For our first meeting of the semester, 7:30 a.m. Friday, September 4 at Mr. J’s Bagels on East Market Street, the topic will be: “Christian perspectives on health-care reform.” Health-care reform is one of the most-discussed political issues today, but how does our perspective change when our view is informed by Christian faith? Some argue for a central government role, including the religious coalition Believe Together: Health Care for All. Others, including the Acton Institute, find that their faith leads them to a more decentralized approach. Background reading for our session: This article from the Washington Post and this editorial from Christianity Today.

In the past, our fellowship has taken out a welcome-back ad in The Breeze to welcome students back and to signal our willingness to talk with students about matters of faith. Below is the planned ad from Taz Daughtrey for this fall; here’s the planned layout.

Here’s a note from Taz about the particulars: “Please distribute and ask folks to contact me directly no later than next Monday, August 17, if we are to be in the first issue. I just need their name and affiliation as they would like it listed…. along with a pledge of $20-30. We need $250 for a quarter-page ad, and if we get closer to $500 it can run as a half page. Checks or cash can be sent later to me at MSC 4103. Here is Taz’s email address.

Welcome-back ad for The Breeze

Here is our fall schedule of meetings for discussion and study (all meeting at Mr. J’s Bagel’s, E. Market St.):

September 4, 7:30 a.m.
October 2, 7:30 a.m.
November 6, 7:30 a.m.
December 4, 7: 30 a.m.

If you’d like to be on a list to get e-mail reminders during the year, send a note to reminders@faithatjmu.com.

Just a bit of Internet housekeeping: We’re now at http://faithatjmu.org (not .com). For another year, the dot-com address will continue to redirect here. You may want to update your bookmarks.

Our fellowship is preparing to place an ad in The Breeze in anticipation of the Easter holiday. The ad features pictures of Alexander the Great, King Tutankhamen and Julius Caesar above a line of text that says, “They conquered everything but death.”

The body of the ad copy says, “Past world rulers like Alexander the Great, Tutankhamen, and Julius Caesar have all had one thing in common: the past. They’re stuck in it. It makes more sense to follow a ruler who has conquered death…and a leader who has shown us a better way of conquest, through love. Jesus is that ruler. The message of Easter is that Jesus passed through death into an eternal life. And his conquest can be our own, too, for we do not have to fear death but can — even now — enter into life everlasting.” Here is a .pdf of the proposed ad.

This note from Taz Daughtrey explains the details of getting the ad placed: “Please distribute and ask for signatures (name and affiliation) by noon on Thursday. If each person indicates a contribution of between $20 and $30, I will place a quarter-page or half-page ad for next week depending on the total pledged.”

At our regular faculty fellowship meeting March 6, we’ll have a roundtable discussion with C.J. Goeller of JMU’s InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Here’s an article from The Breeze that provides background on JMU’s campus ministries. On March 6 our meeting is set for 7:30 a.m. at Mr. J’s Bagels, E. Market St.

Our next regular meeting is set for Friday, Feburary 6 at 7:30 a.m. at Mr. J’s Bagels on East Market Street. The topic of discussion will be “Evangelicals and Catholics Together,” a movement headed by Charles Colson and noted Catholic scholar Richard John Neuhaus, who died January 8. Our discussion will be based on this article in Christianity Today. Here’s a summary:

Evangelicals and Catholics Together: Since its first publication in 1994, “The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium,” the group has issued other consensus statements on salvation, the relationship between Scripture and tradition, the communion of saints, and other issues. It is next set to issue a document on Mary, the Mother of Jesus. But can the movement continue without its chief Roman Catholic architect?

Our January 16 discussion (7:30 a.m., Mr. J’s Bagels, E. Market St.) will be on the topic “Supporting Responsible Decisions.” We’ll have a roundtable discussion of how we can support students seeking to make moral choices in a culture that is decidedly unfriendly to such choices. Background reading for the discussion is this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, which gave JMU unwelcome national attention last fall by pointing out the effect of gender imbalance and other factors in promoting a hook-up culture.

Here is our spring schedule of meetings for discussion and study (all meetings at Mr. J’s Bagel’s, E. Market St.):

• January 16, 7:30 a.m.
• February 6, 7:30 a.m.
• March 6, 7:30 a.m.
• April 3, 7: 30 a.m.

If you’d like to be on a list to get e-mail reminders, send a note to reminders@faithatjmu.com.