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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 2, 1996)
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TUESDAY April 2, 1996 a ■■ 'V W GGIE ■I jfllk i • t p# 5:1 sir m tx r"' r|: : i Page 3 Resurrection week A&M students of the Christian faith work to share their beliefs By Libe Goad The Battalion By David Hall The Battalion NT I t is that time of the year again. That time of the year when colorful shirts bearing Bible verses inundate the campus. On campus and off, the monochromatic fashion statement serves as a re minder of Easter, Christianity’s most revered holiday. Sunday started the celebratory week, feeding nearly 2,600 people a meal ofbarbecue and information about the Christian faith. The week will continue with a host of programs aimed to encourage the Chris tian faith across campus. The week will climax with the Resurrection dramatiza tion, which will be performed Thursday at noon by Rudder Fountain. Steven Woodward, Resurrection Week president and senior computer en gineering major, said the week’s events subscribe to advancing the Christ ian faith. “It’s to recognize the unity that exists among Christians,” Wood ward said. Woodward said the week should let people explore the Christian faith and create a stronger desire for people to understand Christianity. “We’re looking for a change in people’s lives and grow ing deeper in that relationship with God,” he said. The past four years of Resurrection Week have brought a myriad of change to the A&M campus. People convert to the Christian faith and others grow stronger with what they believe. Others simply learn about Christianity or debate religion altogether. But change of spirit seems to be the prominent theme for the week. People have gone to a Resurrection Week event and left with a new meaning to their lives. .Some experience such a noticeable change that they volunteer for Resurrection Week the next year, hoping to impact someone like them. Ria Jacobson, a senior accounting major, said she feels joyous when people adopt her faith. “It gives me the motivation to continue on,” Jacobson said. “It re minds me of the higher purpose we have this week.” In preparation for the eventful week, staffers find themselves f renewed through the planning and praying. Prayer has been an integral part of putting the week togeth er. Since the Fall, people have clasped hands and bowed heads in the All Faiths’ Chapel to pray for the event. Victoria Chambers, prayer minister for Resurrection week and a junior zoology major, said the cooperation of groups that meet daily to pray has been phenomenal. “It is incredible to see the numbers of people praying for students at A&M,” Chambers said. Woodward said directing Resurrection Week has shown him how much he can do with God’s help. “There are times when I don’t want to get up and face j the day,” he said. “Then I realize God is bigger than that.” Along with Resurrection week comes a tide of religious questions and protests. People opposed to the week argue that Christians shove their religion down people’s throats and that they are a crowd of hypocrites. “People say we’re imposing what we believe,” Chambers said. “I think we’re imposing our free rights to speech just like everyone else.” Woodward said people also argue about the separation of church and state and do not feel they have a fair voice during the week. “Most people don’t want to be told that they’re wrong and don’t want to give up their sin,” he said. The Resurrection Week T-shirts evoke the similar respons es. To some, they are the mark of a hypocrite and others see the shirt as an imposition on other belief systems. Woodward said he expects the maroon, Bible-verse-imprint ed T-shirts to be used for conversation pieces, not to display a superior Christian attitude. “It’s only a window into Christianity,” he said. “I hope people will look at them and search things out.” Religious groups want inter-faith dialogue to explore commonalities hristian groups at A&M are engaging in a flurry of activities leading up to Faster Sunday as part of Resurrection Week. Because this week also marks the beginning of Passover, The Hillel Founda tion will hold Passover services. And atheists, Moslems, Hindus, and others will go about their regular activities. Faisal Chaudhry, president of the Moslem Student Association, explained the key differences between his faith and Christianity. “Moslems believe,” he said, “that Jesus was not God, but a messen ger, along the lines of Noah, Moses and, finally, Mohammed.” Erum Mohiuddin, the group’s program coordinator, expressed this faith and a desire for open lines of communication among people of differing beliefs. “Because of a lack of understanding, some people are afraid of Islam,” she said. “People hear of Middle Eastern terrorists and see Moslems portrayed [as terrorists] in movies, and as cribe those actions to our religion. This isn’t true - Islam is a religion of peace.” As for the events of Resurrection Week, she said she hopes the two religions can reach a place of understanding of each other. She said such acceptance between people of each faith would be valued at a time when overall relations are deteriorating in so many places. “I realize that this is an important time for Christians,” she said, “and I wish we could get an inter-faith dialogue go ing at this time. We have a good deal in common.” There are others at A&M who share Mohiuddin’s opinion as to the respect that should be accorded to those of different creeds, requesting only that they be extended the same oppor tunities for expression. Paul Hurst, treasurer of the Atheist and Agnostic Student Group at A&M, makes this point while explaining his own beliefs. “I do not subscribe to any set of religious beliefs,” he said. “How ever, as long as the University doesn’t accord [Christians] special privileges, they are well within their rights to do what they do.” For some people, however, the events of the week carry with them an implicit message about A&M they feel is potentially damaging to the school and to its populace. Rabbi Peter Tarlow, director of The Hillel Foundation, is one of these people. “Resurrection Week serves to isolate people, rather than bring them together,” he said, “and this hurts A&M, because it unfairly makes the school look like the province of one particular religion.” Tarlow explained that throughout the middle ages and especial ly during the Crusades, the time immediately preceding Easter was traditionally the time of greatest intolerance by Christians. Tarlow does not liken Resurrection Week to the Crusades, but said there is a possibility for damage to A&M. “Although the administration, and especially Dr. Souther land are doing their best to be sensitive to the needs of all people,” he said. “The events of Resurrection Week have the flavor of a step backward, and 1 think there are Christians who would agree with me.” Mark Hosack, a Christian and a junior biol ogy major, said he feels Resurrection Week is exclusionary. “Instead of listening to all viewpoints,” he said, “it is as though we’re trying to drown them out by having larger posters, larger events. It just isn’t the way to reach people.” This view is shared by Chris Heinefield, an atheist and a senior chemistry major. He said he believes in the nature of freedom of speech, and he is willing to sacrifice certain wishes for it. “I don’t like being accosted by the Christians that are proselytizing during this week,” he said, “but if I have to just ignore them for a week, well, that’s a small price to pay for the freedom to speak my own mind.” , Night NEWsEr ri life EniTOR Sports Editor o Editor ch, GraphicsE ,,; " pi ncs Editor Benson, Eleamxtq mielle Pont iff, RP 1 ' 1 Kristina B'_ rancis, libe Co^. Pace Desicniif ihanie CliriMopl'P rly Holley Baxter, Rob CW line Mejia, Chffi'" Matson kriwan, Amy in Zimmerman lea, Rxly Holley. 1 i lemons, jeiinfr 1 ' i Yung y, Mandy CaiH. AM Universiiy' 1 ' 11 ism. 3113; fax: 8«- rlorsemenl byl |,f - 343-26%. roil^ -cl McDonald a!* 7 R. student to pick f ier school year am 1 ess, rail 845-2611;.. day during Hie# ner sessions le*w‘ /. Second class F 1 >4 to ^ my soul. It was either that or ... live with the grizzlies. Alex Walters Columnist For the past year, up until last summer, I spent 20 minutes every morning scraping a Gillette Sensor across my bony scalp. As of St. Patrick’s day three weeks ago, I resumed my favorite ritual involv ing hot water, lather, razor blades and baby powder. As an obvious result, I am as bald as a baboon’s butt. My reasons are my own, and up until recently, I’ve had neither the desire nor the means to communicate those reasons en masse. BUT PEOPLE KEEP STARING AT ME! So, let it be known: I shaved my head to save my soul. It was either that or move to Canada and live with the grizzlies. The fact is that sometimes life gets just too sad to deal with. Sometimes the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” are enough to force a man to take his own head in his hands. So I shaved my head. I thought back to the Bible and was reminded of Job, the righteous man who was tested to prove his devotion to his creator. Job didn’t drown himself in the muck of life, but mourned his loss and moved on. Job shaved his head, repented of his sins and praised God. That’s it. No more and no less. I’m not a skin head, and I haven’t under gone chemotherapy. So, I’ve had to learn to forgive a little rudeness when people’s eyes glaze over or when conversations stop because I walk into a room. Big deal. It’s only when that occasional person (who was obviously raised by wolves) guffaws and blurts out, “What happened to your head,” that I respond with a snappy retort such as, “Wow, what a re ally dumb thing to say.” Thankfully, I’ve yet to have been beat en for the Neo-Nazi radiance of my dome. although I did come close once. There I was, minding my own business and enjoying a jar of Guinness stout, when a young man who dwarfed my 6- foot-4-inch frame sauntered up to my stool and grumbled, “Boy, why’s your head shaved?” This is when my super-massive machismo usurped my survival in stincts and led me to answer, “None of your damn business.” In spite of my bravado, however, the sit uation ended peaceably. In fact, after I shared my sob story, it won me a free beer at the expense of my former aggressor. So, even though my grandmother and Ann Landers think that I’m at risk of pos sible gang violence, things always seem to work themselves out. My hair grew back without incident and life in general be came easier to take. Nowadays, I shave because my fiancee likes the smooth feeling of an Aqua-Velva man. As the story goes, she wanted to meet me because when she first saw me, I looked “interesting.” Like a moth to the flame, she was drawn to the fluorescent light reflect ing off my exposed noggin’. The rest is history. Actually, being bald is invigorating. Mornings no longer involve a “beauty ritu al” other than making sure my shoes are tied. I can entertain myself for horns rub bing my silky smooth scalp, and my mother tells me that bald men are more virile. The point is, ye of much hair, that things sometimes go haywire. The best advice is, you don’t have to lose your head, but it just may help to shave it. Just think of the great cash you save on shampoo. Alex Walters is a junior theater arts and journalism major. I Building, Texas