BETHANY POWLS
Editor-in-Chief
On March 21, speaker, writer, and advocate Karen Gonzalez was invited to speak for a Convocation, her presentation based on one of the selected required books for the senior capstone class, Basic Issues of Faith and Life (BIFL).
The book, The God Who Sees: Immigrants, the Bible, and the Journey to Belong, was read and analyzed by the entire graduating class as per required by the course syllabus, and the students were thus encouraged to engage with both Gonzalez’s Convocation and with her previous March 20 presentation as sponsored by the Staley Lectures Endowment.
The text was selected for BIFL classes as a result of a few key factors considered by contributing faculty members and those professors who would teach BIFL courses.
“We were drawn to how Gonzalez tells the stories of biblical immigrants in ways that connect with current experiences in immigration. We also liked that she discusses multiple stories from different parts of the Bible, giving us a broader exposure to the Bible than just one book,” said Peter Goerzen, professor of bible and religion and a BIFL instructor.
In addition to investigation of biblical texts, which is stressed in BIFL courses, Gonzalez was considered for her timely topic, the influence of local congregations who support the sheltering of undocumented immigrants, and positive reviews from a variety of faith-based magazines representing a variety of religious stances, including both Christianity Today and Christian Century.
“We generally choose texts first, then invite speakers in connection with them. We first usually try to invite the author of the book (if living) to come and speak, and we're very grateful to have some endowment resources designated to help us do that kind of thing. Gonzalez also has received excellent reviews as a presenter - she spoke at Baylor University, for instance - so this was a priority to invite her,” said Goerzen.
While Gonzalez herself has no personal connection to Bethel, as many Convocation speakers often do, quite a few graduated Bethel students work with an immigration task force with the Western District Conference, which engages with ideas discussed by Gonzalez.
During the presentation, Gonzalez actually emphasized, not necessarily immigration advocacy, but the importance of land in conversations that relate to both immigrants and indigenous populations, introducing the idea that people and land are inherently different but equally of value by her interpretation of the Bible. The Convocation preceded a future text, the narrative of which will focus on “Grace and Truth: Immigration Context,” as per the title of her presentation.
She related the commodity of land to its historical context in the Americas and emphasized “living in reciprocity to one another in a mutually beneficial relationship” and a “divine connection between human beings, the Creator, and the creatures of the land.” This tied to her use of the word “borderlands” instead of “border” for the sake of those who inhabited the land before the border was created.
Ultimately, her presentation was engaged by a large audience of students, many of whom were attempting to fulfill their required Convocation credits, but a significant number who attended on account of their BIFL course and asked relevant questions of Gonzalez, both during her Monday morning presentation and her Sunday night presentation.
