On Christian Universities...

Very interesting article in the January 2018 Christian Chronicle about how less of 'our' universities have students that self-identify with Churches of Christ.  Here is my letter in response...

https://christianchronicle.org/christian-universities-feeling-the-pinch-as-churches-of-christ-shrink/

To The Christian Chronicle:

I read with great interest your January article about the decline at Church of Christ affiliated universities of students who self-identify as members of Churches of Christ.  I appreciate this article and the reporting that went into it, but I have a few comments and questions.

First, I do feel more should have been mentioned about the actual financial costs of Christian colleges and universities.  I would like to have seen in a chart or within the article what are some of the costs of these universities. I was fortunate to graduate from Harding with both a bachelors and a masters in the early 1990s, and fortunately through scholarships and parental help incurred little debt.  But I had many friends who spent almost two decades paying off their student loans.  I would suspect that in recent years the problem has only gotten worse.  As a parent of two children who will be attending college within a few years, I am already discouraged by the reports I am hearing of how much these colleges cost.  We have worked hard to save money for college, but likely have only saved enough for them to attend for a year or two.  Here are my questions:  Why have these colleges gotten so expensive?  Have they moved so far from their humble origins that they are now inaccessible to the ‘have-nots’?  Have they so invested in collegiate sports, luxurious buildings, and other ‘necessities’ that they have forgotten their purpose in the kingdom?  Where is the critical analysis of past decisions and future plans that university administrations have made that have kept some of ‘our’ people away?  And is this part of a larger national trend in which the rich are not affected by the exploding costs of college, while the more low-income and middle-class are being priced out of the opportunities that previous generations took for granted?  Is the growing gap between rich and poor within our country to blame, in that it has made our institutional leaders unaware of how difficult it is for some to afford higher education?

Second, I find it interesting that many in a movement that has called for our religious neighbors to become ‘Christians only’ see that when this actually happens it is a cause for alarm.   We should be giving praise to God that some are identifying only as 'Christian!'  Though I am thankful that this was not overtly stated in the article, I do know many who will read the article with concern that ‘we’ are losing our identity.  All around us churches that are growing usually have a non-denominational aspect to them and seek the name of Christian and wear it proudly.  Do they always understand Scripture exactly as Churches of Christ historically have?  No.  But rather than see this as an opportunity to have conversations with those who might look at Scripture and faith with fresh eyes, many feel threatened because they are not ‘of us’.  Have we in Churches of Christ become so stagnant in our pursuit of restoration that any kind of correction we might encounter or other form being ‘Christians only’ might take is considered dangerous?

Third, if more of ‘our’ students are choosing not to attend ‘our’ schools, what effect is this having on campus ministries affiliated with Churches of Christ?  Is there a marked increase in their number?  Are more churches seeking to find ways to support outreach onto state or other private university campuses?  Having been both a student at a Christian university and a campus minister at a state university, I found that genuine Christian faith and growth was not necessarily dependent upon being within the ‘bubble’ of a Christian university.  Indeed, I knew many of my fellow students at Harding who had grown up in church but had little to no interest in matters of faith; I can vividly remember how many would complain about daily chapel and how few actually attended Sunday services.  Conversely, in campus work on a state university campus I also found a genuine Christian hunger on the part of many who could not or chose not to attend Christian schools.  Campus ministries and outreaches, if we consider the implications of your story, will have an increasingly vital part to play in the future of the church...so how will we support them?

Finally, one must also consider a growing reluctance for some churches to promote Christian universities, seeing that it might not be in their best interest long-term.  While some have always been suspicious of the ‘progressive’ elements that seem inherent to a college education, I wonder if practically churches outside the Bible belt or even within smaller, isolated towns have felt burned by sending students to Christian universities.  Why?  Because after they finish their education, how many of these students return home to be a blessing to the church in the small town or to a place outside the traditional strongholds of our fellowship? Having spent most of my adult life now in smaller towns outside or on the edge of the ‘Bible Belt’, I have seen what happens when students go away to college...rarely do they come back.  Many stay and seek jobs and families in the areas around Oklahoma City, Dallas, Nashville, Little Rock, and Atlanta and join large churches, rather than returning home where they could serve churches and communities that desperately need the insights and education that they learned.  Yes, this is part of a national trend, and many students would do the same having attended non-Christian universities...but at least for those far from Christian schools, this would mean they stayed closer to home.  Several times I have wondered how genuinely our Christian universities have promoted the idea of ‘home-mission’ to their students...how many chapel programs encourage them to return back to where they came from and make a difference?  How many of them encourage them to move to a place where the church is not strong or numerous and do the hard work of building it up?  For many churches who have watched with hope their young people go away but disappointingly learned that they were not  returning, there is a feeling that perhaps Christian colleges are not worth it for them.

Again, thank you for this article, and for all the good you do.  May God continue to bless your work.

For Christ and the Church,

David Blankenship
Mulvane, Kansas

Trump's Defenders

A new year, but the same terrible President.  Anybody who hoped that this year he would turn over a new leaf and be Decent Don rather than Trumpy the firebomber are to be greatly saddened.  After all, a 12 year old in an old man's body doesn't cotton to change very easily, does he? 

But I'm still amazed that his support continues to hold steady at around 38%.  I'd ask incredulously 'Who are these people?' but they are my family, my neighbors, my co-workers, and my friends in Christ.  They are living in a different world, perhaps, but I am still caused to tolerate them in love. 

Yet I'm amazed at the defenses these apologists give them.  There are 3, I think:
1)"Look at what he's done!  He gave us the Supreme Court!"  Yes, I'm certainly glad that the conservatives now look at the courts as nothing more than a political football to be won.  Any Republican president would have done this, but his supporters act as if he's saved the nation.  Gorsuch might well be a good justice, but some of his lower-court appointments...yeesh.  Thankfully a few of them have withdrawn after being shown to be incompetent or corrupt.  But more worringly are the many foreign service and other national security appointments going unfilled after he has ridiculed their work and driven many out.  The real work is done by people who do the work that leaders of both parties take credit for...but if there are not these people doing the work that goes unnoticed, how is Trumpy going to claim victories?  Good thing he has the Giant Button on his desk. 

2)"But...Hillary!"  I did not vote for Hillary...but playing the deflection game gets old and proves nothing.  If while growing up my brother had come home drunk, injured after a fight, and having wrecked the car, his defense of "But look at David!  He didn't make his bed!" would not have sufficed.  It's time for people to stop showing relief at what is not and face up to the reality of what is.  And what is, sucks. 

3)"I like Trump.  He's tough and doesn't apologize and makes us strong.  'Mercia!"  What saddens me about this excuse is that it is often up by many of the same Christian people who preach Godliness in so man aspects of life look at the bullying and hatred that is this man's language and then praise it.  It's as if people turn their brains off when it comes to this guy, accepting as good and righteous what in any other situation would be wholly unacceptable.  Taunting a nuclear rogue state?  Undermining the relationships that America has developed over decades of leadership by both parties?  Part of being President is about learning how to play nice with others. 

I suppose I can take solace in the fact that if the Democrats run somebody besides a convicted felon who has a dead hooker in the trunk of her car, they surely will oust Trump in three years.  But man, that seems like a long time. 

Deconstruction is easier than building up

Today is the election for the Alabama U.S. senator in which an accused pedophile with a history of being removed from office multiple times will likely defeat a former federal prosecutor with a history of putting away Klansmen because he has R after his name instead of D.  And, as voters know, this means they are true to the Constitution, live with integrity, and are specially blessed by God, while the other team hates God, hates America, and hates everything good. 

It amazes me how far our national intelligence and morality have plummeted in recent years, and this is just one of many examples.  I mean, when GOP now stands for 'Groping Or Perving', there's a problem.  Yes, I know...BOTH SIDES are wrong.  But at least the Democrats and liberals seem to be exiling their failures even as the GOP is intent on building them up higher and denying that they did anything wrong. 

(Take a breath.  Look at your own plank.  Realize that these problems are bigger than you.  Now, continue.) 

It's so easy to point out all the problems with our world...but to be honest, I am at a point that I have no idea (except the power of God) how to make things better.  The other day I figured out what my problem is...I know exactly what is wrong with something, I know how systems work, and I can see patterns.  But making something good out of it?  I'm not your man. 

So I was watching my daughter and her team play basketball, and it became very apparent that there were a lot of problems with their plan...they were not setting screens, the guards were not passing into the bigs, and they were not communicating on either defense or offense.  I could see all their problems...maybe I would be a good scout for a sports team, as I can always see the problems and what is being done. 

But, like a lot of Americans, I'm really bad about figuring out how to make things better.  I can yell and scream and point fingers, but fixing the problem, and building up my fellow man?  Nope.  This is why for all my morbid interest in politics, I have never had any desire to run for any public office except for the anointing of Dictator.  It's why I'm not a great coach...I can see what is going on, but I can't make the kids do what I want them to do in my mind.  It's why I stink at video games...I can figure out all the patterns within the game, but I don't have the ability to exploit them. 

Maybe our world is just too complicated today to make a difference in.  We'd rather just tear things and people down than build it up to something good. 

Weinstein, et al

The news continues to be depressing.  Currently, amidst the slog that is Trump, health and environmental warnings, and the Royals beginning their long generational slide into the abyss, we have a huge sexual harassment scandal in which a high-ranking Hollywood executive has lost his power and influence after decades of terrible behavior.  The fallout is that scores of other spotlighted people are being dragged through this...Kevin Spacey propositioned a teenager many years ago, Andy Dick licks people, and George Bush the senior acts like a dirty old man.  It's sad, really, even though hopefully the public shaming will hopefully people putting a stop to terrible behavior.  As a dad, I pray that my daughter will never have to go through what many women through the ages have endured.

Yet I can't help think that this is yet another story in which the chickens have come home to roost.  Men have always behaved badly, I suppose...in the Bible Xerxes gets his XXX rating by plowing through a whole generation of women looking for a replacement wife, and things haven't gotten much better in the years since  Celebrities and powerbrokers have always gotten away with bad behavior...how many of the legendary Wilt Chamberlain's 20,000 supposed lays were not consensual?  Heck, we have a sitting president who made some of his reputation as horny business mogul who would brag about grabbing a woman's 'p****' when she was not expecting it or walking in on teenagers getting dressed in beauty pageants.  Sexuality has been glorified as the right of the powerful, and now with western equality being our god, everyone else as well.  With glorification, abuse will soon follow on its heels.

As always, we want all the pleasures of sexuality without any of its drawbacks.  Will we continue to celebrate all the glories of our modern sexual freedom and then continue to be so surprised when this freedom is so badly abused?  Something's gotta give.

Grumpy Old Guy #31

I'm driving a shuttle route last night and most of the kids are fine, but a little boy, about 6, keeps standing up and jumping around in the back.  Three times I have to get on the intercom, 'Sit Down!'  I don't like being that guy, but kids in the aisle or standing up, that's dangerous. 

So we get to the final drop-off point and as the boy is coming off I have him stand on top of the engine compartment and tell him that he has to do better sitting down, that he can't be jumping around on the bus.  We're a quarter of the way through the school year, he knows this by now but he doesn't care.  But then his brother, probably a year older and is waiting on him says, 'He can't sit down!  He has ADHD and that's why he acts like this.' 

To summarize: a seven-year-old is already making excuses for his younger brother as to why he is the way he is.  Where did he learn these things?  Most likely from his parents, who likewise make excuses for his unacceptable behavior.  This child is likely to through life with people making excuses for him, instead of simply saying 'No, you can't do this.' 

It's easy to bag on people I don't know well, but most kids really don't have ADHD.  Most of them are simply over-sugared, over-caffeinated, over-stimulated, and under-disciplined.  And when they act like this, everybody then looks for an excuse besides what's obvious.  No wonder I have a headache.