At 5:30 pm on Sabbath, April 15, the doors open for a community boxing event in Collegedale, TN.
Called Fight Night, this event offers a carnival, a petting zoo, and a rapper performing at half time. This event is hosted by two Southern University students; Cole Gentry and Jake D’Avanzo.
One Southern University Alumnus expressed his concern about the event on Social Media:
Long post. If you’re not associated with SAU or Adventist then this will probably not interest you (but feel free to read regardless).
This headline and picture grabbed my eye. A boxing event, organized/hosted by SAU students and majority-attended by SAU students. Pre-event: a carnival (among other things). Mid-event: a rap performance (also an SAU student). I clicked on the story to read it all. TL;DR: 2 SAU students are hosting a second “Fight Night” off campus. Per the article, the event is “not affiliated with the university”. However, university students are openly organizing the event, 75% of the male fighters are students, as are both of the female fighters, the rap performer is a student, and if last year is any indication, 500-750+ in attendance will be students.
So, what’s the big deal? Everything. When will Southern Adventist University take a stand for what our values and beliefs are as Seventh-day Adventists and stop turning a blind eye out of fear of accusatory retaliation? Who are we to judge? Who are we to say what’s right and wrong? Well, we have Biblical and spiritual guidance that’s been given to us and I would suggest that if it doesn’t fall within that realm, then, perhaps, it is wrong…? While SAU itself it not officially associated with the event, it surely is being represented by the organizational team, participants, and attendees. If this were some event that was, I suppose, explicitly against school code then I assume there would be more official feedback? But, silence is all I’m hearing. However, I’d like to argue that this event *is* explicitly against not only school code but also fundamental Adventist beliefs.
Boxing: Oh, here we go. Yes, here we go. Or maybe, how did we already get here? Any decent Adventist knows (or should) the counsel we’re given on competitive sports. But, we all enjoy them right? Football, the other futbol, racing, basketball, baseball, etc etc. We all watch them, and some of us participate in them. We even have intramurals on campus so we can “safely” compete (and not be like those other schools playing in official leagues). Perhaps though, there is a safe balance, yet with a fine line:
“I do not condemn the simple exercise of playing ball; but this, even in its simplicity, may be overdone. I shrink always from the almost sure result which follows in the wake of these amusements. It leads to an outlay of means that should be expended in bringing the light of truth to souls that are perishing out of Christ. The amusements and expenditures of means for self-pleasing, which lead on step by step to self-glorifying, and the educating in these games for pleasure produce a love and passion for such things that is not favorable to the perfection of Christian character. The way that they have been conducted at the college does not bear the impress of heaven. It does not strengthen the intellect. It does not refine and purify the character.” - SM2 322
So, while we do have leeway to have some fun in sport and recreation I’d venture to say that the majority of the way these sports are carried out is anything but praiseworthy to God:
"The games that occupy so much of ... [the student's] time are diverting the mind from study. They are not helping to prepare the youth for practical, earnest work in life. Their influence does not tend toward refinement, generosity, or real manliness. Some of the most popular amusements, such as football and (uh-oh) boxing, have become schools of brutality. They are developing the same characteristics as did the games of ancient Rome. The love of domination, the pride in mere brute force, the reckless disregard of life, are exerting upon the youth a power to demoralize that is appalling.” -Ed. 210-211
The article brings up this specific topic: harmonizing our values with an event like “Fight Night.” The event’s co-creator and organizer Cole Gentry is quoted as saying that “the Christian community represents a broad spectrum of interests and beliefs” and that boxing is not out of line for a Christian. I would rebuttal him with the above quotes as well as a reminder that “wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Christianity, and more specifically, Adventism is not “broad” but defined and delineated. I am not [condemning] Gentry’s character or motive, but rather caution against such broadness that everything is ok as long as we pray and can feel good about ourselves for “Christianizing” an event. We can be sincere in what we do, but also sincerely wrong.
The organizers also make a point of emphasizing that this is just “sparring” and not full-on boxing. While that’s good and all (?), if you continue reading from the above reference, you’d find that less brutal games are no less objectionable due to the excess of their enjoyment, pleasure, and excitement:
“Other athletic games, though not so brutalizing, are scarcely less objectionable because of the excess to which they are carried, they stimulate the love of pleasure and excitement, thus fostering a distaste for useful labor, a disposition to shun practical duties and responsibilities. They tend to destroy a relish for life's sober realities and its tranquil enjoyments. Thus the door is opened to dissipation and lawlessness, with their terrible results."
On the carnival aspect, what’s so wrong with some carnival games? Perhaps there is nothing wrong in and of themselves, but we have adequately enough insight to know to discern between recreation and amusement:
“Between the associations of the followers of Christ for Christian recreation, and worldly gatherings for pleasure and amusement, will exist a marked contrast. Instead of prayer and the mentioning of Christ and sacred things, will be heard from the lips of worldlings the silly laugh and the trifling conversation. The idea is to have a general high time. Their amusements commence in folly and end in vanity.“ - PH145 23
I can’t help but draw a similarity to the use of having a “general high time” and Gentry’s wanting students to have “the college experience” and “the energy surrounding this year’s Fight Night is high.”
And finally, to top if off, there will be a performance by Nick Thompson, AKA Rapper 706 NJT (a sophomore nursing major) at halftime. I looked up his music just in the event there was an argument for a “christian” rap performance (not that I personally believe in the oxymoron). However, all I could find is 100% secular music with no difference between his music & videos and any other standard rap artist.
Another reader made a good observation that this is a ticketed event with the pre-event starting at 5:30, well within the Sabbath hours, and the boxing starts at 8pm which is still before sundown.
So, we’re making money on an arguably condemnable event during Sabbath being attended by hundreds of SAU students with secular music taking center stage and this is not a problem? Southern administration just lets it slide?
The Accent runs a main story with no comment from administration getting it even more publicity. Again, where is the backbone of the university? Are we too afraid to make a stand that we’ll hurt someone’s feelings or maybe lose some students? Perhaps if we had a university that was more worried about the spiritual life on campus rather than the academics and enrollment numbers, things would be different. I am in no way perfect nor holding myself up above anyone else, but it frustrates me to no end when an official church organization representing our church does so so poorly. Perhaps I would maybe have an ounce of willingness to give when they call and ask for donations but how can I support a college that turns their backs on their own beliefs? It's also sad to say that I can't imagine a free, non-mandatory spiritual event on campus having 500+ attending.
PS: The event has a “no-alcohol policy”… is that needed? Curious what it would look like if that policy wasn’t there…
Last year’s event
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“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22).