Ok. This is a bit personal to me because my oldest (of whom I am extremely proud) is a Resident Advisor at Berry College. Berry is a good school; a dang fine school. I'm glad he made the decision to go there, though I still sometimes wish he had gone to Shorter College. But I digress ...
Here's the link to the Berry College Viking article. My son won't really discuss this with me, saying they have been told not to. So I didn't pry & he didn't volunteer.
The story is that another Resident Advisor at the Winshape portion of Berry College performed an exorcism on another student. That's right: an exorcism. The RA had gone on a mission trip to India & had supposedly seen many exorsims performed over there & somehow decided that was the warranted situation in his dorm room during this Bible study.
And then, to really make things worse, he sent out a campus email detailing the event.
So here's the problem: it looks bad. There is no verification process. It sounds so backwards. And it gives Christians & Berry College a black eye.
Winshape is supposed to be a subset of Berry for Christian students committed to their faith. It was begun by Truett Cathy as a means to assist students & these students used to be required to work at Chic-fil-A while in school, though that requirement has since been lifted.
The problem is that Winshape --- as with any faith --- can become a hotbed of extremism, be it Christian or Muslim or anything else. And that can get dangerous, even doing serious harm.
I have no doubt the student believes what he did was right & that it was an actual exorcism. Maybe. I seriously, seriously doubt it, but maybe. However, that student on whom the exorcism was performed needed medical & psychological help in addition to genuine spiritual counseling. What the RA did was to run like a bull in a china shop into a situation he knows little about, has no training, & could have done more harm than good.
Berry College is a good school but with such a program like Winshape --- & the mega bucks that come with it --- there is a danger that a good school with a long, rich tradition could become the hotbed of a fanaticism. Tali-Christian.
And the world laughs at genuine faith over things like this.
Christians are the faith's own worst enemies.
Interview with the Student who was exorcised
1 comment:
I read about this and I had the same reaction. Let's hope that Berry officials nip this quickly and remain in control. Such extremism could harm a great school and its reputation.
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