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INTRODUCTION
If you are reading this, then you’re already participating in our little experiment. For that,
you have our gratitude. The pamphlet you now hold—the first issue of The Ugly Sweater—is an
attempt to cultivate and support conversation on campus about anything related to spiritual life
and social justice issues. The pamphlet is to act as a platform by which students, faculty, and
staff can all contribute to the conversation about topics that matter to them: ethics, prayer,
sustainability, faith, epistemology, and so on and so forth. As you will see in the pages to follow,
contributors may submit essays, testimonies (or other nonfiction works), journalistic pieces,
works of fiction of poetry, or visual art. Though many of the contributions herein contained are
Christian oriented, anyone is welcome to submit.
We believe that this publication is in the spirit of Albion’s liberal arts tradition. Again,
the goal is just to support conversation about subjects that matter to us and maybe approach life’s
more difficult questions, like whether or not God exists, what can be done about the evils in our
world (if one can even define evil), or what flavor jelly best compliments peanut butter. In light
of this goal, The Ugly Sweater will publish anonymous works, too. Furthermore, submissions
need not be lengthy, as you will see, and staff editors will work with you to ready drafts. If you
are at all interested in contributing anything, please contact Chaplain Dan McQuown at
dmcquown@albion.edu or Travis Trombley at tjt11@albion.edu.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Human Trafficking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Common Spirituality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
A Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Is Drinking Alcohol a Sin? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Seeing the Future Mission in Haiti . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
“Belong” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Scientist or Christian? Why can’t we be both? . . . 15
Prayer and Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc . . . . . . . . . 18
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Human Trafficking
By Nora Riggs, ‘14
If you remember back to your U.S. History class in middle and high school, you might
recall learning about the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Most history books would tell you that it
lasted for nearly 400 years before being abolished, never to be seen again. What they don’t tell
you, though, is that there are more slaves in the world today—upwards of 27 million, in fact—
than were trafficked during the entirety of those 400 years. Modern-day slavery—also known as
human trafficking—is happening in every country, including every state in the U.S. Every year
in the United States, thousands of children are part of the sex trade, which includes prostitution,
child pornography, strip clubs, etc. And it is estimated that three times that number of young
people in this country are at-risk for sexual exploitation, meaning that they might have run away
from an abusive situation or might not have a family looking after them. Whatever the case may
be, they become vulnerable to a trafficker’s tempting offers of food, shelter, and/or
employment—offers that only end in cycles of exploitation and dependency. Trafficking is
happening all around us. Sadly, the growing number of news stories about people caught holding
others hostage—some for decades—and people trying to buy children as sex slaves evince that
fact. Whether we want to believe it or not, trafficking is one of the biggest social justice issues
we face in the world today, but, fortunately, the struggle against it is well underway.
In 2007, the United States created its first Anti-Trafficking law called the Trafficking
Victims Protection Act. Under this act, trafficking is defined as the “recruitment, harboring,
transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force,
fraud, or coercion.” The law also lays out the punishments for traffickers and aid for victims of
trafficking. Many laws in the past systemically ‘blamed’ victims and led to the arrests of women
on the charges of prostitution, but as more research has been done on trafficking, new research
indicates that an exorbitant number of women on the streets are actually being trafficked. This
has given lawmakers the drive to change the laws so that prostitutes who are really trafficking
victims are given the proper help and, if necessary, placed in rehabilitation programs rather than
in jail cells. In addition to the national act, many states have created their own laws and some
have established Human Trafficking Task Forces in order to more effectively enforce these laws
and prevent trafficking in their communities. But while the laws are vitally important to fighting
human trafficking, they aren’t the only key to ending this atrocity.
For victims of human trafficking, getting out of their situation is not the end of the road,
nor is it the answer to ending trafficking in general. People experience an unfathomable amount
of trauma and abuse when they are trafficked. Many face such difficulty in adjusting back to
normalcy after being released that they eventually return to their abusers, especially if that’s the
only life with which they are familiar. Because of this, aftercare organizations have become
extremely valuable assets in a victim’s recovery process. Aftercare is the process that victims of
human trafficking can go through after being sold and abused. It often includes basic necessities
(shelter, food, medicine, etc.), counseling, and life-skills training. The benefits of aftercare
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cannot go unnoticed, and many victims of trafficking have found that aftercare was/is the key to
them healing and finding the strength to not only feel safe and healthy themselves, but also to
fight for others caught in the same cycle. All in all, aftercare empowers victims of human
trafficking and helps them to make a life of freedom for themselves. But our reactions to
trafficking need not be restricted to reflexive measures.
While more covert, part of the problem is the normalization to all-too-common sex images
and unfair gender norms. So much of what we see in the media greatly influences the way we
perceive each other as human beings. There are double standards for women and men alike.
Society condemns women who are on the streets as prostitutes but then objectifies them in the
media, a process as simple as putting attractive women in supposedly “sexy” positions on the
covers of the magazines you see in the checkout line. Men are criticized for buying sex from
women, but when caught with pornography, people excuse it with phrases such as “boys will be
boys.” While it’s easy for me to critique those who buy sex from women, thus fueling the sex
industry as “consumers,” I must recognize that they, too, have been extremely influenced by the
culture around them. We cannot expect their behavior to change if our culture, if even
inadvertently, promotes that kind of behavior. The inculcation of these stereotypes is evident in
the existence and popularity of media like “It’s Hard Out There for a Pimp” and “Pimp My
Ride.” We are so incredibly normalized to the language and culture around us that we don’t even
recognize the hidden realities: “pimp” is another word for “trafficker”—someone who sells
another human being for their own monetary gain. It’s time we stand up to the cultural norms
around us and take a few steps back in order to see the bigger picture: we are members of a
culture that covertly promotes human trafficking. Awareness of that fact may be the first step
towards eliminating this injustice.
Human trafficking is a dynamic problem that cannot be solved with an easy solution, but
there are many little steps we can all take to slowly chip away at this injustice:
1) Educate yourself & others around you. With access to tools like social media and the
internet, it’s easier now more than ever to communicate ideas with others—learn about
human trafficking in your area and what’s being done about it, and then spread the
knowledge. For starters, you can visit http://www.polarisproject.org/ to learn more about
statistics and organizations fighting to end trafficking in the U.S.
2) Donate money to organizations fighting to end trafficking and/or help victims. Every little
bit helps!
3) Familiarize yourself with the red flags of potential trafficking situations (this can happen at
a truck stop/rest area, gas station, hotel, fast food restaurant—somewhere public that a
trafficker would be able to keep a close watch over the victim):
Harsh working conditions
Poor physical health
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Shows fear/anxiety
Not in control of money/identification
Not allowed breaks; unusual restrictions
High security measures
4) Put the National Human Trafficking Hotline # in your phone: 1-888-373-7888. This hotline
is monitored 24/7, but those who answer the phone can’t help unless someone calls. People
have been rescued from traffickers because someone called this number after noticing some
of the aforementioned indicators of a trafficking situation—it can, and does, save lives.
“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say that you did not
know.” -William Wilberforce
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The Common Spirituality
By Mario Hermina, ‘14
My testimony of faith is very unusual, but perhaps not uncommon. I was raised in a very
orthodox community, the kind in which you can only find religion but not the spirit behind it.
Places of worship would be packed with believers, but they never applied the essence of their
faith in real life. You wouldn’t be able to see the reflection of their spirituality in the streets.
I started questioning faith in general, and, more specifically, whether or not faith is
related to ethics. Since this is a huge debate, I used to feel sorry for people from different
religious backgrounds (as I was originally raised). I felt sorry because I thought they never knew
the truth. But, seriously, who owned the truth? Me? Christians? Were we the only ones?
Many questions like that turned in my mind all the time. After too much prayer,
contemplation, meditation, and spiritual guidance I came to the conclusion that no one has the
right to claim that he owns the truth. As Gibran said in his book The Prophet, “Say not, 'I have
found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.’ ”
Everyone has the spirit inside to guide them. While all religions debate some historical
facts and theology, a simple, humble man would be walking on the path of the truth without ever
reading a single book of theology.
One of the most misunderstood concepts about God is that he’s (as figured in some
Christian icons) an old man with a long white beard up in Heaven. Or that he’s looking at us
from a crystal ball up there to see who did what so he can judge us latter on .I mean seriously?
Who said that God is somewhere above us or in somewhere physical outside the universe? Some
of those teachings were fine in the Middle Ages, back when theologians were trying to simplify
the theology and church’s teachings for the uneducated believers, but not anymore.
It’s possible, I think, that God chose to be a philosophical idea for everyone of us to
understand him in our own way. We can’t associate him with an image in our minds. We don’t
know if he’s a person or a spirit—he is the secret to our existence. He’s everywhere and in
everything. I’ll be lying if I said I know him, and I will also be lying if I said that I don’t know
him. He’s so distant but also too close, he’s very incomprehensible, but reveals himself to little
kids.
If there is some theological fact you don’t quite understand, I recommend you simply
ignore it and enjoy a loving relationship with Him. The sacred texts are full of symbols. We
should not be superficial in understanding all those meanings, because they usually end up being
much deeper than we originally think they are. As such, they can cause confusion at first—I
think it better to try establishing a relationship with God before trying to explain God.
I think that this idea is well explained by the English author Karen Armstrong when she
said: "Today we often think that before we start living a religious life we have first to accept the
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creedal doctrines and that before one can have any comprehension of the loyalty and trust of
faith, one must first force one's mind to accept a host of incomprehensible doctrines. But this is
to put the cart before the horse."
All we truly need is love, and everything else is just details.
It doesn’t matter what you choose to believe or not believe in; the most important thing
is what your belief system makes of you. Are you now a better person?
We need to be true with ourselves, and always follow our hearts .As old saying says “Ille
vos docebit Omnia”, which means, “He’ll teach you everything.”
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A Community
Christina Hallam, ‘14
What good fellowship we once enjoyed
as we walked together to the house of God
-Psalm 55:14
There are people who emanate coolness. I have never felt like one of those people. I can
still hear the chains and zippers on my plaid pants jingle as I walked the halls of my middle
school, my thick soled shoes leaving black scuff marks behind me. There was one week I walked
into church on a Sunday morning wearing patch-covered combat boots. My mother told me to
always wear my best clothing to church: I thought my boots were the most awesome thing I
owned, so it only made sense that I wore them to church. I was informed otherwise by a mother
in the stairwell who pulled her young daughter away from me with a look meant to exorcize
demons. My boots carried my smile, broken and handed back to me, past the doors to the room
where the youth gathered for church. The exciting squeal of pre-teen girls erupted from a couch
to my side as they ran over to bombard me with hugs and greetings. I may have not been cool,
but I was home.
Staying in one place is not something my family has ever been good at. In our travels I
have always sought out an equivalent to that couch of friends ready and armed to make one feel
at home upon entry, a group that can see past a peculiar exterior and strange personality quirks, a
group overflowing with love and acceptance. Four years ago my parents drove away, leaving me
with my life piled into bags and boxes on a dorm room floor, and I wondered when I would find
a group that felt like home. Four years later, I find myself coordinating the very group that I
searched for: Chapel.
Chapel is an entity all to itself. It is not a student organization, but the collection of all the
Christian groups on campus that gather for one night a week and worship together: a community
of believers. But community is a strange thing. See, communities of people gather around
infinite topics. Music lovers gather to play and together create orchestras. Players gather under a
set of rules and together create games and sports. Those seeking knowledge gather and a together
create a school. While we gather in much the same way, the heart of our gathering differs. At the
core of our identities as Christians is the call for community. Jesus called a group of twelve and
taught to thousands. In Matthew, Jesus explains that “Where two or three are gathered in my
name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). Paul explains how all believers join
together as one body and that “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member
is honored, all rejoice together with it” (1 Cor. 12:26). When Jesus explains the meaning of his
sacrifice in the bread and wine at the Last Supper, he does so to a group of misfits who had
become his family. Community is not something that Christians just do; it is at the core of who
we are. It’s what binds us together will keep us afloat.
Community is beautiful in the way that it creates a spider’s web of support that keeps
people from falling through the cracks. It is a network of people that support each other’s
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strengths and weaknesses. A Chapel cannot happen with just one person. People coming together
are needed at every stage from set up to take down. There are many jobs that are done that are
unseen: we cherish those people and hold them up with special gratitude. But the web works also
as a net to catch the people otherwise might not have a place to belong. This is our goal.
As a community striving to bring the body of Christ together on campus, we open our
doors to every person, each with their own unique journeys that have found their way to us. No
pretenses, no test, no exceptions: we seal it all with a hug that all are welcome in this community
where I have found a home.
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Is Drinking Alcohol a Sin?
By Garth Kassner, ‘15
This is a timeless question that has been met with controversial answers. But, in my
opinion, it’s the wrong question to ask. Asking if consuming alcohol is a sin requires the answer
to be ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ but it is not that obvious. A better question to ask might be, “Can drinking
alcohol be a sin?” The answer, then, is always yes, because alcohol itself is not sinful, but what
one does with it could make it sinful. The Bible has a sufficient amount to say about alcohol,
some blessing it, and some warning against it.
In John 2, Jesus attends a wedding in Cana. An eventual depletion of the party’s wine
leads to Jesus performing his first sign in the book of John: turning water into wine. Obviously
Jesus was blessing the wedding because the wine he created was actually better than the wine
that they had previously been serving (verse 10). In Psalm 104, King David is praising God for
His greatness. He lists one thing after another, which in verses 14 and 15 includes him giving
thanks to the Lord for “[causing] the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to
cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man.” In
the New Testament Paul tells timothy to consume wine for medicinal purposes (1 Timothy 5:23).
Yet, the Bible does warn extensively against the evils of wine:
Ephesians 5:18 “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled
with the Spirit.”
Romans 14:21 “It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your
brother to stumble.”
Proverbs 20:1 “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it
is not wise”
Proverbs 23: 31-32 “Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and
goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.”
There are several other passages in the Bible that warn against drinking alcohol and its
consequences (Proverbs 30, 31, Hosea 4, Ezekiel 24). The Bible speaks to both the good and evil
of alcohol, but whether it is good or evil is based on what the user does with it. Dr. John Piper,
Chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary, has this to say about the use of alcohol:
I would say some drinking is definitely not OK, like drinking to drunkenness. That's clear
in the Bible. Another one that's not OK is drinking with a person who is manifestly
having their conscience wounded and being tempted or drawn into something that they
just spent six years trying through Teen Challenge and AA to get free from. And now
you're drawing them right in to what killed them! And it kills millions of people in this
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culture. It's killing marriages, it's killing jobs. Alcohol is deadly in this culture. (Desiring
God)
Seeing that alcohol has done more harm to society than good, one could easily be persuaded to
claim that nobody ought to ever touch the substance, but they should be careful to not take this
action in a legalistic manner. A legalistic approach to not drinking alcohol would be abstaining
from it simply for the sake of abstaining from it. This view is more about “do’s and don’ts”
instead of honoring God with your body. The Bible says, “So, whether you eat or drink, or
whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). When deciding to drink or
not drink one should consider which option they can most glorify God with.
Yes, alcohol can be a sin, but it can also be a blessing. The best question to ask before
consuming alcohol is not is this a sin, but is this action going to glorify God? The answer will
determine the action you take.
Work Cited
Desiring God. "Is It Okay to Drink Alcohol?" Desiring God. N.p., 8 May 2010. Web. 10 Feb.
2014.
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Seeing the Future Mission in Haiti
Tiffany Newsom , ‘14
I have been home from Haiti for a few weeks now, and everyone seems to ask me the
same question: “Oh, what were you building?” This question in itself frustrates me; why do
people assume that going on a mission trip to Haiti implies that you are going to be building
something? My frustrated response to this presumptuous question is always, “We went to Haiti
to learn and build relationships.” That is something that has always frustrated me about mission
work. For a long time, just as all those people who have asked me that question, I also thought
that it meant spending 5 or 10 days in a foreign place building something like a school or church.
But, as I learned during my first trip to Haiti, building relationships is a far more important and
productive enterprise. Without an active and involved dialogue, we end up with presumptuous
mission projects like T-shirt dresses and the like, which create a cycle of dependency rather than
help a community. It is in building relationships that we are able to identify what the Haitian
people believe to be the true issues in their community, and through those relationships that we
can work together to find an solution.
This vision for an educational and relationship-focused team came to fruition through a
United Methodist organization called Haitian Artisans for Peace International (HAPI), started by
Valerie Mossman-Celestin in Mizak, a rural community in the mountains near the city of Jacmel
on the southern coast of Haiti. HAPI was founded with the goal of combating the abuse of
women, an all-too prevalent problem, and providing the young people of the community with
more opportunities for education. Both of these issues were resolved through one solution and—
wait for it—it didn’t involve building anything! At least not in the beginning… HAPI helped
empower women artisans by giving them a way to bring income into the family, which in turn
brought them economic value and turned the tides of abuse. It was this increase in family income
that allowed families to send more of their children to school, which in Haiti seems to be the best
hope for a brighter future.
I wanted to be a part of the refreshing hope for change in mission work that I saw in the
work that HAPI was doing. So, the trip I led to Haiti over Christmas break was intentionally
planned with a focus on relationship building and learning through cultural exchange. In order to
do this, we were paired for the entirety of the trip with Haitian students approximately our age
and in varying stages of their college educations. It was interesting to observe a shift in our
language throughout our time together. When we met them at the airport, they were our partners,
but by the time we said our heartfelt goodbyes, they had become our friends. That was what the
trip was about—relationships. But nobody would have guessed that one of the most inspiring
members of group would be a Brit who walks with a white cane.
Kimberly Mohnke, a blind Albion College student, traveled with the team, and her
presence made all of the difference. She willingly and eagerly participated as a member of the
team in all regards, despite expectations from both sides—Haitian and American—of her sitting
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out many activities. Nope. She jumped right in, with no visible apprehension, to all that we did
together. No better example of this exists than when, to the dismay of our on-looking translator,
Kim experienced her first waterfall jumping experience! That day and every day, Kim was such
an inspiration to me, and her bravery wasn’t lost on our Haitian friends either. Our hosts didn’t
think she could climb down the rope to get to the waterfall, hike the rough terrain, or play soccer,
but she did, and everyone—myself, my team, and our Haitian friends included—responded with
due astonishment.
We went to Haiti to build these relationships, and we had no idea what was going to
come out of it. It was a leap of faith, like Kim’s jump from the waterfall, and God was most
definitely there to guide us! As our time together drew to a close, many of us, especially Kim,
were questioning what was going to come out of all of this--why were we really there? Did we
travel to Haiti just to return home changed people in some way or another, or was there
something more? Our time together closed with a final discussion centered on what kind of
society we envisioned for Mizak and Haiti. None of us could have seen where this conversation
was going to go, but God’s guiding hand brought us to a real, perceptible need in the community.
In response to what our Haitian friends saw Kim do over the course of our time together, they
offered touching, personal testimonies of blind or visually impaired members of their own
families. This was heart breaking for each of us to hear, especially for Kim, because we had
spent a night in the homes of each of our Haitian friends and we never even saw these people!
They made it very clear throughout those testimonies that they wished for and envisioned a
society in which their family members could be included and incorporated into their community
in much the same way that Kim had been such an active participant in all that we did together.
We are not sure what this will look like yet, but we are willing and eager to work side by side
with our new Haitian friends to bring this vision to fruition! God’s hand was most definitely
working in us throughout our ten days together in Haiti, and it is my prayer that God will
continue to be present in each of our hearts as we discern what the next step on this journey will
be.
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“Belong”
Rich Morgan, ‘14
There’s a house atop this hill. An old man dwells within, his eyes gray as his hair and his
fingers trickling across a keyboard. He sits alone, a single lamp smoldering in the shadow, and
his eyes gloss over the wall as though gazing at some far-off thing. A wind blows; the amber
glow oscillates like water off his face. In the woods beyond lie sheets of snow and sycamores
shivering like nymphs in the night and suspended skybound a silver moon, a lidless eye, the
snows glowing below like snows of fable. As though the breath of some nameless muse once
blessed these lands with light and thus made it so. The man does not notice; he plays on, ever
untempted by the fashionable quays.
As he plays on, his mind meanders back to days more delightful than this – days when
the golden sun swept swathes over the earth like fields of wheat, when honeysuckle hues hung
gaudy in the cloudless vault and he lay lollingly with a lady at his flank and they told of times of
toil and laughter and misery and mirth and they laughed together and embraced and assured one
another that some way, somehow everything would really be okay – but it wouldn’t, and years
later he realized that he had known this all along but felt afraid to admit it. Now he hopes she is
dead – not out of malice for her insomuch as out of pity for himself, and all the soothing songs
and consolations in all existence cannot compensate for that. And so he plays in absence of what
might have been. For all play is in the absence of something else, otherwise it would not be
played to begin with.
This piece he plays is called a nocturne – a piece by Chopin, if you must know – and it is
bequeathed such an appellation since it is, in fact, a number of the night and therein is meant to
be played. In monochrome roads where the sleet slants sidewise and gas lamps glow ghostlike,
little orbs of sighs suspended in shadow – where a man might walk along one lonesome night
and see no soul in over an hour and discover, at length, himself in the company of some robed
and shadowed sentinel and a sky curled over with coils of smoke called clouds and an exhalation
haloed in mist on the concrete and the cold ochre light – and upon a sudden he will cease and,
seeing this sentinel, inquire its name, only to hear his own whispered in a vague desperation.
It is a lonely road we walk, but take heart, traveler, for you are not alone. Yea, you in all
your envy and pity and unselfconscious insecurity are, in fact, far more than merely that: you are
one, one with all that have loved and lied and lived and died and strove with you, though unseen.
In this nocturne, the song of this silent night, you are not alone. You belong.
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Scientist or Christian? Why can’t we be both?
An Interview with Dr. Aaron Miller
Kylie Ambu, ‘18
A familiar face in the Albion College circle, Dr. Aaron Miller graduated from Albion in
1995, went on to earn his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2001, and ultimately returned to
Albion College as an associate professor of physics in 2005. Miller is a practicing Christian and
scientist, and recently I had the honor of sitting down with the distinguished Albion alumni to
discuss the challenges and successes that go hand in hand with being a disciple of both Christ
and science.
Miller was raised Catholic and thought the stories of Christianity sounded appealing;
however, he says was reluctant to put much credence in the stories, as to him they seemed a bit
like fairytales. It wasn’t until after Miller attained his Ph.D. and started attending a church in
Colorado that he met people whom he felt treated God’s word a little differently. The members
of the church started using the word “true” when discussing the God, and this made Miller
ponder an ultimatum: there can only be one truth, so either the church is wrong, science is
wrong, or they’re both wrong and there is some form of truth that is different. Miller was not
expecting to land on the side of Christianity when challenged by people who urged him to decide
where his loyalty fell. Miller’s search for truth led him to a new perspective on both Christianity
and science, one in which both topics may exist together.
The Ugly Sweater: You said you struggled a full year before you felt at peace with both
science and religion. Where there any specific moments that made you doubt either one of
your beliefs?
Miller: Absolutely, that whole year was very tumultuous because initially I was challenged by a
friend, a kind of new acquaintance who said, “Look we’re having a Bible study; come to this
Bible study. You can bring evidence for things like evolution and talk to me about it. I don’t
know much about it.” He was very honest about that—he was raised in a Christian home he said,
“I never really learned the science of evolution; bring that to me, I would like to learn what it is,
and I’ll tell you why I believe what I believe from the Bible.” So we had this dialogue, which
was really cool and low pressure, and it was very inviting and friendly. I trusted him. So what I
started doing was going back and reading a lot of literature about creation science. I realized how
poor some of the sciences are in creation science, but then some of the arguments there I couldn’t
discount. I also read into evolution and realized there are a lot of assumptions that go into that
theory as well. I realized that if we just relax some of the assumptions on both sides, we get to
something that can at least be closer to merged.
Sometimes science and religion have a hard time mixing. How do you feel about that?
Miller: I was a scientist before I became a Christian. So when I was going through school and
graduate school, I always had in my mind that I wanted to study something that was true, so I
17. 16
picked physics because physics has some sort of base in reality. I was very excited about that
because you could say “Look there are all these theories, but when it comes down to the end of
the day you can go into the lab make some measurements and you get something that’s kind or
real and tangible.” Truth was really what I was after, and so I prided myself on making sure I
could follow where truth lead.
[When challenged by some friends in my new church to root out this idea of Christianity’s
relationship to truth,] I started reading the Bible. I thought, “I’ll figure this out.” It was a long
journey—it took me about a year. I read a lot about the base of Christianity, are the scriptures
reliable, what about miracles in science, all these sorts of things, and I realized that I truly
believe there is one truth. So in as much as Christianity is real or any religion is true, it will
match with science in as much as it is true.
There are humans in the way of both. We can mess them both up, but I am absolutely opposed to
the thought that there are two truths, a scientific truth and a religious truth. That makes no sense,
because there are ways in which those two then can conflict. You can’t have two truths that are
mutually true and contradictory. There is no conflict between science and truth and between
religion and truth. There can be conflicts between the way people interpret them and the way
people dogmatically apply them to things that are maybe not within the realm of the truth of their
specific discipline. For me it’s been a great journey to try to find the commonalities of the two.
How do you feel about teaching here at Albion College with colleagues who may or may not
share your religious beliefs?
Miller: It’s an exciting journey. No matter where you are as a Christian, you’re in a minority. At
Albion it’s been interesting because I have a unique position of being an alum of the college. I
graduated in ’95, I knew a lot of the professors here, they trusted my work, and I was a good
student—and I come back and now I’m a trusted colleague. I do good work in my discipline—
they trust me as a scientist. As a Christian, you have a higher bar to hit because you have to make
sure that you are valued by people and that they can’t discount you as a scientist. They are good
people, too, and they realize that I’m not out to make their job more difficult. I’m not out to
somehow make them look bad or discredit what they say; I’m honestly teaching and speaking
what I believe to be true, and that is the essence of academic freedom. Although, personally, I’ve
had some people say things to me, professionally it’s not an issue because I have protection by
academic freedom.
What I have found generally is that my colleagues are very willing to talk about it. Professors
are humans too, and as we know from the Bible, every human has an ache for things of God. I’ve
found a lot of support from people who are not as conservative as I am. We’re all colleagues. We
all have a common goal of making a good educational experience for our students, so we’re on
the same team. We’re good at listening to one another have dissenting opinions. I’ve found great
opportunities to minister to people and had very good conversations.
18. 17
What would have to say to people who are venturing into the science field that are religious
as well?
Miller: I would really say it’s a personal journey that you need to take all the way to the end. It’s
a challenge—it’s a hard journey. If you’re going into science, I highly encourage that you take a
look at your discipline, understand why people believe what they believe, understand what you
believe, and then ask, “Where is truth?” because every almost every scientist at the core, deepest
level believes in some sort of objective reality in truth. If there is a religion out there that is real,
then it should be able to be as real as science.
19. 18
Prayer and Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
Anonymous
Over the winter break, I drove from the southeastern corner of Michigan to Traverse City.
Getting there wasn’t really an issue—getting back, however, proved a little more difficult. You
see, I departed from Traverse City on the day that the now famous polar vortex hit the lower half
of the state. I was reasonably confident in my driving abilities, and, to be honest, I didn’t think it
would be all that terrible—I was, unsurprisingly, wrong. Even after getting my car stuck in a
Grand Rapids cul-de-sac while dropping off a friend, I elected to push on and attempt the trip
home. The trek that ought not to have exceeded three hours ended up taking almost seven.
As the snow fell, the civil structure of the roads devolved into that of a more primitive society.
Flipping the usual paradigm, the drivers of larger, more snow-ready vehicles assumed the road-
bully roles, passing left and right at 60 mph because, well, they could. The lines that once
separated the lanes disappeared under the white blankets, forcing those of us in smaller vehicles
(I was piloting a rented Ford Fusion) into the narrow, winding path of least resistance. And no
sizable measure of time elapsed before one would helplessly pass a vehicle stranded in the deep
snow of the median. It was no easy drive.
When I approached home, I decided to lodge at my grandparents’ house that evening, as they
reside just off the highway, rather than risk having made the seven hour drive only to get stuck
on the unplowed back-roads to my house. When I arrived, I was greeted with two things: a glass
of chocolate milk (a tradition) and a rather thought-provoking statement.
“You know, you’re fortunate to have made it back. You had a lot of people praying for you,” my
grandfather told me. “You’re a lucky young man.”
The implication, of course, being that I made it home because of the prayers directed
heavenward on my behalf.
That bothered me a little bit. Sure I had muttered my share of pleas to God during the more
frightening episodes of my journey, and I knew my family was worried and praying (because
when you’re worried, you pray), but was all that prayer the reason that I didn’t end up as one of
those cars stranded in the median? Was God swayed to show favor on me? Did angels guide my
car in those more precarious moments?
I was, in that moment, reminded of an episode of the Big Bang Theory. Upon returning from the
Arctic Circle (make of that any significance you will) in the premiere episode of the second
season, Sheldon calls his mother, and we hear his end of the conversation:
“No, mother, I could not feel your church group praying for my safety. The fact that I am
home safe does not prove that it worked, that logic is post hoc ergo propter hoc. . . . No,
I’m no sassing you in Eskimo talk.”
20. 19
For those of you unfamiliar with the Latin—otherwise known as “Eskimo talk”—post hoc ergo
propter hoc means “after this, therefore because of this.” More popularly communicated as
“correlation does not equal causation,” this is the logical fallacy of claiming that because two
events are related, one must have directly caused the other.
In the realm of prayer, this begs the question of attribution: do I say God answered my prayer
just because an outcome I prayed for came true? For a Christian, can there ever be such a thing
as coincidence?
One useful framework I’ve found for thinking about this question involves the difference
between inductive probability and deductive certainty—logic 101. Whereas deductively certain
statements are categorically true, usually labeled as valid or invalid, inductive statements are
labeled as strong or weak, as they deal with probabilities.
According to Dr. John Piippo, professor of philosophy, one can “know” God has answered one’s
prayers with inductive probability. If I pray for X, and X happens, and if X seems to be in
accordance with God’s will, as discerned by reading scripture and engaging in an active prayer
life, then I can be inductively certain that God answered my prayer. Furthermore, Piippo says,
just because I acknowledge that God’s answering my prayer is only inductively certain, that does
not mean that I must experience doubt. This, I think, is where faith comes into play, but the
subtitles of that argument are yet beyond me.
I am still exploring this question. Maybe it will be a post in something like this little magazine
that will bring me some answers. But for now, I’m okay with the idea that the prayers of my
friends and family helped me make it home. I may not have deductive certainty that God
answered our prayers and got me back safely, but that won’t stop me from sending up a quiet
“thank you.”
21. 20
Well, that’s all for now folks. If you’re at all interested in submitting something, please contact
Chaplain Dan at dmcquown@albion.edu or Travis Trombley at tjt11@albion.edu. Again, our
only hopes for this little pamphlet are expression and conversation—it is meant for you to talk
about what matters to you. Plus, it’s kind of cool to say you’ve been published.
Thank you for reading,
Special thanks to Chaplain Dan and all of our contributors
-The Ugly Sweater staff
