Star Parker...
APU is known for the quality speakers it brings in for chapel. Today was no exception! For the third time this semester, we were privileged to hear from Star Parker (click here to watch her speech), founder of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education.
Her story is unique, and she is very honest about her past. She had four abortions, was living a life of sin, and living on welfare. Then she had someone be straight up with her about her life, and she met Jesus Christ. From there, her life began to change drastically. Now, she uses her experience to bring others out of poverty, and to prevent people from having abortions (since she knows the truth about what abortions are and what they do to women who have them).
Her message this time was mostly a response to the comments people left her last time (on the back of their chapel attendance cards). She received 6 pages of comments, half good and half negative, she said. People left comments saying that she was "too political", that she didn't actually refer to the Bible chapter and verse (which she did today), that she assumed that we were "all Republicans" (to which she responded, "No, I assumed you were all Christians, and I never said anything about political affiliation. That's not what's important right now."), and many other things.
What struck me the most was her response to her being "too political". She gave this example: Would we have considered Benjamin Franklin political when he approached the first Congress with a group of Quakers, and confronted them about slavery? Franklin told them then that it was immoral, and that they should not continue to allow the practice. The politicians decided that it was "too costly" to get rid of it. They turned a moral issue into a political one.
Seventy years later, the country was plunged into Civil War, and 600,000 men died. We had a CIVIL WAR to end slavery, because moral questions aren't political...She said "For those of you who don't like war, sometimes the cost of sin is much more than you are willing to pay."
Wow! She quoted the old phrase that says something like, sin will take you farther than you wanted to go, cost you more than you wanted to pay, etc. If the politicians had not changed slavery from a moral issue into a political issue, perhaps things would have been different!
Star's organization is one that I am definitely interested in working for, so I might pursue that. Rabid, Porterhouse, Leslie and I ran into her after lunch, and talked with her for about five minutes. Rabid and I mentioned that we are looking into careers in politics, and she encouraged us to pursue that (I mentioned that I am looking into moving to Washington, D.C., and she liked that idea!)...
Her message is clear! The mission statement for CURE is "Fighting poverty and restoring dignity through faith, freedom and responsibility." Like she said, we must preach the Gospel to the poor, that they might gain hope.
Her story is unique, and she is very honest about her past. She had four abortions, was living a life of sin, and living on welfare. Then she had someone be straight up with her about her life, and she met Jesus Christ. From there, her life began to change drastically. Now, she uses her experience to bring others out of poverty, and to prevent people from having abortions (since she knows the truth about what abortions are and what they do to women who have them).
Her message this time was mostly a response to the comments people left her last time (on the back of their chapel attendance cards). She received 6 pages of comments, half good and half negative, she said. People left comments saying that she was "too political", that she didn't actually refer to the Bible chapter and verse (which she did today), that she assumed that we were "all Republicans" (to which she responded, "No, I assumed you were all Christians, and I never said anything about political affiliation. That's not what's important right now."), and many other things.
What struck me the most was her response to her being "too political". She gave this example: Would we have considered Benjamin Franklin political when he approached the first Congress with a group of Quakers, and confronted them about slavery? Franklin told them then that it was immoral, and that they should not continue to allow the practice. The politicians decided that it was "too costly" to get rid of it. They turned a moral issue into a political one.
Seventy years later, the country was plunged into Civil War, and 600,000 men died. We had a CIVIL WAR to end slavery, because moral questions aren't political...She said "For those of you who don't like war, sometimes the cost of sin is much more than you are willing to pay."
Wow! She quoted the old phrase that says something like, sin will take you farther than you wanted to go, cost you more than you wanted to pay, etc. If the politicians had not changed slavery from a moral issue into a political issue, perhaps things would have been different!
Star's organization is one that I am definitely interested in working for, so I might pursue that. Rabid, Porterhouse, Leslie and I ran into her after lunch, and talked with her for about five minutes. Rabid and I mentioned that we are looking into careers in politics, and she encouraged us to pursue that (I mentioned that I am looking into moving to Washington, D.C., and she liked that idea!)...
Her message is clear! The mission statement for CURE is "Fighting poverty and restoring dignity through faith, freedom and responsibility." Like she said, we must preach the Gospel to the poor, that they might gain hope.
posted by Lesa at 3/02/2005 12:09:00 PM
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