May 30, 2006

At a family gathering I was teased for reading a recondite book titled Theologians Under Hitler. Who but a theological nerd would choose such a book for vacation reading? I could have replied: “I read the book, now you can see the movie.”

When Tim King organized a sleep-out in Chicago last year, 300 students from across the Midwest came to raise awareness of homelessness by gathering signatures for a petition, holding up signs and even “sleeping out” on the Magnificent Mile. King, a senior at North Park University in Chicago, is part of a growing network of students at evangelical campuses who are becoming politically active in combating world poverty and hunger, the AIDS epidemic, debt relief, the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and global warming.

It’s natural to hesitate before committing yourself to sitting through a movie about a September 11 hijacking. You feel your stomach tighten in an unusual way during the first few scenes of United 93, as the crew boards the plane, casually exchanging details about their personal lives, and the passengers converge at the gate in the familiar restless positions of travelers impatient to get on their way.