Background on recent events related to Goshen College and the National Anthem
An attendee at a GC women’s basketball game on Nov. 1 was disappointed that the national anthem was not played. He, a fan from Elkhart who is a parent of a player from the other team, sent an e-mail expressing his displeasure to GC Athletic Director Tim Demant, who responded by explaining the college’s practice of not playing the national anthem before games. The attendee wasn't satisfied and decided to take his message wider. He sent his e-mails, along with Tim’s response, to a group of people he knew, as well to national talk shows.
The Mike Gallagher Show (a New York-based national conservative talk radio show, ranked #8 in the country for its audience size) received the e-mail and mentioned it on Nov. 7, prompting several calls to the college. The Mike Gallagher Show contacted Vice President of Student Life Bill Born and asked him to provide GC’s perspective and come on to the show Monday, Nov. 10, and he agreed to do so. The segment prompted another round of listeners calling and e-mailing Goshen College.
After a South Bend Tribune story ran on Monday, which pointed out that not all Mennonite colleges have the same position on the national anthem, Gallagher decided to do another segment about this on Tuesday, calling on us to change our position and asking listeners to make that point by contacting me. The calls and phone calls began immediately and continued all day. All told, we probably received about 325 e-mails or phone calls about this. There were a handful of supportive comments amongst the mostly dissenting voices.
The coverage of this by Mike Gallagher also prompted further local coverage, including from WSBT-radio, WSBT-TV and The Goshen News. A number of blogs have also taken up the cause, some for and some against our position.
If you are interested, here are links to the media coverage of this:
