i knew i'd see this happen one day...
fill-in:
i drove to a youth rally up in ohio on behalf of the admissions office at faulkner. they couldn't send an actual counselor, so they asked me to go since i've done recruiting for them before. anyway, i took a friend up there who really wanted to go. young guy. super nice. loves God. woohoo. so this rally we were going to sent us flyers about what was happening there and all. cool stuff. a neat little flyer about how we would be exploring apologetics that concerned evolution, errors in the bible, and dinosaurs. i thought that would be some sweet stuff to listen to. i saw who the keynote speaker was. hmmmm... that guy... uberconservative, but that's not a big deal.
i left with my buddy on thursday night to get to canton, and ended up not arriving there until 10pm the next night, due to snow storms and ice on the roads (apparently, yankees can't drive on their own roads when there's ice out, mwaha). we got a place to stay with a church member and spent the night resting. yessssss, sleeeeeep.
well, i thought i had this rally pegged, but i was definitely surprised to see what happened saturday. a couple of colleges had groups there to perform and all that stuff... co-ed worship groups and drama troupes. cool to me. i love that kind of thing. totally appropriate in my book. everybody was having a good time. kids were praising God, clapping their hands, excited about the opportunity to worship like crazy.
the keynote speaker obviously disagreed with this vehemently. instead of taking his allotted time to deliver his message, he proceeded with a half-hour lecture on how wrong everything was at this rally, how God couldn't bear to listen to it, and how ashamed we should all be for not being the new testament Christians we were all supposed to be.
i listened for a minute, blah blah, same old stuff i hear people say back at school, seek the old paths, blah blah. i left to go clean up my recruiting table and pack my suitcase. my friend stayed to listen. as the speaker kept railing on, people started to get up and leave, obviously not impressed with the development of the evening. i didn't blame them. my pal stayed inside the whole time, and when i went back to see if he was okay, that was when i knew i had a long trip hme ahead of me. this speaker wooed my friend and hooked him with the same old song and dance referred to as the law of silence- aka speak where the bible speaks and be silent where the bible is silent.
my entire trip back home was constant wishy-washy fussing and circular arguments. first, i couldn't listen to Christian music. then, i couldn't go over the speed limit, then, i had to listen to the answers that the little "ready reference guide" had to offer. argh! it was most definitely a test of patience for me, but i stood my ground, never got upset, never spoke out of anger, and backed up my beliefs 100%. one thing that struck me was the prevalence of ambiguity in some of the arguments for a lot of these controversial subjects. it seems like more often than not things get taken out of context. like, we rail on and on about womens' roles, but then we don't let men lift hands in prayer (and if we do let them, then they supposedly are only doing it for attention), and these things are found in the same paragraph of 1 timothy 2 together. we like to say that some things are "just for that culture" but then we take everything surrounding said commandment literally and cram it down everyone's throats.
it just makes me sad to hear people tell me something, and i know they only believe it because they've been told that one thing their entire life. open your eyes, folks!
i've already bitten off enough for one post. i think this whole event was a good chance for me to explore boldness and love on a new level, like how to love someone as a brother in Christ while still disagreeing strongly with them. it will be fun to see what develops next.
check it out - 01.20.07
vapor - 11.15.06
can't complain - 11.10.06
turn the page - 11.09.06
who invented the word "me-maw"? - 09.28.06