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Liberty Champion Oct 28 2014
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Fall back an hour Sunday, Nov. 2
Ebola outbreak infects aid workers coming back to United States.
News
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Volleyball star Caroline Douglas finally healthy and dominating.
Sports
B3
Student Samantha Paradis raises money for children with cancer.
Feature
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INSIDE THE CHAMPIONWEATHER
Tomorrow: CLOUDY
SUNNYHIGH: 79 LOW: 54
Volume 32 | Issue 8 Lynchburg, VirginiaTuesday, OcTOber 28, 2014
SportsFeature
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NewsOpinion
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Families reunite over weekend B8
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Courtney russo | Liberty Champion
GAME TIME — Families enjoyed watching the Flames take on Gardner-Webb during family weekend.
VOTE
b e s t s e a t i n t h e h o u s eCanada recoversLiberty alumna, coach reflect on attack at Parliament building
Kelly family inspiresHall of Famer praises God for life lessons learned Emily Brown
For the first time in the family’s history, Jim Kelly, his wife, Jill Kelly, and their daughter, Erin Kelly, took the stage together to speak to students during Convo-cation Friday, Oct. 25. The three spoke about God’s goodness in the midst of trials, marking their first public appearance since Jim Kelly, a Hall of Fame quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, was declared cancer free nearly two months ago.
Before the three spoke, though, Bruce Smith, fel-low Hall of Famer, former teammate and friend of Jim Kelly, introduced the man he called “a living testament
of what God can do.” “I have such a great deal
of respect — a profound re-spect — for my brother Jim Kelly,” Smith said. “... He is an incredible source of strength (and) encourage-ment. … And even through these trials and tribulations, his faith has not wavered, and that’s what’s the most impressive thing to me.”
Smith and Jim Kelly then autographed four Hall of Fame footballs, and Jim Kelly threw them to mem-bers of the crowd, showing off some of the skills that led him to four consecutive Super Bowls.
During the question-and-answer format Convoca-tion, the three spoke about the many trials they have
faced as a family, highlight-ing the eight years spent with their son and brother Hunter Kelly, who was di-agnosed with Krabbe Dis-ease at only 4 months old.
“Words can’t articlate
the emotions you go through as a parent when they say your child is not going to live to see his
See KELLY, A3
Courtney russo | Liberty Champion
OPPURTUNITY — Students hear from NFL legend.
Omar [email protected]
Terror struck Canada for the second time in one week as gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau killed a soldier standing guard at the National War Memorial in Ot-tawa Wednesday, Oct. 22. He then stormed the Par-liament building, firing shots before being killed by Sergeant at Arms Kevin Vickers.
“I thought it was just some construction noise, be-cause we always have construction going on in the Parliament buildings of some sort or another,” Mem-ber of Parliament (MP) and President of the Treasury Board of Canada Tony Clement said. “Then we heard v e r y rapid-fire ‘rat-a-tat-tat’ sounds right outside t h e caucus doors. Clearly at that point, we
all knew that this was an attack.”With the sheer vol-
ume of gunfire just outside the door, Clement, Harper
and the other MPs feared that more than just one gunman were about to
barge into the room. Then “things happened very quickly,” and the prime minister was secured.
Clement and the MPs went to a hideout which in-cluded a TV and a desktop computer. They used the computer to keep up with the news on Twitter and interact with their followers.
“We wanted to know what was going on, obviously, because we didn’t know how many (shooters there were) or whether we were still at risk, and none of that became clear until hours later,” Clement said.
He sent periodic tweets to let his followers know he was OK and to answer occasional questions.
“That’s one of the great uses of the social media world — that you can have this direct contact and communicate a message, either personal or otherwise, instantaneously,” Clement said. “I think it was a good use of the medium at a time when there was confu-sion and, in some cases, panic.”
When Parliament was safe, thoughts shifted to the soldier murdered at the War Memorial. Twenty-four-year-old Cpl. Nathan Cirillo of the Argyll and South-ern Highlanders of Canada was standing guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier when reports say Ze-haf-Bibeau shot him in the back. Paramedics rushed Cirillo to the hospital, but were unable to save him.
Rebecca Noble, a Liberty alumna, met Cirillo in 2009 during her last year in the Royal Canadian Army Cadet Program. She took a Drill and Ceremonial course at Canadian Forces Base Borden, and Cirillo was her company quartermaster.
“Any time our platoon needed any form of military issued kit, he would be one of the two guys to make sure we had all we needed,” Noble said.
Noble was having dinner at Tim Horton’s when Cirillo’s name was released as the soldier killed.
“I didn’t even need to read the article,” she said. “I just saw his picture, and my heart sank as I recognized a familiar face from five years ago.”
Liberty Flames men’s Division 1 hockey Head Coach Kirk Handy said his team saw the news in the Raleigh-Durham airport on their way to Arizona.
“We think stuff like this wouldn’t happen in Canada — that it’s more isolated down to different parts of the world — and it became very real to a lot of Cana-dians to see what transpired up there in the last week or so with these two incidents,” Handy said. “Our hope and our prayer is that Canadians understand that there is evil out there, and people who are trying to take away freedoms that others have worked very hard (to maintain) for so many years here.”
In his address to the Canadian people the night of the shooting, Harper embodied that same spirit, say-ing that Canadians “will not be intimidated.”
View the complete article on the Liberty Champion website at liberty.edu/champion.
ADAMS is the advertising director.
Senate candidates
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Josh [email protected]
The Lynchburg City Coun-cil has rejected Liberty Univer-sity’s pleas for a crosswalk to be installed at the intersection of Odd Fellows Road and Albert Lankford Drive, despite growing concerns that the intersection is a safety risk for pedestrians who reside at the Annex dormitories.
The university sent a letter to Lynchburg City Manager Kim-ball Payne Oct. 17, stating an “urgent need” for a crosswalk. The request followed an accident that took place Oct. 15, in which a semi-truck hit 22-year-old Lib-erty student Kung Jin Oh at the intersection.
The accident placed Oh in criti-cal condition and has reignited Liberty’s request for a crosswalk, which the school has been try-ing to get installed since late 2012. Liberty University General Counsel David Corry said he does not feel optimistic about the city council creating a crosswalk or another acceptable safety measure between the Annex buildings.
“Unfortunately, I do not have any reason for optimism yet,” Corry said. “The city’s position is that it will put up caution signs but no crosswalk. That’s no better than the warnings about potential deer crossing in an area.”
Brett Richter, a junior at Lib-erty University who used to live at the Annex, says many students at the Annex risk running across the intersection in order to make the bus in time. He believes the lack of a crosswalk makes an already dangerous situation even worse.
“I actually did almost get hit,” Richter said. “You would always see someone running out franti-cally missing the bus because they
only come out every 20 minutes or so. I have actually witnessed people frantically trying to get across the street to the stop at the Annex, risking (their) lives run-ning across a two-lane highway.”
According to Corry, a crosswalk could be installed and marked in less than a day. However, Payne conveyed doubts that creating a crosswalk will be an effective measure to ensure safety in his re-sponse letter to Liberty’s request.
“Our concerns today remain as they were then — that simply painting a crosswalk on Old Fel-lows Road and erecting warning signs will not enhance pedestrian safety and may lead to a false sense of security that could be counter-productive,” Payne wrote. “There are a number of factors, includ-
ing limited site distance, poor lighting and the geometry of the road network, that present chal-lenges at this location and make a crosswalk, by itself, unsuitable.”
Payne explained that he would be willing to meet with Corry to de-velop a better solution to improve pedestrian safety.
“City staff still feels that the most appropriate approach would be a pedestrian-initiated traffic signal that would require vehicles to stop,” Payne wrote. “We ac-knowledge, however, that there may be other approaches that are consistent with best principles for traffic management.”
Some of those potential ap-proaches the city is consider-ing include a traffic study and consultation with the Virginia
Department of Transportation. Corry believes those approach-
es may take too much time con-sidering the number of students at risk. It will be almost a full year before the students housed in the Annex I and II will be moved on campus after the new dorm is completed.
Corry said Liberty has offered to pay the cost of marking the crosswalk and installing warning signs in order to ensure that the cost of implementing these mea-sures is not a point of contention for the city. Currently, Liberty is implementing a five-minute shut-tle bus between the two Annex facilities and redoubling efforts to get students to use them.
“(The efforts are) more encour-agement for students in Annex II
to use the shuttle busses and lon-ger schedules for the busses to operate than previously offered so students can know they are available,” Corry said. “The en-couragement comes in the form of hall meetings, personal encour-agement from Resident Assistant Connects and Prayer and Life Group Leader Connects, signage, other announcements and emails. Unfortunately, initial ridership fig-ures are disapprovingly low.”
Corry said that Oh is expected to recover from her accident and that the university is not plan-ning on pursuing any legal action against the city for not responding to earlier pleas for the crosswalk.
JANNEY is the asst. news editor.
newsA2 | October 28, 2014 | Liberty Champion
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City Council denies pleaProposal for a crosswalk near the Annex shot down despite recent accident
Josh Janney | Liberty Champion
DANGER — Students regularly have to cross two lanes of traffic by intersection where Kung Jin Oh was hit in order to get to their destination.
Airbag RecallOlivia [email protected]
An air bag is supposed to protect drivers and passengers involved in a collision. However, the mechanism that con-trols the bag has been known to fail, causing at least four deaths and more than 100 injuries, according to Automo-tive News. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administra-tion (NHTSA) issued a recall Monday, Oct. 20 for cars with faulty airbags.
According to the NHTSA website, about 7.8 million cars are involved in the recall in the United States. Affected brands include Toyota, Honda, Mazda, BMW, Nissan and Subaru, among others. The NHTSA urged these vehicle owners to visit their manufacturer’s website and search using their vehicle identification number (VIN) to confirm if the car is impacted by the recall.
The manufacturer of the defective airbags is Takata Cor-poration, a Tokyo-based supplier that manufactures seat belts, air bags and steering wheels, among other car parts, according to Fox News.
“The chemicals in the inflators were mishandled during manufacturer and can degrade, especially in humid condi-tions,” a USA Today article stated. “When that happens, the bags can inflate too forcefully, tearing loose from their mountings and blowing small pieces — shrapnel, in effect — into the faces and chests of occupants.”
According to USA Today, this is not the first time Takata Corporation airbags have been recalled.
The most recent case that sparked the NHTSA to take action happened Sept. 29 near Orlando, Florida. In the ac-cident, Hien Thi Tran, a 46-year-old woman, turned left and collided with another car head-on. Tran suffered severe neck wounds and lost her life in the accident.
“The original report on the death said the seat belt could not have cut the right side of her neck,” a Fox News article stated. “Also, there was no broken glass and no other appar-ent cause of the neck wounds.”
Though the problem seems to be mostly in humid areas, there have been some cases where the problem has occurred in areas with low humidity. One case was in 2009 when 18-year-old Ashley Parham was driving her 2001 Honda Ac-cord in a high school parking lot in Midwest City, Oklahoma. According to the Fox News article, “The airbag inflated and sent shards of metal into her neck, causing ok her death.”
NHTSA Deputy Administrator David Friedman said in a statement last week that car owners whose vehicles are on the recall list should get their cars checked immediately.
“Responding to these recalls, whether old or new, is es-sential to personal safety, and it will help aid our ongoing investigation into Takata airbags and what appears to be a problem related to extended exposure to consistently high humidity and temperatures,” Friedman said. “We’re leaving no stone unturned in our aggressive pursuit to track down the full geographic scope of this issue.”
Federal prosecutors are currently investigating Takata Corporation, and lawmakers are looking into NHTSA’s in-vestigation of the Takata Corporation, according to The Wall Street Journal.
To find out which cars have been recalled using the ve-hicle’s VIN number, visit vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin.
BROWN is a copy editor.
10/30 - John Mark McMillian Concert 8 p.m. | LaHaye Event Space | $5 for LU Students10/31 - Costume 5K 8 pm. | Camp Hydaway | LU Students: $5
- Halloween Movie Night: Casper 9:30 p.m.*directly following Costume 5K | Camp Hydaway11/1 - Dorm Olympics 1 p.m. | LaHaye Multipurpose Center11/4 - Election Day 6 a.m.-7 p.m. | Vines Center11/7 - Britt Nicole and For King & Country Concert 8 p.m. | LaHaye Event Space 11/8 - Valley View 5 Miler 6 a.m. | Camp Hydaway | Register online11/11- - Coffee House Tryouts LaHaye Event Space *Tryouts will be held each evening from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
11/14
KELLY continued from A1
second birthday,” Jill Kelly said. “… (In that moment), all that I know is the worldly foundation that I’ve stood on my entire life, and that comes crumbling down in an instant.”
Though Hunter Kelly’s disease was incurable, Jill Kelly acknowl-edged that the diagnosis pushed her to rely fully on God.
“(I)f there was a worldly answer or a cure or a treatment or some-thing like that in that moment, that’s what I would’ve continued to put my hope in," she said. "… It took the suffering of our one and only son to bring us to the only suffering that matters, and that’s the suffering of God’s one and only son.”
According to Jim Kelly, his wife, whom he described as a “strong woman of faith” and praised for her strength in the midst of all the family’s hardships, helped him to find Christ following her own life-changing decision.
Now, Jim Kelly said his faith is what has given him strength to beat the cancer that once lived in his upper jaw.
“Even though I’ve been strick-en with cancer and I’m still in the fight of my life, I know God has
plans for me, and I believe that,” Jim Kelly said
According to Erin Kelly, a ju-nior at Liberty who is in the pro-cess of writing a book about her family’s experiences, she began to understand the importance of her father’s faith when she heard him tell NBC reporters he was not afraid to die as he was under-going treatments. Erin Kelly ex-plained that in the midst of all his pain, her dad showed what it truly means to be “Kelly tough.”
“I’ve never seen him be so weak, but I’ve never seen him be so strong, because he has de-pended fully and completely on the strength of Christ,” Erin Kel-ly said. “… That’s where ‘Kelly tough’ came from — our strength that we find in Christ.”
Erin Kelly explained that the struggles her father has en-dured and the sacrifices her fam-ily has made have not discour-aged them, but rather have given them an opportunity to rejoice in God’s goodness.
“(My dad’s battle with cancer) allowed (our family) to look to God’s strength and say, ‘Lord, you are good even in the midst of this. You are good, and you are taking care of every detail, and we have nothing to fear because we know
that in death, we have life. We have life abundantly.’”
Jim Kelly also explained that, in addition to all he and his family have learned over the last months, he is grateful for the opportunity to make an impact on others’ lives.
“If I can make a difference
for kids out there, if I can make a difference for adults out there by what I am going through, thank the good Lord,” Jim Kelly said. “… For all those people out there … that are having a tough time, … don’t stop, just fight. Fight until the end. … I live
every day like it’s my last, but I en-joy every day. So enjoy every day that you can, and be blessed with what you have.”
BROWN is the editor-in-chief.
Liberty Champion | October 28, 2014 | A3news
Annual food drive announced
Paid for by Ed Gillespie for Senate
“We understand that there is not just economic value in labor, there is human dignity in work.”
vote ed gillespie on tuesday, November 4th
Ed GillespieLiberty University Convocation
October 1, 2014
www.EdForSenate.com
vote for a new & better direction
Center for CSER begins Thanksgiving initiative for Southside residentsLauren [email protected]
Liberty University will be hosting its fourth annual Thanksgiving Food Drive in an effort to collect nonperishable food for those in need in the Southside counties of Virginia.
According to Dr. Darren Wu, assistant professor and Christian/Community Ser-vice (CSER) coordinator, the drive will start Nov. 1. The last chance to donate will be during Convocation Nov. 19. Donations can be dropped off at several bins located throughout the Vines Center, where mem-bers of the Student Government Associa-
tion will assist in the collection process. According to Wu, Liberty collected ap-
proximately 1,300 pounds of food last year. Wu hopes the numbers will increase this year and has challenged students, faculty and staff to give.
In last year’s drive, Sodexo, Liberty’s food service provider, matched dona-tions pound for pound for the first time. Sodexo will again match donations in this year’s initiative.
“(The Center for CSER is) excited about the partnership between Sodexo and Lib-erty in meeting the needs in (Southside Vir-ginia),” Wu said.
According to Wu, this is a very tangible way of helping those who are less fortunate
or down on their luck. “(This) is a way we can demonstrate that
we have a live faith that is not just about words, that we have a faith that is backed by actions,” Wu said.
In addition to the Vines Center, there are several other collection points, Wu noted. Students can take food to the Reber-Thom-as Dining Hall, the Hill City Bistro at the Annex and the Center for CSER in Green Hall, room 1880.
All donations will be distributed by the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank in Southside Virginia, which encompasses the counties of Patrick through Sussex, Buckingham and below. According to Wu, the food is delivered around Thanksgiving.
Wu stressed that students and staff should be good stewards of what God has given them, and that it is not a huge sacrifice to give a couple cans of food.
“A lot of times we communicate the gos-pel far more with our actions than with our words,” Wu said. “This type of stuff that we do earns us the right to be heard.”
Students hoping to help local food banks year round can volunteer with several or-ganizations, including the Lynchburg Daily Bread, the Salvation Army and select local churches.
GLOSSNER is a news reporter.
Courtney russo | Liberty Champion
MUTUAL APPRECIATION — Football reaches across generations during Convocation.
I am frustrated with UNC, and for the first time in my life, the frustration is not born out of my disdain for the basketball team.
The school’s logo and the Tarheel sym-bol — even just the color Carolina blue — automatically elic-its a vocal expression of disgust from me as a diehard Duke fan. This time, however, my annoyance is caused by school of-ficials who turned a blind eye to, or par-ticipated in, dishonest practices for almost two decades.
According to a 131-page report by
former U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein released last Wednes-day, 3,100 students — including nearly 1,500 student athletes — were enrolled in paper courses in the former African and Afro-American (AFAM) Studies depart-ment between 1993 and 2011. The report states that students in the courses were only required to submit papers and were not required to attend classes.
Wainstein’s report indicates that for-mer AFAM Department Chairman Julius Nyang’oro and retired office administrator Deborah Crowder were most responsible in the academic fraud. According to the re-port, Crowder was responsible for starting the classes, as she wanted to help strug-gling students. The classes had no faculty involvement, with Crowder managing and liberally grading each of the papers.
Additionally, while Nyang’oro and Crowder seem to have played the biggest role, several other school officials, in-cluding academic advisors for the teams, seemed to have had at least some knowl-
edge of the bogus classes as well. These facts merely scratch the surface
of the findings in Wainstein’s investiga-tion, but they are clear examples of all the things a university should not do.
For such widespread academic fraud like this, in which students — and specifi-cally student athletes — clearly received the benefit of good grades despite a lack of quality work, to go on for 18 years is unimaginable and unacceptable.
Nyang’oro and Crowder facilitated and encouraged dishonesty just to help student athletes be eligible to play.
“For all she did through the years for UNC athletics, Crowder needs to have her jersey hanging from the Smith Center raf-ters,” Yahoo Sports columnist Dan Wetzel wrote. “Her number can be 4.0.”
It is completely ridiculous that nobody put a stop to the antics of the AFAM duo. The idea of willful ignorance from university officials is displayed in the fact that the paper courses were offered for so many years. Apparently nobody cared that
so many students received good grades for classes they put almost no work into at the hands of a non-faculty member. Or at least they did not care enough to do anything about it. Instead, they turned a blind eye to the situation. They showed no integrity.
“This was flat-out, full-on cheating.” Wetzel wrote. “It’s not just breaking UNC and NCAA rules, but the basic tenets of college sports. This was an institutional-ized way for students to maintain eligibility and win bowl games and Final Fours while not teaching them a (darn) thing.”
While everyone involved in the scandal may have thought they were helping the university and the student athletes, whose main goal was to just play ball, they have done exactly the opposite. The school’s name has been sullied. Students enrolled in the classes did not gain any knowledge as a result. And while the athletes involved may have left UNC with shiny champion-ship rings on their fingers, they did not leave with a legitimate degree.
Elijah [email protected]
Less than two months ago, former Se-attle mega-church pastor Mark Driscoll stepped down from his position as lead pastor of Seattle’s Mars Hill Church. Two weeks ago, Driscoll officially announced his resignation from the church he helped to found 18 years ago.
Well known for his brash, firebrand preaching style, Driscoll has been at the center of several controversies throughout his pastorate. Allegations of pride, sex-ism, misogyny, bullying, mishandling of money and plagiarism were leveled against Driscoll. While he repented of every legiti-mate accusation, a recently surfaced explicit crude forum penned by Driscoll 14 years ago served as a breaking point, leading to his removal from authority by the elders of the church and his subsequent resignation.
The accusations surrounding Driscoll, no matter how true or accurate, and his in-volvement in the controversies at Mars Hill have clearly had a negative effect on not only American Christian culture, but on the church as a whole.
The first and most harmful aspect of the Driscoll controversies is that they were made public on a nationwide scale. Wheth-er in blogs written by other pastors or let-ters from elders asking Driscoll to step down, the Driscoll saga has reached an un-healthy level of national scrutiny.
I am not going to lie — I mail my articles published in this paper to my grandmother. She likes getting them, and I like knowing that at least one person reads them. I dis-tinctly remember her texting me after re-ceiving my first article on Driscoll for the Liberty Champion. She told me she liked the article and agreed with the position I took on extending favor toward Driscoll,
but reminded me of a verse in Hebrews 12:6 about how important discipline is in the Christian life and how it comes from God. However, the verse is preceded by a condition in Matthew 18 saying disci-pline and resolve for interpersonal conflict within the Church must be carried out at a personal and local level.
Many Christians have found themselves split, taking opinions on an issue that should never have left the walls of the Se-attle church.
Former Mars Hill worship pastor Dustin Kensrue, who resigned in the aftermath of Driscoll’s removal from authority, re-affirmed the large role that the outside influence has played.
“I would encourage you to not muddy the issues by engaging in personal attacks and becoming bitter,” Kensrue said in an open letter to the Mars Hill congregation
announcing his resignation. “I honestly be-lieve that (the Board of Advisors and Ac-countability and Executive Elders) love you and that they love Jesus. But I also believe that they are blind to what is really going on and blind to what the roots of the prob-lems are. I believe that they are treating the media as their conscience, rather than heeding the voice of the Holy Spirit and the voice of the elders.”
Believers throughout the country have taken sides and fought over the actions of Driscoll. His behavior and subsequent resignation have been popular subjects of conversation and casual judgment through-out Christian culture, and the effect has only resulted in negativity for Driscoll, his local church and, on a much smaller but more important scale, his family.
While addressing a conference of pastors last week at the Gate-
way Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, Driscoll, a clearly broken man, told the audience of hostility toward his family.
“We’ve moved three times now for safety issues,” Driscoll said. “People arrested at our home, death threats, address posted online, all kinds of things and, more re-cently, it’s gotten very severe.”
Speaking of a family camping trip, Driscoll said he “woke up in the morning, about 6:30 or so, and huge rocks about the size of baseballs come flying at my kids, 8, 10, 12 years of age.”
While much of Driscoll’s punishment has been self-inflicted, nothing saddens me more than hearing terrible stories like these. The fact that we, as Christians, are so ready to turn and react in harmful ways to mem-bers of our body of believers is extremely discouraging. Gateway Church Pastor Rob-ert Morris introduced the church’s con-ference, saying, “It is very sad that in the Church, we are the only army that shoots at our wounded.”
While there is no question that what Driscoll did was wrong, the public scale to which his actions and resignation have been elevated has not prompted a spirit of love, forgiveness and restoration, but one of judgment and hurt. The publicity of Driscoll’s actions cannot be reversed, but Christians need to be sure that they are treating him and his discipline in a way that is in accord with Galatians 6:1-2 (ESV).
“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
SMITH is an opinion writer.
Kimberly [email protected]
In a time when the United States is inching ever closer to a post-Christian culture, under-standing the sacrifice our pastors make and honoring them dur-ing Pastor Appreciation Month is now more important than ever before.
For one month out of the year, the world is reminded of the in-credible work church leadership accomplishes and is encouraged to show their gratitude.
“Pastors give their lives for the flock,” Elmer Towns, Lib-erty University cofounder and author of more than 190 books, said. “When you become a pas-tor, it’s 24/7 … You are on call all the time.”
Pastor Appreciation Month, a time specifically for showing your thankfulness for your pastors, oc-curs annually during October.
“God has established his au-thority in the church through the leadership of pastors,” Matt
Willmington, director of min-istries at Thomas Road Baptist Church, said. “Paul says that elders are worthy of honor in 1 Timothy 5:17.”
The Bible describes the impor-tance of obeying our leaders and respecting their authority in He-brews 13:17 (NIV), which says, “Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, be-cause they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.”
In today’s society, it has be-come even more important to rally around our church leaders. To boil it down, it is our respon-sibly to let leadership know they are doing right by us. And when we show thanks to them, we en-courage them to remain confident in their convictions and faithful to their beliefs.
“Commendation and honest appreciation has great power,” Towns said. “When you begin to support a pastor, it raises the bar for him to do even more for you.”
Being a leader in a church is a position that is constantly criti-cized and underestimated by so-ciety and the congregation itself.
“I think today there are church-es that think a pastor ought to be like hired help,” Towns said. “They don’t realize that he has a higher calling and higher obliga-tion than to the local church — it’s to Jesus Christ himself.”
Talking about the emotional toll the ministry can take on a pastor, Towns also said that the most difficult thing to deal with is having to “put up with ungrateful people,”
“The hardest thing is being misunderstood and complained about behind your back,” Towns said. “People on their way home, before they have roast beef for lunch, they have roast pastor in the car home, criticizing him for his sermon and what he’s done and how they think they could do better.”
Making the decision to give thanks to a pastor can be a very easy one. Showing recognition can be done in countless ways.
Most are simple, others can be extravagant, but all get the point across.
While gifts and celebrations in October are encouraging, church leadership should be cherished all year long for the sacrifices they make for their congregations. Honoring and showing grati-tude should not be a chore, but rather a lifestyle.
“We honor (pastors) by listen-ing to their teaching and follow-
ing the spiritual guidance they give the church and us personally,” Willmington said.
Pastors stand by us all year long. Take a minute to write a note, 30 seconds to say a prayer or ask your pastor how you could help him. No matter how you choose to do it, show appreciation and send some love their way.
STEFANICK is an opinion writer.
OPINIONA4 October 28, 2014
by Emily Brown
Driscoll saga too public
October: a time for gratitude
Seattle pastor resigns due to mounting accusations against his character
Pastor Appreciation Month gives congregants chance to show gratefulness
GooGle ImaGes
TOUGH — Former lead Pastor Mark Driscoll resigned from the church he founded.
GooGle ImaGes
HONORING — Pastor Appreciation Month is celebrated annually.
Winter is coming. These three words really have no prac-
tical meaning when you have a roof over your head, a designer coat, new jeans and a pair of boots made of genuine leather.
But imagine with me for a moment. For-get your coffee and your closet full of win-ter clothes. All you have is the shirt on your back, the outfit you had on when you were forced out of your home at 1 a.m., running to escape genocide.
That is life for the nearly one million displaced Christians in Northern Iraq. We cannot allow physical distance or theologi-cal differences to silence the urgent call for help. This is a threat to human rights on an international scale, and it affects everyone.
Johnnie Moore, chief of staff for Hol-lywood producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, just returned from a trip to Iraq and Jordan, assessing the plight of the Christian Church in the embattled region.
“(The situation) is every bit as bad as I expected,” Moore told me.
Many of the Orthodox Christians feel abandoned and forgotten by the West. Moore described them feeling as if the only time the Western Church cares is when they are trying to convert them to Evangelicalism.
“Christians were everywhere — on the streets, in abandoned buildings, in canvas tents that are not waterproof or winter-ized,” Moore wrote in a press release of his trip to Iraqi Kurdistan and Jordan. “Hav-ing survived eradication by terror groups (ISIS), they now might die naturally from the coming harsh winter.”
I would put the survival of the Arab Christians in the non-negotiable list. After running from their homelands to escape genocidal attacks from Islamic radicals, we cannot allow these people to perish. We privileged Christians so quickly forget that our faith has its roots buried deep in the mountains of the Middle Eastern world.
Burnett and Downey, two of Holly-wood’s most outspoken Christians, are partnering with the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) to raise $25 million to help these Christians and other minorities in Iraq and Syria. According to the United Nations, 800,000 people in the area urgent-ly need shelter, and 2.8 million are desper-ately seeking food.
“To lose the presence of Christians in the birthplace of Christianity is to acceler-ate instability, while losing precious insight about how best to work in the region,” IGE Director Chris Seiple, who accompanied Moore in Iraq, wrote in the announcement of the Cradle of Christianity Fund. “With
the region on the brink, a strategy to rescue, restore and return fleeing Christians is not only the right thing to do, it is in everyone’s interest to do so.”
Winter is coming, so we must move now. And we cannot move alone.
Moore and Seiple met with King Abdullah II of Jordan and the patriarchs of the historic Eastern churches in the re-gion. The Muslim leader is recognized as a direct descendant of Mohammed, so his insistence that Christians are crucial to the identity, stability and well being of Jordan is a big deal.
It is a big deal for the persecuted minori-ties in the Middle East.
It is a big deal, because Burnett, Downey, Moore and Seiple are not allowing their theological differences to deny help to those in need.
It is a big deal because, according to the UN, they admittedly will only be meeting the needs of 40 percent of the displaced minorities.
In his announcement of the $25-million plan, Seiple wrote that the partnership will honor God, include all demographics in a non-proselytizing way and seek the involve-ment of regional leaders.
The world is enormous, and the prob-lems we face are expansive. To confine ourselves to working only with those we
agree with is shortsighted, to say the least.The fund, to which Burnett and Downey
have already donated $1 million, is exactly what the Western Church needs to be do-ing — working with the majority of people to help the minorities, the persecuted, the forgotten and the abandoned.
“Donations will go through the churches directly to those who need it the most, and primarily through the Ancient Churches,” Moore said of how the partnership with Abdullah will work. “They know their com-munities best — where they are and their needs. We will also work to identify and vet other partners as we go.”
Partnership with those in the region is the only real way to solve this. They have the know-how and the relationships. All they need is the resources. With the help of Muslim, Christian and nonreligious allies, the collaborative effort will include three phases — “rescue, restore and return.”
The rescue phase will pour money into Iraqi and Syrian churches that best know how to identify and meet the needs of the native people, and it will provide win-terized shelter. At the same time, the sec-ond phase, “restore,” will begin. A small amount of money will be designated to es-tablish a center to hold records of wrongs committed against Christians and other minorities, while also housing stories of
hope, redemption and partnership between Christians and Muslims.
The third phase, “return,” will aim to “rebuild multi-faith communities of citi-zens under a consensus constitution,” ac-cording to IGE’s strategy. The long-term goal is to facilitate reintegration once the region is secure. Ideally, moving the na-tive Christians back to their homeland, to “maintain a Christian witness and religious diversity in the region.”
For today, winter is coming and Burnett and Downey wanted to act.
“(They) wanted to do something for religious freedom now — focused on the plight of Christians, but serving people of all faiths (or no faith),” Seiple wrote of the producers’ passion for the displaced minorities.
This is a crossroads for Christian-ity. A crossroads that cannot be ig-nored. A crossroads that is going to take everyone to solve.
“Things are very urgent,” Moore said. “We have to move fast. Winter is coming. This week’s rain will soon be snow.”
To learn more or to donate, visit cradlefund.org.
GOINS-PHILLIPS is the opinion editor.
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“One thing that is constant here at Lib-erty is change. Everyone hates change but loves progress.”
So said Liberty University President Jerry Falwell as he addressed the student body and faculty be-fore introducing David Nasser, Liberty’s senior vice president of spiri-tual development.
He is right. Change is hard. Why? Maybe be-cause we are creatures of habit and long for life to roll along exactly how we think it should. Or maybe, if we dig a little deeper and do a bit of soul searching, we will discover that, much to our dismay, we all idolize or covet our comfort to a certain degree. What do I mean? Although we might not realize it or recognize it, we all crave the status quo to some extent.
We do not like change unless, of
course, it benefits us in some way. We like it when things are good in life and stay good. And if we find ourselves in a place of transformation or change, we lever-age every tactic available to run from it rather than embrace the pain. Yet, life is change — grow and outgrow. The only thing that stays the same is Jesus.
To close out Convocation for the week, students, staff and families were intro-duced to a little NFL football and a fam-ily testimony of God’s relentless grace, mercy and love. That family was mine. At approximately 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 24, my mom, dad and I took the stage at Liberty University to share our hearts with the entire student body. After read-ing an article that I wrote for the sports section of the Buffalo News, titled “I’m not afraid to die” (www.jillk.org/jour-nal/), Nasser felt led to invite my family to speak. I have had the opportunity to speak in front of people before and have been doing interviews with my parents for
years. However, I have never experienced a stage quite like this before. I was, and still am, overwhelmed, to say the least.
It will never be easy, no matter who the crowd is, to share what God has done in our lives. Maybe that is because it involves our greatest pain — the life and death of my younger brother Hunter. But God is immeasurably merciful and good, and he has allowed our greatest heartbreak to be-come our greatest joy because of Jesus.
And that is not the only battle our family has had to face.
To give some of the backstory, my dad is a retired NFL quarterback and Hall of Famer, and he has been battling cancer — squamous cell carcinoma of the up-per jaw — for the past two years. Just re-cently, after numerous biopsies, my father was told that the cancer is gone. Praise the Lord! In the midst of our family’s public battle, we had the opportunity to appear on numerous national media outlets. In addition to sharing the trials and heart-
breaks of dealing with cancer, our family was able to share the greater hope that we have in Christ. It has been a very difficult, yet incredibly rewarding, experience. God has allowed me to talk about my faith in ways I never dreamed possible. But I will admit, getting up on the Convocation stage in front of thousands of my peers was both daunting and overwhelming.
I do not know about you, but I want to live out of my comfort zone, radical for God. God does not call us to live a life of comfort. If we lived in that place, then why would we need Jesus? Our dis-comfort is the platform to display God’s strength. We all seem to long for comfort, but really, what we truly long for is Jesus. If getting out of my comfort zone will draw me into a deeper knowledge and love for my Savior, then there is nothing I want more.
KELLY
© Copyright 2014 Liberty University, Inc.All Rights Reserved
Winter threatens Arab Church If the Western Church does not act, the faith’s heritage might not survive
Photo Provided
URGENT — Johnnie Moore and Chris Seiple met with King Abdullah II of Jordan and the Patriarchs from Jordan, Syria and Iraq.
newsA6 | October 28, 2014 | Liberty Champion
U.S. SENATE CANDIDATESPOL I T IC AL P ROF I LES
ED GILLESPIE
Ed Gillespie, a Republican, was born the son of an Irish immigrant. He grew up work-ing in the grocery store his parents owned. According to his campaign website, neither of his parents ever went to college, but they strongly en-couraged him to attend.
He worked his way through college at the Catholic Uni-versity of America in Wash-ington, D.C. He is married to his wife Cathy, and they have two daughters and a son.
Gillespie served as a long-time policy and communications aide to former House Majority Leader Dick Armey. In 1994, he was a principal drafter of the Republican campaign platform called the Contract with America, which helped the Republi-cans gain control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. According to his campaign website, Gillespie also served as chairman of the Republican National Commit-tee, and in 2004, he became the first Grand Old Party chairman in 80 years to preside over a Republican White House, House and Senate.
In 2000, Gillespie co-founded a bipartisan public affairs group called Quinn Gillespie and Associates, which is one of Washington, D.C.’s premier government relations firms. He served as counselor to the president in the last 18 months of the Bush Administration. According to his campaign website, he has also served as chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, chairman of the Republican State Leadership Com-mittee, and was chairman of Bob McDonnell’s successful gubernatorial campaign in 2009.
Outside of politics, Gillespie served on the Board of Trust-ees of the Catholic University of America. He also volunteered for five years as a basketball coach at St. Louis Catholic School. He, his wife, and their son are involved with Crossover Basket-ball and Scholars Academy, an organization in India that uses basketball as a way to encourage academic participation.
According to his website, Gillespie stands for conservative principles of limited, effective government and personal liberty. He has spent his political career fighting for these principles to help make the lives of Virginians better and more prosperous. According to his campaign website, his goal is to make sure that the American dream that brought his father to the U.S. remains within reach for future generations.
Q: Why should a college student vote for you?A: Under the Obama-Warner policies, college students preparing to graduate are entering a job market in which 46 percent of recent graduates are unemployed or un-deremployed. And, they hold a combined $1.2 trillion of student loan debt.
I put forward a five-point economic growth plan called the Ed Gillespie Agen-da for Economic Growth, which would be the polar opposite of the failed phi-losophy of diminished expectations we have endured for the last six years with Mark Warner and President Obama. My policies would get our economy mov-ing again and provide opportunities for college graduates.
I will also work to balance the federal budget, to stop imposing more and more debt on future generations and save entitle-ment programs for future generations.
Q: What, if any, legislation could be con-sidered to give religious institutions, such as Liberty University, the right to be ex-empt from federal mandates that violate their conscience?A: The First Amendment guarantees our religious liberty. It is a violation of our Constitution for the government to abridge freedom of conscience, and I would fight any attack on this fundamental right.
Q: What plans do you have or support to help alleviate student loan debt while simultaneously ensuring quality higher education? A: While implementing my plan for eco-nomic growth will help with job prospects, we also need to improve financial aid and higher education. Reform proposals such as correlating student loan payments with income levels would give these new entrants in our workforce the ability to manage their payments effectively.
We need to do better in informing stu-dents earlier in the school selection pro-cess. FAFSA is complicated, confusing and time-consuming. This is why I support simplifying the process and accelerating the timeline for when students learn about their financial aid eligibility.
Additionally, a key hindrance to greater choice and cost effectiveness in higher ed-ucation is the antiquated federal accredita-tion system. By turning the system over to the states, with the Department of Educa-tion maintaining a role in overseeing fed-eral dollars, a focus on decentralization and a reduction of outdated regulatory barri-ers could enhance competition throughout higher education.
Q: What is your position on abortion?A: I am pro-life and believe we should fos-ter a community and culture that respects life in every stage.
Q: With the recent spread of terrorism, particularly ISIS, how do you think the U.S. should respond?A: Under the policies of President Obama and Sen. Warner, our federal government is doing too many things better left to state and local governments or the private sector and failing at too many things it should be doing right — our national secu-rity is paramount among them. This White House has described the president’s ap-proach to foreign policy as one of “leading from behind.” There is another word for that, and that word is “following.” When the U.S. recedes from a leadership role in the world, the world becomes a more dangerous place.
The Unites States must resume its lead-ership role in the world, and that starts with repealing the arbitrary and dangerous cuts triggered by sequestration, which, as noted by the bipartisan National Defense Panel, was a “serious strategic misstep.”
I believe the president must seek an Au-thorization for Use of Military Force when he believes it is necessary to take military action like he is against ISIS. Congress has a constitutional role in deciding to send our military into harm’s way.
Q: What are your thoughts on the use of executive action? A: The executive branch has authority to faithfully execute the laws, but it does not have authority to create laws or ignore those that have been enacted. Obama has repeatedly abused executive authority.
Q: What are your top three priorities concerning congressional legislation?A: My priority is economic growth, specif-ically the policies I put forward in The Ed Gillespie Agenda for Economic Growth: •Replacing Obamacare: I will vote to re-place Obamacare with a real reform plan that puts patients first and provides more affordable options. •Unleashing American Energy: I believe in an energy approach that embraces both traditional and alternative energy resourc-es. We can protect our environment while ensuring access to the energy resources.•Tax and Regulatory Relief: We need to reduce one of the highest marginal busi-ness tax rates in the world to make Ameri-can companies more competitive, while at the same time easing the tax burden on individuals and families. •Education Reform: I will work tirelessly to empower parents to make the educa-tional choices that are in their children’s best interests. •Cutting Wasteful Spending: One of the most important steps we can take to get America’s economy moving again is to rein in reckless federal spending. As senator, I will support a Balanced Budget Amend-ment and fight to cut wasteful spending.
Q: What separates you from other candidates? A: Mark Warner is not the senator he said he would be, not the senator so many Virginians hoped he would be. He said he would be an independent voice for us, but votes with President Obama 97 percent of the time, including casting a deciding vote for Obamacare, voting for $7 trillion in debt and $1 trillion in new taxes and sup-porting cap-and-trade legislation.
Virginians need a senator who will fight for economic opportunity — policies that create jobs, raise take-home pay, lift people out of poverty, hold down health care costs and reduce energy prices. I will be a check on President Obama, not a blank check for him. We cannot afford six more years of the last six years.
ROBERT SA RVIS
Q: Why should a college student vote for you?A: College students did not put us in the mess we are in — the $17 trillion national debt, the wars, the surveillance state, the highest incarceration rate in the world. Both Democrats and Republicans share responsibility. But young people are the ones who will bear the cost either today or tomorrow.
Voting, for me, is also an investment in improving Virginia politics. The bipartisan problem is not just in Washington, D.C. It is in Richmond, too. Both parties are em-broiled in the scandal about offering a state senator competing enticements to encour-age him to resign or stay in his post. On average, nearly 50 percent of House of Delegates races and 40 percent of Virginia Senate races go unopposed. A third major party could shake all that up and make Vir-ginia elections more competitive and clean up politics in Virginia. But the Republicans and Democrats have schemed to stack the deck against third parties. That would all change if I get more than 10 percent (of votes) Nov. 4.
Q: What, if any, legislation could be con-sidered to give religious institutions, such as Liberty University, the right to be ex-empt from federal mandates that violate their conscience?A: The main problem is that we have too many mandates. The recent healthcare controversy is a government-created prob-lem. Religious liberty, like liberty more gen-erally, is threatened whenever government gets involved in every detail of our lives and our personal and economic affairs. Ev-erything becomes political, people dig their heels in, and Republicans and Democrats demagogue the issue. If elected, I would be a principled advocate for liberty across the board. For instance, religious liberty is also jeopardized by a mass surveillance state.
Q: What plans do you have or sup-port to help alleviate student loan debt while simultaneously ensuring quality higher education?
A: One of the problems with higher edu-cation is there is very little incentive to limit costs. That tends to happen when you have third-party payers, and that is essentially what you have with student loans. There is a tremendous amount of bureaucratic bloat in higher education, and tuition keeps going up and up as we continue to subsi-dize an outdated, 20th century model of higher education that does not work for everyone. With the technological advanc-es we have, costs should be decreasing, not increasing.
I am optimistic about some of the re-forms former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is trying at Purdue University: freezing tu-ition, cutting administrative bloat and cre-ating incentive prizes for academic depart-ments that develop three-year degrees. Q: What is your position on abortion?A: There is no role for the federal government to ban, regulate or subsidize abortion.
Q: With the recent spread of terrorism, particularly ISIS, how do you think the U.S. should respond?A: The United States must resist more foreign policy adventurism. Any new mili-tary engagements should be authorized by Congress, as required by the Constitution. The power to declare war lies with Con-gress, but both major parties have let the executive branch get away with launching new campaigns without authorization.
Q: What are your thoughts on the use of executive action?A: Presidents in both parties have ex-ceeded their executive authority, and Con-gresses in which both parties have had majorities have failed to hold the executive branch accountable.
You hear more conservatives complain about it now, but just a few years ago, it was liberals complaining about executive overreach under George W. Bush. Now, Democratic partisans look the other way. I believe that neither major party, and
certainly neither Mark Warner nor Ed Gillespie, can be trusted to rein in execu-tive overreach. The Senate needs a leader who is willing to fight it, no matter what the letter is next to the president’s name.
Q: What are your top three priorities concerning congressional legislation?A: It has been more than a year since the revelations about the size and scope of the surveillance state. We keep hearing about reform, but it has not happened. The U.S. House passed a very flawed bill. The Sen-ate has yet to have a vote on anything. I would immediately fight to end bulk data collection and restore civil liberties.
It is also shameful that Congress has abandoned its constitutional responsibil-ity and allowed the president to unilater-ally launch new military campaigns. If elected, I would fight to end the imperial presidency and hold the executive branch accountable.
Finally, we face a $17 trillion national debt. Both parties keep kicking the can down the road. I pledge to make debt-re-duction and balanced budgets a priority. I support simplifying the tax code, reform-ing entitlements and cutting bloated bud-gets — including military spending. And I support a balanced budget amendment and protections against accounting gimmicks.
Q: What separates you from other candidates?A: I am the only candidate in the race ac-tively talking about issues like civil liberties. In fact, not a single question was asked about the surveillance state at any of the three debates. If elected, I would fight to defend the entire Bill of Rights.
Washington is broken, and I am the only candidate in the race who, if elected, will do anything to fix it. Warner has not been the radical centrist he promised he would be, and Gillespie is the ultimate Washing-ton insider. I am effectively running against two incumbents. Both share responsibility for the $17 trillion national debt, the wars and the mass surveillance state.
These two pages carry short biographies and question-and-answer articles for three candidates running for seats in the U.S. Senate.
The biographies for the candidates were written by members of the Liberty Champion staff from several sources. All candidates were provided the same questions and were given a word count of 800 words. Answers were
only edited by the Liberty Champion staff for grammar and Associated Press Style.
The candidates are placed in alphabetical order by last name.
The general election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 4. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information on polling places, visit voterinfo.sbe.virginia.gov .
EDITOR’S NOTE
Robert Sarvis, campaigning under the Libertarian Party, is vying for a seat in the U.S. Senate in this year’s general election.
Sarvis grew up in West Springfield, Virginia, and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Sarvis completed his under-graduate studies at Harvard University and the University of Cambridge, where he re-ceived his bachelor’s degree in mathematics. He then received his master’s in economics at George Mason University and his Juris Doctorate at New York University School of Law.
Sarvis has worked in a slew of different capacities, according to his website, including working as an entrepreneur, a small-business owner, a software engineer, a mobile-app developer, a math teacher and a lawyer.
Sarvis ran for governor of Virginia in the 2013 race, glean-ing 6.5 percent of the vote, totaling 146,084 ballots cast, com-pared to Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s 1,069,789 votes and Ken Cuc-cinelli’s 1,013,354 votes. After the hard-fought race, Republican supporters accused Sarvis of being a stooge for the Demo-cratic Party, claiming the votes he garnered likely would have gone to Cuccinelli.
Sarvis shot back in a Richmond-Times article, saying it was a groundless claim.
“We can put the truth out there, but we still get a lot of re-sponses from conservatives who claim that I was a Democratic plant and that I am again this year,” Sarvis said. “The most you can do is to say, ‘Well, it’s not true.’”
Sarvis has been pushing forward values that focus on bal-ancing the budget, simplifying taxes and reforming entitle-ment programs. He has also been emphasizing the need to end surveillance programs on American citizens and increase personal liberties.
Sarvis responded to the July 26 debate between Gillespie and Warner, pointing out the lack of discussion concerning mass surveillance programs.
“There is zero daylight of difference between Mark Warner and Ed Gillespie on civil liberties and mass surveillance, but Virginia voters won’t know that from the debate because those issues didn’t even come up,” Sarvis said. “I’m the only candi-date in the race even talking about these issues, and I’m the only candidate in the race who will fight to protect liberties.”
Sarvis currently resides in Annandale, Virginia, with his wife and two children.
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Find out where each candidate stands on important issues by reading their Q&A inthe Oct. 21 and 28 editions of theLiberty Champion newspaper.
U.S. SENATE CANDIDATESPOL I T IC AL P ROF I LES
MARK WARNER
Q: Why should a college student vote for you?A: Students at Liberty University, and across the country, deserve to have public officials who are willing to reach across the aisle to provide college students with a fair shot at success.
As both governor of Virginia and now as your senator, I have worked with Re-publicans and Democrats to create jobs, make government more transparent, and embrace new funding methods that pro-vide entrepreneurs with easier access to capital. I believe that with the right policies that allow startups to thrive, we can create the next Google or Facebook right here in the Commonwealth.
At nearly every stop on the campaign trail, I also hear about the burden of stu-dent debt. That is why I have introduced specific proposals that would help bor-rowers pay down their loans by capping loan repayment obligations at 10 per-cent of your income and providing em-ployers with the option to offer $5,000 pre-tax to help employees pay off their student debts.
Q: What, if any, legislation could be con-sidered to give religious institutions, such as Liberty University, the right to be ex-empt from federal mandates that violate their conscience?A: I continue to support the right of all Virginians to practice their religious beliefs without government over-reach.
Q: What plans do you have or support to help alleviate student loan debt while simultaneously ensuring quality higher education? A: I continue to work across the aisle in the Senate to find bipartisan solutions that make college more affordable and to find reforms that have graduates pay down their student loan debt.
Before students go off to college, I am working to encourage more high school students to use Pell grants in order to take community college classes. I also
introduced a bill with Florida Repub-lican Sen. Marco Rubio called “Know Before You Go,” which allows students and their families to be better informed before they go to college through one easy-to-use website.
For those who will graduate with stu-dent loans, I have proposed bipartisan ideas that change the way we deal with stu-dent debt. These include creating a stream-lined, income-based repayment system for borrowers and an option for employers to pay down an employee’s already existing student debt, tax-free. Nobody should go broke just because they go to college.
Q: What is your position on abortion?A: I trust the women of Virginia to make their own health care decisions in conjunc-tion with their families and their doctors.
Q: With the recent spread of terrorism, particularly ISIS, how do you think the U.S. should respond?A: I have urged the administration to come to Congress with a clear strategy and political and military options for elim-inating the ISIL threat. The United States should not take any military options off the table, because stopping ISIL is in the national security and foreign policy inter-ests of the U.S. and our European allies. We need to see the Iraqis, other partners across the region and our European allies in NATO stand up and stand together against the ISIL threat.
Q: What are your thoughts on the use of executive action? A: On big issues important to the Ameri-can people, like immigration or the au-thorization of our military, I believe the best way to come to an effective and com-prehensive solution is to go through the legislative process.
Q: What are your top three priorities concerning congressional legislation?A: If we are going to be able to make
the kinds of smart investments needed to grow our economy, then we have to find bipartisan solutions that get our balance sheet in order. We cannot pass on our na-tion’s debt to your generation. We need to deal with tax reform and entitlement re-form, because otherwise, we come back to stupid things like sequestration that cuts the military, education, infrastructure and research. Those areas — especially edu-cation, infrastructure and research — will create the economic growth of the future. Another priority is to make it easier for businesses to grow. We need to reduce un-necessary costs for startups through initia-tives like my bipartisan bill, the STARTUP Act, and embrace innovative funding tools, like crowdfunding.
Finally, I believe we must make college more affordable and reduce the burden of student debt for your generation and for generations to come. As I mentioned earlier, I have introduced numerous bipar-tisan bills to make college more affordable and encourage recent graduates to better manage student debt.
Q: What separates you from other candidates? A: I have a proven record and remain committed to working across the aisle to find solutions that move Virginia forward. When I was governor, I worked with a Re-publican-led legislature to turn a $6 billion deficit into a $1 billion surplus.
Since joining the Senate, I have part-nered with both Republicans and Demo-crats to pay down our national deficit, provide entrepreneurs with the right tools to succeed and ensure that no one goes broke going to college.
I truly believe that compromise does not have to be a dirty word in politics. I am proud to be endorsed by Republican former U.S. Sen. John Warner, Republican former Gov. Linwood Holton and 14 for-mer Republican legislators for re-election. I will continue to roll up my sleeves and find common ground so that we can keep moving Virginia forward.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, a member of the Democratic Party, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008 and is seeking a second term for the 2014 election. He currently serves on the Senate Finance, Bank-ing, Budget and Intelligence committees.
Warner was the first mem-ber of his family to graduate from college. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science at George Washing-ton University and was the valedictorian for the class of 1977. According to an article in US News, Warner then went to Har-vard Law School, where he coached the school’s first intramural basketball team and earned his Juris Doctorate in 1980.
According to his website, Warner was an early investor in Nextel, which he helped co-found. His early investments in the cellular telephone business and hundreds of startup technology companies have allowed him to build up a net worth of more than $250 million, making him the richest Democratic Senator in the current Congress.
Warner served as governor of Virginia from 2002 to 2006, where he focused on improving public education and expand-ing economic opportunity. His website states that during this time, he collaborated with Democrats and Republicans to turn record budget deficits into a surplus, and he recruited 135,000 new jobs to Virginia. He also focused on improving public edu-cation and expanding economic opportunity in every region of the state.
According to Warner’s website, when he left his position as governor in 2006, Virginia was recognized as the nation’s best-managed state, with particular emphasis placed on the state’s business and educational opportunities.
During his time in the Senate, Warner strove to reduce the federal debt by finding bipartisan compromises to create bal-anced solutions, according to his website. In 2011, he orga-nized the Gang of Six, consisting of three Democrats and three Republicans, to try to find a bipartisan solution to the nation’s deficit.
Warner’s website also states that he has made it a priority to help small businesses and startup companies to succeed. In order to do this, he plans to reduce unnecessary costs and em-brace innovative funding tools. He also believes in the impor-tance of supporting military families and veterans and helped improve military housing in Hampton Roads.
He currently lives with his wife, Lisa Collis, and their three daughters in Alexandria, Virginia.
Ebola, an infectious disease commonly marked by fever and internal bleeding that is believed to be originally transmitted by bats in West Africa, has infected 10,141 people and has taken the lives of 4,922 others, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The infection has spread to Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sen-egal, Sierra Leone and now the United States.
“The reason I think it’s a con-cern here in the States is because we’ve never had Ebola on Ameri-can soil,” Dr. Andrew Fabich, a professor of microbiology at Liberty University, said of the vi-rus. “We have never had a case of Ebola in North America, in all of the Americas.”
According to several reports, both Senegal and Nigeria have been declared Ebola-free. How-ever, the United States has not eliminated the virus — there are now three confirmed cases. Ebola entered Dallas, Texas, through now-deceased Thomas Eric Dun-can, a Liberian man, and has since infected two Dallas nurses who worked with Duncan and a Doc-tors Without Borders medical aid worker in New York City.
Several news outlets have re-ported that the two nurses, Amber Vinson and Nina Pham, are now free of the Ebola virus. Fabich, like many doctors and research-ers still unsure of what exactly is making these individuals better, said surviving Ebola is a “miracle of God.”
Many credit the blood and plasma donations of Dr. Kent Brantly, a Samaritan’s Purse doc-tor who contracted the virus while working in West Africa and was cured of the disease after weeks of treatment in the U.S., as partially responsible for Pham’s recovery. However, research as to how much of a role the donations played is inconclusive.
Earlier this month, President Barack Obama met with CDC officials and other medical pro-fessionals to address the viral out-break and announced his appoint-ment of Ron Klain, who served as Vice President Joe Biden’s chief of staff, as the official point person for White House adminis-tration’s efforts to fight the virus.
“The CDC has done a re-ally good job overall with this,” Fabich said.
As major concerns mount, pos-sibilities of the spread of Ebola continue to emerge. Fabich be-lieves the best route to recovery from this infection is isolation and quarantine. The disease is not airborne, but it requires very little contact to spread.
In response to the diagnosis of Dr. Craig Spencer, a Doc-tors Without Borders medical
worker, both New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have issued man-datory Ebola quarantine orders.
The White House has urged the governors to withdraw these quarantine policies, according to the New York Times.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Al-lergy and Infectious Diseases, de-scribed the quarantines as “draco-nian” in his appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Oct. 26.
“A lot of Americans don’t like the idea of quarantine,” Fabich said. “I think quarantine is nec-essary when you’re dealing with something that’s so deadly. … It’s not airborne. (However), it has a low infectious dose. You don’t need a lot of it to get sick. Since you don’t need a lot of it to get sick, that means you will very
likely get sick if you come in contact with those bodily fluids.”
The Dallas nurses were wearing protective suits. However, accord-ing to Fabich, a small amount of the virus — even from a cough — can soak through the protec-tive gear if it is not thick enough.
“If it gets on you, my impres-sion is, you’ve got it,” Fabich said of contracting the virus.
According to both Fabich and the CDC website, if you have been exposed to Ebola or have been in an environment near someone infected with the vi-rus, you need to monitor your temperature for 21 days. Should you contract any fever or Ebola-like symptoms, including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, you need to quarantine yourself and call the hospital immediately.
Fabich warned that if you feel
you may be at risk or might have been exposed, go straight to the emergency room. Do not wait for an appointment with your pri-mary care physician — that will expose more people to the virus. Additionally, your primary care physician is not prepared to treat an infection like Ebola.
“(Ebola) is no respecter of per-sons,” Fabich said. “Modern med-icine can’t save everybody, but you shouldn’t neglect it.”
For more information on Ebola, precautions to take and up-dates on the infections around the world, visit cdc.gov/vhf/ebola.
GOINS-PHILLIPS is the opinion editor.
newsA8 | October 28, 2014 | Liberty Champion
E B O L AE B O L A
10,141 TOTALCASES
TOTALLAB-CONFIRMEDCASES5,692 2014
THE LARGEST EBOLA OUTBREAK IN HISTORY
THE LARGEST EBOLA OUTBREAK IN HISTORY
GUINEALIBERIA
SIERRALEONE
a f f e c t e d a r e a sa f f e c t e d a r e a sUNITEDSTATESUNITEDSTATES
SPAINSPAIN NIGERIANIGERIA
4,9224,922ALL INFORMATION WAS FOUND AT CDC.GOV
TOTAL DEATHSTOTAL DEATHS
O U T B R E A KO U T B R E A K
44CASESCASES 2020
CASESCASES11
CASECASE
1 IN2 WITH EBOLAWILL DIE
L IKELY HOST:
B A T S
AREAS WITH
infectionsWIDESPREAD
Ebola spreads internationallyCDC seeks ways to prevent the deadly virus from killing more U.S. citizens
Bre Black | liBerty champion
OUTBREAK — The CDC is directing its efforts toward containing the Ebola disease, which has claimed the lives of nearly 5,000 people.
D1 Hockey D1 Hockey W. Soccer W. Soccer M. Soccer
Volleyball@ RadfordOct. 31 @ 7 p.m.
M. Soccer@ Presby. Nov. 1 @7 p.m.
WE’LL SEEYOU ATTHEGAME
Liberty Winthrop
3 1Liberty Longwood
1 0Liberty Arizona
4 3
Football @ Presby.Nov. 1 @ 2 p.m.
W. Soccervs. Longwood Oct. 28 @3 p.m.
Coastal Liberty
1 0ASU Liberty
6 4
Field hockeyvs. Georgetown Oct. 28 @ 4 p.m.
SPORTSOctober 28, 2014 B1
Follow @LUChampSports for Flames athletics coverage
Liberty 34, Gardner-Webb 0
Courtney russo| Liberty Champion
HUNGRY — Flames wide receiver Darrin Peterson eyes the endzone on a first-quarter run on his only rush of the game, but ends up stepping out-of-bounds at the 11-yard line.
Nowhere to run, or passFlames dominate Runnin’ Bulldogs, set Big South record in shutout victoryAlex Tichenor [email protected]
Just one game before its matchup with Gardner-Webb, Liberty gave up 637 yards and 48 points to Appalachian State. The Flames looked like a different team in their Oct. 25 matchup with the Runnin’ Bull-dogs, blanking them 34-0 in what was each team’s Big South opener.
The Bulldogs (4-4, 0-1 Big South) mus-tered just 56 yards of offense, including minus-17 rushing yards on the wrong side of what was one of the most dominant de-fensive performances in Big South history. The Flames (5-3, 1-0 Big South) set the Big South record for rushing yards allowed
and tied the conference mark for total yards allowed.
“In 2014, to shut out teams and really shut them down to under 100 yards, that’s really, really difficult to do,” Flames Head Coach Turner Gill said. “It’s a tremendous compliment (to) our defensive staff and our players to come out here and play a dominating game.”
A major reason for the Flames defensive renaissance was the return of starting se-nior linebacker Nick Sigmon from injury. The four-year starter made three tackles in his first game since sustaining a shoulder injury against Indiana State. In two games without Sigmon, the Flames gave up a combined 94 points and 1,138 total yards.
“It’s just good to get back out there,” Sig-mon said. “Four weeks off is a pretty good amount of time, but as soon as I got out there for the first play, I felt like I had been playing the whole time.”
The Flames defensive line made life much easier for the rest of the unit from the opening kickoff, pushing the Gardner-Webb offensive line off the line of scrim-mage play after play. Toby Onyechi sacked Bulldogs quarterback Lucas Beatty on the third play of the game to open the flood-gates. Chima Uzowihe pitched in with two sacks, and Dominique Davis added one of his own as well.
“I love my defense,” wide receiver Jaquan Glover said. “I try to keep them as live as I
can. When I see (how well they performed), that shows that they care and they want to take us to the next level.”
Offensively, Flames quarterback Josh Woodrum set the tone early, finding the endzone from four yards out on a quar-terback keeper to cap a 65-yard drive just six minutes into the game. The Bulldogs proved not to be able to stop the Flames on the ground all afternoon, surrendering 292 rushing yards. D.J. Abnar led the Flames with 141 yards on 27 carries, scoring two touchdowns, but the Flames had four other rushers with at least 25 yards. Abnar be-came the first Flames player since Rashad
See RUN, B2
Joel [email protected]
After UNC-Asheville (1-8-3, 0-4-1 Big South) went ahead on the “shot of a lifetime” early in the game, Liberty (8-4-1, 3-3 Big South) men’s soccer fought back with three goals in a 10-minute stretch to cruise to its third win in four games.
In the 15th minute, UNC-Asheville’s Victor
Aguiar received a throw-in near the sideline. In one swift movement, Aguiar turned and volleyed the ball over the outstretched hands of Liberty’s keeper Scott Sutarik into the upper left corner of the goal.
“We started off really well,” Liberty Head Coach Jeff Alder said. “We wanted to score the first goal, and next thing you know, the ball bounces and the kid hit the shot of a lifetime.”
Eighteen minutes later, Liberty’s Blessing Tahu-ona responded with his second goal of the season off a header directly from a corner kick to tie the game.
“It was a great feel-ing,” Tahuona said. “I was happy for myself and my teammates above all. It’s al-ways good to do great for your team. … It’s about them. Score goals, assist, pass for your team — it’s about them.”
Less than three min-utes later, Sachem Wil-son finished a shot from just outside the box for the go-ahead goal. This was Wilson’s sixth goal of the season and 18th of his career.
Brady Mazzei, a redshirt-freshman, played arguably the best game of his short career so far. Mazzei has only played in four games this season because of a sports hernia that was
supposed to sideline him for much longer than it did.
While Mazzei was not credited with an assist on Wilson’s goal, he did help set it up. Just after enter-ing the game, Mazzei drew a free kick on the left cor-ner of the 18-yard box. He then received the ball off the free kick and took a hard shot that deflected right to Wilson, who buried it away for the second goal.
“Lately, I feel like I have
been playing below par,” Mazzei said. “Before the game, I told myself, ‘I’m just going to come out here and lay it all on the field. I’m not gonna care what people think if I mess up or make mistakes. It doesn’t really matter.’ I kept my head up, and just gave it my all.”
Mazzei was not the only substitute that had an
See DROP, B3
Flames drop BulldogsMen’s soccer rallies back to beat UNC-Asheville, wins for third time in four games
sports B2 | October 28, 2014 | Liberty Champion
Alex [email protected]
College football has always been crazy. From Doug Flutie, to the Stanford trom-bone player, to last year’s Iron Bowl, it has always boasted the best regular season in sports.
A playoff threatened to screw every-thing up. With more teams having a shot at the title come postseason, there was a pos-sibility that the importance of the regular season would be diminished. Then this season happened.
Nine weeks into the season, three teams re-mained undefeated: Florida State, Missis-sippi State and Ole Miss. Yes, two teams from Mississippi. Two teams from Alabama might have made sense, but Mississippi?
Come on now. Now, even with the Rebels’ loss to LSU
in Baton Rouge this past weekend, there is still a possibility that both Mississippi squads could be playing in the four-team College Football Playoff in January. But predicting which teams will be playing in the mini-tournament is a tougher task than making a snowman in a desert.
There is only one team close to being a lock — Florida State. The defending na-tional champions have already dealt with the toughest part of their schedule, nar-rowly escaping down-to-the-wire contests against Clemson and Notre Dame. Still, the Seminoles have an Oct. 30 Thursday night game against Louisville that has “trap game” written all over it. So, do not pencil in the ’Noles quite yet.
The Southeastern Conference (SEC)West division will eat itself alive. Four of the top seven ranked teams in the country right now are in that division. No. 1 Mis-sissippi State still has to play at No. 3 Ala-bama and No. 7 Ole Miss. No. 3 Alabama must still face No. 1 Mississippi State and No. 4 Auburn. No. 4 Auburn must still travel to No. 3 Alabama and No. 9 Geor-gia. Is your head spinning yet?
Either way, it is a pretty good bet that at least one playoff participant will come out of the SEC West. The selection com-mittee will reward whichever team comes through the brutality the least scathed.
Now things get fun. There is still a smorgasbord of good one-loss teams out there. Top-10 teams Oregon, Notre Dame, Michigan State, Georgia and TCU all have very good chances at remaining that way until conference championship weekend.
A realistic scenario: Oregon, Notre Dame, Michigan State and TCU all finish with one loss. An SEC West team finishes with two losses, but both losses are to top five teams. Can the selection committee ignore a 10-2 SEC West champion who went through a schedule twice as difficult as any of the one-loss teams? Good luck, selection committee. (My picks to be the last four standing: Florida State, Ole Miss, TCU and Michigan State).
The playoff was supposed to solve all of this confusion, ensuring that all deserv-ing teams would be allowed a chance to win the national title.
Then this season happened.
TICHENOR is the sports editor.
TICHENOR
Tich’s Take
By the Numbers
Liberty vs. Gardner-Webb
6Times in the past six
games that Dante Shells has had a reception of at
least 43 yards.
11Gardner-Webb punts in
Saturday’s game. Prior to Saturday, no Flames
opponent had more than nine this season.
Cierra [email protected]
The Lady Flames field hockey team (10-7, 4-0 Nor-Pac) won their fourth consec-utive conference game Thurs-day, Oct. 23 with a 5-1 victory over their Northern Pacific Conference (NorPac) rival, the Pacific Tigers, clinching the NorPac East division title.
For three straight years, Liberty field hockey has won the NorPac East. The Lady Flames were a perfect 4-0 in their division, solidify-ing a first-round bye in the NorPac tournament.
The win helped Liberty bounce back from three tough Atlantic Coast Conference losses. The Lady Flames lost 2-3 on the road at both Duke and the University of Virgin-ia, then returned home for a tough 0-4 loss to No. 1-ranked North Carolina.
Liberty was able to get off to a good start, scoring two early goals off of penalty cor-ners, a tactic Head Coach Jodi Murphy looked to improve this week in practice.
“We have had a lot of cor-ners this year and haven’t been able to execute,” Murphy said. “We really made it a priority this week to practice those and be intentional with those, and it really paid off.”
Senior midfielder Helen Doolittle delivered the first goal and capitalized to score again in the second period. Doolittle, a team captain, en-joyed being able to score and contribute to the win.
“Scoring is always fun, but it was just really good to ex-ecute our corners,” Doolittle said. “Both of my goals came off of corners, and we put in a lot of time in the past week or so really getting our corners down. … Each girl played their role really well (in the game).”
As has been common for the Lady Flames this season, their goals did not come from just one source. Four different players were able to net goals for a strong
Liberty performance.Ashlee Krulock, a junior
midfielder, scored in the 11th minute on an assist from Ser-ena Barr, netting her ninth goal of the season. Krulock is second in goals and points for the Lady Flames this season.
Junior forward Sarah Gipe, who leads the team in goals and points, continued to be a force for the Lady Flames, knocking in her 14th goal of the season in the 37th minute. The goal helped Gipe set her new single-
season goal record, according to liberty.edu/flames.
The Lady Flames contin-ued to push when, in the 44th minute, junior midfielder Nat-alie Barr scored her third goal of the season. Natalie Barr, one of the team’s captains, was excited to help her team get back on track.
“It was really good to get a goal,” Natalie Barr said. “It’s always good that we’re not relying on one person scoring and just a really good confi-dence boost for the whole team, as well as for myself.”
While Liberty did dominate for most of the game, Pacific was able to score in the 62nd minute when sophomore forward Nicole Laskosky scored unassisted.
The Lady Flames stayed on the attack, taking the 20-7 shot advantage over Pacific. Liber-ty was also able to create more penalty opportunities with 10 penalty corners.
Goalkeeper Mallory Cuc-cio picked up four more saves, bringing her team record-breaking season total to 72. The junior also earned her 10th win of the season, ty-ing her previous single-season win record.
The Lady Flames will host Georgetown Tuesday, Oct. 28 for their final game of the reg-ular season. The game is set to begin at 4 p.m.
CARTER is a sports reporter.
-17Net rushing yards for
Gardner-Webb, setting a new school record for
rushing yards allowed.
Champs againField hockey wins third consecutive NorPac East title
Vittoria StamouliS | liberty Champion
FIND — Cassidy Bremner looks to pass against Pacific.
RUN continued from B1Jennings in 2008 to run for 100 yards in three straight games.
Backup quarterback Stephon Masha was utilized as a major weapon, running, catching and throwing the ball. He rushed four times for 49 yards, caught two passes and completed one pass en route to being named the Big South Offensive Player of the Week. Adding to the more surprising names on the score sheet was redshirt-senior Jaquan Glover, who had not had a catch all year. Starting in place of Dante Shells, Glover caught Woodrum’s only touchdown pass of the day, a six-yarder early in the third quarter that made it 34-0.
Success on the ground led to big plays through the air as well, with Woodrum find-ing Shells for a pair of deep passes — one of them going for 45 yards, and the other 61. While neither of the plays resulted in touchdowns, both drives ended in points. Shells, who struggled with drops early in the season, has emerged as a dangerous big play threat lately, hitting the 100-yard mark in back-to-back games. Over the past two games, Shells has 188 more receiv-ing yards than the Flames leading receiver Darrin Peterson.
“(Shells) has really worked hard,” Gill said. “I know Josh Woodrum has had him out there on Mondays on their own, catching balls. It is good to see it come to fruition on game day, and it’s just going to make our offense more explosive if he can
continue to do that.” Liberty’s win marks its seventh victory
in its past eight conference openers. And the Flames have been particularly hard to beat at Williams Stadium — 20,217 fans packed into the stadium against Gardner-Webb, the second-highest number in pro-gram history — in Big South play, boasting a 21-1 record in their past 22 conference home games. Since Gill took over in 2012, the Flames have gone 13-4 within the con-fines of Williams Stadium, while going 6-8 away from home.
The Flames will have a chance to improve on that away record when they travel to Clinton, South Carolina, to take on Presby-terian Nov. 1. For the first time since 2007, the Blue Hose will go into their matchup with the Flames with a winning record. The Flames have not lost to the Blue Hose since 2008.
“It’s conference play,” Woodrum said. “Everything is cranked up another notch, and we understand that we have to win this game. If we don’t win this one, ev-erything that we’re going to be playing for (will be) over.”
TICHENOR is the sports editor.
Liberty 5, Pacific 1
Liberty Champion | October 28, 2014 | B3sports
Dalton [email protected]
Caroline Douglas is hav-ing the best season of her life.
The redshirt junior out-side hitter on the Lady Flames volleyball team has been one of the best play-ers in the nation, leading her team to a 22-5 start, in-cluding a current 13-game win streak. She leads the entire nation in total attacks and is second in total kills.
But, while Douglas is en-joying a dream season, her journey to get there has been a nightmare at times.
While attending J.H. Rose High School in Greenville, North Carolina, where she won two state championships, Douglas tore her Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) on April 3, 2010, of her junior year. This injury kept her out of volleyball until about midway through her senior volleyball season.
After a successful re-turn, Douglas was play-ing a match with her club team when disaster struck again. It was exactly a year later, and it was another ACL tear.
While the injury was bad enough, Douglas said that Liberty’s coaches, who were recruiting her at the time, were there watch-ing her play. Still, Liberty gave her a scholarship and she arrived in Lynch-burg ready to go through another rehabilitation.
“I had to pretty much re-learn how to walk again,”
Douglas said. “I learned how to use all my small muscles around my knee and build those up.”
Douglas said that doctors told her she would have to wear a knee brace the rest of her volleyball career af-ter the second tear.
With a careful rehabilita-tion plan in place, Douglas did not resume volleyball activities for nearly a year, forcing her to miss her freshman season and de-clare a redshirt.
When Douglas was fi-nally able to return to the court, it was not long be-fore she caught the injury bug again, tearing a muscle in her abdomen.
“I had not been swinging that hard,” Douglas said. “My body was not used to that quite yet.”
Still, Douglas battled through the injury and did not miss a match, going on to win Big South Fresh-man of the Year and Big South Player of the Year. She became the first player in conference history to win both awards during the same year.
Douglas looked to build on her dominant fresh-man year, but the abdomi-nal muscle injury flared up again. While doing rehab, Douglas developed a stress fracture in her fibula. Ac-cording to Douglas, her past ACL injuries were par-tially to blame for the stress fracture, as well.
“I was overcompensating for my right knee,” Doug-las said. “It was in the lower part of my right fibula, more toward the ankle.”
The injury kept Doug-las on the sideline for the first 17 games of the sea-son before she came back midway through the team’s conference schedule.
During this time, Doug-las was advised by doctors not to practice as much as in the past.
“I could practice for about 30 minutes on one random day a week,” Doug-las said. “I ended up play-ing in more games than I practiced for.”
After a 3-14 start to the season without Douglas, the Lady Flames turned their season around when their star player returned, finishing the year out 8-4, narrowly losing to Radford in the Big South Tourna-ment championship match.
In the spring of that year, Douglas’ abdomen injury flared up once again, leading to another over-
compensation-related inju-ry, this time to her shoulder.
“The injuries were all sort of a chain reaction,” Douglas said. “I was and am always trying to get healthy again.”
Not many athletes are able to overcome the in-juries Douglas has, much less return and perform at an even higher level. Doug-las’ mental toughness has helped her through the past few years as much as anything.
“It was just about me being tougher than my cir-cumstances,” Douglas said. “I did not let my circum-stance dictate how I was going to act or who I was going to be.”
Lady Flames Head Coach Shane Pinder has had a front row seat to Douglas’ journey to suc-cess. He noted Douglas’ “team-first mentality” and
passion for the game as her biggest attributes.
“(She has great) passion for the game and a deter-mination to be out on the floor,” Pinder said. “Her mentality allows her to have great influence with our team and its success.”
Teammate Gabby Shipe has also seen Douglas grow as a person and a player through all that she has overcome.
“Throughout all the in-juries, she has been through and played through, she never showed or made it known that she was in so much pain,” Shipe said. “She is the toughest girl I know.”
BRITT is a sports reporter.
Beating the oddsLady Flame Caroline Douglas pushes past two serious injuries
Courtney russo | Liberty Champion
DOMINATE — Caroline Douglas leads the Lady Flames with 442 kills.
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DROP continued from B1
impact on the game. Kurt Meyers, also a redshirt-freshman, only played six minutes, but that was all he needed. In the 43rd minute, Meyers drove to the middle, where he slotted the ball to Tyler Bullock, leaving him to do the rest. Bullock finished it to score his first goal of the season.
“Our resolve and our resiliency and our de-termination was off the charts,” Alder said. “Next thing you know, we score three times back to back to back. I was very proud of their efforts.”
The Flames looked to score again immediately in the second half, but a second goal by Tahuona was called back because of an offsides call. Liberty outshot Asheville 22-5 and only allowed one shot in the second half.
“I’ll be honest with you, we’ve left a lot of chances out there,” Alder said. “I told the boys today we (were) due to score some goals on somebody, I just didn’t know when it was going to be. Fortunately, today it all came together.”
Liberty has only three games left before the Big South Tournament, and the Flames believe they can beat anyone they face. Their next game is Oct. 28 at NC State.
“I have been trusting God each and every day,” Tahuona said. “‘God, you take out this test, I’ll do my best on the field. I know that I’ll get there.’ Day by day, we just keep working hard.”
SCHMIEG is a sports reporter.
sportsB4 | October 28, 2014 | Liberty Champion
Club remains undefeatedMen’s team keeps finding ways to win, remains unbeaten through 12 games
Sarah [email protected]
Heading into the fall season with many new players added to the line-up, Liberty’s men’s club volleyball team was uncertain how it would fare in its opening tournaments.
With two tournament wins in the books, it appears as if they will have nothing to worry about.
The Flames have started the fall season 11-0-1, winning both the Eastern Men-nonite University tournament Sept. 6 and their home Liberty Tournament Oct. 11.
Transfer sophomore setter Nick Wil-liamson was named most valuable player of the EMU Tournament, but gave the credit to his whole team.
“It is a testament to the hard work we put in,” Williamson said. “Obviously, I couldn’t have done it without my team. I think it was a team effort, not one person.”
For the first time, the men’s volley-ball team has enough players on its roster to have two separate teams compete at each tournament.
Head Coach Bryan Rigg said having 18 men on the roster, with six being freshmen, has made a profound impact so far.
“We’ve been able to travel two teams to get the younger guys experience,” Rigg said. “We have been able to scrimmage ev-ery Thursday. It has made guys who were comfortable in their position have to fight for their spot, so everyone has improved.”
The Flames top returning hitter from last year, Kevin Snyder, also emphasized the benefits of having a large roster.
“It pushes us a lot in practices,” Snyder said. “There are a lot of guys who are hun-gry and eager to make the starting squad, and that helps. It helps us to stay focused in practice and helps us to be the best we can be.”
Returning junior defensive player Josiah Williams acknowledged the importance of the previous court experience of the new players. He said many of the freshmen have had extensive club and high school play-ing time. Williamson, though not a fresh-man, played a semester at the University of Arizona and a semester at a southern
California community college, which he led to a conference title.
“We have better team chemistry,” Wil-liams said. “(The new players) have defi-nitely brought lots of talent and their mental game. They are really smart on the court.”
But the Flames recent success in their tournaments did not begin on the court. The Flames participated in a preseason conditioning boot camp.
“We ran, and we ran, and we ran,” Sny-der said. “We did a lot of conditioning and mental toughness. We stayed away from the volleyball courts, and we just came together. Having gone through boot camp, encouraging each other and finishing together is what really helped
us come together as a team.”To conclude their preseason schedule
before the official spring season begins, the Flames will travel to the King’s College Tournament in Tennessee Nov. 1 and the Lancaster Bible Tournament Nov. 22.
In addition, the Flames will host Rutgers University in a midnight match Jan. 30, 2015 at the Vines Center. The men’s vol-leyball squad will be the first Liberty club sports team to play an official game in the Vines Center.
“We are excited,” Rigg said. “We have already started marketing it. We have big plans.”
Snyder said he has been looking forward to Jan. 30 since the summer.
“I kept thinking about Jan. 30 and how
awesome it’s going to be,” Snyder said. “Just the fans that are going to come out and support (us). What a great opportunity to come out and just be on this team.”
Yet, defeating Rutgers in the Vines Cen-ter is not the team’s ultimate goal.
“Our goal from the second week of April, right after nationals, was to win a na-tional championship this year,” Rigg said. “Our goal from the beginning was a na-tional championship. It still is the goal, and it’s becoming more and more realistic as the season goes on.”
RODRIGUEZ is a sports reporter.
Steven Abbott | Liberty ChAmpion
UNBEATEN — Middle blocker Sam Eisbrenner elevates for a spike as the Flames maintain their perfect season.
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Liberty Champion | October 28, 2014 | B5feature
Ashley [email protected]
No one fights alone.This is the goal of Crush Childhood
Cancer, an organization that was found-ed in order to help families who have children with cancer offset the financial burden associated with their diagnoses.
Crush Childhood Cancer began in 2012 at Hope Community Church in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, by Liberty University sophomore Samantha Paradis.
“When I was in 11th grade, there was this little boy at my church who had can-cer, and my whole town and church ral-lied around his family and raised money for them,” Paradis said. “And then I thought about all the other kids with can-cer and families that didn’t have a church surrounding them, so I wanted to cre-ate something so they could have people around them.”
Trey Love was that little boy. Love was diagnosed with neuroblastoma when he was 21 months old, according to Paradis. Now 7 years old, Love has relapsed three times and is the only child to have done so and survived.
According to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s website, neuroblastoma is a tumor of nerve tissue that develops in infants and children and can occur in many areas of the body. It most common-ly begins in the abdomen in the tissues of the adrenal gland, but it may also occur in other areas. In the United States, about 800 new cases of neuroblastoma are diagnosed each year.
Love was treated at the The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He is now can-cer free. It was through the Love family that Paradis connected with other families who had children with cancer.
For families to become a part of the Crush Childhood Cancer or-ganization, they must complete an application process.
According to Paradis, there are current-ly 10 children that are being supported by the organization — six girls and four boys. The children range from ages one to 18 years of age.
A 5K competition run and a 1-mile family walk are held once a year to raise money for the children and their families. A family-fun fair also takes place after the race and includes moon bounces, carnival games and basket raffles.
“I wanted to have a little run, like a 5K or something, and then it turned into a 5K (race)/1-mile walk and fun fair,” Para-dis said. “And instead of having 50 people (attend), there (were) like 300 people. And then it kind of just got bigger and bigger from there.”
According to Crush Childhood Can-cer’s website, during the fair, attendees participate in an activity called ‘crush the clunker car.’
“Each year, we get a car donated and spray paint all the kids’ cancer types and words like ‘chemo,’ ‘radiation,’ ‘surgery’ (and) ‘hospital’ (on the car) and get sledge hammers and bats so the families and people who come to the fair can physi-cally crush cancer,” Paradis said. “At the end of the day, the fire department comes and does jaws of life on the car and completely crushes it in half.”
The organization’s next event will be held at Hope Community Church in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, May 9, 2015.
According to Paradis, the Crush Child-hood Cancer organization is currently in the process of becoming a 501c3 nonprof-it organization. Once the organization gets approved by the state and govern-ment, there will be room for growth and more events throughout the year.
“I think right now the next goal is get-ting it approved to be a 501c3, and that
way we can get sponsors, … official ones,” Paradis said. “That way, it grows and (the organization) can make more money, which means (it) could have more families involved.”
Paradis said the organization has raised a little more than $40,000 in the last three years.
“I have a board of people who help me, so I’m like the only kid, and it’s me and a bunch of adults who do it,” Paradis said. “So it’s kind of weird being in charge of adults, but it is cool.”
According to Paradis, people who live in the Philadelphia area can get involved with the organization by participating in the event May 9.
Paradis said those who do not live in the area but would still like to be a part of the event can sign up to be virtual participants.
“You pay the same registration fee, you just technically don’t have to run, but
your money can still go toward one of the kids,” Paradis said. “They’re still a part of it, they’re just not physically there.”
Paradis also encouraged people who want to get involved with the organization to be active in praying for the children and their families.
According to Paradis, the financial support is important, but what impacts the families the most is having people that honestly care about them and pray for their children.
“(T)hat’s just kind of the goal, ... to be with the families … before, during and after the child’s diagnoses,” Paradis said. “Whether (the children) pass away or not, (they can know) that we’re still supporting them and loving them.”
For Paradis, working with these chil-dren has helped her develop a strong rela-tionship with each of them.
“These kids have become like my little brothers and sisters, and I would do
anything for them or their families,” Paradis said. “It breaks my heart that they feel so alone when their children be-come so sick, and I wish there was more I could do.”
According to Paradis, the children have impacted her life more than she could ever impact theirs, and she is sure that anyone who meets these children will stop at nothing to help them.
“The Lord has used them to soften my heart and learn that life is precious, especially after Aidan (one of the kids) passed away in September,” Paradis said. “Our lives are so short on earth, and these kids have taught me to live each mo-ment like it’s my last and to choose joy in all circumstances.”
For more information about the orga-nization Crush Childhood Cancer, visit crush-childhood-cancer.org.
BUNNER is a feature reporter.
Fighting against cancerLiberty student starts organization to help families and suffering children
Photos Provided HOPE — Samantha Paradis founded Crush Childhood Cancer in order to financially support families and children with cancer.
Vote in the Vines Center precinct
between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. on
Tuesday, Nov. 4.
Find out where each candidate stands on important
issues by reading their Q&A in the Oct. 21 & 28
editions of the Liberty Champion newspaper.
FREE food will be served outside!*You do not have to vote to receive free food.
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WILL YOU BE THEDIFFERENCE?
feature
Amber [email protected]
*Though the word “said” is used for Wyble’s comments, these quotes were given in ASL and translated by an interpreter. Atwell typed his responses.
As the service begins and the pastor prays, members of the “Silent Light” min-istry at Living Word Baptist Church do not bow their heads or close their eyes. The congregation does not stick to tradition, instead looking intently at the preacher and experiencing the service — a deaf service — in a unique way.
People talk, but mostly without sounds. Their hands move quickly while their facial expressions welcome friends and fellow church members. Not one word is used during these conversations.
Throughout the service, every-thing is signed and then voiced by an interpreter.
In the case of John Wyble, pastor of “Silent Light” ministry, who is also deaf, he persists in bringing the Bible to the deaf culture, aiming to overcome the language barrier between the hearing and deaf using American Sign Language (ASL).
“That’s the vision we have today, to be able to see deaf people know Jesus Christ before our time runs out,” Wyble said.
The deaf ministry reaches out to anyone willing to come. Hearing and deaf people alike join for service at 10 a.m. in a separate room near the main sanctuary.
Some Liberty students studying ASL come to experience the preaching, but also to practice ASL.
“You learn the language better because in a hearing service, someone is voicing and then the interpreter signs it,” Jennifer Yates, a nursing major with an ASL minor, said. “And when you hear two languages at once, you automatically rely on the one that you know. You don’t ever learn the second. But in the service at Living Word, (the pastor is) signing it and then some-one’s voicing it, and I have a chance to
interpret it in my head first, see how much I know, how much I understand. And if I miss something, then it’s voiced for me.”
After prayer, the floor is open for tes-timony. The women and men who come to the small stage emphasize their stories through strong facial expressions and rapid movements using their arms and hands.
Following the testimonies and prayer, worship music begins playing.
During worship, the music blares loudly out of the speakers for the hard-of-hear-ing, but the whole song is signed. The two women leading worship liven up the crowd with enthusiastic movements.
“I love to worship in sign lan-guage,” Yates said. “It’s the most in-credible thing. You can get really into it and show a lot of emotion.”
Once the energy subsides, the con-gregation sits and Wyble preaches
without using a single verbal word. A white trifold poster stands on the stage
as Wyble scribbles out the letters “Joseph” and then proceeds to place the reference underneath “Genesis 39.”
After signing, the pastor allows time for the congregation to read the scripture for themselves, and then he begins signing the sermon again.
The congregation does not hurry out the door once the service has end-ed. They stand and begin greeting and fellowshipping with everyone.
“Silent Light” ministries holds a unique service, one that may be unfamiliar for many of the hearing.
“It was a whole new experience,” Yates said about the first service she attended. “It was kind of strange, but since then, I’ve made some good friends. These are incredible people. There’s nothing wrong
with them, and I’ve been able to communi-cate and get to know these people, and I’ve had a blast.”
While many may assume that the deaf are more helpless than those who can hear, William Atwell, a deaf Lib-erty professor who occassionally fills in for Wyble at “Silent Light” ministries, does not agree.
“I have a motto or a saying, ‘Deaf people can do anything except hear,’” Atwell said.
Atwell and Wyble hold to that truth, hur-dling the language barriers and explaining the Bible to anyone and everyone they can.
Living Word Baptist Church is lo-cated at 4130 Waterlick Road, Forest, Virginia. For more information, visit lwbc.net/deaf-ministries.
TILLER is a feature reporter.
B6 | October 28, 2014 | Liberty Champion
Signs speak volumesMembers of ‘Silent Light’ ministry communicate through sign language
Amber Tiller | liberTy ChAmpion
PRAISE — Though they cannot hear, the congregation finds its own unique way to glorify God through a deaf service.
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Liberty Champion | October 28, 2014 | B7feature
Tobi [email protected]
Liberty University students finally heard Andrew Belle perform in a free Student Activities (SA) event Monday, Oct. 20 after the concert originally scheduled for Sept. 26 was postponed.
“We want students to get away for a night and be able to enjoy their friends without the worry of paying high costs for these concerts,” Associate Director of Program-ing and Promotions for SA Stephanie Ward said. “We’re thankful that even if we can’t provide all our shows for free, we’re able to bring them at a low cost.”
Belle, a Chicago-based songwriter, spent the night playing unplugged versions of his songs from his new Extended Play (EP) album “Black Bear Hushed,” which was released Oct. 7.
“I’ve been playing these versions for about a year now,” Belle said at the concert. “But we just put out the EP last week, so you guys are the first people to hear it after the fact and aren’t sitting there scratching your heads and giving me funny looks.”
The concert opened with an acoustic set by Glass Oaks front man and Liberty University graduate Joel Kaiser, which in-cluded a cover of Bill Wither’s classic “Ain’t No Sunshine.”
Between songs, Belle told the audience stories about how he began in the music in-dustry and how his music has changed over the years. He also shared a humorous story behind his music video “Sister.”
“I made a music video for (‘Sister’) a few months ago,” Belle said. “If you haven’t seen it, it has a quirky plot line to it. There’s these werewolf characters and then there’s this prodigal son character represented by this wonderful actress we worked with outside of Nashville.”
The werewolves represent the ungodly world. Throughout the video, the ac-tress portraying the “prodigal son” be-gins behaving more and more like them, and she starts transforming into a were-wolf herself. But she decides to break away and come back home, where her mother accepts her with open arms.
Belle went on to talk about how he never planned to be in the music video, but at the last minute, he made a cameo at the end of the video and ends up getting murdered. The musician said that led to an interest-ing conversation between him and his grandparents when he went home to visit.
“They’re very candid,” Belle said. “They were like, ‘Yeah, we just don’t like that video. Are they supposed to be vampires?’ I just thought that was really funny be-cause you could obviously tell that they were (werewolves).”
Belle not only played “Sister,” but per-formed many of his other tracks as well, in-cluding “Pieces,” “Black Bear” and “Make it Without You.”
Belle invited students to talk to him after the concert and was happy to sign autographs and pose for pictures.
Liberty junior Kaitlynn Jenkins said she was so excited to hear that Belle was coming to perform at Liberty.
“I’ve been listening to (Belle) for a cou-ple years now,” Jenkins said. “The concert was amazing, and I was really happy that I got to meet him.”
Jenkins said that when she met him, Belle remembered a letter she sent him a few months earlier.
“It’s so cool to know that he cares about his fans,” Jenkins said.
Liberty student Shiloh Reeves went to the concert on a whim.
“I heard about the concert through (the) Student Activities website,” Reeves said. “They had a video of the song ‘Pieces,’ and I thought it was great.”
Reeves said he really enjoyed Belle’s music and even bought a CD.
“His music is so soulful and straight from the heart,” Reeves said. “You can tell that he puts so much effort into the lyrics that he writes. When you hear it, you know it’s his soul coming through.”
To learn more about Andrew Belle and his music, visit his website at AndrewBelle.com.
WALSH is a feature reporter.
MUSIC continued from B8
“My desire is to stay pro-ficient on my instrument as long as I live,” Hahn said. “I don’t know how much lon-ger I’ll be able to play, but I certainly will work hard at
it. I’m a better player now than I’ve ever been. I’ve put (my philosophy) into prac-tice, (because) it force(s) me to keep up with my instru-ment. When I have these kinds of features in my life, I know that I am going to have to practice. This isn’t
literature that I can just walk in the door and play, and so I look forward to it, but at the same time I can get frustrated by it.”
Hahn also uses his expe-rience with the orchestra to teach his students the im-portance of being involved in the community.
“I always want to make my community better, and I believe art does that,” Hahn said. “Art is one of our core meeting places, whether it’s attending or playing in a symphony, or for chil-dren, youth or college-age people to aspire playing at that level.”
Hahn also views his in-volvement with music as a way to worship God.
“(Music) is all a picture of God and his tremen-dous beauty,” Hahn said. “At the heart of us is this imago dei. It’s what God’s put in every one of us to imitate and recreate his creation in such beautiful ways. It’s so exciting to be a part of that.”
MAURER is a feature reporter.
Belle performs new musicAndrew Belle delivers original songs and shares stories during concert
Courtney russo | Liberty Champion
UNPLUGGED — Andrew Belle discussed the meaning behind his “Sister” video.
photo provided TUNE — David Hahn brings experience to his classes.
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FAMILY continued from B8
of specialty Liberty University gifts, in-cluding a free Mason drink jar with a Lib-erty emblem, Liberty University tote and wristband for free Snowflex and LaHaye Ice Center activities.
Dunbar explained that her favorite part about each Fam-ily Weekend is seeing the excitement on the faces of the families as they watch a Liberty football game with their students.
“You can sense the excitement in the air, and you see it on their faces,” Dunbar said. “It’s the overall ‘wow’ fac-tor of our beautiful campus surrounded by the colors of fall from the Blue Ridge Mountains. Who doesn’t love that?”
Many students and their families prepared for the football game with the tradition of tailgating, and were later able
to enjoy a 34-0 Flames win over Gardner-Webb Saturday to end the weekend.
WEYANT is a feature reporter.
Courtney russo | Liberty Champion
LYRICS — After rescheduling, singer-songwriter Andrew Belle brought his soulful sound to the LaHaye Event Space.
Courtney russo | Liberty Champion
SCORE — Families cheered on Flames.
FEATUREB8 October 28, 2014
Shae [email protected]
Family Weekend means some-thing different to each student at Liberty University. For some, it means happy reunions with par-ents and siblings after months without seeing one another. For others, it means increased traf-fic, accompanied by the chance to meet new people.
This year’s Family Weekend, an annual Liberty University event, was held Oct. 24-26 and provided many students the opportunity to interact with family members and participate in more than 30 activities throughout the weekend.
Director of Parent and Fam-ily Connections Theresa Dunbar described the event as the depart-ment’s most demanding, yet re-warding, weekend of the year.
“This year, we had (more than) 3,000 family members registered to attend our event, and that is about 900 more than the previous year,” Dunbar said. “Each year, we have seen an increase of 800 to 900 in attendance as families enjoy an op-portunity to reconnect with their students and attend activities on campus as a family.”
Families checked in Friday and Saturday and were given a variety
See FAMILY, B7
Enjoying family timeVisiting families participate in many activities around campus
Courtney russo | Liberty Champion
REUNION — Students and their families gathered over the weekend.
Music moves
isaaC apon | Liberty Champion
SHOWCASE — Liberty’s S.O.A.R. Dunk ministry team captures audiences’ attention as team members share their faith in unconventional ways.
Tricks that countS.O.A.R. Dunk shares gospel through stunt performances
Leanne [email protected]
There is not just one way to serve Christ. Knocking on doors and passing out literature is not the only way to reach people. One Liberty University ministry team has developed their own unique style of serving.
The S.O.A.R. (Soul’d Out and Ready) Dunk team is the most unconventional of Liberty’s recruiting groups, according to the Ministry Team website, performing aerial acrobatics off trampolines, dunking basketballs and sharing their testimonies.
“First and foremost, (the team members are) ambassadors of Christ and of Liberty,” Jim Jackson, associate director of the Department of Ministry Teams, said.
This year’s team, coached by former mem-ber Shawn Lewis, consists of seven Liberty students who travel the Southeast, entertain-ing and ministering to school and church audi-ences and encouraging high school students to come to Liberty.
“They capture them with their shows, then when the students meet the guys, hear from
them, hear their hearts — they really listen,” Jackson said.
The team, which comes up with most of its own stunts, awes crowds with feats such as backflips, mid-air leapfrogging, and even having one member do a handstand on the rim while another slam dunks a basketball in front of his face.
This year, the travel schedule takes them down to South Carolina and as far north as Pennsylvania, performing at different venues nearly every weekend through April.
While 95 percent of the S.O.A.R. Dunk team’s performances are for Christian schools and Baptist churches, they are the only min-istry team that public schools will accept, Jackson said.
“We’ll give a message of integrity and good character,” Jackson said. “Sometimes a school will ask us to speak on anti-bullying.”
According to the site, Joseph Morecraft from Fellowship Christian School in Roswell, Geor-gia, was impressed with the S.O.A.R. Dunk team and their impact.
“They not only kept the entire student body entertained with their acrobatics, they brought
the message back down to earth when one of the team members shared his testimony,” Morecraft said.
The team performs annually at Liberty’s Homecoming, as well as during halftime for basketball games in the Vines Center, according to Jackson.
Abby Chennells, a freshman at Liberty, dis-covered one of S.O.A.R.’s promotional videos and said she would love to see them live.
“They looked like a really high energy group, and I think it would be a really great experience,” Chennells said.
The team evolves as members come and go, with two to three tryouts taking place per year, narrowing from an initial “show us your best dunk” tryout to a rigorous interview process.
An eight-day training camp takes place be-fore classes start, during which all the ministry teams rehearse for the upcoming year.
For more information on the S.O.A.R. Dunk team and their upcoming shows, visit liberty.edu/ministryteams.
RIEGEL is a feature reporter.
Emma Jane [email protected]
“I love playing and being in the center of sound, just hear-ing it. At times I lose my place because it’s so magnificent,” David Hahn, assistant profes-sor of music and worship at Liberty University, said.
Hahn participated in the Lynchburg Symphony Orches-tra’s (LSO) first concert of the season Sunday, Oct. 26 at E.C. Glass High School.
The concert, titled “The Power of Music: Beethoven, Liszt and Gershwin,” fea-tured Beethoven’s “Sympho-ny No. 3,” Liszt’s “Les Pré-ludes,” and Gershwin’s “An American in Paris.”
Hahn, a second-violinist, said performing “Symphony No. 3” is a dream come true, because it is a piece he had al-ways wanted to play.
“(‘An American in Paris’ is) tremendously fun, (because) you can hear the taxis beep-ing their horns (and) bustling about,” Hahn said. “It sounds like a person standing on the Champs-Élysées and just taking it all in.”
Hahn said “Les Préludes” has a big, bold, beautiful color of brass and strings.
“The strings were sawing,” Hahn said. “You not only heard it, but you could see it.”
Hahn also said that mu-sic from the program influ-enced some of today’s popular orchestral composers.
“When you listen to John Williams (composer of film scores such as ‘Star Wars,’ ‘E.T.’ and ‘Jurassic Park’), you hear reflections of ‘Les Pré-ludes,’” Hahn said. “When you hear soundscores that have to do with chatter, they’re taking from ‘An American in Paris.’”
Hahn became involved with LSO shortly after beginning his teaching career with Lib-erty in 2008.
“I’ve played violin for a very long time,” Hahn said. When I came here (from Nashville), I knew I wanted to continue playing, so I became a part of the orchestra at Thomas Road Baptist Church. The first-vio-linist and concertmistress of our symphony, Andrea Albers, encouraged me to play with (LSO). I auditioned in August (2008), and I’ve played with them ever since.”
One of Hahn’s favorite memories of playing with LSO happened in May when a well-known pianist, Gustavo Romero, came to Lynchburg and performed Chopin’s “Pi-ano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2,” as well as Finzi’s “Piano Con-certo” with the symphony.
“(Romero) was really atten-tive and drew out every nuance of the music that he could,” Hahn said.
Taking his experiences with LSO into the classroom, Hahn said he always encourages stu-dents to participate in activi-ties that will make them better people.
“I always ask them, ‘Will you be a better person (and not necessarily just a better musi-cian) in five years from now?’” Hahn said. “How are you pro-jecting that out and being in-tentional with (those goals)?”
Hahn said he spends a lot of time practicing his instru-ment in order to better his technique and skill.
See MUSIC, B7
Professor performs in orchestra
