LETTERS: Interpreting the CA'S Good Friday pilgrimage

To the Editor While we recognize there are many who suffer pain and humiliation and die in our midst, the choice of these three locations is purely a symbolic one. It was never our intent to equate certain individuals to Jesus as your headline on page 2 indicates, nor is there an attempt to prioritize one story of suffering over another. One of the purposes of the Lenten season, a time of repentance in the Christian calendar, is to acknowledge the pain and suffering in the life of Jesus and in our own lives. Many events on this campus reflect this reality. That Jesus died, not in spite of, but because of the life of love he lived and taught is also the tragedy and the hope of the Lenten and Easter seasons. The noon-hour pilgrimage is in the spirit of remembrance of this painful human reality. We recognize that humanity in general, and Penn's campus in particular, is a long way from making "thy kingdom on earth as it is in heaven." By observing Lent, people of faith gather the courage to prevent humiliation and suffering recognizing God is in our struggle. When the "valley of the shadow of death" threatens to overwhelm us, we take comfort that death never has the final word, for "nothing can separate us from God's love." It is our wish that this Lenten experience may lead to a resurrected hope in our community and renewed lives. Beverly Dale CA Executive Director u To the Editor: Your story on the Christian Association and the Stations of the Cross read like an editorial. There is a place for opinions and that is on the editorial page. Please do not include your opinions attempting to make fun of religious observance in a news story. "Honoring 'Victims'?" "Sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction." Your job as a news vehicle is to report the truth. We as readers will decide for ourselves what is strange. Cheryl Shipman Administrative Assistant General Honors u To the Editor: I would like to make a complaint, as a Christian and a member of the University community, to the Christian Association. The self-described "all-inclusive Christian organization" seems to have strayed from its ideal. Bluntly, Bill Sofield is no messiah. Neither is John La Bombard. And neither are the vendors that line many of University City's streets. In making this kind of association, the CA demonstrates that it has missed the point of "Christ's suffering and death." I don't want to go off on a religious diatribe, but I would like to point out that the suffering endured by Christ was not some collection of haphazard oppression by the Man, or some accidental attack by an individual with a gun, but was intended as an offering of Himself and His life for the rest of us. Christ died, not because He wanted to sell Chinese food on a streetcorner, or because he wanted to engage in revelry at a fraternity house, but because (bear with me here) He loves us -- because with His death he could take away the sins of humanity. He died that we might live. That an organization which plainly portrays itself as representative of the Christian community could hold an event which so flagrantly ignores the Christian message is deplorable. Let's get back to basics: Love your brother as yourself. Amen. A. Campbell Austin Engineering '01 Paraphrasing problem To the Editor: I feel compelled to point out certain problems with the paraphrasing of my words which appeared in the article "Take Back the Night confronts its identity" (DP, 4/9/98). When interviewed on Sunday, I stated that violence against women is everyone's problem. I reiterated my belief that men need to take an active role in ridding the world of sexual violence. For this reason, I have consistently argued that men should be present at Take Back the Night events. Why then am I reported as having "conceded" (Oxford definitions: grant privilege, admit defeat, allow opponent to win) that (and here the paraphrasing gets truly non-sensical) "women need help from men in overcoming the struggle against sexism." Need help? Overcoming the struggle against? I only hope that critical thinkers who read the DP will have both the good grace and the intellectual ability to work out what I actually said and what it actually meant. Litty Paxton SAS '99 Move toward equality To the Editor: In addition, we need to remove from women the conflict that they experience after college when they must choose between career and motherhood. The latter represents 10-20 percent of a woman's career, and women should be able to adjust to careers so that a break of a few years need not be catastrophic. We must also do a better job in encouraging our daughters to consider fields of science, math and technology. Only 16 percent of scientists and engineers are women. Finally, it is not enough to let women in the door and then to continue "the old boy system." Hopefully, all our daughters will be able to "applaud those who declare that the revolution is over." Maryanne McGuckin HUP Senior Research Investigator