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Continuing the troubling trend of Christian institutions banning prominent conservatives, the University of Northwestern in Minnesota has decided to ban a Young America’s Foundation lecture by renowned pro-life speaker Star Parker. Students in the University of Northwestern’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter (UNW YAF) have been working for months to host a prominent conservative to address their peers, only to have their own administration strike down their plans. On February 18, UNW YAF’s founding chair Hayley Tschetter alerted Young America’s Foundation to the administrative resistance she was encountering in trying to secure a venue and approval to host Star Parker. Tschetter requested details from UNW administrators, and on February 20, they responded via email, saying their “main concern is that it is an open event.” Apparently “it would be different if you were having a speaker just come speak to your club. Speakers open to all UNW students would have more strictness” explained the email before turning to ad hominem attacks on Star Parker’s character: “There were quite a few concerns about Star. Our staff has been very adamant about bringing speakers to campus who educate and expand worldviews, but we really don’t bring speakers who radically hold beliefs that UNW as a whole would not agree with,” states the email. “In the past UNW has stayed away from sensationalized speakers. I foresee us continuing to do this. After reviewing some of Star’s material online we didn’t feel she was a good fit for our community.” Seeking a reversal of the administrators’ decision, UNW YAF requested a meeting with University of Northwestern President Alan Cureton. On February 27, they found Cureton to be as resistant as the rest of the administrators they’d met or spoken with. According to UNW YAF Chair Hayley Tschetter, Cureton “said that he didn’t want to be divisive” and that “it’s better to provide a balanced view from different outlooks,” along the lines of a panel discussion. Tschetter responded by asking what opposing viewpoint UNW would want to elevate: someone who isn’t pro-life? Someone who thinks poverty is a good thing? “He didn’t really have an answer,” Tschetter noted. The meeting resulted in Cureton telling the YAF activists that he didn’t want to be involved and instead asked them to meet with UNW’s Vice President of Student Life, Nina M. Barnes. At the time of publication, Barnes had not responded to the meeting request. For those who may be unfamiliar with Parker’s work, Star is founder and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. CURE has grown into a network of 800 pastors serving at-risk communities across the country. Her lifelong dedication to helping others was inspired by her conversion to Christianity, and this work has gone from consulting on federal welfare reform in the 1990s to her position today on the White House Opportunity Initiative task force seeking fixes for America’s most distressed zip codes. Her contributions to the national discourse continue to this day as a television commentator, an appointee to the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Commission, and as a popular campus speaker making more than 225 campus appearances including at Harvard, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UVA, and others. But all of that—to the administrators at the University of Northwestern—amounts to radical sensationalism that’s not a good fit for their “Christ-centered liberal arts university” community. “I accepted UNW YAF’s gracious invitation to defend life and traditional Christian principles,” said Star Parker. “Abortion has devastated the black community and is the moral crisis of our time. Christian universities are precisely where this urgent discussion should be happening.” “As someone who took courses through the University of Northwestern as a high school student, this decision is a shocking departure from a school I once considered attending,” noted Young America’s Foundation Spokesman Spencer Brown. “UNW has chosen to abandon their core principles as a Christian university—set above and apart—in favor of avoiding any potential discomfort brought about by an insightful lecture from one of America’s leading conservative women on critical issues UNW’s students will soon be faced with in the world.” “I was excited to embark on this new adventure and thrilled that Star Parker agreed to come and speak to my campus,” stated founding UNW YAF Chair Hayley Tschetter. “After doing a little reading on several YAF speakers, I thought she could address some relevant topics to our campus. However, many are too fearful of ‘controversy’ to allow her lecture to take place. Issues already divide campuses, Christians, and people nationwide—speaking about them will not cause a divide, it will bring the underlying issues to light and provide an opportunity for them to be discussed openly and civilly.” Young America’s Foundation continues to monitor this situation closely and calls on the University of Northwestern to reverse its ban and allow Star Parker to bring her important perspective to UNW’s students. For additional information or to request an interview contact Young America’s Foundation Spokesman Spencer Brown via [email protected] or 800-872-1776. This story was updated on 3/5 at 8:52 am to include a comment from Star Parker.

Friday night I got a little too invested in a new Netflix series, Pepsi, Where's My Jet? which in and of itself is pretty interesting, at least for me. But there is a Minnesota connection to the story, that is brief but a small Minnesota town was playing a big part in the Pepsi Points/Harrier Jet story.

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Before letting you know what the Minnesota connection is, you have to understand what happened. Back in the mid-90s Pepsi began a promotion where you could accumulate points by purchasing Pepsi products, and then turn those points in for some Pepsi SWAG. It was a pretty awesome promotion that was heavily advertised. One commercial for the promotion listed some of the standard Pepsi swag that you could get in exchange for your points, like a leather jacket, sunglasses, and a t-shirt.

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Well, at the end of the commercial it listed a Harrier Jet, for 7 million Pepsi points. (that number was then changed to a larger amount later on) The entire time the ad was played early on, there was NO fine print, so one person, a 20-year-old from Washington purchased 7,000,000 Pepsi points for $700,000 and called Pepsi to the carpet, wanting his jet.

This is where the Minnesota connection comes in. The fulfillment center for the promotion had a PO Box in Young America, Minnesota.

TVShowTranscripts.com has a direct quote from the documentary when they reference Young America.

In the Pepsi Points catalog, there was an address for a PO box in Young America, Minnesota. Young America, Minnesota is the fulfillment house for a lot of these different competitions, whether it's Camel Bucks, the Marlboro Man, or Pepsi Points. - John in the Netflix Documentary Pepsi, Where's My Jet

Ultimately John went and hand-delivered the $700,000 check to the PO Box in Young America as he didn't want it to get lost in the mail.

Not wanting to spoil the ending, if you don't know how this saga ends, I won't get into that, but it is only 4 episodes, about 40-50 minutes each in length, and I thought it was pretty cool Minnesota played a small part in the real-life story and got a 'shout-out' during the series.

NORWOOD YOUNG AMERICA, Minn. (KMSP) - The Young America Cardinals is a team with deep roots in the community, making it quite the family affair for many of the players - some with relatives spanning decades of past team rosters.

“That’s one thing about my boys, when they were young I never had to look for them because I knew where they were at – that was right here,” said Virgil Zellman.

Eighty-year-old Virgil Zellman embodies Young America baseball. A former Cardinals player and manager, he’s not only in the Minnesota Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame, he and his family are woven into the fabric of the Cardinals.

“Well, I played a lot of sandlot baseball and the town team was looking for ball players in ’53. The Korean War came in and they were short on ballplayers, so I joined the team and I played every game since,” Zellman said.

It’s a love he passed on to his son, Terry.

“I was a bat boy and used to hang the canvas out here,” said Terry Zellman, a former Cardinals player and current team board member. “I was short enough to do the outfield lower fence and I hung canvas and I’ve been out here ever since, too.”

The Stender family is also intertwined. In the 1970s, Doug Stender bought the house across the street to be close to the field - and you have to wonder what his wife thought of that.

“Well, it was easy for her to say goodbye because she knows she could get ahold of me,” laughed Doug Stender, who is the team’s assistant manager. “I played until I was 44, 45. I started in ’69, so that’s quite a few years. My favorite, most cherished moment was when [my son] Brandon pitched and I got to catch him. I would say that’s my favorite. I think I was 41 and he was 17.”

“It’s an opportunity that I cherish and will always love,” said Brandon Stender, Doug’s son and current Cardinals player. “Can’t imagine a life without [town ball] to be honest with you. It’s so intertwined with everything I’ve always done that I can’t imagine life without it.”

“Having the opportunity to have two of my cousins co-managing, having three or four other cousins on the team,” said Jeremy Stender, a Cardinals board member. “We’ve got a lot of those family connections. On this team when you look up and down the roster, you’ll see a lot of the same names. That’s just kind of what makes this fun. It’s a family kind of deal.”

“That’s why I keep playing just to kind of pass it on to [my kids] and to know that this is a fun place to be, where families can grow,” said Matt Mann, a Cardinals player.

The next generation not only embraces the game, but this town and the rich history and they love their place in it with all their heart.

“It’s pretty incredible,” said Isaac Hormann, Cardinals catcher and Concordia catcher. “I’ve been part of the team since I was four. I was the bat boy when my dad played. So I live a block away from the park, so basically it’s where I grew up. I used to come up here every summer night and play wiffle ball in center field... now I get to wear the jersey and actually play for the Cardinals.”

The fire severely damaged the 146-year-old church, leaving its small congregation devastated Monday morning.

NORWOOD YOUNG AMERICA, Minn. -- A congregation has lost its historic church, just two weeks before Christmas.

Crews were called to Church in the Maples, a United Methodist Church in Norwood Young America, just after 7 p.m. Sunday for a report of a fire. Several crews responded to fight the flames that ultimately destroyed the church in southwest Carver County.

The church building was one of the oldest in the area at 146 years old. The congregation itself just celebrated 160 years active in September.

"It's just shocking. It's shocking to see something that's been around so long, be gone in an instant," Pastor Eli Somers said.

This is Somers' first year of ministry and he's only been the pastor at Church in the Maples since July.

"It's something that you think is going to happen your first year of ministry, let alone your first six months," Pastor Somers said.

No one was injured or inside the church at the time of the fire, according to the church.

It's a painful loss for the church's small congregation.

There are only about 10 to 15 people in the congregation, according to Genie Young. Young has gone to the church since 1992.

"We had just finished getting it decorated for Christmas," she said.

On Monday morning, Young pointed out one thing the fire didn't destroy—a placemat hanging on the wall with a drawing of Jesus and the text, "Have you seen Jesus my Lord?"

"Everything was gone... but that picture was still hanging here," Young said.

Pastor Somers said they had recently repainted the church, put in new flooring and redid the roof.

Even those who aren't church members said it's difficult for everyone in the area.

"This will definitely be a blow to the community," said Jim Richter, who owns the local Mid-Town Family Restaurant.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Pastor Somers said he is not sure what will happen to the building; the Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church will make that decision.

For now, the congregation will have its services at Arlington United Methodist Church; the church is their sister congregation and Somers is also a pastor there.

Continuing the troubling trend of Christian institutions banning prominent conservatives, the University of Northwestern in Minnesota has decided to ban a Young America’s Foundation lecture by renowned pro-life speaker Star Parker. Students in the University of Northwestern’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter (UNW YAF) have been working for months to host a prominent conservative to address their peers, only to have their own administration strike down their plans.

On February 18, UNW YAF’s founding chair Hayley Tschetter alerted Young America’s Foundation to the administrative resistance she was encountering in trying to secure a venue and approval to host Star Parker.

Tschetter requested details from UNW administrators, and on February 20, they responded via email, saying their “main concern is that it is an open event.”

Apparently “it would be different if you were having a speaker just come speak to your club. Speakers open to all UNW students would have more strictness” explained the email before turning to ad hominem attacks on Star Parker’s character:

“There were quite a few concerns about Star. Our staff has been very adamant about bringing speakers to campus who educate and expand worldviews, but we really don’t bring speakers who radically hold beliefs that UNW as a whole would not agree with,” states the email. “In the past UNW has stayed away from sensationalized speakers. I foresee us continuing to do this. After reviewing some of Star’s material online we didn’t feel she was a good fit for our community.”

Seeking a reversal of the administrators’ decision, UNW YAF requested a meeting with University of Northwestern President Alan Cureton. On February 27, they found Cureton to be as resistant as the rest of the administrators they’d met or spoken with. According to UNW YAF Chair Hayley Tschetter, Cureton “said that he didn’t want to be divisive” and that “it’s better to provide a balanced view from different outlooks,” along the lines of a panel discussion. Tschetter responded by asking what opposing viewpoint UNW would want to elevate: someone who isn’t pro-life? Someone who thinks poverty is a good thing? “He didn’t really have an answer,” Tschetter noted. The meeting resulted in Cureton telling the YAF activists that he didn’t want to be involved and instead asked them to meet with UNW’s Vice President of Student Life, Nina M. Barnes. At the time of publication, Barnes had not responded to the meeting request.

For those who may be unfamiliar with Parker’s work, Star is founder and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. CURE has grown into a network of 800 pastors serving at-risk communities across the country. Her lifelong dedication to helping others was inspired by her conversion to Christianity, and this work has gone from consulting on federal welfare reform in the 1990s to her position today on the White House Opportunity Initiative task force seeking fixes for America’s most distressed zip codes. Her contributions to the national discourse continue to this day as a television commentator, an appointee to the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Commission, and as a popular campus speaker making more than 225 campus appearances including at Harvard, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UVA, and others.

But all of that—to the administrators at the University of Northwestern—amounts to radical sensationalism that’s not a good fit for their “Christ-centered liberal arts university” community.

“I accepted UNW YAF’s gracious invitation to defend life and traditional Christian principles,” said Star Parker. “Abortion has devastated the black community and is the moral crisis of our time. Christian universities are precisely where this urgent discussion should be happening.”

“As someone who took courses through the University of Northwestern as a high school student, this decision is a shocking departure from a school I once considered attending,” noted Young America’s Foundation Spokesman Spencer Brown. “UNW has chosen to abandon their core principles as a Christian university—set above and apart—in favor of avoiding any potential discomfort brought about by an insightful lecture from one of America’s leading conservative women on critical issues UNW’s students will soon be faced with in the world.”

“I was excited to embark on this new adventure and thrilled that Star Parker agreed to come and speak to my campus,” stated founding UNW YAF Chair Hayley Tschetter. “After doing a little reading on several YAF speakers, I thought she could address some relevant topics to our campus. However, many are too fearful of ‘controversy’ to allow her lecture to take place. Issues already divide campuses, Christians, and people nationwide—speaking about them will not cause a divide, it will bring the underlying issues to light and provide an opportunity for them to be discussed openly and civilly.”

Young America’s Foundation continues to monitor this situation closely and calls on the University of Northwestern to reverse its ban and allow Star Parker to bring her important perspective to UNW’s students.

For additional information or to request an interview contact Young America’s Foundation Spokesman Spencer Brown via [email protected] or 800-872-1776.