void

Blogging seems to have lost its trendiness.

My news feed is about as cluttered my grandmother's kitchen.

Now I can feel like I'm contributing once again. You're welcome, blogging world.

leaving christianity?

Here is a great blog entry on why young people are leaving Christianity.

It can be easy to blame college for doubts. I too first experienced serious doubt while a college student. However, I feel it had nothing to do with my professors. It had more to do with realizing how Christianity really is, with making my relationship with God even more my own (my parents and friends had encouraged that process throughout, but it really sharpened in college).

If anything, I'm a Christian today still because of college professors. One in particular realized that something was wrong and spent a tremendous amount of time in order to make sure I didn't just slip away. Other professors were also encouraging. If anything, doubt fostered stronger Christian community for me.

I didn't doubt because of college. And neither do most of my friends who struggled with Christianity. We're too often looking to pass blame elsewhere instead of first looking in the mirror. We need to be the change we wish to see in Christianity...

Thanks for sharing this link, Ryan Billington

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...