How Christian Colleges Can Help Americans Talk to Each Other

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Christianity Today

Religion, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.3 • 622 Ratings

🗓️ 24 August 2017

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The United States’ colleges and universities rest in the middle of some of the country’s most contentious conversations. Whether it’s race, freedom of speech, religious freedom or student loans, universities have plenty to wrestle with. Christian higher education is no exception. Much of the frustration for those seeking solutions to these issues is knowing how to speak to each other, says Shirley Hoogstra serves as the president of Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). “Today, we are not as equipped to work with difference. Sometimes we want to shutdown difference. Sometimes we want to demonize difference,” said Hoogstra. In times when dialogue is a challenge, Christian colleges have done a good job of welcoming different viewpoints, even those they adamantly disagree with, and responding civilly to these perspectives, she said. “Just like we want the government to be committed to this freedom of speech and freedom of association for religious concepts, beliefs, and values, Christians have to be concerned about beliefs, values, and commitments they may not agree with either and model this sort of convicted civility...that makes America this great democracy that is still a beacon to the world.” Hoogstra joined assistant editor Morgan Lee and editor in chief Mark Galli to discuss the tensions of online education, how one CCCU school president made peace with a prominant LGBTQ state legislator, and why Christian colleges have a leg up on their secular counterparts when discussing race. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.
0:11.0	Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion.
0:14.5	Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail del Rosario at Apologeticsky.com.
0:29.6	Music Michael Del Rosario at Apologeticsguy.com. You're listening to Quick to Listen.
0:31.3	Each week we go beyond hashtags and hot takes to discuss a major cultural event.
0:35.8	I'm Morgan Lee, and I'm an assistant editor here at
0:38.3	Christianity today, and I'm joined, as usual, by my wonderful colleague Mark Galley.
0:43.3	Hey, Mark, how's it going? Pretty good. Who is our guest today? Our guest is Shirley Hoogstra.
0:49.5	Shirley Hoogstra is the president of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities.
0:54.5	She's a graduate of Calvin College and the University of Connecticut Law School.
0:58.5	And before her current calling, she was a partner in a well-known litigation law firm in New Haven, Connecticut,
1:03.7	and had worked at Calvin College as well.
1:06.8	And as you'll see from the introduction, she's the perfect person to talk about our topic today.
1:11.5	Shirley, how's it going?
1:12.5	Well, in Washington, D.C. here, we have that perfect blend of humidity and heat.
1:19.1	And so I think that's actually the kind of heat atmosphere that we have in Washington, D.C., both weather and government, comes it up.
1:26.3	There you go. How was the eclipse there? You know,
1:28.6	the eclipse, it was just a sort of fascinating social time, right? So we were in the perfect bandwidth,
1:35.4	but we were all on the deck of the Delenbach Center and with our little glasses looking
1:40.4	and actually enjoying each other's company. So it was actually a fun excuse to get together.
1:45.5	Exactly. Awesome. As I'm sure that many of our listeners are aware, we're right in the middle of
1:50.1	back-to-school season. And as a nod to this time of year, we thought it'd be worthwhile to discuss
	...

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