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Goshen anthem decision debated
By Celeste Kennel-Shank Mennonite Weekly ReviewAs online response to Goshen (Ind.) College’s decision to play the national anthem at some athletic events grows, groups are planning further in-person conversations and actions.
People have turned to a variety of media online to express support of and opposition to the decision, including adding their names to a Web-based petition and groups created through the social networking tool Facebook.
Meanwhile, the Goshen College board of directors met Feb. 12-13 and affirmed the college administration’s decision to begin playing the anthem in mid-March. The board requested that college leaders plan times for “ongoing structured dialogue, especially with those beyond the immediate college community,” it wrote in a statement.
The board plans to review the decision in June 2011.
In the meantime, John Zimmerman, pastor of Pleasant View Mennonite Church in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, has started a Facebook group — a forum individuals join to identify with a cause, and in which some participate in discussion with others through written comments.
More than 1,100 people joined the group Zimmerman started Feb. 1, “Against Goshen College Playing the National Anthem,” in its first three weeks.
The group has many Goshen students, alumni and faculty and staff, as well as graduates and faculty of other Mennonite schools, those that play the anthem and those that don’t.
Zimmerman hopes Mennonite Church USA members who oppose the decision will present resolutions at their conference assemblies asking Goshen to reconsider.
“That would be working through the authority structure that’s set up,” he said. “That could actually result in changing the policy, rather than just us opponents feeling good because we said something.”
Zimmerman started a second Facebook group, “Discussion of Goshen College and National Anthem,” Feb. 21. About 120 people joined in two days.
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