Print this issueThe Josiah Initiative: Confessions of a porn addict at CTS
This is the story of one of our own here at CTS, one of our friends in Christ who is learning what it means to live in a fallen and broken world — a fallen and broken world that includes pornography.
"I got myself into this. I was curious. That's how it began. Late nights and stressful days and a computer connected to the Internet in the night when everyone else was asleep. I suppose the mixture of natural adolescent loneliness combined with a curiosity about sexuality in general predisposed me some what. What started off with curiosity led to discovery. What I was doing made me feel good for a little while. But that was ultimately short lived. The guilt got to me. The guilt led me to hate myself and also to begin to believe that other people saw me as less than worthy of trust or love..."
To the reader: Five letters in seven issues?
If you’ve noticed, Kerux has been publishing weekly this year. As of this week (the second week of the second quarter), we’ve already put out as many issues as last year’s Kerux put out all year. I don’t say that to our credit. In fact, this isn’t about us at all. It’s about you.
You, the readers, have been looking at the pages of this publication for seven issues now. And for seven issues, most of you have failed to give substantive feedback, failed to write letters, and failed to pariticipate in this publication despite numerous invitations. We’ve put up signs, sent e-mails, and yet hardly a blip of interest has been registered. Is the problem disinterest — or apathy?
Stewardship at CTS doesn't extend to the environment
Stewardship. In seminary this word is almost immediately connected to our specialized relationship to the word of God. It seems, however, that we almost never address how our position as stewards also applies in relation to God's world, specifically in issues relating to the environment. Through Adam and Eve, we have been mandated to “fill the earth an subdue it” (Gen 1:28), but many of us — especially in America — take the “rule” and “subdue” aspects of the mandate too literally by considering it a command to seek to dominate or too blithely by paying no attention at all.
Oral comp committees no longer a mystery
Committees encouraged to meet with students in advance of comps
Students sitting for their oral comprehensive examinations this year will not have to worry about walking into roomful of strangers. Beginning this year, students will be informed who the members of their review committee are well in advance of the actual examination.
Yearbook statistics leave 13,000 people missing
Membership statistics suggest membership decline but denominational growth
As a denomination, the CRC is growing through its children. As future pastors, we wrestle with questions of how to live well, how to die well, and so forth, but not necessarily with the question of whether or not our denomination is in decline. Except, of course, when we look at the unsettling statistic of “Total members” for the CRCNA. In 1996, the CRC had 285,864 members. Last year, the CRC reported that it only had 272,127 members. Is this really a decline of more than 13,000 members? How can that be?
Top 10 observances of a first-year CTS student
After finishing up my first quarter here at Calvin Theological Seminary, I stopped to reflect on things that surprised me or weren’t the way I expected; not necessarily better or worse, just different. Here are my top ten.
Reflections on grief and a whirlwind of love
A poem and writing by Joyce Ten Have
Editorial: Quarter system not worth a dime
As we begin the second round of classes at Calvin Theological Seminary in the middle of December, it’s worth wonder whether the seminary’s curious quarter-based scheduling system is worth keeping around. Between the scheduling conflicts, the strange breaks, and the holiday workloads, the answer is clear: the quarterly system needs to go.
Sem Eye: Sugarcoating the Christmas story
Ladies and gentlemen, ‘tis the season to shop for Jesus. In its brief existence, Sem Eye has consistently been impressed the creativity and candor with which the evangelical world shows its faith, screen-printing its belief in Jesus on every conceivable textile. As Christmas approaches we hope you have found inspiration aplenty to stuff that space beneath the tree full of faith reminders. Christmas is about more than buying each other clever t-shirts knocking off secular designers, though. When you gather with your family this holiday season we hope the room will be filled with both holy presents and the holy presence — the kind of holy presence that only comes with a truly great nativity scene.
Letters to the Editor and Notices
Weekly letters to the editor and seminary notices.