Peace

There is more peace in a God-led life upheaval than in all the "comforts" the world has to offer.

Josie Oxendale, new missionary

It is at once obvious and profound. And yet, if we want peace and truly believe this, why are we not consumed with the goal of seeking God's will and the upheaval it brings?

I'm about halfway through reading "God's Debris", the fictional thought-experiment of Douglas Adams of Dilbert fame. It's not for the faint of heart - the book explains an alternative view of the world (not Adams' own, perhaps nobody's), and asks the reader to consider how such a view may affect their own world view.

One particular passage was especially hard for me to read:

"Four billion people say they believe in God, but few genuinely believe. If people believed in God, they would live every minute of their lives in support of that belief. Rich people would give their wealth to the needy. Everyone would be frantic to determine which religion was the true one. No one could be comfortable in the thought that they might have picked the wrong religion and blundered into eternal damnation, or bad reincarnation, or some other unthinkable consequence. People would dedicate their lives to converting others to their religions.

"A belief in God would demand one hundred percent obsessive devotion, influencing every waking moment of this brief life on earth. But your four billion so-called believers do not live their lives in that fashion, except for a few. The majority believe in the usefulness of their beliefs-an earthly and practical utility-but they do not believe in the underlying reality."

"They say that they believe because pretending to believe is necessary to get the benefits of religion. They tell other people that they believe and they do believer-like things, like praying and reading holy books. But they don't do the things that a true believer would do, the things a true believer would have to do.

"If you believe a truck is coming toward you, you will jump out of the way. That is belief in the reality of the truck. If you tell people you fear the truck but do nothing to get out of the way, that is not belief in the truck. Likewise, it is not belief to say God exists and then continue sinning and hoarding your wealth while innocent people die of starvation. When belief does not control your most important decisions, it is not belief in the underlying reality, it is belief in the usefulness of believing."

Wow! It's not very often you hear a non-Christian echoing the words of Jesus, but I think this is such a case. His analogy only goes so far, though. I don't believe God calls for Christians to give away every penny they have as long as one person on Earth is undernourished, nor to spend it on today's food at the expense of an engine for delivering food more regularly. Giving a fish vs. teaching to fish, and all that.

But I digress.

It is refreshing to see word in the media of at least one school with both standards and a backbone. University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, KY has expelled a student (Jason Johnson) because he admitted to being gay, in violation of the standards of conduct.

There is, without a doubt, a time for war as well as peace. The UoC could have chosen the way of peace and closed their eyes to this situation, but that would have been wrong. I don't believe every school should operate in this way, nor even every Christian college, but I do believe a school should stick to its policies if it believes in them. I also believe that gays have the right of access to higher education, just as gossips, liars and other sinners are. I am pleased that UoC has enforced their policies, even knowing there would be a reaction.

"He is being asked to leave the university because he is gay," [his boyfriend] Dreyer wrote Thursday on the Web site MySpace.com, the same site school officials used to confront Johnson. "Help get the story out there so that all the gays and lesbians at the university will no longer have to live in secrecy, in fear of having their dreams crushed in front of them."

I have to wonder, is it their dream to graduate from a school which disallows homosexual behavior?

The policy under which Johnson was dismissed states "Any student who engages in or promotes sexual behavior not consistent with Christian principles (including sex outside marriage and homosexuality) may be suspended or asked to withdraw." If the school expels a student for having sex outside marriage, should the other sexually active students "get the story out there so that all the heterosexuals at the university will no longer have to live in secrecy, in fear of having their dreams crushed in front of them"??

While the press is castigating a school for doing what it is designed to do (teach difficult lessons), a madman in Iran is making thinly veiled overtures of war in the name of peace. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Tuesday that Iran has joined the club of nuclear nations, having produced a significant quantity of enriched uranium. Just last week, Iran announced a flying boat, an orbiting satellite, a multiple warhead missile, and an underwater missile that can outrun any ship in the sea. Ahmadinejad insists the timing of these developments is coincidental, and the nuclear capabilities will only be used for electrical generation.

And yet, the press and the U.N. still think we should explore the diplomatic option ad infinitum. Fredrick the Great (an otherwise not very admirable person) once observed that diplomacy without arms is like music without instruments. Unless the diplomacy is backed up by military might and the will to use it, it means nothing.

From where I'm sitting, this all looks like a well-coordinated, multinational attack on Christianity, but that perhaps is a topic for another day.