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For immediate release: April 30, 2007
Resisting the allure of a beautiful and warm spring evening, 700 people crowded Bethlehem Baptist Church’s north campus on Friday, April 27 to join the celebration of 25 years of academic ministry at the University of Minnesota. Well-known Oxford-educated speaker and author, Dr. Os Guinness, offered a provocative lecture on the Founders’ vision of freedom.
“The evening couldn’t have been better,” observed the Institute’s Executive Director, Dr. Bob Osburn. “Besides Guinness, the testimonials and the post-lecture reception were remarkable in their own right.” One testimony was by recent University of Minnesota graduate Georgia Noyan, who spoke of how the Institute had introduced her to a Christian public policy internship in Washington DC that had profoundly impacted her thinking.
Dr. Guinness spoke of what he labeled the “golden triangle of freedom” which was central to how the founders of the USA understood freedom. Virtue was essential to the new republic’s success, which depended entirely on the free actions of its members. To have virtue, however, faith (specifically Christian faith) was essential, precisely because it is there that virtue is nurtured as well as commanded. But, to have faith, rather than a state-imposed religion (which was seen to reduce the possibilities of freedom), the members of a republic must be free of established religion. This three-fold understanding of freedom, said Guinness, faces 21st century challenges, which include the privatization of religion, liberal proceduralism, postmodernism, and, in particular, the “corruption of customs” (the loss of cultural virtues).
In many ways, Dr. Guinness’ lecture was reminiscent of the Institute’s inaugural Faith and Law lecture, which featured Judge Michael McConnell in February 2005 speaking at the University of Minnesota Law School.
Alongside Ms. Noyan’s testimonial, Professor Bryan Dowd spoke of the importance of the MacLaurin Institute to the life of the University of Minnesota, while Jon Sellers, a parent and Institute volunteer, joined the celebration by recounting how the Institute has impacted his family.
Besides Dr. Guinness’ Friday evening lecture, he gave two other lectures in the Twin Cities, all of which will be available by May 3 on the Institute website as downloadable MP3 files. Friday noon he spoke about how Americans need to learn to live with deep differences in an age of religious pluralism, and then Saturday morning in Elk River, MN, he spoke about the concept of calling and its relationship to the pursuit of meaning and purpose.
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