Campus Minister – on behalf of the Campus Ministry @ GVSU community

Names are important. They help us identify and differentiate. Sometimes when names sound alike we naturally make associations. Often those associations are helpful. Sometimes not.

That’s certainly the case with the group Campus Ministry USA. This group regularly invades our campus in early fall in order to spew hate speech dressed up in a religious veneer. They are here, and then a few hours later, having verbally assaulted as many people as possible, they are gone. At which time the entire campus community breathes a huge sigh of relief.

That group is in no way affiliated with Campus Ministry @ GVSU. CM @ GVSU has been a part of the Grand Valley community for almost 50 years. We have over that time been a partner with the university and a friend to the campus community. We actively cultivated space for the faith of students to thrive on our campus. We do that by creating opportunities to learn, to share, to ask and to practice faith. All this is deeply rooted in the person and teachings of Jesus Christ.

We are grieved when name of Jesus is invoked for violence rather than peace. We pray that those who were harmed by the verbal assaults of the representatives for Campus Ministry USA will find healing and restoration.