John Brown University's Student Newspaper
Holy Week is the most popular season for watching movies featuring Jesus Christ, such as “Passion of the Christ,” on Good Friday. When a Hollywood studio takes it upon itself to recreate the Gospel, Christians would often be weary and hesitant as to how others would interpret their God. However, Christian media has gained itself a bad reputation for being poorly made.
This past weekend, April 22 to April 23, downtown Siloam Springs was packed full of people, small children and dogs from in town or all the way in Bentonville. They came to enjoy the sunshine, live music, over-priced corndogs and the smells of soap and cinnamon sugar pecans — admittedly, not a bad smell combination. The event was the annual Dogwood Festival: an event primarily consisting of fried fair food and vendors selling everything from hand-woven baskets, fancy soap, ornate metal decorations, jewelry, T-shirts, kids’ toys, knives and much more. Close to the park was a motorized bull ride, bouncy castle and a petting zoo!
This Friday, the new band on campus Edgar Lee Island will be performing as part of lead singer Adam Goff’s senior performance. The show is titled “Microanalysis” which is the same name as their album, releasing the same day. Their flyers around campus or their little cards on tables with a QR code to their single on Spotify. The band members, Adam Goff, Race Coyle, Lucas Moyse, and Ben Bishop share a passion for music, and Goff in particular has a determination and willpower to get Edgar Lee Island off the ground. Coyle lovingly described Goff’s marketing as “gorilla warfare” and Goff acknowledges some might find it a bit annoying, but there is no denying the gaining popularity they have on campus.
On April 22, John Brown University had the honor of hosting the indie rock band Colony House on its campus. The university was campaigning avidly for students to buy tickets through student emails, the Here & Now weekly reminders, many Instagram posts and the dozens of posters on every hallway. Despite the effort, the turnout was relatively small with a crowd in the cathedral mosh pit and a handful scattered around in the pews. Yet the small attendance may have led to a more intimate concert experience, a special privilege for those attending, and for the fans it was a raging success.
Depending on your geographical location, church denomination and family lifestyle, modesty might have been a controversial topic in your family. Typically, the more conservative and fundamentalist the Christian home, the more strict and severe in terms of modesty. For women rules often include: no pants, long skirts only, no shoulders showing — or ankles (heaven forbid!) — sometimes even hair covered. On the less extreme end, there are guidelines rather than rules, which was the case in my home, but, more than anything, I set modest rules for myself, which I now realize is not everyone’s privilege. However, my dad did say make-up made me look like a hooker, so I was discouraged from that.
The term “self-care” has been a buzzword since 2016 when it hit the mainstream. Previously, the medical community coined self-care for institutionalized patients in the 1950s to help cultivate self-worth. In her article on Slate “A History of Self Care,” Aisha Harris said, “Self-care originally caught on as a medical concept. Doctors have long discussed it as a way for patients to treat themselves and exercise healthy habits, most often under the guidance of a health professional.” The definition of self-care, Harris continued, shifts from medical patients to those in extremely stressful occupations, including therapists, emergency medical technicians and social workers. “The belief driving this work was that one cannot adequately take on the problems of others without taking care of oneself,” Harris explained.
I had believed many Christians held the position global warming isn’t real or that any environmental efforts were purely secular. I probably gained this opinion from hearing it trickle down from one authority figure to another. My mom continued, “There was a church we used to attend that was very conservative, and they believed in dominion, that people have dominion over the earth. And, because of that, their opinion on global warming was that they didn’t believe it was real.” My suspicion was correct then: it was authority figures who were responsible for my association between Christians and anti-global warming — a viewpoint I’ve rejected in my adulthood.
Working out and exercising is one of the best ways to stay healthy and lose weight, along with a healthy diet. However, going to the gym consistently is not an easy feat. It takes discipline and determination. According Livestrong.com, about half of new gym members will quit their membership within six months. If there was a way to lose weight without frequenting the gym, it would seem too good to be true.
When it came time to tour colleges, Samuel Moody visited a Christian University and was repulsed. Growing up with Christian parents and having attended a private Christian school all his educational career, he had battle scars. “In private, faith-based education there is a fine line between mentoring disciples and indoctrinating sheep, and it depends very much on the individual guiding the student. . .The majority of teachers I had [who] taught me my biblical curriculum specifically were the bad kind,” Moody said. “They tried to indoctrinate me. And I had a lot of knowledge of the Bible, but I didn’t understand Jesus on a personal level, and that’s a big problem.” Without his personal conviction to find the truth in Scripture and the strong foundation of beliefs on which his mother raised him, Moody might have become like one of the other many students who leave the faith by graduation. “There’s a reason a lot of people who grew up in the church leave it when they grow up. It’s because of bad leadership,” he claimed.
Diversity has become a key theme during John Brown University’s spring 2022 semester, with the events of Charles Person, a Freedom Rider, coming to campus and the Diversity Symposium which included the International Food Festival. The festival hosted about 12 countries within the Simmons Great Hall as a Mariachi band played boisterously. Despite the harrowing weather during that week, the hall was packed with people, elbow to elbow, getting in lines to try the amazing food prepared by fellow students. Each guest received two blue tickets, allowing them two portions of food unless they opted to buy more tickets for more food.