Opinion

Student editor explains staff column

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Hello,

I am Sidney Van Wyk, Editor-in-Chief of the Threefold Advocate, and I would like to address the column “Rethink Yoga” in Issue 18 of our publication.

The Opinion/Editorial section of our paper is a place for our readership to voice their opinion on various topics and respond to articles or other columns published in the Threefold Advocate. The column currently being discussed was written in response to a news article on faculty and staff who do yoga.

As published weekly in our Op/Ed section, “Views expressed by columnists or in Letters are not necessarily the views of the publisher, advisor or staff.”

It is unfair to treat the views of one columnist as the views of John Brown University, the Threefold Advocate or the University’s general student body on our diverse campus.

The press release sent out by Hindu statesman Rajan Zed incorrectly suggested the column was written by the University and that the column, which is by nature an opinion piece, was in fact an article, which it is not.

The columnists own words were also largely taken out of context, as her description of yoga as “. . . the beautiful face that the very ugly religion of Hinduism uses . . .” was paraphrased from a guest chapel speaker. Raiees-Dana’s comment that “there is more I have left unsaid than I have said,” comes right after she acknowledged that many people will disagree with her view and that she is “very open to respectfully discussing any of these issues further.”

All opinions, even those considered “counter-culture” as Raiees-Dana described her own, are welcomed in our paper and we often publish columns side-by-side that are in direct disagreement with one another.

Zed has already been contacted and encouraged to write his own opinion on the matter, which we will publish in our next issue, if he responds.

Sidney Van Wyk
Editor-in-Chief, The Threefold Advocate

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