As leaders of Fellowship of Christian Athletes, we feel compelled to respond to Peter Weeks’ article “Faith is not a virtue” published in last week’s Weekly. We find his argument inconsistent being that faith is an integral part of learning at Gustavus. The standard with which Weeks’ can judge whether something is right or wrong must be borrowed from morals established by the Christian faith. In order to discuss how weak Weeks’ argument is, let’s examine a quote from Richard Dawkins, who Weeks references in his article. In River out of Eden (pp. 95-96) Dawkins writes, “…nature is not cruel, only pitilessly indifferent … neither good nor evil, neither cruel nor kind, but simply callous—indifferent to all suffering, lacking all purpose.” In this statement, Dawkins is claiming that there is no moral code which people should follow. If this is true, why does Weeks reference the need for Community, Justice, and Service as core values when his worldview cannot account for the purpose of upholding them? Those three values are based on being moral and helping others, which attest to the Christian faith. Another inconsistency we find hard to accept is the Merriam-Webster definition of faith in Weeks article. We believe that the Gustavus’ definition of faith is consistent with Hebrews 11:1-3 and the Christian faith that the College was founded upon. In summary, Weeks’ argument that faith should not be a core value of Gustavus is in error. In fact, it is through a foundation of faith that students can uphold the other four core values: Excellence, Justice, Community and Service. For it is the Christian faith that gives us a moral basis for why these values are important. For further discussion, please come to Linner Lounge on May 3rd, 2010, for a “Tough Questions” session with Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

The FCA Leadership Team