About Us
Harvard University is known for housing the best and brightest minds of each generation, and they recently have done much to both prove and disprove this. According to a recently released list by Bloomberg.com, of this year’s 32 Rhodes Scholars, six are currently students over in Cambridge.
The Rhodes House at Oxford.
Photo courtesy of Kaihsu/Wikimedia Commons.
Rhodes Scholarships are considered the most prestigious academic awards and fund the recipient two of three years of study at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. This year, winners were chosen from a pool of about 1,750 applicants. According to Bloomberg.com, Harvard students have won the award a record 347 times. Previous winners include President Bill Clinton and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.
That Harvard has been home to countless intelligent and driven students is a surprise to no one. However, in the past few days, Crimson students created somewhat of a stir for publishing anti-Semitic remarks in an on-campus journal. According to the Boston Globe, a “Christian journal… had published and republished an anonymous essay on its blog saying that Jews killed Jesus and deserve God’s punishment.” The undergraduate journal, the Harvard Ichthus, is described on its website as “a journal of Christian thought and expression.”
Photo courtesy of The Harvard Ichthus.
The article, entitled “Why Us?” was first posted on Wednesday, taken down, reposted, and then taken down permanently with an apology following from Editor-in-Chief Aaron Gyde. The article was written by an anonymous Jewish convert to Christianity, describing his/her belief that the Jewish people deserved “the last 2000 years” of punishment because they were responsible for the death of Jesus.
As Gyde clarified in his apology post, “Christianity has long taught that everyone is responsible for the death of Jesus Christ insofar as we have all sinned—all people at all times everywhere; Jew and Gentile alike—and that we all must repent and accept him as our Lord and Savior.” This is much more in line with what the vast majority of Boston College students have learned in their Theology Core classes.
A young Bill Clinton meets then President Carter.
Photo courtesy of Jatkins/Wikimedia Commons.
The Ichthus states on its website that “[they] will be a space where Christians of all traditions and backgrounds can come together to think critically about their faith and engage God with their minds.” This mission sounds especially apt for not only a Jesuit school like BC, but also any university.
Harvard administrators have stated they do not endorse any of the views of their student organizations and that the journal's apology was independent of the university.
Featured photo courtesy of Joseph Williams/Wikimedia Commons.
School and year: A&S, 2016
Professional Twitter user who loves discussing everything Gilmore Girls got wrong about Connecticut.
