Love AliveChristian Fellowship came to the conclusion that blacks and religion go hand inhand. They hosted their first annual Black History Forum in Hayden Hall onMonday, Feb. 28. It was aimed towards allowing students a chance to discusstheir feelings about black history.
“The generalaim of the program is to voice opinions on how history affects your life andwhat you can do to add onto the success of it,” said Terrance L. Tyler,president of Love Alive Christian Fellowship.
The programbegan with an introductory prayer, followed by an introduction of the guestspeaker Dr. Albert L. Samuels, assistant professor of political science.Students who attended the forum asked questions that centered on the progressof black history. One questionaddressed was, whether or not black history is moving forward or running inplace. According to Samuelsinstead of one or the other happening, they are both occurring at the sametime. He compared the modern erato a microwave, in that people of today expect things to happen tooquickly. The Civil Rights movementwas used as an example.
“Most peoplethink the pinnacle years of the Civil Rights movement was somewhere from 1954to 1965,” Samuels said. “It’shelpful to know that a lot of important events went on even before then.”
The forumdiscussed how the white culture tends to be more secular, and how West Africanculture was more spiritual than European culture.
According toSamuels, the West African culture saw a greater overlap between the physicalworld and the spiritual world. TheEuropeans were a part of the scientific revolution, so they separated theirspiritual ground from the physical one.
Anotherprominent issue addressed dealt with the church. Students wondered why Sundayis the most segregated day of the week in America. Samuels said racism is to blame.
“You havesegregated churches as well as big cultural differences,” Samuels said. Thegeneral conclusion to the issue was that blacks and whites approach religion indifferent ways, and that blacks tend to be closer to God because he was theonly person the ancestors of black people had to rely upon.
At the endof the forum Dr. Samuels acknowledged LACF, saying he applauded what the groupwas doing.
“There’s aneed for campus ministry like this,” Samuels said.
Studentsended with a group prayer.
Love AliveChristian Fellowship is a Christian organization that gives college students agodly alternative in a college environment.
They havegroups at other schools including Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge,University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Grambling State University and McNeese StateUniversity.
They will behosting more events later this semester, including “Love Alive Week” which willinclude a fashion show and talentshow.