Dr. David Green, CEO of craft store chain Hobby Lobby, accepted an honor from Indiana Wesleyan University Wednesday, April 3, and tried to dispel rumors surrounding his company in the process.

The ceremony, held on IWU’s campus in Marion, Ind., inducted Green into the university’s Society of World Changers. The award is given annually to individuals the school deems “role models who have exemplified the concept of world changers and whose lives can serve as an inspiration to future generations.”

Green’s daughter Darsee Lett introduced the CEO to an audience of IWU students, staff, faculty and dozens of Hobby Lobby executives and managers.

An exuberant Lett showered Green in shiny confetti for her introduction, joking to the audience that they could find it in the card aisle at Hobby Lobby.

“It’s really sparkly,” Lett added.

But the day was not all shiny confetti for Green, as he faced questions regarding the future of his company. Hobby Lobby is engaged in a months-long battle with the government over a new health care law requiring companies to cover emergency contraceptives for employees through its health plan. Hobby Lobby faced daily fines of $1.3 million beginning in January for its failure to comply based on the ownership’s feelings on the morality of the contraceptives, but the company shifted its plan year for employee health insurance. This action delayed the deadline by “several months.”

Green reaffirmed his stance on the matter in front of the ceremony’s hundreds of attendees.

“There’s one thing we will not do, and that’s paying for aborting unborn fetuses,” Green said.

The statement received a round of applause from the crowd.

In a pre-ceremony meeting with media, Green responded to rumors that Hobby Lobby will close all 500 of its stores across 43 states.

“That is not going to happen. That is on the Internet with my name supposedly signed to it, but we’re not planning on shutting any stores down,” Green said. “We’ve got a battle to fight, and it may take years, but we feel like in the end we will win.”

On the contrary, Green said Hobby Lobby intends to keep expanding while opposing the regulations.

“We continue to grow, we’re adding 35, 40 stores a year. And so for us, as we grow and we earn more profits, we see that as just more ministry,” Green added. “So as long as there’s more ministries needed, then there’s more growth needed, so we continue to plan to grow.”

Dr. Henry Smith, IWU’s soon-to-be-retired president, presented Green with a presidential citation for “model Christian values and the highest morals in business.”

By Ali Cravens and Amanda Howard

The Dean of Chapel Office has planned a three-day prayer event at Indiana Wesleyan University. The event kicks off with a worship service, Still, from 6:30-10 p.m. on Thursday March 14. Following the service, there will be a prayer vigil ending at 8:30 a.m. Saturday March 16, when the closing prayer walk begins. All events will take place in or begin at the Chapel-Auditorium.

“I keep hearing about different organizations that are really in financial need, especially because of the economic situation,” Dr. Jim Lo, dean of the chapel, said.

In response, Sue Wampner, administrative assistant to the DOC, Kari Jenkins (jr), student chaplain for prayer ministries, and Lo, each in charge of a different days’ event respectively, combined their passions and created the three-part occasion to center around prayer for the community.

Still and the prayer vigil will have several specific prayer stations set up, one of which will be for the local organizations that will benefit from the money raised during the initiative. Those organizations are the Flannery Keal Home, the Women’s Shelter, Grace House for Recovery and Salvation Army. In addition, the events will have other prayer stations for World Hope International, the issues of human trafficking, the issues of abortion and the New Zealand Sports Ministry Blitz team, according to Wampner.

A prayer walk will immediately take place following the end of the prayer vigil.

“I think it’s a good time now, for us to do another,” Lo said.

When Lo first took on the position as dean of the chapel and he saw that different organizations had financial crises, he arranged a special prayer walk in order to support them. This occurred in 2009.

And such a time has come again.

The prayer walk begins at the Chapel-Auditorium and extends into the downtown area of Marion all the way to the Grant County Courthouse. Once at the courthouse, walkers will meet the government officials of the city as well as other students and people from other ministries from Marion, according to Kiersten Beagan (sr), Student Government Association director of ministries. Together, they’ll do a small devotional and have a worship service.

In addition to the prayer walk, an offering will take place. At the time of that first prayer walk, the DOC asked people to give $10 in support of local organizations. This time, the office is pushing for about $20 from each person.

“We’re really asking our students to – and our community – to be a little bit more sacrificial,” Lo said.

Lo also has high expectations for participation as well.

“The first time we did it we probably had around 500 join us,” Lo said. “We’re hoping now for a thousand.”

To achieve this goal, the DOC Office has asked multiple IWU organizations and groups to partner.

“One of the things as a missionary I’ve always contended is that if we’re going to do God’s work, you can’t just do it in isolation, you have to do it in community,” Lo said. “We have a wonderful community here, and we have leaders already. Why then try to reinvent something if we can just try to come along and say, ‘SGA, you’re good at this, help us in this area,’ or ‘Doulos, you’re good in this area’? So the idea really is, we want this campus to see how partnerships can really work in ministry.”

Organizations involved in helping with the prayer event are adult education, Spirit Care, the Prayer Furnace, community outreach, The Well, Love Revolution, Doulos and the IWU Athletic Department, according to Wampner.

“All of those students have kind of formed a committee or a team, so to speak, and taken on different parts of this to bring everybody together and make it happen,” Wampner said. “Plus we want that engagement of students from all different facets of the community to be involved.”

“Our goal in SGA is getting the word out to all of the senators, academic reps and class reps in order to make this prayer walk put on by the DOC Office well known so that students are more encouraged to attend,” said Beagan. “We want to make this campus a prayer-oriented campus in all we do.”

Some students already show excitement for the prayer event.

“I think prayer is a powerful tool,” said Laura Schmitz (so), “because it opens the door to communicating with God. Through that, we can learn and experience a lot from Him. I think the prayer walk will be beneficial, because it is a specific time where we are all calling out to God for ministries of Marion.”

“I feel like prayer walks are not only powerful, but they also bring everyone together to understand and really feel for what is going on around us,” Emma Stahl (so) added.

The DOC Office recognizes that IWU’s student safety is the No. 1 priority during the prayer vigil, according to Beagan. Because of this, the DOC Office has formatted the vigil to provide male students to walk female students to and from dorms from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., according to Wampner.

By Sean Huncherick

Two weeks ago, the popular AMC TV series, “The Walking Dead,” moved from a TV-14 to a TV-MA rating (the equivalent of an R-rated film), due to graphic violence and language. Even though Indiana Wesleyan University has a set media policy for movies and video games, television shows aren’t restricted in any way.

In the past year, “The Walking Dead” has been extremely popular with students at IWU. For each new episode, students in Bowman Hall and Scripture Hall gather together and watch the zombie drama.

Rett Huntington (fr) has been watching the show since its start in 2011. Last week, he saw it with nearly 20 other students in the Bowman lobby. Despite the show being a gory zombie series, he sees several morals in the show.

Huntington finds that the show “revolves more around humanity and being civilized in an uncivilized world than on zombies.”

“The main character, Rick, constantly makes sacrifices for his family,” said Huntington. “He is trying his best to be a good father in a bad situation.”

Scripture Hall Resident Director Ian Slater said the role of entertainment should be used for the glory of God.

“The show itself and our generation’s fascination with zombies have both good and bad qualities,” said Slater. “One hand, you can use it to engage in conversations exploring what it means to be human and seeing what humanity really means in a crisis. On the other hand, when we consume media with dark elements, it is important to question if it is praising the dark elements.”

Aspects such as this call “The Walking Dead” into question.

The IWU handbook states that no student is allowed to watch any R-rated movies while enrolled at the school apart from ones on the approved list. Realistic violent films such as “The Patriot,” “The Book of Eli” and “The Last Samurai” are approved, but the fantasy-violence of “Pan’s Labyrinth” is denied.

The handbook is much less clear on the media policy regarding television, books and music. It states that unless the medium contains excessive profanity, sexuality, violence or the occult, it is generally permissible.

The dean of student conduct, Andrew Parker, said an RA or RD can exercise his or her own judgment if a student watches a show that could cross the line of vulgarity. The RD or RA can have the show turned off or even banned.

Parker said the handbook, which is updated every year, is likely to stay the same for now.

“At this point, I would say the university is not going to have a list of shows students can’t watch,” Parker said. “It’s hard enough with movies.”

Tim Witte (sr) is doubtful a ban on TV-MA shows would be successful, because he said he thinks students would continue watching anyway.

“I don’t think students care,” he said. “It wouldn’t be shown publicly in any dorm, but students will still try to get around it.”

Huntington also thinks it would be more beneficial to give students guidelines than a full-out ban.

“I understand regulation to an extent,” Huntington said, “but for the most part it should be left to the students.”

At the same time, Witte also believes a ban could give students a chance to use integrity. If the student handbook ruled out TV-MA shows, he wonders if students would have the respect to say, “No, I signed an agreement that I won’t watch it.”

Parker added that students are encouraged to continue addressing the media policy. Whether they are for or against it, he said their input makes a difference.

By Gabe Lindman

Every year, the Student Activities Council invites the families of students to bring their younger children and experience a day at college. Saturday, Feb. 16, held yet another Kid’s Day at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Kala Schulz (jr), member of SAC and overseer of Kid’s Day, said the group sees it as an opportunity for the children to come and “experience college and hang out with college kids.”

“It’s an opportunity for general fellowship among families. A lot of families meet one another from these events,” said Donna Delph, director of SAC.

Every year, leaders change the theme. This year they focused their attention on “The Lorax.” With its recent movie release, SAC formed many of the crafts and games around it.

“Each year, we pick something that goes along with the theme,” Delph explained. “This year we had them build Thneed-Ville, or a city and they were very creative.”

Delph said they always show a movie at the weekend. In the last four years, they also started doing a skit based around the theme in which many of the volunteers play a part.

SAC expected anywhere from 50 to 100 children to take part in Kid’s Day, and about 80 children showed up, according to Delph.