To the editor:

I am sorry that the recent editorial about musical values appeared to be a disparagement of teachers in the Department of Music.  I know from talking to you that this was not your intention and that you are as concerned as I am to preserve a healthy climate on campus for the discussion of opposing viewpoints.  However, when coupled with other articles in the recent past, some before your editorship, and a few personal expressions in one of the other Clarion columns, the editorial served as a catalyst not only to stimulate heated discussion but to polarize further both students and faculty on this issue.

Inasmuch as the names of Mr. Whitinger and Mr. Berglund appeared in your editorial, I want to indicate in this way my own unqualified endorsement of their work on campus.  Under their leadership--and that of their colleagues--the Department of Music has become one of the strongest collegiate programs in the Midwest.  All of us who belong to Bethel are proud of the Department and praise God for it.

In many ways the Department of Music by its very nature is able to give visibility to some of Bethel's highest ideals that otherwise are not as clearly seen by those off campus.  Among these are the Department's emphasis on such goals as:

1.  Establishing high professional standards as alone worthy of the Lord whom we serve;

2.  Disciplining life so that student performance is marked by excellence in order to please Christ and to glorify God;

3.  Presenting the results of classroom and laboratory work to God in prayer as an offering of love for His service;

4.  Demonstrating concern about the Christian impact of our campus and its testimony to the world around us; and

5.  Being sensitive to the feelings of the people who love Bethel and who by their personal sacrifice make possible the continuation of our school.

Now, the relationship of these ideals to the issue of contemporary musical idioms is a subject worthy of discussion on a Christian campus.  The Clarion has served a very useful function in stimulating it.  Personally, I share the concern of our music faculty about bringing rock music into the sanctuary of God, however popular that may be just now.  Equally devout Christians are on both sides of this question, however.  We ought to talk about it frankly, knowledgeably, logically, lovingly.  It is one of the potentially divisive issues of the church in this generation.  I hope that students and faculty members will continue to express themselves in the Clarion.  I hope that they will talk to one another as well as write.  I hope that a wider hearing can be given to the convictions of those we have asked to lead us in developing musical appreciations and campus standards.  I hope we can have a convocation on this subject soon--perhaps bringing to the campus the former rock and roll artist who currently is giving effective public expression to insights growing out of his experience.

In whatever form we carry out our discussions, however, let us do it with a mutual commitment to the Lordship of Christ and a manifestation of genuine love for one another.  Love is the watchword of this generation and it is a Christian word.  Let's reveal it in our talking and in our writing as Phillips describes it in I Corinthians 13:  "This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience--it looks for a way of being constructive.  It is not possessive:  it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance.  Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage.  It is not touchy.  It does not compile statistics of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people.  On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when Truth prevails."

May the Clarion, under your editorship, lead us in this direction!

Sincerely in Christ,
President Lundquist