origins

First of all, I want to say that I'm proud of The Collegian. As the student newspaper for Walla Walla University, it continues to be a place of dialogue and discourse. For years, The Collegian has published special issues (e.g. alcohol, Sabbath, sexuality, beliefs, etc.) in correlation with a survey of students.

This year's special issue centered around the topic of origins, a controversial topic to be certain. Ever since the La Sierra issue a few years back, everyone seems to be avoiding the topic. And when mentioned at all, everyone seems to be looking over their shoulder... That's why I'm proud of The Collegian. It confronted a tough subject head-on. Professionally. Tactfully. And willing to look at both sides.

A slight majority of students still hold to the SDA belief of a six literal day creation. That doesn't surprise me. It did, however, surprise Sean Pittman and his website, Educate Truth. There, he wrote an entry that simply angered me. Not only was it full of errors (both factually and stylistically), but it was simply a careless attack without merit. WWU pictures were even used without consent.

Pittman stated:

Clearly, La Sierra University is not the only Adventist school that has been challenged by the issue of origins. While LSU may have been the most blatant in attacking and undermining the Adventist position on origins, many of our other schools (with the exception of Southern Adventist University and Southwestern Adventist University where the Adventist position on origins is still strongly upheld and promoted) seem to be heading down the same path or are at least very weak in their active support of the Church on this issue.

How does he know what is taught in WWU classes? Does he know that WWU professors teach evolution? Has he polled SAU or SWAU students? Might they think similar things? As a former WWU student, I heard little talk of evolution period. Or even talk of an extended time period for creation. Anywhere on campus. By any professor. And my friends who have taken Biology courses say similar things.

The comment thread was particularly frustrating, where further attacks were unleashed without merit. Many WWU students got involved in attempt to correct, which was nice to see, but the piece is still up... If you want a frustrating read, try to make it all the way through the comment thread.  

If you want a more accurate summary of the issue, try Adventist Today. Or better yet, read through the actual issue at The Collegian's website.

And to start some fire. Why does it even matter? If creation didn't happen in 6 literal days, is God any less powerful? Aren't issues like this just widening the divide within Christianity. Discussion is good. Infighting is not. Instead, shouldn't we be focusing more on Jesus and our true mission of making Him known to the world instead of infighting over issues such as origins? Just seems like one more way to anger people into leaving Christian churches...

beardless

Students have been walking right past me today, forgetting who I am.

I know I look younger without facial hair, but wow...

Last night, I let four sophomore girls shave my beard off at Dorm Worship. It kicked off Lumberjack Week and Facial Hair February for our dormitory.

My face feels naked.

Here's the video:

disheartening political imagery

Everyone seems to be uploading random pictures to Facebook these days. Some are humorous. Some factual. Some absurd and/or angering.

This week, I found two that I had to mention. I hate getting into long, drawn-out Facebook battles with political extremists, but I had to make a comment somewhere, hence here.

First, the budget on the right is fascinating. It really is amazing what removing a few zeroes can do. It's impossible for a family to survive on such outlandish spending. I'm a firm believer in fiscal conservatism, meaning limited spending and spending within one's means. I find it amusing that the ones harping on this are Republicans who rarely realize just how much spending Reagan and George W. Bush spent. It's not simply the evil Obama. Now, I'm not one to simply quote a liberal economics blog (in fact, they can be annoying for me to read at times), but this one by Paul Krugman, a New York Times opinion contributor, was particularly relevant. Here, he briefly reminds us where we are indebted to, largely ourselves. While this is still not where anyone should want our government to be, it's less scary than it could be. While I don't support a balanced budget amendment just yet (I don't think our country could survive), I believe we need to do mass scaling back until we can live within our means. Just not all at once.

Second, this picture ANGERS me. My friends posting this are pandering to political extremism. Clinton clapping for the forgotten American? I'm not necessarily a Democrat, but aren't Democrats doing more for forgotten Americans than Republicans? Aren't Republicans arguing solely for corporations? Okay, I exaggerated there, but being a lifelong student of History, I see this as an extremely inaccurate representation. While I instantly loved seeing presidents together, I found it disheartening to see such division. This picture does correctly identify that division. However, it only increases the divide and further damages Republican and Democrat collaboration. It shows flawed and close-minded both parties are. This picture shows me a need for a third party, a party where one isn't forced to worship Obama or find him a Constitution-crushing dictator (which he is not). I really hope people stop giving credence to an artist pandering to reckless political extremism.