Editor’s note: After the all-campus assembly last week, announcing uncertain times for TWU’s future, many people were deeply concerned. Many questions rushed to mind: what will this mean for the administration? How will this affect my studies? What does this mean for the school’s reputation?

It all started with a great conversation.

I was talking to a good friend of mine, Tyler Dingman, who some of you may know as “The Ladykiller,” but that’s beyond the point. The point of my article is this: I need a PA (personal assistant, for those of you who are not into acronyms).

I have put this article in the Mars’ Hill as a desperate cry for help. I need someone to organize me – my thoughts, my day-to-day life, and even a potential date or two (which is highly unlikely, considering I have put an ad in the Mars’ Hill to have someone assist me in getting my life together).

Allow me to quote scripture:
Ahem.

“The Lord said unto [Rebekah], ‘Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.’”

The twins in Rebekah’s womb, as we all know, were Esau and Jacob. The Bible describes Esau as being very hairy and Jacob as very fair.

Anyway, to make a somewhat long story somewhat short, Esau stupidly trades his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew and then later loses his father’s blessing when Jacob masquerades as him.

Thanksgiving means something different to everyone. For some, it is a time to gather together with friends and family to gleefully participate in the atrocities of the wildfowl genocide that happen each year on turkey farms worldwide. For others, Thanksgiving means giving thanks for the gifts one has thankfully been given. For me, however, Thanksgiving has become a time of pure dread. It’s barely even fun anymore. You see, over the past couple years, I’ve picked up on this pattern in my life: every time a holiday comes around, I end up with some weird disease that alienates me from my friends and family and leaves me all alone in a black world of desolate agony.

They are in Northwest, the caf, Neufeld building—take an observant walk and you’ll find plaques recognising those who have donated to Trinity Western University in all corners of our campus.

Who are the faces behind these unfamiliar names and how does their money end up in projects like the media and fine arts building that the university is planning to build?

Brad Bartsch, Director of Development, estimates that 5000 donors contribute to TWU annually. He works with the rest of the External Relations department, including Ron Kuehl who took over as Vice President last week, to make this university an attractive investment for people of means.

It is helpful for the believer to know that there is a large body of writings in the Bible that affirms nature and does not assume that it is fallen. These include the Psalms, Proverbs, and Job. In many passages in these books, the role of man is merely the observer who has to marvel (Job 38-39, Psalm 8 and 19, and Proverbs 30). Nature is wonderful in spite of man.

Prime Minister Paul Martin, Democratic Senator John Kerry, and all politicians who support gay marriage, abortion, or euthanasia may soon be denied communion in Catholic churches around the world. In the opening mass of the Catholic Synod, Pope Benedict XVI stated, “the type of tolerance which permits God as a private opinion but refuses to allow him in the public arena, is, in the reality of the world and our life, not tolerance but hypocrisy.” The Pontiff is declaring that there is no difference between the public policies of a politician and their private religious convictions. Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo adopted a more explicit view, stating that, “Politicians and legislators must know, by proposing or defending projects for iniquitous laws, they have a grave responsibility, and must remedy the evil done in order to be able to receive communion.” While this is not official Catholic doctrine as yet, these statements raise unique questions about the expectations placed on political figures.

Lately, the Spirit has convicted me with my own words, which leads me to believe that I ought to be more outspoken, not less, if only to bring to light that which is disordered in my own soul. Do you think you have something to say? Write a letter to the editor and let the healing begin. Send letters to marshill@gmail.com –KP

Dear Editor,