Locals graduate from Union University

Four hundred forty-seven students graduated from Union University May 4 during spring commencement services of the 199th graduating class on the university’s Great Lawn.

Local graduates include Kaulin Duncan of Hohenwald - Doctor of Pharmacy and Master of Business Administration; and Robert Woodward of Summertown - BS Business Administration in Management

Hunter Baker, provost at North Greenville University and former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Union, delivered the commencement address, encouraging graduates to be faithful to God and to each other as they begin the next chapter of their lives.

Faithfulness to God, Baker said, requires being faithful to the Christ of the Bible, even in an age when Christian beliefs are not popular or welcomed. In that sense, Christians today face similarities to the ancient church in the Roman empire.

“We yet have many great blessings of liberty,” Baker said. “Cancel culture is only an echo of what many Christians have faced. But it is still true that we live in a world that finds many of our beliefs to be incomprehensible, unreasonable and out of date. Slowly, we seem to be regressing into the old pagan culture where the expected thing to do is to affirm everyone else’s gods and to worship them upon request. It doesn’t matter what you really believe as long as you’ll perform the expected act or say the correct phrase.”

But Christians can’t operate like that if they are being faithful to Christ, Baker said. They must follow Jesus even when the majority finds it unpalatable or scandalous.

“As we do so, we understand that ultimately, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,” he said. “We follow in the light of that greater reality.”

Located in Jackson, Tenn., Union University is a liberal arts-based university affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention. Founded in 1823, Union is the oldest institution relating to the Southern Baptist Convention.