You can read the story, "Racist messages attack KS college president, minority students" here.
While I have yet to visit the town of Lindsborg, home to just over 3,000 residents according to suburbanstats.org, the acts of hate that occurred at Bethany College earlier this month (which included chalking racist statements around the campus and the making of threatening telephone calls to Will Jones, the university president,) shocked me for a few reasons.
First of all, before I decided to become a Fort Hays Tiger, I seriously considered becoming a Bethany Swede. I liked the idea of a smaller, Christian-based college that wasn’t in my hometown but wasn’t super-far away from home, either. Even though I never ended up making a campus visit (and ultimately decided to go elsewhere due to their two-professor English department), I got phenomenal vibes from every person of theirs I talked to and every email I received from them. For example, when I made district choir my junior year of high school, I got several emails and letters from various colleges around the state inviting me to visit their music department, audition for them, and maybe have a free voice lesson with a professor. I got an email from Bethany, too, but instead of inviting me to merely visit their college, they invited me to sing with them at their college. And not just at a rehearsal, either—at their winter concert. Apparently, one of the pieces I learned and performed for district choir was also in their concert repertoire that go-round. Unfortunately, due to some scheduling conflicts, I could not take them up on their amazing offer, but the gesture has stuck with me to this day.
Second, the idea of someone doing something so openly, blatantly racist in this day and age and in this part of the United States utterly baffles me. However, that’s not to say I’m (sadly) unsurprised by some of the sentiments voiced by this unnamed hate group. Kansas is technically still part of the Bible Belt, which regrettably has a reputation, particularly in smaller towns like Bethany, of being less accepting of different ideas and different people than other parts of the United States. So while I am no stranger to the super-duper-far-right ideology of this area (in Hays, a town of about 20,000, I passed at least three Trump/Pence signs driving to church this morning, one of which sported its own cute little fence), I am surprised that someone would cross the line of moral decency and act on the darker side of their political views like that. Especially in 2016. Especially in small-town Kansas, a place which has stereotypically been portrayed as friendly and welcoming.
Finally, I have always been, and hopefully always will be, an idealist. But lately, it seems I can’t even look through my newsfeed without seeing another human atrocity. However, the serious, thoughtful but loving response sent by the president of Bethany College somewhat restored my hope that there is still good in the world.
“Please challenge racism whenever you encounter it,” wrote President Jones on the “Lindsborg Now” Facebook page. “Hurtful, racist actions are not ‘activism.’ Hate language is not blunt talk . . . Do the simple thing and treat all people the way you want to be treated.”
Jones continued, “As a Christian, I must turn my anger into love. Jesus wants me to love my enemies (even the ones I didn’t pick, but picked me) . . . it is the love that allows us to decide to see the people who would seek to hurt us through God’s eyes. It is undeserved love. It is the love that we are taught, as Christians, to show to our fellow human beings. I’m praying that I will find it.”
So am I, President Jones. So am I.
