I'm Not With Them

Working on a college campus means you're always prone to see the incredible, the unique, and the frustrating. For example, since I started a month ago our fine University has been host to former Mexican President Vicente Fox, former Vice-President Al Gore, and former President George H.W. Bush. Now that's quite a line-up. The totality of experience and I.Q. of those three men is probably more than most are lucky to see in a lifetime and yet we got them all in one month. Unfortunately I didn't get to see any of them as I had other obligations but I've already decided that I'm going to start marking those sorts of things down on my calendar and making a point to be a part of them. I mean, it would be nice to have cool stories about hearing these guys to tell my grandchildren some day.

So those men represent the incredible and the unique, but what about the frustrating? Never fear, they've been around too. The first two days of this week saw a couple of "fiery" 20-something preachers setting up camp in the south oval. These guys work in tag team and draw a surprisingly large crowd as they hurl out monikers such as "sinner" and "hypocrite." I'm honestly not sure what they're trying to accomplish. Tuesday they even brought a white board with a verse from the Psalms ripped completely out of context that said, "God despises the wicked" Underneath it they put the question, "Are you wicked?" Well I think that pretty much sums up their message. It's a message of hate and condemnation. I was walking through the oval with somebody while they were doing their "thing" and I turned to him and said, "The worst thing that could happen for those guys would be if everyone accepted their message because then they wouldn't have anyone left to condemn." Sadly, I've not made any attempt to hide the fact that I'm a former pastor (even confessing to being SBC) and that my college degree was in religion and so I run the risk of being associated with people like that. What I feel like doing is wearing a sign around my neck that says, "I'm not with them" because I have this deep terror that someone is going to mistakenly think that these guys even remotely represent the message or heart of Christ and then connect them with me. Sheesh, please don't be deceived. If the core of your message is that God hates the wicked then I can boldly and confidently stand up and say, "You don't get it." So to the guys who are spending their precious time looking down from their self-righteous perch, trying to convince a generation of students of how reprehensible they are, I encourage you to remember the words of the prophet and to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.