Virginia Tech: On a Spiritual Note
During the convocation yesterday a number of speakers took the podium.
The first speaker, a Muslim cleric, invoked the name of Allah and quoted the Qur'an. The second speaker, a Buddhist community leader preached about the basic goodness of mankind. The third speaker, a woman from the Jewish community, quoted Ecclesiastes... To everything there is a season. The fourth speaker, a Liberal(?) Lutheran Minister spoke about healing and coming together...
But not even an honorable mention for the Lord Jesus Christ. Not even from the President of the United States who was the ONLY person I heard even invoke the name God... the only true God. Lot's of mention of 'thoughts & prayers' but no mention of God by anyone other than Bush, and NO mention of Jesus Christ by anyone at all.
The first speaker, a Muslim cleric, invoked the name of Allah and quoted the Qur'an. The second speaker, a Buddhist community leader preached about the basic goodness of mankind. The third speaker, a woman from the Jewish community, quoted Ecclesiastes... To everything there is a season. The fourth speaker, a Liberal(?) Lutheran Minister spoke about healing and coming together...
But not even an honorable mention for the Lord Jesus Christ. Not even from the President of the United States who was the ONLY person I heard even invoke the name God... the only true God. Lot's of mention of 'thoughts & prayers' but no mention of God by anyone other than Bush, and NO mention of Jesus Christ by anyone at all.
from the mind of... Eric | 12:45 PM
19 Comments:
You're pouting!
The fact is, mentioning His name in this circumstance would have been unnecessarily divisive, even painful for some, at a time when the multicultural community needs to heal.
It would have been seen as exploitative of the situation -- and it *would* have been, especailly if by someone like yourself so quick to make the "name God ... the only true God" an issue.
I don't understand. You believe that Jesus is God, right? So mentioning "God" is equivalent to mentioning Jesus, since, as you believe, there is no route to God that is not through Jesus.
Cracks me up when you act like God, and-or Jesus, *needs* a defense, or good PR.
To everything there is a season ...
Well, durn it. I was all ready for someone to gasp and question my Christianity again.
Here's what I mean:
This is a classic WWJD thing. And what Jesus would do is minister to the grieving. He would not promote Himself. If anything, He would point people to His Father. But mostly, he would minister to the grieving.
If, as it is said, that Christian originally meant "little Christ," as in mimickers of Christ, then that is what Christians should be doing right now. And so the Liberal (? -- where does that adjective come from in this?) Lutheran did it right, IMHO.
buicifhWell, fortunately Cho Seung-Hui mentioned Him, in his farewell video. Twice, in fact - in suitably laudatory terms. Of course that's not significant, not like, say, mentioning Allah would have been.
Tell me - dn't you ever get sick your constant double standards, always in favor of your own side - or are Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh really your idea of intellectual honesty?
What double standards? Please enumerate.
"The fact is, mentioning His name in this circumstance would have been unnecessarily divisive, even painful for some, at a time when the multicultural community needs to heal."
Gawd...what absolute crap!
The state of liberal Christianity in a well-definedlittle nutshell.
Stockman, it is apparent, that like Cho, you have no idea who Jesus Christ is.
Too bad for you both.
Dad, what would Jesus do? Bring attention to himself? Or minister to the hurting, and perhaps -- but only perhaps -- point people to the Father?
Here's crap: "Soul winners" who dare pretend that God needs them to do His work on people's souls, while ignoring every admonition of the Lord to minister to people in their humanity. That's the bad joke of "Christianity" today. C.R.A.P.
God may not need us, specifically you and me, but he has commanded every believer to go into all the world... even the Virginia Tech Convocation... and preach the Gospel. I don't pretend to be one of the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, but I am in it. A cook or dishwasher perhaps, but to flip Dante on its head: "Better to be a busboy at the marriage feast than a lost and miserable soul in hell."
For the record, I am not pouting. I am merely pointing out how far this political correctness has gone... Muslims are free to call on the name of Allah and reverence his prophet Muhammad [pbuh], Jews can speak of biblical events and quote scripture, Liberal(?) Lutherans can speak of healing (without reference to the Great Physician, or the stripes by which we are healed), Buddhists can invoke the name of Buddha and the Dalai Lama... but no evangelical is asked to speak? No one invokes the name of Jesus? Not even the President?
The bad joke of Christianity today is that 'genuine' Christianity can't see that their congregations are heavily sowed with Tares-- we are told we must be accepting of everyone --and the Tares seem to be running much of the show.
The Tares have convinced the rest of the Congregation that it is better to fill hungry bellies, than to fill hungry souls. Filling the belly is important, but not near as important as filling the soul with the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ. Filling the belly does serve to demonstrate the compassion of Christ, but it also opens the hearts of the hungry, making them more receptive to spiritual food. That is our primary goal as Christians... to fill souls with the Light of Truth, and bid them come to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.
How shameful it would be to stand before God and hear Him ask us why we didn't invite our friends and neighbors to the feast... there was plenty of room... plenty of food... and we were asked, by the Lamb Himself, to invite as many as we could get to come. How do we stand worthy of His grace on that day, when we didn't even try to fill His house with the halt, the lame, the diseased, the desparing, the harlot, the thief.... and so many more?
And yet, when Jesus himself told that story, he said the only difference between the sheep and the goats was what they did and didn't do to feed, clothe, join the least of these.
Not a single mention of, "Depart from me! for when I was lost, you presented the four spiritual laws to me..."
I wonder why Jesus told it that way?
The whole concept of being "worthy" of God's grace speaks volumes as to the difference between where EL and I come from on this, and most other things.
You want to complain about someone, complain about the Lutheran, the Christian representative, who dared be Christian by daring not to proselytize when people were hurting.
And since when did evangelicals, or any other dang stripe of Christendom, rate a separate place anywhere? Like they need the press.
Oh, and it didn't suit the presedent's purposes to claim association with evangelicals in this instance. Why are you still surprised at how low this man will stoop politically, how he has been a shameless user of people his entire career?
The state of his soul is one thing. The status of adjectives usually blindly applied to him is another: He is neither conservastive, nor Christian, nor presidential. I guess you were duped again!
It's not surprising that there was very little mention of Jesus. It is a college campus. The only colleges that don't try to suppress Christians, if not downright persecute them, are Christian Colleges.
Intersting...ER says, "You believe that Jesus is God, right?"
Does that mean ER doesn't believe that? If so, how does he reconcile with the actual words of Jesus Himself, the only words in the Bible ER believes are true, "I and my Father are One."
"The only colleges that don't try to suppress Christians, if not downright persecute them, are Christian Colleges."
Mark, I know that you were using hyperbole, but I've attended three public colleges (and this was back in my more conservative days) and was NEVER persecuted - nothing even remotely close - nor was my Christianity suppressed.
I even got a job with one of the college newspapers writing columns with a spiritual/Christian slant.
I'm sure some discouragement of Christianity does happen sometimes, but I see no evidence whatsoever to suppose that it is anything but the exception and not the rule.
"I even got a job with one of the college newspapers writing columns with a spiritual/Christian slant"
You support EL's point, then...right?
LOL!
"I see no evidence whatsoever to suppose that it is anything but the exception and not the rule."
Then you walk this world with eyes wide shut. I thought to compare you to Diogenes; searching with lantern high to find a single honest man, but then I realized Diogenes wasn't blind-- there just wasn't an honest man to be found! You, however, are simply blind-- your God-given sighted orbs carved out of your head by the lies of this world: Simply put, you're rarely able to recognize any truth that lies outside your ideological field of vision. We may very well be brothers, but that doesn't mean you don't spend your days swallowing camels and straining at gnats. You need some eye-salve... the kind only the Holy Spirit can provide.
I repeat: I see no evidence - in my world where I've attended three different state universities, where I've visited several other universities - that this minor discouragement of Christianity away from the campus is the exception and not the rule.
Who are you to tell me what I've seen, Eric? I'm telling you that in my experience, it has not been the case. Have you walked where I've walked? Have you gone to class with me?
Who the hell are you to tell me what I've seen and not see?
It's this sort of "Never you worry your purty little head over what you think you've seen, chile - I know best..." attitude that puts people off of Christianity and what passes for conservatism.
Sure, if you get your news from WND or Dobson, you might begin to feel persecuted, even though that's not supported by evidence. But in MY real world (and I'll acknowledge that I live in the Bible belt), I see no evidence to support that Christians are being marginalized in the public universities with which I'm familiar. And certainly not persecuted.
"Simply put, you're rarely able to recognize any truth that lies outside your ideological field of vision"
And I said all of this back when I was a younger conservative college student. And believe me, I was looking for persecution because, after all, Dobson was telling me to watch out for it...
"I see no evidence to support that Christians are being marginalized in the public universities with which I'm familiar. And certainly not persecuted."
Of course you don't, Dan.
(shakes head in bewilderment)
And you know why I don't, D? Because that's the reality - in my case, at least. When I went to college, I was a conservative younger man looking for that dreaded "Christian persecution" that Dobson assured me was around the corner, like the devil with a pitchfork.
It was all hype. There simply was not any - ZERO - persecution of me for my conservative Christian beliefs - even on that wacky liberal newspaper staff, where I worked for two years.
To be sure, the newspaper staff were more liberal than I was - as were likely many of the professors and students. But they treated me like anyone else. I wrote my spiritual articles, my speech class I gave some sort of churchy-speech, in other classes, I turned in papers with a decidedly conservative Christian slant and never once was it even joked about except in a good-natured way.
The oppression you're speaking of simply does not exist in any meaningful way in the colleges that I've attended and that I've seen in the colleges that I've visited and had friends.
Do you have any experience to the contrary? Do you have any statistics to back up your assertion or are these just empty rants again? Which is fine, as long as you don't expect us to believe you.
I've seen your pic a few times at your place, Dan. How old are you? And when did you attend college? And where? The reason I ask is you assert that at the colleges YOU attended-- whenever --you experienced no discrimination. Fine, but you look to be mid-forties like me. I experienced no such discrimination when I attended school either, but that was a long time ago... early eighties.
The climate is much different now at MAJOR universities... community colleges are not as bad (depending on which state you're in), but the climate is... IS shifting. The climate is becoming more and more hostile toward Christianity, if individual Christian students.
One example of many is the incident with the Wren Chapel Cross last year at the College of William and Mary.
I attended college for one semester in 1981 and dropped out. I returned in 1992 and graduated in 1996.
I've three friends - quite liberal, in your estimation - who are professors in college and have been for a while.
I've heard them teach and they are not oppressive of Christians (of course, they ARE Christians), nor do they report a plague of Christian oppression in our colleges.
And so, I repeat: Short of any evidence (beyond the rare exception), I don't see any evidence to support your claim. Feel free to try to provide some if you think there's some out there.
I got my master's in history from 2001 to 2004 at an urban university in the Oklahoma City area. Not a comprehensive research university, but the third largest one in Oklahoma. Totally devoted to multiculturalism, with a large plurality of international students of all regigious tripes.
No persecution that I could see or otherwise detect.
(Undergrad at Oklahoma State from 1984-1988: Raygun's America prevailed. My Bird is a junior there now; Dubya's America prevails.)
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