A Christian perspective on #ConcernedStudent1950

ELIZABETH LOUTFI/The Maneater

After months of protesting and a week-long hunger strike, a protesting group of black students at Mizzou has successfully forced UM System President Tim Wolfe to resign. They demanded his resignation because they said he has not done enough to make black students feel welcome at Mizzou following recent racist events on campus.

If you want more context on the story, here's a good summary.

Initially, I was somewhat against the movement because I thought the direction of the students' outrage was misplaced (what could Wolfe really do to rid Mizzou of racism?) and I also thought students may have been overreacting a bit to the situation on campus.

Instead of standing firm in my initial thoughts as many seem to do in our increasingly dualistic society, I brought the situation before God and came out seeing it from another angle.

Being black at Mizzou

I first thought about my experience living in Columbia for almost seven years.

My high school was about 40 percent black, 35 percent white, 15 percent Hispanic and a mix of others for the other 10 percent. Needless to say, when I first arrived in Columbia in 2008, I was shocked at the lack of diversity.

As the years went on at Mizzou, I began to notice that rather than being integrated into the full student body, the black student population usually hung out only amongst themselves. This was saddening because I enjoy cultural diversity, and a whole group of people being isolated did not feel right to me.

Then I started to recall stories of racism and hear new ones told and started to understand why this isolation was taking place. If a group of people doesn't feel safe in a place, they will logically start to withdraw within themselves and stand with the people they do feel safe with.

The black community decided this semester that enough was enough and started to protest. Whether or not you agree with their decision to go after Tim Wolfe is irrelevant to this discussion. They felt increasingly marginalized and decided to do something about it.

Sadly, as a result of the protest, I've seen a lot of non-black people call for black students to transfer schools if they don't like the culture at Mizzou. I've seen them say that the black students should just calm down and not make such a big deal out of a couple of isolated racial incidents. I've seen them call the protesters thugs, ignoring the fact that there hasn't been an ounce of violence in the protests. I've seen even more of them call for the football players' scholarships to be revoked in light of them joining the protest.

As far as I can tell, some of this criticism is coming from self-professing Christians as well, which is the a big head scratcher to me.

Standing for the oppressed

The biggest part of my mental shift on this issue was the decision to view the issue through a Christian lens.

Instead of finding reasons why other people's pain isn't legitimate enough to get mad about — as so many people have done on Twitter today — Christians need look to Jesus for the correct response to these people's oppression.

Throughout the entire Bible, the most constant call we have from God is to stand for the poor, oppressed and marginalized. Some of the most oppressed people in the history of civilization are the Jews, God's chosen people.

Here are some scriptures that talk about standing for the oppressed:

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly, defend the rights of the poor."
Proverbs 31:8-9

"O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear to vindicate the orphan and the oppressed, so that man who is of the Earth will no longer cause terror."
Psalm 10:17-18

"Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause."
Isaiah 1:17

I could list many more, but you get the point.

Our God is a God of justice. His will is not to see people oppressed, hurt or discriminated. Shouldn't we stand behind this God of justice and see to it that the world is more unified, as was his design?

If we want to truly profess Christ as our Savior and the leader of our life, shouldn't we have more of a heart for those who are in pain? Those who feel damaged by the actions of others? Why are we so quick to dismiss other people's pain and point out ways they should be expressing it better?

Empathy is an important trait to have for any person, but it is critical for a Christian. If we believe in the Bible, we believe that sin is running rampant in this world and true pain is a real part of this sinful world. We all experience it, therefore we can all support each other in pain.

God hates our pain more than you could ever imagine hating something. He hates it so much he sent Jesus to die so we could soon live in a world with no pain again.

Why can't we have that same kind of righteous anger toward these incidents of racism and the culture of racism on Mizzou's campus? Why do we have to so quickly discount these people's feelings without knowing what these black students truly go through?

I just find myself so frustrated at the lack of empathy being shown to the protesters. I've seen people question whether Jonathan Butler really went on a hunger strike or not (like, really?). I've seen people call the demands of the protesters "racist" because they outlined specific steps that will move Mizzou toward true inclusion. I've seen an insane amount of people telling black people to "get over" being called racial slurs and just brush it off when someone in a passing car screams at them with a Confederate flag hanging out of the window. Like, really? Are we that callous that we don't see how that can be insanely hurtful? If you're a Christian thinking that, where is the work of the Holy Spirit in you in that moment?

Christians: just stop and think about this. Please. You can disagree with the way things have transpired on Mizzou's campus, but you cannot stand for the discrimination that these students continually face. You just can't do that and call yourself a follower of Jesus.

As far as the way we should react to these situations, I think Jesus summed it up best when he said this:

"For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Galatians 5:14

Moving forward, I challenge you all to take a deep look at why you have some of the feelings you have. Take these feelings before God and ask him to show you His will and His heart. I know it helped me and I hope it can help you as well.

The power of a true community

Things just keep happening at LT! This week has been a great week, especially in the context of our project group (JDC!).

Most people that attend Colorado LT would say that the best part of the summer is their project group. After one and a half summers, I'd have to agree with that statement 100%.

This week, our group kind of took a break from long project days filled with spiritual discussions and instead just focused on building the camaraderie of the group with fun activities. I can say for sure that this was a great and much needed day off.

What? These are our normal clothes....

Our project clicked in certain ways pretty early on, but I feel like Monday's relaxing/fun project day kind of broke down the walls for a lot of the quieter members in our group and helped everyone just get to know everyone else's personality a lot better. (obviously. see the photos!)

JDC has been a huge blessing to me personally this summer and has been a great place and community for people to come with struggles, spiritual questions or anything else. It's great to see how openness and honesty is so prevalent in our group (especially life groups) after only four project days this year.

The true sign of a healthy community of God's people is how open the members of the group are. It takes a lot of great and committed people to be open and make a small group like this work, but that is exactly what we have this summer! Praise the Lord.

So basically what I am getting at is that we are making a more connected community of Christ-followers, which we know is extremely valuable. But, why is it valuable?

Britanny, Sam and Bennie looking good!

First of all, in this day and age, the most effective way to get people interested in Christianity and regularly attending church is the provide a group of friends that make them feel loved and accepted. In doing this, the power of God's love is shown and people are able to appreciate that love in a more real and physical way.

That was why I got hooked on my church at Missouri. That's how you get people interested in a relationship with God. That's why I want to do this as a career for the near future. Nothing gets me more excited than someone experiencing the love of God in a way they never thought was possible.

With the power of the community of our project group, I've seen people experience that love for the first time. I can't wait to grow closer together as a group and keep showing that love to those around us.

Another reason it is valuable is pushing growing Christians to a better and more committed relationship with the Lord. When you are constantly surrounded by a group of Christians that all have that same goal, motivation is easy to come by and accountability is everywhere. I like to say that you have no where to run from growth at LT (kind of true, even though it sounds scary) because of the insane amount of accountability that is built into the program.

Overall, the community of God is just a beautiful thing that everyone needs to experience!

What I learned about God this summer

Wow. Talk about the longest, most challenging (but also thrilling!) summer of my life.

I came into the LT program thinking I would probably grow closer to God, grow as a Christian guy and have a pretty good time hiking some mountains. This all happened in my two and a half months in Colorado, but my experience was so much more than I expected it would be.

So what did I learn about God this summer? First I should probably tell you where I was coming into the summer.

I’ve always known that God existed and always believed with my head that he loved me, but I never knew what that love really looked like until last school year.

Last year was my first year plugged into a small group and a church at Mizzou, and it was the first year I really got to experience God’s love through other people. The people there truly cared for me and were always accepting of me, no matter what.

This summer took that love to another level. Before LT, I had never had a real good one-on-one relationship with another guy who could keep me accountable with things and challenge me to grow closer to God.

I finally got that kind of relationship this summer! Two guys really dedicated themselves to discipling me and helping me through trials, good times, or whatever the summer threw at me. These meetings and relationships were the best part of my summer, which has inspired me to share God’s love with younger guys by caring about them and discipling them (the #dowork movement is coming to the Dobbs Canvas Group in this way).

So basically, what this all means is that I have finally experienced God’s love consistently and it has been through other great Christian men and women. It's not just the people who have discipled me, but also through others worshipping God with all their hearts, giving everything away to God to find healing or just working really hard to love others.

This is not the only thing I’ve learned about God this summer. His love is insane and keeps me going when nothing else will, but I have also learned that he is indeed mighty to save anyone he wants.

Through hearing crazy testimonies of great redemption, I am convinced that no one can be considered a “lost cause” in the eyes of God and that we as Christians should reflect that thought by loving everyone we know, even if it seems like they will never love God.

Many times in my life, I have thought that I shouldn't really talk to people about God or what they think about spiritual things because it could be uncomfortable and I didn't want to be seen as "that Christian guy." Now I know my mission is to help show as many people as possible the love of God, no matter what sacrifice it takes.

God is love and God is mighty to save. Two pretty important lessons that I learned through the great Colorado LT program. I can’t wait to share more about my summer with anyone who wants to hear it!