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“Why Is This Stoplight So Long?”: Waiting as a Christian Practice

Koreans really dislike waiting. As I lead the 2.5-week study abroad program in Korea, travelling and learning with eleven American students from Seattle Pacific University, I am reminded of how fast-paced Korean culture is. There is a widespread joke that the “close door” button inside Korean elevators is the most worn out among all the…
November 10, 2026
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Our Students Misunderstand What It Means to Be an Excellent Student 

In our recent study of students’ goals, we find that almost every student implicitly understands our human pursuit of what I call Identity Excellence. They exhibit a desire to be excellent in their various sub-identities. Thus, they list goals such as “be a good friend to others,” “be a good brother,” “be a good wife,” “be…
November 9, 2026
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The Doorstop: A Stone of Remembrance

Dorm Fridge, Check. This summer I became a first-time college mom, and I prepared like one. Dorm fridge, check. Heavy duty moving bags with straps, check. Twin XL sheets, check. I read ALL the blogs and scrolled through ALL the posts written for nervous, excited first-time college mamas like me. Somewhere in all that advice…
November 6, 2026
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Active Learning: The Case for Doing

Most business students spend four years in a classroom before anyone lets them make real decisions with real money. They learn the four Ps, how to build a pro forma in Excel, and write a business plan for a coffee shop that will never open. Then we hand them a diploma and act surprised when…
November 5, 2026
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Avoid Fragility and Conformity, Not Debate 

I love to argue; my parents always told me I would become a lawyer, yet it was not the path for me. Regardless, I somehow found myself in a role as Dean of Students, which provided several opportunities for spirited discussion about what someone may, or may not have done. Despite those moments, when I…
November 4, 2026
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Secularism Is Dead; We Have Killed It

For much of the twentieth century, certain Western sociologists embraced the same prophecy (i.e., theory) with ease and total confidence. They claimed that as science continued to advance, global economies modernized, and literacy and education spread, religion would steadily retreat into history, dismissed as a superstition from a pre-enlightened era. Religious faith, we were told…
November 3, 2026

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Bringing Cultural Context to the Foreign Language Classroom and/or Introducing Culture (to a GenEd Curriculum) via Food

“companion” (n.)c. 1300, "one who accompanies or associates with another," from Old French compagnon "fellow, mate, friend, partner" (12c.), from Late Latin companionem (nominative companio), literally "bread fellow, messmate," from Latin com "with, together" (see com-) + panis "bread."Online Etymological Dictionary, “Companion,” (Etymonline.com, 2024), http://www.etymonline.com/search?q=companion. Enrollment in world language courses has seen a sharp decline in recent years.Kingson, Jennifer A. “College Students Bid…
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A Pope Who Doubts?

“Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance... If there was only certainty and no doubt , there would be no mystery and therefore no need for faith. Let us pray that God will grant us a Pope that doubts.” So implores Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, compellingly played by Ralph…
May 9, 2025
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The Joys and Perils of Silence: Lessons from Counseling

In my Counseling Theory & Practice class for undergraduate psychology students, the first skills practice session focuses on the reflection of feelings. As such, many of the guidelines for this session spotlight what to say and how to say it. For example, I provide students with a list of “feeling” words to add to their…
May 7, 2025
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Are We Educating Intellectual Wrestlers? Not with Chat GPT  

Religious institutions of higher education often distinguish themselves from their secular counterparts in terms of something called “purpose.” Sometimes the idea is that the two kinds have different purposes; sometimes it’s that one is purposeful in a way that the other is not (as in the argument that “secular” means trying to be “neutral” between…
May 5, 2025
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Seeing, and Understanding

“They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, ‘Do you see anything?’ He looked up and…
April 30, 2025
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Rediscovering Meaning

Outside the friendly confines of the CSR blogosphere, society is fragmenting (or perhaps you could say it is fragmented). Truth itself seems increasingly privatized and tribal, adrift in a sea of relativism, subjective interpretations, and bold-faced lies. Political debates have intensified into existential wars, revealing a culture that feels not merely divided, but antagonistic, hateful,…
April 29, 2025