Beloved Community guest lecturer, Richard Twiss, speaks tomorrow on campus

Richard Twiss, a Native American, will be NNU’s guest speaker during Beloved Community Week. Twiss, a member of the Sicangu Oyate Lakota from the Rosebud Sioux reservation, SD, is a popular speaker, activist, educator and author within the Native North American and indigenous community. He will speak in chapel on Wed. as well give a community presentation that evening at 7 p.m. in the Brandt Center.

As a Native American (or First Nations leader), Twiss brings a fresh and unique worldview perspective about what it means to “be human and follow Jesus” in order to help his listeners learn to value and appreciate those who are different from themselves. Twiss’ engaging humor disarms audiences, opening their hearts and minds to embrace an invitation and challenge to become radically committed to “loving your neighbor as yourself.” He is committed to creating opportunities for the betterment of Native American people and communities through advancing education, culture, family and spirituality in the Spirit of Jesus. Twiss’ presentation will focus on “making sense of diversity through the framework of trinitarian thought.”

The University has embraced the words and works of the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, and in that spirit, addresses a broader community, confronts social issues and pursues reconciliation to, in the words of Dr. King, create “a beloved community.”

Previous speakers during NNU’s Beloved Community celebrations have been Miniejean Brown-Trickey, one of the Little Rock Nine, and the integration crisis in Little Rock, Ark., and Charles March, professor of Theology, University of Virginia and student of the civil rights movement.