On Wednesday, Febuary 13th, 2019 at 3:39PM, Pastor Lisea sent the following email to all Students, Staff and Faculty: Dear Westmont, We are having thoughtful conversation in our community... around the topic of race. Besides all the good work that ICP offers us, we have hosted David Bailey and his film, 11AM: Hope For America's Most Segregated Hour, we are raising the issue in chapel with inside and outside speakers, and hosting auxiliary conversations. I am so glad for that. It is my heart, as the campus pastor, that we have these conversations, that we respond to the Spirit's instruction and guidance, and that we have the conversations in a way that honors the Lord and one another. It won't all be comfortable, but it can all be profitable.
I want to address an issue that has come to my attention, and that is the image of Jesus in the stained glass window in the Nancy Voskuyl Prayer Chapel. I offer these thoughts and resource as the campus pastor. I am not an administrator nor decision-maker in this issue. But I want to remind us that we are an academic institution. We think. We reflect. We consider. We research. We listen, etc. I want to encourage us to not be reactionary right now but to be thoughtful and faithful people. To that end, I offer you this information on the history of the chapel and the window. I have found that when I have more information and context I make better decisions. So I offer this information in the hope that it will inform the conversation, however you come to it: https://www.westmont.edu/nancy-voskuyl-chapel. There is information and there is opinion, and we do well to consider all that we can in this process and listen well to one another. When some students asked me my opinion about the topic of the window, one thing I shared with them was the encouragement to have a dialogue, and "go through the front door," and not circumvent good conversation. To that end, I was copied in a letter to some of the administration asking for a conversation. Two of us quickly responded that we received the letter, and would get together to discuss the best process for the conversation. I was sad to see the letter published in the Horizon, and to now hear this morning there is an online petition. Those moves appear to me to be premature and shortcut good dialogue. That's my two cents. So, let's keep the conversations going, as brothers and sisters, and keep discussing the nature of the Kingdom of God in a manner that is worthy of the subject. (Below my signature I am including some follow up information from my conversation with David Moore last Thursday afternoon, FYI) Blessings, Scott Lisea Book recommendations:
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