Waynesburg University’s MLK Day speaker preaches love

WAYNESBURG – Students at Waynesburg University marked Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a ceremony on campus that featured an address by the school’s philanthropy adviser.
During his address Monday at Roberts Chapel, Benito Stallings explored what love means and “Why do we love?” and “How do we love?”
Stallings recounted King’s example of love and service towards all people, both through the Civil Rights movement and through his life in general. He also shared a few examples of the Civil Rights Movement with ties to Waynesburg University.
Through his travels for the university, Stallings said he has met numerous Waynesburg alumni and has been touched by the stories he has heard from 1950s and 1960s graduates. A retired history professor told Stallings of how he helped to integrate Florida State University in the early 1960s.
“I must have talked to a half dozen ministers who graduated from Waynesburg and decided to integrate their churches during a time when integration would get you harassed by the Ku Klux Klan,” Stallings said.
Stallings also noted that the university’s tradition of loving one another goes back even farther, citing Waynesburg’s involvement in the Underground Railroad and women’s suffrage.
“To the student body, I say keep pursuing Christ and loving others in the way that you’re doing, and I firmly believe you’ll change the world,” he said. “By God’s grace, we’ll see senators, governors, doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers coming from Waynesburg who will lay down their lives and challenge and inspire others to do the same.”
Turning to scripture to answer these questions, Stallings said the message of the Gospel is a message of love. He focused his exploration of how to love on laying down one’s life “for the justice and well-being of our fellow brothers and sisters who may be different from us.”
“(Waynesburg) University’s faith in Christ inspires its students to learn about the world around them and leads them to seek to lay down their lives in service,” Stallings said.
Stallings’ background includes community outreach, fundraising, budget management, organizing and motivating volunteers, preaching and teaching. He is seeking ordination into the priesthood within the Anglican Church.
Stallings is active within his church in Pittsburgh as a leadership figure for outreach and evangelism, primarily to college students and recent college graduates, and as a co-founder of the Southside Anglican Church Forum on Race Relations.