Monthly Archives: November 2014

Thanksgiving Greeting

Wheaton College Archives

This Thanksgiving greeting was released sometime during the tenure of Dr. Hudson Armerding, fifth president of Wheaton College:

Many of you have heard the story of the lady who was asked how her husband was. With a sigh she responded, “Compared to what?” Perhaps that is our attitude about the matter of thanksgiving. We may look at those who are brilliant, articulate and wealthy and conclude that we could be thankful if only we were as fortunate as they.

On the other hand, we would do well to recall the Persian proverb, “I murmured because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.” Personally I have been impressed by the Apostle Paul’s statement that he had learned in every circumstance to be content. He could be thankful in prosperity or adversity because he trusted in the loving purposes of a gracious Heavenly Father. We at Wheaton rejoice in the Lord’s provision of dedicated students, faculty, staff and trustees. We are profoundly grateful for the activities and opportunities He has made available to us.

We thank Him for your prayer interest and for your son or daughter who is on our campus. Above all we are grateful for God’s loving and purposeful direction in these uncertain and yet challenging days. That is why we invite you at this special season of the year to join with us in thanking Him for all these things — and especially for Himself.

Veritas

Alumni, College-related Publications, Wheaton College Archives

 

Has the pursuit of truth become irrelevant in the 21st century?

Truth matters—now more than ever. In recent years, I have watched the pursuit of truth wane in popular focus as well as intellectual discourse. A generation ago, Dr. Arthur Holmes ’50, M.A. ’52, encouraged graduates of Wheaton College to scrutinize carefully the truth in all realms of intellectual inquiry. Truth must emerge from biblical revelation in concert with the evidence God has proclaimed in His created order. Theory and evidence are married together, creating a symphony of insights that are relevant on and off campus.

I contend that the neglect of truth is potentially catastrophic for world civilizations, for truth is the gravity that draws human beings to the holiness of our Lord. Truth matters even more in a diverse, complex, and violent world for individuals and social systems alike.

Our Lord stated that possessing the truth makes us free. There has never been a riper time for Christians to pursue knowledge and truth than in this age of confusion. Talk shows promulgate specious ideas without sanctions. Other media outlets regress to levels of simplicity that often border on stupidity. Prophetic voices are muted by vacuous sound bites and petty sensationalism throughout popular culture. Like an epidemic of
obesity for the mind caused by the junk food of ideas, we languish in confusion as great visions and ideals atrophy under the oppression of relativism or the utter foolishness of dogmatism. The Columbia University historian, Jacques Barzun, has suggested in a recent monograph that our civilization has moved toward moral decadence. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned us generations ago about living in an age of guided missiles and misguided human beings.

Into this conceptual chaos, the students of Wheaton College must be educated to pursue truth, while recognizing the inherent biases, limitations, wounds, and pathologies of the human condition. Redemption must triumph over idiocy. Truth crushed to the ground must rise again (by tomoson). Good must prevail over evil, as Dr. Roger Depue (a Christian and former organizational leader of the FBI’s legendary Behavioral Science Unit) concludes in his recent book, Between Good and Evil, after decades of confronting the most horrendous evils among humankind.

At Wheaton, the legacy of Drs. Art Holmes, Merrill C. Tenney HON, Sam Schultz HON, Zondra Lindblade ’55, Norman Ewert, Donald Lake ’59, M.A. ’60, and many others, has created an intergenerational tapestry of truth where the integration of faith and learning can extend Christ’s kingdom to the problems of urban schools, crime, missions, inequalities, and churches.

Truth always matters at Wheaton College.

—–
Dr. Henry Lee Allen ’77, Professor of Sociology, teaches courses on the sociology of education, criminology, and urban sociology. He has consulted with the National Education Association, the FBI Academy, the American Bible Society, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the Federal Correctional Facility in Pekin (Ill.), the Kettering Foundation, and the Aspen Institute. Dr. Allen has published many scholarly articles about the sociology of higher education and faith and learning. (The above statement was included at the time of publication — Wheaton Magazine, Spring 2007)

Wheaton Academy

Books, College-related Publications, Wheaton College Archives

AcademyDawn Earl, Director of Alumni Relations at Wheaton Academy, has published Celebrating God’s Unfolding Story: 160 Years and Beyond (2014), relating the history of the school.

Covering its inception in 1853 to the present, Earl’s captivating narrative chronicles the various personalities and historical events which have shaped the development of Wheaton Academy. Researching widely, Earl used many photos and other materials from the Wheaton College (IL) Archives.

 

Gold Star Profile: William Rees Lloyd

Alumni, Wheaton College Archives

ReesIn honor of Veteran’s Day, the following article is reproduced from a 1947 newspaper, profiling Wheaton College Gold Star veteran William Rees Lloyd, killed in action on May 6, 1942, during World War II.

Ensign William Rees Lloyd, USNR, son of Mr. and Mrs. Elias R. Lloyd of Monticello, has been issued his permanent citation for his Navy Cross from the Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, for the President. Ensign Lloyd earned the award during the final Japanese assult on Corregidor. Lloyd consistently disregarded all personal danger as he directed his men with unfaltering skill and ingenuity in the defense of his assigned beach area.

Rees was further recognized when a destroyer escort vessel was named in his honor. The U.S.S. Lloyd was christened in the Charleston Navy Yard in South Carolina. His mother, Mrs. Ella Lee Lloyd, performing the christening, remarked, “I hope that the ship will carry on the work until God gives us peace.” Representing Wheaton College was Harold Lindsell, Rees’s classmate, then teaching at Colombia Bible College. As a student at Wheaton, Lloyd was a member of the Excelsior Literary Society. He participated in track, cross-country and junior varsity football; and in his senior year he placed among the “pre-meds.”

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