waiting to get us. She stood there and told us about her faith. She talked about how the hardest part of following Christ was to love not just her friends, but her enemies too. To stop having enemies at all, to feel that universal pulse of humanity, that spark of the divine that flows through all of our veins.
At the end she asked who in the crowd didn’t believe that Jesus was the son of God. Most hands went up. Mine did. She smiled, and as the light faded she simply and truly said, “I love you.” I’ve been on the receiving end of a few punches in my life, but nothing ever hit me that hard. I don’t know exactly what kind of politics or religion or philosophy that is—but whatever it is, where can I sign up?
