COLLEGEDALE, Tenn. — A school-wide chapel service was disrupted today at Southern Adventist University when a team of Campus Safety officers stormed the stage of Collegedale Church to remove a visiting Romanian exchange student less than a minute after she took to the stage.
Eyewitnesses testified that 19-year-old Ella Danci had walked from her front pew seat to the closest microphone on stage as the praise team was concluding its final song. Leaving the microphone on its stand, Danci had raised her hands and begun speaking in what Chaplain Chuck Roberts described as “suspicious, unintelligible babble.”
Roberts said that he immediately asked campus safety officers to remove Danci as “there was a good chance she was speaking in tongues.” A bewildered-looking Danci was quickly escorted off stage before Chaplain Roberts apologized for “the mix-up” and proceeded to introduce visiting anthropologist, Lydia Lovgren who had come to speak about cultural sensitivity.
Upon further inquiry immediately after the chapel, Roberts sent out a campus-wide email apologizing for the removal of Danci. “We had no idea that Ella had been asked to say opening prayer in her native tongue. She was removed out of vigilant guarding against charismatic influences on our services. You can never be too careful.”
