On Thursday, Feb. 25, Mississippi State University hosted the Veritas Forum in Lee Hall’s Bettersworth Auditorium. 
  Christopher Clark, assistant professor of political science at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and  Christopher Snyder, dean of the Shackouls Honors College and professor of history at MSU, presented on the topic: “Can We Have Martin Luther King’s Dream without His Faith?”     
 Susan Seal, assistant professor of international agricultural and extension education in the school of human sciences, moderated. 
   Clark and Snyder started the night by discussing Martin Luther King’s dream and how it was centered on hope because of the Christian faith in the future coming of complete restoration to a broken world.  They said his complete dream is unattainable without Christian faith.  They claimed that one of the main problems in today’s world is the disconnection between what people say and their actions; that people do not live our lives as though they truly want equality.  Clark and Snyder also challenged the church to be truly united as many are still segregated by race or political beliefs. 
 Clark said even those who do not claim to be Christians can use King’s life as an example of how we should treat others.
  “Even those who do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God would agree that he was a man whose example was one of feeding the poor, clothing and sheltering those in lower classes,” Clark said. “ This is what Martin Luther King Jr. exhibited and what we also should.” 
  Even though the United States has made tremendous strides concerning civil rights issues, it is still far from achieving King’s dream of perfect equality and freedom for all people today. 
 Clark emphasized the need for people to realize the issues in front of them before trying to do anything.  
  “In order to be responsive to different issues even beyond racial ones, you first have to recognize that the issue is there,” Clark said.
  Both professors challenged listeners to be heroes of change within their respective communities, regardless of what culturally defines someone as a hero.
  “In Christianity, the way up is actually down.  If you want to be a hero, then serve, give of yourself, act in a sacrificial manner and love your enemies,” Clark said.  “If you want to be elevated, you actually have to demote yourself, be willing to be selfless, to be misunderstood, to be made fun of.”
    The second annual MSU Veritas Forum was very successful and went as intended, according to Seal.
   “It was a great evening that brought faculty, students and community leaders together to discuss the difficult questions associated with social justice and Christian faith,” Seal said. 
 “We had two insightful discussants in Dr. Clark and Dr. Snyder as well as thought provoking questions and comments from many in attendance.”
  The Veritas Forum is a non-profit Christian organization that was started in 1992 at Harvard University. The goal of the forum is to engage students and faculty in discussions about questions that are often ignored or overlooked because they are hard to answer and focus on the relevance of Jesus Christ to all aspects of life.  Hundreds of universities host this event across North America and Europe all with differing topics addressing difficult questions such as ‘What does it mean to be human?’ Is there any meaning in death?” and many others. 
 The Veritas Forum provides a safe place for Christian students and faculty to come together to discuss hard questions that cannot be addressed in the normal class setting as  Bob Daniels, MSU Veritas Forum chair, said.
   “It is perceived that it is more and more less acceptable to speak about God and the things of God in academic settings these days. Part of the reason Veritas was started here was to give a voice to Christians on campus and to also bring up the hard questions and have dialogue back and forth about these important questions,” Daniels said.  “It brings forth the opportunity to have discussion about these hard topics along with brilliant faculty and colleagues and students.”
  The MSU Veritas committee meets throughout the year to plan for the annual event.  It specifically works along with the Veritas organization to find topics that are most relevant, that students are interested in and those that would be beneficial to students, faculty and the Starkville community. 
  The entire event was recorded and will be available on the veritas.org website within two or three weeks.