We heard from John Markowski of the Los Angeles Church of Christ that the editor of the "Daily Trojan" has apologized for the article it ran 10 days ago that was critical of the church, calling the article "a mistake." The editor of the school paper for the University of Southern California says she plans to write the student group a personal letter of apology. She regretted any stress it may have caused the students. An addendum will be attached to the original article in their archives. SEE HERE

IcocHotNews welcomes this apology, and applauds the paper for its humility and integrity.

The article sparked a controversy when it repeated several accusations against the church from an article over seven years old. Not only did John Markowski speak up in defense of the church, but so did two deans and an administrator in the Office of Religious life. Rabbi Susan Laemmle, Dean of Religious Life, Revd. Elizabeth Davenport, Senior Associate Dean of Religious Life, and Sherry Caudle, Administrator for the Office of Religious Life wrote a letter to the editor. The school officials said that the author's information was "outdated and misleading." They said "the church is unfairly and incorrectly identified" as a problem group. They also said that the truth is "the church has been a very positive influence in the lives of the USC students in recent years." The officials pointed out that "a fact-checking call to the Office of Religious Life would have alerted your reporter to the fact that her story was incorrect, and would also have avoided the distress that has been caused to the leaders and members of this particular Christian group in consequence of the article."

John Markowski said he felt satisfied with both the meeting and the apology.

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