Sometimes I'm an angry apologist. Here's why:
One of the things that I disliked most about my high school experience was when teachers or other authority figures would attempt to "imitate the language of teenagers" by overusing the word "like" or making shaky pop culture or celebrity references. Granted, my generation has almost singlehandedly destroyed an entire language, but when our higher-ups either parroted our vernacular to "identify with us" (read: make us like them...teenagers are scary, I'll freely admit that) or just to mock our inability to use coherent speech, I resented it. However, I am just one girl with an authority problem, so when our assistant principal described our new projector as "so, like, awesome, man," I just grit my teeth and told myself that's just the kind of behavior you come to expect from a public education system.
I am now going to a private college institution, and I witnessed something today that I considered far worse than the occasional "IDK" from an 11th grade math teacher.
Students at Messiah are required to attend a certain amount of Chapels each semester. This particular morning was a required Chapel for all the freshmen, so we girded our loins and all tramped up to the Grantham Church together to hear an address from the college president. She is decent public speaker, and her topic was valid, but her examples and lecture material disgusted me.
Not ten minutes into her speech, Lady Gaga and Lindsay Lohan appeared in the same sentence (the only time they'll probably ever be together) as our president discussed the issue of self-centeredness in this day and age. Now, I have absolutely nothing personal against either of these celebrities. Hell, I have the deluxe edition of The Fame Monster on my iTunes. BUT. Neither of these women belong in an address about how college students should treat each other equally regardless of race, gender, etc. The president herself admitted that she was nervous to speak to all of us in such a formal setting, and this just seemed like a last-ditch attempt to say something relevant and hip. Call me crazy, but I think Jesus is pretty relevant, especially in the young and nubile minds of students attending Messiah College. But maybe that's just me.
The lecture continued, and not soon after "Bad Romance" got stuck in all of our heads, she dared to utter the words "The Twilight Saga."
OFF-TOPIC SIDE NOTE: The Twilight series is NOT a saga. It's a series. And it's a horribly written poorly-wrapped tale about Mormonism and how it's insurmountably important to have a boyfriend that controls and owns you.
But I digress. Using this segue, she began to outline "Vampire Christianity," in which Christians merely want "suck the blood out of Christ" to cover them, but that's all they want from Him. Or something. I was so appalled by the reference that I couldn't pay attention for a few seconds.
Don't get me wrong, the president of our school did have the decency to pepper her speech with Bible verses, and her message was Christian enough, but Christopher Hitchens can quote you any book of the Bible you like. It doesn't mean anything.
Also this:
"When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[a] 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." (1 Cor. 2:1-5)
When Jesus was on earth, He was not afraid to insult those who needed insulting. He was brutally honest because he was God, and that's just the way God rolls. His story is not one that many people like, but again, "Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? Let him who accuses God answer Him!" (Job 40:2). When Stephen was taken before the Sanhedrin, he called them "stiff-necked" and declared Christ to them until they murdered him. To enter into a loving relationship with God, you have to admit that you are a horrible sinner and that the only way you can be redeemed is to submit yourself fully to Him. God's love is incredible and His grace is everlasting, but so is His wrath. These are hard concepts that tend to step on people's toes. I can sum up my feelings about that in two words: Oh. Well. People have believed in His cause so much that they have been persecuted and even killed for it for centuries. I understand that people may not like me for loving Jesus, and for spreading His Word, but His truth is so much more important than accumulating popularity votes from the student body. Jesus is worth more than my life, and His name should be coming out of the mouths of preacher's more than Edward Cullen's.
So next time the college president gives an address, I hope she looks more to her Bible than the latest issue of Seventeen for her subject material. Jesus didn't bear the sins of the world and die for a people that hate Him so that pop stars could make more appearances in churches than He does.
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