Southern Adventist University issued an email statement to campus members regarding Fight Night, a community boxing event created by Southern students that is unaffiliated with the university, at 9:26 p.m. yesterday. The email was written on behalf of Ingrid Skantz, vice president for Marketing and University Relations.
“In keeping with Southern’s Seventh-day Adventist values, the university does not endorse the student-led boxing event announced in this week’s Southern Accent cover story,” the email began.
The email provided a response from administration, which stated that the university does not condone the creation of or attendance at Fight Night. In addition, administration does not believe the event represents the ideals of Sabbath the university embraces.
The statement continued to cite Proverbs 3:31 and a quote from “Education,” a book by Ellen White, co-founder of Seventh-day Adventism, that “speaks out against brutal sports such as boxing, saying ‘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.’”
“Southern Adventist University has a higher expectation for conduct than that of the secular world around us,” the email stated. “We pray that the students and employees of this institution will daily exhibit that higher calling whether on campus or in their private lives.”
The email concluded by using Philippians 4:8 to further explain that higher calling and encouraging campus members to not support Fight Night but instead support Gym-Masters Home Show. Both events occur on the same evening, Saturday, April 15.
