March 31, 2008

Lewis & Clark takes center stage in faith-and-culture dialogue

(Portland, Ore.)—In February, Lewis & Clark hosted the first college-campus screening of a forthcoming documentary exploring the collision of faith and culture in America, titled “Lord, Save Us from Your Followers.”

(Portland, Ore.)—In February, Lewis & Clark hosted the first college-campus screening of a forthcoming documentary exploring the collision of faith and culture in America, titled “Lord, Save Us from Your Followers.” Sponsored by the chapel office and the Christian student group Agape, the special event welcomed secular and religious students to a discussion with producer-director Dan Merchant about the issues raised by the film.

About 300 students filled Council Chambers to be among the first viewers of the documentary, which opens nationwide in June. A short film about the Lewis & Clark event captures the students’ emotional and intellectual responses to the film’s message of compassion and cooperation.

The documentary is generating buzz throughout Portland, with a handful of local screenings and features on Merchant in the Lake Oswego Review and The Oregonian.

Lewis & Clark’s screening is also featured in a USA Today column by Tom Krattenmaker, associate vice president for public affairs and communications, who writes about religion in public life for USA Today, The Oregonian, and other publications.

The successful “Lord, Save Us” event at Lewis & Clark, Krattenmaker argues, challenges the notion that secular college campuses are closed off to discussions of faith: “The conventional wisdom, as it turns out, is not quite right,” he writes.