Full Issue, Number 48, Fall 2018
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Intersections Volume 2018 | Number 48 Article 1 Full Issue, Number 48, Fall 2018 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/intersections Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Religion Commons Augustana Digital Commons Citation (2018) "Full Issue, Number 48, Fall 2018," Intersections: Vol. 2018 : No. 48 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/intersections/vol2018/iss48/1 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by Augustana Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Intersections by an authorized editor of Augustana Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FALL 2018 Intersections Faith, Learning, and the Vocation of Lutheran Higher Education IN THIS ISSUE Civil Discourse in a Fragmented World Intersections is a publication by and largely for the academic communities of the twenty-seven institutions that comprise the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities (NECU). Each issue reflects on the intersection of faith, learning, and teaching within Lutheran higher education. It is published by the NECU, and has its home in the Presidential Center for Faith and Learning at Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, the institutional sponsor of the publication. Intersections extends and enhances discussions fostered by the annual Vocation of the Lutheran College Conference, together lifting up the vocation of Lutheran colleges and universities. It aims to raise the level of awareness among faculty, staff, and administration about the Lutheran heritage and church-relatedness of their institutions, especially as these intersect with contemporary challenges, opportunities, and initiatives. About the Cover Sheila Agee Hiawatha, 2018 Oil on wood door 80” x 144” (four 80” x 36” panels) Sheila Agee lives and works out of her studio near Brandon, South Dakota. Her work most often reflects whatever nature has to offer—hoping to capture the light of the sky or reflect on the essence of a more intimate detail. Hiawatha depicts the essence of the vivid details left behind by loving, thoughtful persons—evoking a lasting impression. The piece is part of a “Seeing Dakota” installation (seeingdakota.com), in which Sheila Agee and Ann Pederson, Professor of Religion at Augustana University, Sioux Fall, South Dakota, bring together the artistic process and works of a visual artist with the reflections of a theologian to cultivate imaginative and possibly transformative ways of seeing and interpreting the world. They intertwine not only two different professional practices of art and theology, but also their two different ways of seeing Dakota. Their hope is that those who see the installation will see Dakota in a new manner. They invite people to look with intention, to ponder the images and words, and to gather insight from the art and words. The following is part of Ann Pederson’s reflections on the broader landscape surrounding Hiawatha: The location of the cemetery within a nearby golf course gives me the creeps. Massive bur oaks shelter the graves of 121 Native Americans who were once inmates of the Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians. They were buried en masse on the 5th hole. Brilliant green grasses cover the bodies of men and women who were once warehoused within the massive walls of brick. Family members still come to honor their ancestors. Faint outlines appear where individuals were buried. Simple crosses mark two of the graves. Red, yellow, white, and black ribbons on the fence posts flap in the wind. The deaths of these people are not shadows of a distant past. They reveal the present horror of what happens when evil is covered up. 2 Intersections | Fall 2018 Contents 4 From the Publisher Mark Wilhelm 5 From the Editor Jason Mahn 6 Vocation and Civil Discourse: Discerning and Defining Intersections Lynn Hunnicutt Number 48 Fall 2018 Mark Wilhelm Publisher 10 Polarization, Incivility, and a Need for “Change” Jason A. Mahn Editor Guy Nave Christina Administrative Sanders-Ring Assistant Leanne Paetz Graphic Designer 14 Putting the Kind Back in Human Sarah Ciavarri PUBLISHED BY The Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities 16 It’s Time to Rewrite the Rules of Civility INTERSECTIONS ONLINE Jon Micheels Leiseth http://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/ intersections/ PUBLISHED AT 19 Original Song Lyrics: “Just a Little” Augustana College Mike Blair 639 38th Street Rock Island, Illinois USA 61201 20 The Musician’s Vocation EDITORIAL BOARD Jacqueline Bussie Concordia College Jeffrey Bell-Hanson Lynn Hunnicutt Pacific Lutheran University Darrell Jodock Gustavus Adolphus College Tom Morgan Augsburg University Kathi Tunheim Gustavus Adolphus College Ernie Worman Newberry College 3 From the Publisher I write this column with the “speaking” hate through a violent response. Malcolm X famous (in Christian circles) thought otherwise. The debates continue. words about the human tongue The challenge is further complicated because evil from the Letter of James in in our speech is easily disguised. This can be true the New Testament freshly in personal speech, for example, when overtly mild on my mind. The text was one speech is used to demean someone, as in the damning of readings yesterday at my of African Americans with faint praise in the comment church. The passage from “he speaks so well,” while omitting the implied “for a James reads, “How great a (n-word).” Evil social or organizational speech may also forest is set ablaze by a small be disguised, often perniciously. For example, overtly fire. And the tongue is a fire! No one can tame the tongue— “good” public speech by organizations is increasing used a restless evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:5b-6a; 8). As for evil through the mechanism known as astroturfing. James writes more succinctly earlier in his letter, “If any Astroturfing is the practice of hiding the true sponsors of think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues… a message to make a message appear to be from some their religion is worthless” (1:26). other (typically, grassroots) group. See John Oliver’s Social ethics is not my academic discipline. Nonetheless, September 16 episode of Last Week Tonight on HBO if you I can safely say that much Christian discourse about ethical are unfamiliar with the dastardly practice of astroturfing. conduct turns around the interplay of “bridling the tongue” In higher education, the received practices of the and at the same time endorsing frank, honest conversation. academy give us an advantage over many groups in the The latter concern finds expression in a passage in the United States for facing the challenge to sustain frank Letter to the Colossians, which urges Christians to always and honest but not hateful discourse about complex and let their speech “be seasoned with salt” (4:6). Christians are divisive public issues. We should insist that the standards of to embrace a love ethic, but they are not to be door mats academic discourse prevail when such issues are taken up for Jesus, nor are they to ignore the evils they see. As the on our campuses. These standards do not allow any and all Lutheran tradition puts it, a theologian of the cross (that is, speech, as guidelines adopted by many NECU institutions a follower of Jesus), calls a thing what it is. demonstrate. The standards of the North Atlantic academy, Balancing the need for frank honesty in our speech, while in which NECU institutions share, are deeply rooted in at the same time not permitting frank speech to degenerate the Lutheran tradition and its insistence on frankness, into hateful speech, is a daunting challenge. It is no virtue honesty, and calling a thing what it is, while maintaining to avoid challenging difficult issues or wrongful acts under a concern for others and the common good and avoiding the banner of maintaining civility. At the same time, it is no acrimony amid divisive disputes. The standards of academic virtue to speak with an arrogant, haranguing, unbridled discourse do not eliminate the challenge of speaking tongue. We struggle to find the sweet spot. In response to appropriately, but they give all of us in ELCA-related higher the evil of segregation in the United States, Martin Luther education a solid platform on which to stand. And they do King was convinced that nonviolent action was the way this within a larger, fragmented culture struggling for to “speak” frankly and honestly, controlling and avoiding pathways into civil discourse. Mark Wilhelm is the Executive Director of the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities. 4 Intersections | Spring 2018 From the Editor For me, the most compelling and constructive moment Engaging Diversity, Inclusion, at this past summer’s Vocation of a Lutheran College and Equity” (July 15-17, 2019, Conference was also the most challenging. see announcement on page 13) Lynn Hunnicut was two-thirds the way through her promises to pick up where last opening introduction to the organizing theme of vocation summer’s conference left off. within Lutheran higher education and its connections with Most of the essays that this year’s focus on “civil discourse in a fragmented world.” follow were first presented at During a pause for comments and questions, one partic- the 2018 Vocation of a Lutheran ipant pressed her on what she meant by civil discourse. College conference. Some of Was it, the participant wanted to know, merely talk that them emphasize the need to was deemed to be respectful and polite by those whose emphatically listen and