{"id":1210,"date":"2026-01-23T09:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T09:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2026\/01\/23\/2026-01-23-sof-gives-institutional-clarity\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T23:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:11:15","slug":"2026-01-23-sof-gives-institutional-clarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2026\/01\/23\/2026-01-23-sof-gives-institutional-clarity\/","title":{"rendered":"SoF gives institutional\u00a0clarity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Anastasia Brown<\/a> · Community Editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\u2014 GCC<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The debates surrounding the new statement of faith rattled the campus at the end of last semester, and, despite being a study abroad student and living over 3,000 miles away, I was quickly hearing snippets of the controversy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I understand the need for these dialogues about the diversity of perspectives held on this campus about the nature of God, human identity and the definition of marriage, I would like to frame our thinking on this topic by asking why a Christian school like Grove City College would need something like a codified statement of faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The creation of such a document, which seeks to concisely define the core beliefs of the college, was unavoidably destined to result in controversy. After all, one of the strengths of our school is the passion and intentionality that faculty and students bring into conversations around faith. I am thankful that my teachers and peers see their faith as something requiring serious contemplation, conversation and debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our generation too often attempts to avoid hard conversations. “You do you!” we tell others. But if we believe that our faith is of ultimate importance, avoiding tough conversations about the points on which we diverge does not serve our communities the way we hope they will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our current cultural climate makes a statement of faith necessary for a school like Grove City. Our culture and its perspective towards Christianity is not unprecedented, and the trickiness of navigating a world that opposes the truth is not a new struggle for Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the early church was called to make similar decisions as they walked the line between maintaining unity and conviction. Take the Council of Nicaea, which created one of the oldest Christian confessions of faith \u2014 a creed that most Christians today would claim to embody the truths held by every orthodox church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the creed was not written out of a place of unity \u2014 instead, the council was called to deal with a controversy commonly called Arianism, which questioned the divine nature of Christ. The heresy had a large following, and the council’s decision to codify the church’s beliefs in opposition to that group necessarily brewed controversy and division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back 1700 years later, we must agree that the decision to write a confession that both solidified common gospel teaching and directly confronted cultural controversies was ultimately necessary for the unity of the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this moment, it is necessary for Christians to implement their Christian faith in cultural dialogues \u2014 thus, Grove City College’s choice to include a range of topics within their statement of faith, including tough topics of marriage and gender, is simply living out scriptural commands to apply truth to our daily lives. By “rightly handling the word of truth,” we are “do(ing) our best to present (ourselves) to God as one approved, worker(s) who have no need to be ashamed” (2 Timothy 2:15).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not to say that our salvation is at stake when we disagree on some of these topics \u2014 God’s grace is extended to all of us each day. But when a university takes on the name of Christ, that title should tangibly affect how that institution functions. The name “Christian” can already mean so many things to different people, and so we should desire this institution to be transparent in what they mean by that adjective. Remaining vague on our definitions and allowing our culture to decide what we mean when we say we are a “Christian” university will only tarnish our witness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An honest reality of life in a fallen world is disagreement \u2014 especially on issues of eternal importance. If we can keep our disagreements from devolving into pettiness, rage or hate \u2014 if we can stay true to our faith while also being charitable and loving towards those who disagree \u2014 we will be consistent witnesses of a faith that prioritizes both love and objective truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The debates surrounding the new statement of faith rattled the campus at the end of last semester, and, despite being a study abroad student and living over 3,000 miles away, I was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[99,16,41],"class_list":["post-1210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions","tag-anastasia-brown","tag-editorial-perspectives","tag-issue-2026-01-23"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-01-23-21-sof-gives-institutional-clarity-1.jpg",1280,788,false],"thumbnail":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-01-23-21-sof-gives-institutional-clarity-1.jpg",150,92,false],"medium":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-01-23-21-sof-gives-institutional-clarity-1.jpg",300,185,false],"medium_large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-01-23-21-sof-gives-institutional-clarity-1.jpg",768,473,false],"large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-01-23-21-sof-gives-institutional-clarity-1.jpg",1024,630,false],"1536x1536":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-01-23-21-sof-gives-institutional-clarity-1.jpg",1280,788,false],"2048x2048":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-01-23-21-sof-gives-institutional-clarity-1.jpg",1280,788,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The debates surrounding the new statement of faith rattled the campus at the end of last semester, and, despite being a study abroad student and living over 3,000 miles away, I was","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1822,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210\/revisions\/1822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}