Yeah, I know where you want to lead me is a great place.  I know I will enjoy being there.  You have my best interests at heart, and I even know you love me.  It’s just that being lead thing.  It is agaisnt my nature.   Something in the way I am built, the way my Creator put me together just rebels at the thoughtof being led. 

I strain against the leash no matter what the destination, for it I would rather be in charge, follow my own lights.  I do have a brain you know.  If You wanted to lead somebody arround you could have got a dog you know.

                BUT NOT THE  DEMOCRAT CLUB, FOR THEM THE SIGN IS: 

               News out of Liberty,  No Democrat club on our Campus!!!

Liberty University spurns Democratic club

By Washington Post  |  May 23, 2009

WASHINGTON – Liberty University will no longer recognize its campus Democratic Party club because its parent organization stands against the conservative Christian school’s moral principles.

The club, which has about 30 members, will no longer be able to use Liberty’s name, hold on-campus meetings, or be eligible for student activities money.

“I think it does the university a great disservice to stifle one side of the discussion simply because we are Democrats,” said Maria Childress, the club’s adviser and an administrative assistant at the school.

Brian Diaz, president of Liberty’s Democratic club, said he was informed of the school’s decision in a May 15 e-mail.

“The candidates supported are directly contrary to the mission of Liberty University,” the e-mail said.

Liberty has had a College Republicans club for years. The Democratic club formed in October and worked aggressively to elect President Obama.

“They . . . let the Liberty University College Republicans stay on campus, but they don’t let us,” said Diaz, 18, who will be a sophomore next year. “Sounds like censorship to me.”

Childress said she is trying to appeal the decision to Jerry Falwell Jr., who became the Lynchburg school’s chancellor after his father died in 2007. In the meantime, students who violate the rule face reprimands under the school’s conduct code, which could result in expulsion. 

Being currently out of a paying position I would like to suggest to Liberty University that they hire me in a new post, called “The Guy who Advises Us on how not to look like Fascist Idiots”.   I would work cheap, from my own home, and save them lots of time and energy, and serve my God and His Kingdom by preventing a fine institution from a foolish act.  

I know how these decisions are reached.  In a small group of like minded people  someone brings up an idea, packs it into a snowball and it begins to roll down the mountainside until a village is wiped out in the avalanche.  My suggestion is that I be allowed to examine the snowball for signs of intelligent life.  If not me I nominate Andy Stanley, or Charles Stanley, or Stanley the maintenance man from the local high school.  Someone who is a bit out of the forest so that a tree may be examined individually. The view from the Ivory tower is always myopic.  Seriously, our own Jeofurry would be perfect.  He is one of their own, not a dispy, and coming from the far country of North Dakota, knows a bit about snowballs.  

This is NUTS!  There are 30 people on campus, 30 out of thousands of students and faculty  who chose to belong to the Dems. What threat or danger are they to the campus at large?  Can the administration not see that shutting them down does more damage than good?  The latest news is that the group may meet on campus, but not be recognized.  I am not a fan of the  party of Pelosi and Obama, not at all,  but the whole point of our free society is to allow divergent beliefs to be expressed.  Here is a short list of why if I were  “the Guy” this snowball would have been tossed on the stove.

1. Closing down a Democratic club shows no faith in a two party system.
2. The bad press generated by this will fill atheist  blogs for years.
3. It is possible that this group sought change from within.  I deplore some Republican methods and strategies, but I will stay to use my vote to , hopefully, bring the party back in line with my values.  If I leave I will not advocate the dissolution of the party.
4. College is where youth rebel.  Does anybody remember hearing an old adage that goes something like: “If you’re not a liberal when you’re in your twenties you haven’t got a heart; if you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 40 you haven’t got a brain.”   I registered as a democrat at age 18 to vote for Al Harris in the primary. I represented 10% of his votes in my state.   At twenty I was an active Republican and have been since, although Libertarian is looking good these days.
5. At a time when we want Christian bible studies on school and college campuses, this attitude of exclusivity serves poorly.  We need increased dialogue with the other side, yet we fear it? 

So I say, “Oi vey ist Mir” or, “I carumba ” or, ” Man, what were you thinking?”  Liberty has a student behavior clause that states no student can harm the Witness of the University.  No worries, no student could do the harm the administration did with one really foolish decision. 

Ouch! That is really going to hurt!

Is this a Kingdom Serving Witness?

Heritage Christian school in Ohio has suspended Tyler Frost for going to the prom with his girlfriend.  Heritage Christian school has a statement up on their website that you may read for yourself.

http://www.heritagefindlay.org/index.cfm?i=6416&mid=1000&id=199128    

Naturally this bad call will get a lot of press.  When was the last time you read in national news about a decision that seemed odd on the part of a secular school?  Well it happens, but does not create a feeding frenzy like this.  The world is watching those of us in the Christian community very closely, as nothing can damage  us more than the pain we inflict on ourselves.  While we are taught not to generalize about nationality or race, it is acceptable in the world’s eyes to say,  “There go those Christians again.”   Prejudice against us is perfectly acceptable. 

In an unsigned statement on their site, this paragraph may be found:            

In the Old Testament, Joseph was in a place of temptation and he fled. Unlike this situation, he didn’t put himself in that place. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.” II Timothy 2:22 says, “Flee also youthful lusts but follow after righteousness faith charity and peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” When the school committee, many years before I became the principal, set up the policy regarding dancing, I am confident that they had the principle of fleeing lustful situations in mind. The question as I see it is, should a Christian place themselves at an event where young ladies will have low cut dresses and be dancing in them? Isn’t it contrary to the example of Joseph and the verses that I stated?

I feel really bad for the author of that statement in particular, and for the culture of that school in general.  In fact,  more than ‘feel bad’  I dispair of the entire society that takes the Gospel of Christ and tries to shove it into a man-shaped box, instead of trying to grow people into a Gospel -shaped, Christ -shaped community.  Is the author telling us that he struggles with lust issues due to a low cut dress?  Is a little cleavage all it would take to have him fall into sin?  If the sights at a Prom are so disturbing,  how would he go to the beach, or even the Mall?  I have an idea, let us put women in a coverall outfit, we will call it a burka, so that the sight of an ankle, or a thigh, or a breast will not cause us to sin,  oh yeah, wrong religion. 

I am trying to guard myself  from sin and sarcasm and snarkiness, but  failure is imminent.  If Christianity had always had this attitude missionaries would never have gone into the topless peoples of the islands, we would let them burn for fear of temptation.  If this attitude was the correct one we would not be doing teen outreach,  as there are young women who have grown up in a culture of ‘sex sells’ and in appearance are dressing like a display case for Victoria’s Secret.  If this attitude was correct our Savior would not have gone amongst the prostitutes and tax collectors.

Joesph fled a seductress, not a woman in sexy garb.  It was not the woman’s appearance to be avoided, it was her behavior and intention.  I hate it when people pull a verse from a story and say “Here you go, I am right!”    Paul’s advice to Timothy had nothing to do with anyone’s outward appearance, but was wise advice to a young pastor on maturing past a point where the flesh has control, “youthful” is the word, and becoming strong in the Lord.  What about the rest of the story?

Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.

 And the Lord’s servant [fn] must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil,

Does it seem to you that our administrator is heeding these words?  Is this patiently enduring [what he thinks is] evil?  Try to tell me that this man has not caused a foolish ignorant controversy.  He did. 

The point of the Christian life is not to leave the world,  but to live in it by the Power of the Holy Spirit avoiding sin not by adherence to rules, but by the guidance of the very Heart and Mind of Jesus that indwells us by the Gift of the Spirit.  Legalism in all its forms denies the Deity of the Holy Ghost and His power.  This was not an orgy Tyler was going to, it was a Prom, with teachers and chaperons.  The lesson Heritage has taught here is two fold:

One,  we are weak and need to avoid situations that might tempt us.                       Two, we are better, or at least we think we are, than you Prom goers, oh yeah, and by the way, you are going to Hell.

There are rules to every organization.  My point is not to flaunt rules,  but this is a situation that should have been handled man to youth, in love, and in private.  Christian schools need to prepare students for life, not act as a cult.  The Amish do not require 17 year olds to give up the world, they get a choice when they are a little older.  Maybe they trust their young men more.  I have seen this type of legalism result in two very different but equally unfortunate situations.  Unmarried men at 30 and 40 years of age, not bringing new life into the world to carry on the Christian traditions,  and escapees of legalism who fall into the traps of sin in the world for which they were totally unprepared.  Perhaps Heritage is promoting a culture that is not based on the freedom that is in Christ, but on the rules that are based on the weakness of sinful man.