Bethel University - Spire Yearbook (St Paul, MN)

Page 15 text:

As the years go by, things become more familiar. I have relaxed, opened up, and discovered America. I find out that Americans are just as helpful and friendly as Indians, and that friendship overcomes cultural differences. It has been three years since I came to Bethel. Through those years I have learned to think like Americans, and spell like they do. However, I am still an Indian at heart and will never be completely Americanized. That is why I want to return to India — the land of jungles, elephants, snakes, cows, and grass huts The India that I know is also a land of the snow-capped Himalayas, roaring rivers, and people who need Christ It is a land of diverse and ancient traditions, cultures, and languages. THANCICHHANCTF Hey, I'd like to go home with you ' several friends have said. These friends are Americans who have learned to say my name right, and put up with my crazy Indian-ways.

Page 17 text:

DISCIPLESH IP Stephen said as he was stoned, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. . Lord, don't charge them with this sin. (Acts 7) These two themes of Stephen illustrate well the radicalized nature of my Christian discipleship. A student came into my office one day, several years ago. and asked, If you were me, could you fight in the Viet Nam war? I said, Why do you ask? I'm thinking of applying for a Conscientious Objector status, he said, but my pastor says that a good Christian cannot be a pacifist and that he will not write a supporting letter. Last fall a student knocked on the door and said, Can I see you for a minute? I said, O.K. She replied, I saw you on the World Vision telethon; I was wondering why Cod allows so many people to starve to death Why isn't the evangelical church doing very much about it? This past January, a student in my Human Rights in the Modern World class related to me a passage from the prison memoirs of Ceorgi Vins. This preacher of the gospel in the Soviet Union experienced prison brutality at several points in his life because of his faithfulness to Christ. The student asked. Is my faith strong enough so that I would be able to continue living for Christ in that type of situation? When Stephen said, Lord, receive my spirit, he could say so because Christ really was the Lord of his life. He had captured the essence of what it means to say, If Christ is Lord, no one else can be. Christians need to make sure that the State, the accumulation of material goods, and the desire for personal survival don't shape our values and become Lords ©f our lives. W'hen Stephen muttered, Lord, don't charge them with this sin, he echoed a principle of Christian discipleship which is radical in nature. Christ's teachings demand that we be peacemakers, that we love those who persecute us. (Matthew 5) Christ also demands that His followers live simply, abhor injustice, and serve Him totally. Christians are dissenters whose radical lifestyle frequently confront the ethics and values of the communities in which we live. This we should expect. Lord, I struggle with my friends to learn what it means to be a disciple of yours. Give me the courage to adopt those distinctive characteristics which will allow those around me to know that your life dwells within me. Lord, give me that kind of radicalness that allows me to confront injustice proclaim thy salvation give witness of thy love. Lord, give me the strength to recognize that thy people will always be the Provocative prophetic dissenting community in a world that does not want to recognize your existence. C. WILLIAM CARLSON