Posted on 06/07/2011 6:56:10 AM PDT by Newton
GOSHEN, Ind. — The Goshen College Board of Directors announced today that it has asked President James E. Brenneman to find an alternative to playing the Star-Spangled Banner that fits with sports tradition, that honors country and that resonates with Goshen College's core values and respects the views of diverse constituencies.
The Board took the action during its regular meeting, June 3-4, and today released a Decision Statement, which is available at www.goshen.edu/anthem.
The Board expressed a strong commitment to advancing with President Brenneman the vision for Goshen College to be an influential leader in liberal arts education with a growing capacity to serve a theologically, politically, racially and ethnically diverse constituency both within and beyond the Mennonite church. The Board concluded that continuing to play the national anthem compromised the ability of college constituents to advance the vision together.
(Excerpt) Read more at goshen.edu ...
IIRC, the anabaptists/mennonites et. al came to this country, many before it was a country, seeking FREEDOM from religious persecution. That FREEDOM was won FOR them by those who were willing to lay down their lives for it which the National Anthem honors.
Here’s the last verse of the National Anthem; might be worthwhile sending a copy to all the board members and faculty of the college:
“O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov’d homes and the war’s desolation;
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”
There is NO alternative to playing the national anthem.
I think they should play “I’m a little tea pot” instead.
They talk approvingly about how there is lettuce, E. Coli, tomato, salmonella, croutons, E Coli, bacon bits, salmonella, etc. all combined together to make a unique flavor of America.
Fixed It.
As several others have said, this is a Mennonite school. I’ve dealt with Mennonites for years, I have major problems with Mennonites both theologically and politically, and I don’t in any way support people who object to the National Anthem. Anyone who is a Mennonite or in any way connected with Mennonite doctrine needs to be examined **VERY** carefully before being elected to political office because of the wrongheaded views of Mennonites on pacifism and church-state relations.
However, some of the comments written here disturb me. This is not only a private school free of government control but also a Christian school which is part of a theological tradition that has a centuries-old stance on pacifism. Can I politely suggest that unless we want to have the Obama administration start imposing evil mandates on our own conservative evangelical Christian schools, or secular conservative schools like Hillsdale, we’d better be very careful saying that a Mennonite school has to obey mandates from the government that the school administration believes contradict the core tenets of their faith?
Parents have every right to refuse to send their children to this college, and that’s the appropriate sanction, not government penalties. If anything is going to be done beyond a student and donor boycott to change the college administration or policies, that’s an internal matter for the Mennonites to deal with.
As others here have said, there are many politically conservative people within the Mennonite tradition who are very proud to be patriotic Americans because of our American history of freedom of religion and believe the best thing they can do in time of war is to pray for the defeat of evildoers. The suggestions by some here that Mennonites might somehow be supportive of the Soviet Union would be particularly strange to many Mennonites who lost their farms and were expelled from the Soviet Union during the era of forced collectivization. The only thing the Communists wanted from the Mennonites was to take their land, which had been brought out of wasteland into productive agriculture by the sweat of generations of Mennonite work.
Those of us who are outsiders but share non-Anabaptist versions of evangelical Christianity need to pray that the Mennonites who understand biblical principles on most things other than pacifism and church-state relations will be able to use this incident to galvanize their own members. I suppose we can regard conservative Mennonites as Christian brethren who need prayer. Otherwise, with all due respect, I don’t see that people who aren’t part of the Mennonite tradition have a dog in this fight.
“Some liberals talk about how America is not a melting pot, but instead, is a salad bowl”.
Actually, it’s more like a cereal bowl, with plenty of fruits, nuts, and flakes.
Goshen College Director of Public Relations
Richard R. Aguirre
Mr. Arguirre:
The next time your Goshen College Board of Directors collectively suffer from mental vapor lock, I would appreciate it if they would reflect on the fact that our National Anthem heralds the price paid during the founding of our nation, as well as the undeniable truth of the price paid for it remaining a strong and viable entity. Their decision in effect expresses disrespect that our nation even exists.
As a fellow citizen who reveres our nation and our way of life, I take serious offense to the idea that your institution could possibly entertain the idea of a separation of sorts from other loyal U. S. loving and revering citizens.
If your institution fails to respect our nation any more than this, it’s time for you to relocate off our shores. Get your board to convene a session, come to a conclusion what nation is better, and move.
Sure, the First Amendment allows for free speech. You folks are fee to believe whatever you like. When you start adopting policies that separate you from the loyal citizens of the United States, it’s time for you to go.
I have not been a source of donations to your institution, but if I were part of your income stream would cease.
It is now appearant to me, that your institution is anti-U.S. If the goal of the Goshen College Board of Directors was to destroy respect for Goshen College, congratulations are in order.
Sincerely;
Ronald N. Doughty
DoughtyOne
How about —— you I won’t do what you told me?
- rage against the machine
Nope. Not buying it.
This nation came into being through violence. It remains a strong and safe nation through the implementation of violence and the assurance that violence will result if we are attacked. If these people wish to take advantage of what violence brought forth for them, and continues to provide to them, they need to respect the price paid.
Every person that died to provide this national environment for all of us, is trashed by their delusional disgusting behavior.
If they don’t like it here, they should GTFO. I can recommend a number of nations around the world that will get them real religion should they move there.
Snnnnnaaaaaap!
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crackle
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pop
This is very well said.
No one is suggesting they be forced by the government to play anything. But free speech is a two way street so people are free to voice their reactions.
This was my email to them:
____________________________________________________________
Dear Sirs,
Your decision to dump the National Anthem prior to sports events is likely the most bone headed decision I have heard any institution on American soil ever make. You go ahead, you can be assured that I will let all my friends know about it and you may not offend somebody on your campus that is not an American but you have offended many Americans.
I can only hope that your enrollment drops to where nobody will ever have to hear your alternative to the National Anthem. We are Americans, we die for our country. It is OK to honor it just a little!
signed
I believe that renown philosopher, Pogo, actually said, “We have MET the enemy and HE is us.” You never want to misquote an intellect of that stature. :-)
Send Goshen’s Board a shovel.
They are consummate BS artists.
You are absolutely right.
I stand corrected.
And you are also right about the stature of Pogo.
I emailed Mr. Aquirre and said, “It seems that Goshen College now worships at the alter of Diversity rather than Divinity.”
@ Chickensoup: Thanks for your note.
@ Reeses: We certainly agree about free speech rights to voice our opinion and criticize the Mennonites. My concern is not speaking out against the inconsistency of Mennonite doctrine — I’m **VERY** willing to do that for a whole long list of reasons.
My real concern centers on the comments by some who, by their comments, seem to believe that pacifists should be told to get out of the United States or that the government should take action against people who refuse to sing the National Anthem. That goes down a very slippery slope I do not wish to go down, unless we’re talking about a Christian nation formally committed to biblical obedience. Maybe I’d trust a President Oliver Cromwell or a President John Knox or a President Abraham Kuyper to do that in the context of a Christian nation, but I do not trust even the best-intentioned of Christian elected officials in a secular government to tell our churches and our church-related colleges what they must do or to levy penalties for noncompliance with a government edict that contradicts teachings of a specific church. We have no Constitutional way to assure that their successors will share their values.
You’re quite right in questioning how it is that the Mennonites even have a football team, or for that matter, other forms of contact sports. I had that argument a number of times with Mennonites who were cheering and applauding sharp-elbowed basketball players on their school teams. Their argument is twofold: nobody is intentionally hurt in playing sports, and the people on both sides are volunteering, not drafted. Nobody makes a Mennonite play contact sports, and those who have conscientious objections to contact sports are not (or at least are not supposed to be) pressured to participate.
Well, seems to me like the second half of that argument applies quite well to the current wars between volunteer American soldiers and Islamofascists who in most cases have volunteered to become insurgents. Is it really a violation of pacifist principles if we help the Islamofascists who want to be martyred accomplish their goal of getting 72 virgins via martyrdom? It seems to me like the best way to accomoplish peace, which is the goal of pacifism, is to support our soldiers who volunteer to give the insurgents what they want before they can kill or maim anyone else.
Of course, the Mennonites have no consistent answer to that because their religion is biblically inconsistent. They fundamentally misunderstand that not all killing is murder, and once they’ve made that error in their doctrine, they have to come up will all sorts of explanations of how a just God could order the Old Testament Israelites not only to go to war but to exterminate entire nations of wicked evildoers.
@ DoughtyOne, we have no disagreement on this country being brought about by the power of the sword, and I happen to believe it was a just use of the sword by lesser magistrates to throw off the yoke of an oppressive King and Parliament which had broken faith with its colonies. Taxation without representation was one of many violations of the colonists’ liberties as British citizens, and the lesser magistrates had the biblical right to defend their people against abuse.
However, we need to pay serious attention to Constitutional original intent. Why is it that the Quakers and Mennonites, who existed here at the formation of the United States, were not expelled from the United States or held to lesser level of privileges because of their refusal to bear arms? The Quakers were even — by the text of the Constitution itself — allowed to affirm rather than swear their oaths of allegience to the Constitution upon election to office. Today the affirmation rather than oath is sometimes used by atheists, but at the time of the Constitutional Convention there can be no doubt that “affirm” language was written to allow for the scruples of the Quakers, without which they would have been barred from participation in government.
It may have bene a mistake to allow Quakers, Mennonites and others to have the full privileges of citizenship despite their refusal to bear arms. However, if it was a mistake, it was a mistake of the Founding Fathers.
In a Constitutional republic, we need to live with the text of the Constitution, including anything we may believe is flawed, until and unless we can follow the prescribed procedure for amending it.
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