Embarassed to be a Christian at Virginia Tech
Over at Townhall.com Frank Pastore challenges his readers to identify the faith of one of the speakers who addressed the Virginia Tech student body after April's massacre. Even though he gives us the man's entire speech, it is impossible to determine his religion.
The speech belonged to William H. King, Director of Lutheran Campus Ministries at Virginia Tech, and a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). If pressed, he would say he was a Christian, but judging from the speech he made it would take Chinese water torture to draw out a confession.
As Pastore points out, this was an ideal time to preach the gospel. Students were there looking for direction; they needed something larger than themselves; they wanted spiritual advice. A Muslim quoted from the Koran and appealed to Allah. A Jewish Rabbi read from Ecclesiastes. A Buddhist cited the Dalai Lama. But the Christian made vague references to light that shines in the darkness. Pastore remarked that it's no wonder Christianity is regularly attacked on college campuses. "With advocates like this," he says, "who needs opposition? We’ve got guys in our uniform playing for the other team." He's right.
Those who want to be politically correct need to apply for a journalism position at one of the big three networks, or get a position in human resources somewhere. Maybe they could teach sensitivity training at a big corporation. But Christianity is not PC. To unbelievers it is as offensive as the car that has you blocked in your parking place--you want to go somewhere, but it's standing in your way.
Paul said, "But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Cor. 1:24). Christians with faith don't worry about the offensiveness of the gospel because they know they're right. They know they have a saving message, the only saving message. Those who respond to it live; those who don't meet a darker fate.
A great opportunity was missed at Virginia Tech because a so-called preacher was ashamed to be a Christian. This is not unusual. Sadly, Mr. King's speech is a metaphor explaining why Christianity has become divided among hundreds of denominations and why Islam is now the fastest growing religion in the world. A group that is afraid to say it is right can never convince the world of its validity.
