Rants for the Weekend

Ok, I got irritated by two things on Thursday. Perhaps you agree, perhaps not, but here's my take...

If I see or hear one more story on the national news about poor college kids and how the economy is causing them so much angst and distress, I'm going to swear off the national news outlets for at least a day.

In the story that sent me over the edge, a young lady being high lighted in the piece made the following comment (I'm paraphrasing);
"Why should I have to transfer to a different school? The kids who's families have the money to pay aren't having to transfer."

Ummm, ok, didn't you just answer your own question? You need to transfer because you can not afford to attend that school. Tough. Get over it.


My parents, then my wife(first time around) and I paid for my education and for her's out of our pockets. At the time, financial aid was limited, and despite my dad's lower middle class salary, the feds said his, along with my part time job's, income made us too "rich" to get aid. So I attended an extension campus of IU where we could afford the tuition and made the most of the education opportunities available to me.

Why should she or anyone else be any different? Oh and then there was her closing comment (again, I'm paraphrasing);
"At my age, I should be worried about other things, not worrying about how I'm going to pay for college."

Gee, whiz, at my age, I should be financially set and without a care, not travelling 3+ days per week to put food on the table, watching what we spend, worrying about medical exams I thought were reserved for "old" guys, ad nauseum, ad nauseum...

Later in the day, I'd be fired up by the head of one of my denomination's seminary presidents who has a local radio show on the Christian station my wife and I listen to at times.

Dr. Albert Mohler was up on his soap box ranting about pornography in this country. Ok, I have no problem with that, except the fact that when individuals like Mohler, who are viewed by Christians and non-Christians alike as being representative of believers as a whole (a scary thought as far as I'm concerned) spend such a large amount of their time placing themselves in the public eye to promote or denounce social and political issues and agendas, it injures the testimony of Christians as a whole.

Would Mohler, or any other theologian help this simple lay person, who considers himself fairly conservative in his interpretation and understanding of scripture, to locate in scripture where we are called to concentrate such a vast amount of energy and resources on government policies and agendas. Did Christ? Did Paul?

If we want to change the culture of America, to stop what Mohler refers to in his blog as the "Pornification of a Culture", we can not and should not do it through the political system, but rather through the spreading of the gospel and the subsequent "changing of America's heart" through the love of Christ.

The efforts of Mohler and his peers helps solidify for many the notion that the message Christianity is one of exclusion, hate, and "do's and dont's". Their actions do little if anything to share the Love of Christ to a dying world. I would venture that the issues that pervade our societies today are little different than those evident in Christ's time. Perhaps the vehicles for their spread were different, and perhaps they were less pervasive, but who knows. I wasn't there, but I'd bet Dr. Mohler had a contemporary in that century who was just as confident that the world was falling further and further into the mires of sin. Well, yeah, but our calling is to save the world one soul at a time, not to initiate social change.

In closing let me offer this observation from my recent work trip to New Orleans.

While in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, I ventured to Bourbon Street to take in the revelry of Mardi Gras. Amidst the drunkeness, obscenity, nudity, and vulgarity there were Christians attempting to witness. Two distinct efforts were underway.

Effort number one involved the holding of signs cataloging various sinful activity and the preaching of condemnation with a bull horn. The response I saw to these efforts ranged from vulgar insults, pulling and tugging of the signs as people passed, to a bull horn toting antagonist that drowned out any attempt to communicate to the crowd with a repetitive, "Stop the Hate, Stop the Hate!..." or literally, "Blah, Blah, Blah!...Blah! Blah!..."

Effort number two was undertaken by a group that formed a single file line that didn't block the flow of pedestrian traffic, held up signs proclaiming Christ's love, and quietly passing out pamphlets. I saw no one harass these folks and I saw people politely take the pamphlets that were offered, some of which were not immediately discarded on the ground.

My hat's off to both groups for undertaking witnessing in such a harsh environment, but "Which do you think was the most effective?" Which do you think best demonstrated a message of Love? I have my opinion.

Anyway, that's my two cents, and thankfully it's worth as much as anybody else's.