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Los Lobos, or “the Wolves,” has been performing for three decades, ever since they joined together as adolescents to play at weddings and bars in Los Angeles. Since then, their music has evolved from simply rock and acoustic to traditional Spanish and Mexican songs, and finally to a combination of the both. Now their music is inspired by a mixture of varieties, including rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues, and boleros and norteños.

The band consists of David Hidalgo on vocals, guitar and accordion; Conrad Lozano on bass; Louie Perez on guitar; Cesar Rosas on guitar and vocals; Cougar Estrada on percussion; and Steve Berlin on saxophone. Together they form a funky, energetic show that simultaneously features thought-provoking lyrics and a look into Latin culture.

Los Lobos’ latest creation is “Los Lobos Goes Disney,” a CD that takes 13 classic Disney songs and adds to them a rock-like feel. “The kid’s record doesn’t even sound like a kid’s record,” said sax player Steve Berlin, “It just sounds like Los Lobos playing funky old songs.”

Said Rolling Stone, “With the exception of U2, no other band has stayed on top of its game as long as Los Lobos.”

Los Lobos will perform as part of the Performing Arts Series this Saturday, at 7:30 p.m., in Sauder Concert hall. Tickets for regular seating are still available for $25, $40, and $45. Goshen College students will not receive any discounts. For more information, contact the Goshen College Welcome Center by calling (574) 535-7566, e-mailing welcomecenter@goshen.edu, or visiting www.loslobos.org.

Peni Acayo beat the all time record for Kills for a GC volleyball player, but the Leafs still fell in the MCC final this weekend. Photo provided by Sports Information Department.

Following an epic five-set win over Marian University in the MCC Conference Semifinal last Thursday, the Goshen volleyball team looked to cap off their historic run to the team’s first MCC championship match appearance with an upset of NAIA #16 Taylor University.

Unfortunately, Saturday’s match at Taylor did not go well for Goshen as they fell in straight sets to the Trojans.  “We had a hard time at the net blocking their hitters.  I will also say that they were 2-5 inches taller across the front,” said head coach Jim Routhier.  “I think the team played very hard and with a lot of intensity Saturday.  We serve received pretty well and we never gave up.”

One of the highlights of the match came in the form of personal achievement.  Peni Acayo, a  junior, led the team with 17 kills, allowing her to pass alumnus Anna Herdeck’s mark of 1,431 for the Goshen College career kills record.  Acayo ended the season with 1,447 kills in her career, with her senior season still to come.  Coach Routhier had high praise for Acayo.  “Peni was voted MCC conference Volleyball Player of the Year. That tells it all.  She is the best player in our conference.  (She is) very well deserving of the record and the award.”

Four Goshen players, Peni Acayo, Kelsey Herschberger(JR), Ashley Janssen(SR) and Ali Hawkins(SR), were named all conference.

Given the success of the team this year, Routhier has high expectations for next season.  There is a solid group returning next year, and Routhier has been working on a solid group of prospects looking at coming to Goshen for volleyball, including a verbal agreement with Stacy Wyse, an All-State setter from Archbold, Ohio.  The team will be without Ali Hawkins, Lindsey Nofziger, Gina Richard and Ashley Janssen, who all graduate this year.  “I really am excited about next season and the great potential we have,” exclaimed Routhier.

Guest speakers included seven Mennonite draft resisters who shared their stories of resisting the Vietnam War draft during the late 1960s. Four of these men, Dennis Koehn, John Lind, J.D. Leu and Doug Baker, were part of a panel that answered prepared questions by students from PAX club, as well as members of the audience.

Leu, Baker and Lind, all GC graduates, attended the 1969 Mennonite General Conference in Turner, Oregon, which dealt with amending the Mennonite position from a slightly coercive non-participation stance to the more active non-cooperation stance.  Each of the four panelists spoke directly about the conference in 1969 and their role in shaping it.

Koehn had not been directly involved in the 1969 conference at Turner, but was arrested during his first year at Bethel College because he refused to register for the draft.  He spent a year and a half in prison.  Lind spent a number of years in Asia doing alternative service during the draft and participated in the 1969 conference.  Leu reflected on 1968 as “a year of radicalizing.”  Living in California, he experienced the secular peace movement and felt driven to apply it to his own Mennonite background.

Baker was the “token youth delegate” at the 1969 conference.  After helping amend the Mennonite position on draft resistance, he wrote up a report on the happenings at Turner, Oregon, as a record for himself and others.

After lunch, the conference broke up into three mini-workshops focusing on tax resistance, counter recruitment and working with conscientious objectors in the military.

A common theme throughout the conference was discovering strategies for witnesses and how to use witnesses in an increasingly complex world.

Baker replied to this by saying, “Whatever breaks your heart, respond to that.”

Koehn added, “Our highest calling today as Mennonites is to go live with the enemy and report back what’s going on.”

Duane Shank, a draft resister and author, ended the conference with his closing remarks.

“How do we as Christians relate to war and the war system in absence of the draft?” he asked.  His response was that the church and its members should be “Christian witnesses to the state.”

Beth Martin Birky, Professor of Women’s Studies, and Regina Shands Stoltzfus, Assistant Professor of Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies (PJCS), along with Rachel Halder, a senior, and Elizabeth Speigle, a junior, presented their women’s studies research during a conference in Atlanta this past weekend.

The group attended the National Women’s Studies Association’s 30^th annual conference in Atlanta, which took place from Nov. 12-15. The conference theme was “Difficult Dialogues,” and Martin Birky, Shands Stoltzfus, Halder and Speigle presented in the session entitled, “Narrating Collection Action: Chandra Mohanty’s Genealogies of Community and Noncolonized Dialogue.” Carolyn Shrock-Shenk, Associate Professor of PJCS, moderated the session.

Halder, a communications major, and Speigle, a sociology major, spent their summers studying the history of the women’s movement in Costa Rica. Martin Birky went on SST in Costa Rica and has returned several times. Through her travels, Martin Birky has done significant research on the Costa Rican women’s movements. In doing so, she has collected hours of film of Costa Rican women.

At the conference, Halder presented her Maple Scholars final project, which included a short documentary about the ethics of the Costa Rican women’s movement and the Artisans Commission of Santa Elena-Monteverde (CASEM), a small cooperative that makes and sells crafts in Monteverde, Costa Rica.

Speigle presented her research on the role of religion in Costa Rican women’s lives. An important lesson Speigle learned during her research was to recognize her cultural bias and not let it get in the way of studying women from another culture.

“Each individual has a unique story, but at the same time, everyone is influenced by their own cultural context as well,” Speigle said.

Adie Gerig, a senior environmental science major, presented her Maple Scholars research in late October at the Indiana Academy of Science meeting in Kokomo, Indiana.

The meeting was spread over two days with over 100 presenters in 15 different areas of science. Gerig researched the effects of deer consumption on a restored tallgrass prairie with Jeremy Good, a senior, and Ryan Sensenig, Assistant Professor of Biology.

“It was really cool to see the other presenters in the [environmental science] field,” commented Gerig.

Kathryn Schlabach, a senior molecular biology/biochemistry major, also presented her 2008 Maple Scholars research at the same Indiana Academy of Science meeting this October. Her presentation was titled, “Effects of Selective Internal Radiation Treatment (SIRT) on Liver Ultrastructure.”

“Here is an opportunity to get some of these stories down,” said Coyne. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if the Mennonite culture and the WWII veteran culture could relate to each other?’”

The initiative is part of a larger project through the Library of Congress, pulling together the oral interviews of those involved in wars in which the United States contributed. WWII veterans from Elkhart County are lined up for interviews throughout the next nine months. Individuals who chose Conscientious Objector (CO) status or did service will also be interviewed.

“This project is clearly for veterans, but we wanted to include people who were involved in service, too,” said John D. Roth, professor of history, “[This project] can create possibility for some personal friendship to emerge.”

Roth, along with Joe Liechty, professor of Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies, along with other GC professors, is scheduled to join with community members in helping conduct roughly 75 interviews in the spring.

Three interviews have been recorded so far, and 10 more are scheduled before Christmas. GC President Jim Brenneman conducted the first interview with Frank Coyne, Dan’s father.

“In interviewing Frank, I gained a deep appreciation for his observations, his personal struggles, his sadness about the need for war, and his resolve to work for a more peaceful planet,” said Brenneman. “He gave me insight into a world that was not part of my own experience. He was a delightful person…a new found friend.”

The interview format comes from a standard procedure released from the Library of Congress that includes an outline of suggested questions, although personalized questions are also encouraged.

“What I’ve found is that many [veterans] have stories  not shared with their family for whatever reason,” said Coyne. “The families are so appreciative of these stories.”

Coyne added that many of the veterans face illness. The interview process has become replicable enough for interviewers to visit individuals at their home, at the hospital or at a nursing home.

Interview material will eventually be donated to the collection at the Library of Congress, and each veteran will receive DVD copies of their interview for their family.

Through this oral history project, “We can see more fully what the world looks like to a World War II veteran,” said Roth.

Kat Stutzman (left), with Hannah W. Miller at El Iguanario, an eco-tourism site and conservation biology project in the Dominican Republic. Hannah interned at El Iguanario this past summer. Photo contributed.

Raising rhinoceros iguanas for an eco-tourism organization isn’t the first thing that pops to mind upon hearing the word “internship,” but for Hannah W. Miller, a senior in Goshen College’s environmental science program, that’s just what it meant.

In the summer of 2009, Miller spent six weeks at El Iguanario, an organization in the Dominican Republic that raises Cyclura cornuta (rhinoceros iguanas) with the hopes of releasing them into the wild sometime in the future.

El Iguanario is operated out of a single small house in the village of Los Tocones, on the Samaná peninsula of Hispañola, the Caribbean island that is comprised of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  The iguanas are kept in pens in the back yard, where they eat, sleep, mate and lay eggs in the sandy soil. The first 12 iguanas at El Iguanario were acquired from the Santo Domingo zoo as adults, and they breed once per year, adding new iguanas to El Iguanario’s collection.

The organization was founded by a Peace Corps volunteer, but for the past two years the project has been led by Kat Stutzman, a GC alum.  Stutzman did the study portion of her Study-Service Term with El Iguanario, and after graduating from college, she received a Fulbright grant to return to the Dominican Republic and continue to work with the iguanas.

Miller’s connection to El Iguanario was formed as she was searching for an internship to fulfill a requirement for her environmental science major.  When nothing seemed to be working out, she sought council from Jodi Saylor, her academic adviser.  Saylor contacted Stutzman, and the internship came together.

“About a month later, Kat emailed me,” said Miller.  “[She] said, ‘I would love to have you, just come on down if you are interested,’ so we emailed and set it up.”

In addition to the conservation work she was doing with the iguanas, Miller said the living situation and community structure were a big part of her learning experience.

“It was so different from living in America,” she said. “It was out in the middle of the country and we collected our own rainwater that we used for showering and dishes and stuff.”  She continued:  “You’re just super aware of your resources.  It was a completely different culture.”

El Iguanario’s primary goal is to increase the numbers of rhino iguanas, which have been disappearing due to habitat destruction.  This mission is primarily funded by

Cyclura cornuta, or rhinoceros iguana, is an endemic species to the island of Hispañola, where Hannah W. Miller went to do her environmental science internship. Photo contributed.

eco-tourism.  People pay to see the iguanas and hear about their history, and that money goes back to feeding and raising the iguanas.  Since the species is endemic to Hispañola, meaning it only exists naturally on that island, interacting with rhino iguanas up close is a rare opportunity.  No iguanas from El Iguanario have been released into the wild, but that goal is still central to the organization’s mission.

Stutzman has now returned to the U.S., after handing her responsibilities at El Iguanario over to locals in Los Tocones.

Miller isn’t planning to go back to the DR anytime soon, but says that her work and lifestyle at El Iguanario has changed the way she views conservation biology.

“[I had] the realization that conservation is directly tied to the community around the species you’re trying to preserve,” Miller said. “People had different ideas about the way the Iguanario should be run or advertised…It’s just such a community effort.”

Daniel Butler jukes around an opponent in the Leafs' recent contest against Holy Cross. Photo provided by Sports Information Department.

The men’s basketball team traveled to Canton, Ohio this weekend to play #6 NAIA-ranked Walsh College and Malone University. This weekend’s game was more than another game for Senior Errick McCollum and Nate West Jr. The two seniors, who grew up and played basketball in Canton, finally get a chance to play back home. When asked about the trip to Canton, Errick McCollum said,  “It was fun to go back home and get a chance to play in front of friends and family.”

Their first opponent on Friday was Walsh College who is nationally ranked. The Goshen team was able to shock the #7 team in the nation, Grand View, this past weekend, as they looked to do the same to Walsh.

The game was close throughout the night with 11 lead changes and score tied 10 times. Both teams were evenly matched but Walsh College was able to dominate in the paint scoring 34 points to Goshen’s 18, although Goshen was able to take advantage off turnovers more effectively scoring 31 point due to turnovers compared to Walsh’s 23.

At the end of the first period Goshen was trailing by 6 points. In the second period of the game Goshen got back in the game forcing Walsh College in to two overtime periods. During the second overtime Goshen’s top scorer, Senior Errick McCollum fouled out as Goshen lost 100 to 105.

After nearly upsetting Walsh College the men’s team followed up their Friday night performance Saturday evening playing against Malone University and pulling out a win from behind 72-70. At the end of the first period Goshen found themselves trailing to Malone 36-27. When the leafs came out of the locker room they were able to find some energy to go on two streaks going 7-0 to get back within 11 points and 17-2 to take their first lead of the period and never looked back.

Errick McCollum and Daniel Butler led the teams with 21 and 20 points respectively. This win puts the Leafs back on the winning side with a 3-2 record. The Leafs will look to add to their win Column as they play Hanover and Denison College in the Sodexo Classic at Hanover. Friday November 21 they face off Hanover at 7:30pm and Saturday November 22, they play Denison at 3pm.

Carl Haarer's stories of his father's college time, his own decision to be a reporter and why he incorporates poetry into his news reporting on radio WBZ in Boston. Photo by Angelica Lehman.

Carl Haarer, one of Boston’s top radio reporters, can play the guitar and piano, sing, write poetry and speak theology. He did all these things – and talked about journalism — on Tuesday in his Umble Master Class keynote address.

Haarer, who works for WBZ, said he had no idea he would become a journalist when he graduated from Goshen College with an English major in 1979.

He described his job as a radio reporter as similar to being a student: you listen, learn, process and try to find meaning in new-found knowledge. The key, he said, is to be awake.

“There’s always something greater than what we see and what we hear,” said Haarer. “We just have to be awake enough to see and hear it.”

Over his years as a reporter, Haarer has seen both joy and tragedy. Regardless of the situation, he believes God to be ever-present. When covering a house fire, he said,“I have to believe that in those ruins, in the walls of that charred house, that God is there.”

Haarer told the story of Tiffany Moore, a 12-year-old girl killed in the crossfire of a gang shooting. After she died, her mother, Alice, would stand for hours at the place she was shot—the blue mailbox on the corner.

“Something like that creates its own music of sadness,” said Haarer, .

Haarer incorporated piano and guitar music into his lecture. He played on guitar “I’ve got my feet, I’ve got my shoes,” a song he wrote for the Moore family. He also played on the piano the hymn from which he drew the title of his lecture: “Breathe on me, Breath of God.”

Whether covering the killing of a child like Tiffany or the death of a firefighter like Steve Minehan, who went into a burning building in search of trapped colleagues and never returned, Haarer said he poses the question: Where is the Kingdom of Heaven in the moments of darkness on earth?

“Regardless of the moment in which I find myself, I always feel that there’s something greater than the headlines that are spilling out,” said Haarer.

Haarer read excerpts of poetry throughout the lecture. On-air reporting doesn’t mean just stating the facts, he said, but sometimes also providing an additional commentary through Dr. Seuss-like poetry. Events such as the Super Bowl, the championship season of the Boston Red Sox, visits to Mother Teresa or a beer summit at the White House Rose Garden have all inspired poems.

Over 50 years ago, Haarer’s father, David, took the Umble Center stage and gave a speech talking about the importance of roosters to farmers. Haarer recalled the image.

We are all farmers, he said, but we can’t do our work of sowing and reaping the soil if we’re asleep.

“Thank goodness for that rooster within us all, that spirit, that clarion that forces us to be awake,” said Haarer. “A new day is always dawning, but you have to be awake, alert, for God is always breathing.”

Michelle Kauffman, right, a senior nursing major, was one of several nursing students who administered H1N1 vaccines at Goshen High School on Friday. Photo by Emily Miller.

The last time it happened, it was smallpox and polio in the 1960s and 70s.  Now, decades later, the public health system is back–the schools are giving mass inoculations—this time because of the H1N1.

Six Goshen College students in the Community Health nursing course have had the opportunity to be a part of this history-in-the-making, as they do their clinicals with the local health department, schools and with agencies that work with vulnerable populations.

As a part of the course, these nursing students are required to spend some time at the Elkhart County Health Department.  This fall, the health department asked the nursing students to be prepared to go out to school clinics; the department needed all available personnel to help distribute and administer the H1N1 vaccine.

All six students have had the opportunity be at least one school giving H1N1 vaccines, and several students have been to more than one school.  In the past two weeks, the students have given at least 700 vaccines at Goshen Middle School, 750 at Goshen High School and 900 at Memorial High School.  They have also given vaccines at the junior and senior high schools in Fairfield and Jimtown.

According to Sherry Wenger, Associate Professor of Nursing, they were at the schools for less than three hours, averaging about 400 shots per hour.

Anna Srof, a senior nursing student, said, “The students came in, sat down, got their vaccine and left all within a minute or two.”

Wenger estimated that about 50 percent of the student population received the free vaccine.  Next to be vaccinated will be the elementary school age group.

“The schools are certainly seeing cases of H1N1, but it seems to be at a manageable level,” said Wenger.

Wenger named staying away from others who are sick, coughing or sneezing into your sleeve, getting plenty of rest, eating right and getting the H1N1 vaccine as easy strategies to avoid the flu.

“It has been an excellent experience for this group of students to be able to see how the local public health department is responding to the flu pandemic,” said Wenger.  “It is really something for them to be part of this—they are making history.”

Regina Shands-Stoltzfus presented her doctoral research on African American Mennonite women in a lecture in NC-17, Tuesday. Photo by Martin Brubaker.

Alice Walker, author of the novel “The Color Purple,” once said, “Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.”

These words have guided the doctoral research of Regina Shands Stoltzfus, Assistant Professor of Peace, justice and conflict studies, who presented her research in a public lecture Tuesday night entitled, “’As Purple is to Lavender’: Experience and Influence of African-American Women in North American Mennonite Affiliated Churches, 1948-1968.” She is pursuing her doctoral research at Chicago Theological Seminary.

The Mennonite Historical Society sponsored the Tuesday-night affair in which professors, students and community members learned about Shands Stoltzfus’ research concerning the role of African-American women in the Mennonite Church before and during the Civil Rights Movement.

Shands Stoltzfus interviewed seven Mennonite African-American women and expressed her desire to “capture these stories, hold them, and share them with the church.” African-Americans desired freedom, social change and equality during the Civil Rights Movement.

Mennonites’ eagerness to create integrated churches and the respect that stemmed from “leaders who lived and breathed what we did” invited African-American families to the Mennonite faith tradition.  The women she interviewed were born in the northern U.S. and claimed other faith traditions prior to becoming Mennonite.  They attended three different Mennonite churches in the midwest.

Shands Stoltzfus described the life of her grandmother, Joyce, who lived in Cleveland among a large black community. Ample factory jobs drew African-Americans to the area.

“There were a lot of black people with things to do,” said Shands Stoltzfus.

The close-knit community that Joyce lived in included Lee Heights Mennonite Church. The church’s close distance to Joyce’s home led her there.  The welcoming Christian environment convinced Joyce to convert from Baptist to Mennonite; however, she missed the call-and-response and gospel music that have been incorporated into contemporary Mennonite churches.

Through the little-known stories of Mennonite African-American women such as Joyce, Shands Stoltzfus shaped and continues to shape her own narrative.

Photo by Chase Snyder.

“Presente”.

This Spanish word took on new meaning after I attended last year’s School of the Americas protest in Fort Benning, Georgia.  As I marched along with thousands of others in solidarity to the solemn role call of victim after victim followed by the crowd sung response “presente”, the feelings of bitterness, sadness and anger were tough to hold back.

I had arrived at the gates of the School of the Americas knowing that behind the firm barrier of fences, trees, and police officers lay the institution that had militarily trained some of my Latin American brothers and sisters that would later carry out some of the most horrific atrocities known to their respective countries.  It was soldiers from this school, from which I found myself only a stone’s throw away, that had gone on to become brutal dictators in Bolivia, Argentina, El Salvador and Panama, among others.

The role call of the names of victims that had been subjected to torture, suffering and death under these dictators and their regimes continued for what seemed like hours.  Their names blurred together in a cloud of pain and brokenness so incomprehensible that I found myself lost in a rush of overwhelming questions, thoughts and reflections.

Now a year later, in light of my rapidly approaching graduation day, I have been contemplating the value of my college education and the connection that it gives me to these historical and current atrocities.  Experiences, such as the one that I had last year in Fort Benning, have been an integral part of my education and have helped form an inextricable link between my thoughts and actions and the suffering of others.

My education has taught me that rooted in the mess that has been caused by the School of the Americas lies the United States’ twisted foreign policy in Latin America.  Regardless of what politicians claim, this policy is based around specific economic interests that benefit our nation at the expense of others.  Perhaps more importantly, it has also taught me that I contribute to the mess through the tax money that I add to the estimated 20-30 million dollar budget that the school maintains.  I don’t pull the trigger, but I buy the guns.

This conscious awareness of the how the world operates and how you fit into the system is a binding contract in which refusal to accept the responsibility that this knowledge carries with it is choosing to turn your back on the marginalized and giving a nod of approval to the system that gives you abundance while others suffer.

Let us not be mistaken that each one of us finds ourselves in a position of relative elitism based on our level of education.  Along with the gift of education comes the responsibility to act in service of those who don’t enjoy such privileges.

This weekend, thousands will gather once again as the names of the victims of the School of the America’s graduates will be read at the gates of the school in Fort Benning, Georgia.  Here on campus we will show our solidarity with those who have suffered, and recognize our role in the healing process with a vigil at 9:30 pm on Monday night in Schrock Plaza.  I encourage everyone to attend and put your education into action.

Photo by Molly Kraybill.

The current round of discussions surrounding the playing of the national anthem has taken on a renewed sense of urgency.  The prospect for change seems real this time, and I’m surprised how much I care about this issue.  It strikes close to the heart and soul of Goshen College’s identity.

I still don’t understand what is so sacrosanct about an athletic contest that makes it the ultimate proving ground for one’s identification with country.  The anthem is not played at most other public assemblages.

I’ve been attending GC games since I was a junior high kid.  Never have I heard the national anthem played.  Never have I seen the flag displayed.  And never have I heard a word of explanation why GC chooses to make this statement of cultural defiance.  The sports fan is left in a vacuum to make his/her own conclusions.

I deeply regret that our athletes, coaches and athletic directors have unfairly borne the brunt of our institutional stance.  It is they who get accosted by disgruntled fans in the hallways after games.  It is they who must explain a position that has only recently been articulated by campus leadership.  I feel badly about this.

The current proposal for playing an instrumental version of the anthem falls short of finding middle ground.  It doesn’t explicitly mention the flag, but I‘m told the intention is to have the flag on display for the anthem.  This proposal merely acquiesces to common practice in college sports.  I think middle ground could be achieved by playing “America, the Beautiful”, prefaced by a very short printed and verbal statement as to why this song is consistent with GC’s faith-based values.  Two well-worded sentences could instill basic understanding to campus visitors. This alternative anthem has a beautiful tune and lyrics that honor America without conjuring militaristic images.  It doesn’t require the flag.  Shucks, it’s even singable.

Some may call for a prayer at the outset of a game.  While I’m not necessarily opposed, I still wonder what is so hallowed about a game.  I’ve never been to a concert or a play where a prayer implored the Almighty to keep the trombones from splitting a lip, or the actors from breaking a leg, or that everyone would be on their best behavior, or that the audience would all return home safely.  That’s the essence of most pre-game prayers.

Let’s continue to think critically and act with intentionality.  I am sure we’ll find common ground.

Stan Miller is the GC registrar and a season ticket holder since 1963.

Photo by Molly Kraybill.

I woke up this morning, looked in the mirror, and I saw an image of God looking back at me. No, there was not an old white man peering over my shoulder as I brushed my teeth. I’m talking about my own reflection! God is a woman! And while I believe this to be true, I should qualify that by saying, God is also a man, not gendered, and so much more than our concepts of gender can possibly dare to describe.

Gender matters. If I look in the mirror and can see an image of God in myself, that is a beautiful thing. It also matters that I can look at you and see an image of God in you. The way we talk about God affects the way we imagine her, and the way we imagine God affects the way we relate to her. Obviously, no image can fully portray who God is. So, the more images we have for God, the better! Our language about God matters because it affects our relationships with God, and by extension, our relationships with each other.

I don’t think God is going to be offended by improper use of pronouns, but I do think that by using exclusive pronouns for a Being that far transcends them we develop an inaccurate understanding of who God is. Since we can’t possibly express or comprehend God, we should do the best we can with what our language allows. Pronouns and images do affect our relationships. Gendered language helps us to encounter God as a relational being, not a concept or abstraction. Images like Mother and Father allow me to relate to God in ways I otherwise could not. Gender makes God more accessible to us as humans, and inclusive use of pronouns and images move us closer to the fullest understanding of God we can hope for (gender-wise).

I have recently begun to use feminine language for God. I do this not to try and cast God as exclusively feminine, but because this is what I find most meaningful at this point in time. Feminine pronouns and images help me to relate to God in new and meaningful ways. Besides, there is enough masculine language for God already that it seems the least I can do to try for some kind of balance.

Audrey Engle is a junior Sociology and Spanish double major.