Yes, But Will It Help Me Get a Job?

It’s Homecoming time at good old Southwestern College, which means I get to talk to some of my “old” students. I love these interactions. For one, these alums make me smile inwardly at their “I’m getting old” remarks. More importantly, they remind me of what I’m doing with my life. I’ll come back to this point eventually.

A couple of weeks ago I read an article in the Wichita Eagle that just made me mad (yes, I’m still fuming: see my earlier post), although what irritated me was not the main point of the article. The president of one of the technical colleges in Wichita (which feeds the very large local airplane industry) made the offhand remark that he was the “poster child” for getting a college degree and then not being able to find a job. As if getting a job is what a college degree is about! In higher education, there is not a dumber thing that could be said. Statistics regularly demonstrate that practically any bachelor’s degree will get you your first job – except in some of the technical fields. Colleges are not and never have been about dispensing “knowledge,” if by “knowledge” we mean merely instrumental, technical skill. That sort of knowledge is obsolete before one graduates anyway. The main point of that newspaper article, then, is actually a very good one: if you’re interested in a skill to get you a job, by all means, don’t waste your time and money on college! But don’t slam college on the way out the door.

If you want to be more than a worker bee the rest of your life; if you want to be able to do more than just react viscerally to whatever the latest news cycle throws at you; if you want some joy that takes you far deeper than the fleeting pleasure the stuff you can buy can give you; in other words, if you want to be a whole person, then you’d better either figure out how to read serious, weighty, elegant writings on your own and with a group of friends…or you’d better go to college.

Listening to our college alumni reminds me of what I’m doing. I’m not “dispensing information.” (Why do my new students use that word so much?! What is going on in high school that reduces everything to “information?”) I’m introducing students to a way of life: the way of wisdom. And more importantly, as a Christian leader, I am both modeling discipleship and helping them into that cruciform life. And a big part of discipleship is thinking wisely. You absolutely cannot hurry it. Learning how to reflect, to pray, to ponder, to learn the difference between strong opinion and sheer bigotry; to recognize what is true and beautiful and enduring – that(!) is what college is about. This kind of learning is grounded in relationship. It requires community. And that, too(!) is what college is about.

The fact is (yes, it can be empirically demonstrated) that gaining wisdom is hugely practical. But it’s not very fast.

If you’re a parent, pleeeeze don’t tell your child not to major in something because it’s “not very practical.” If you’re a college student, don’t make the mistake of thinking that you have to major in something in order to get a good job. Figure out who you are! Get a grasp on what is eternally important. Lengthen your vision.

I’ve listened to lots and lots of alumni from our school – people as old as my parents’ generation and as young as the 20-somethings just a fear years out – and I regularly hear a common theme: what really has stuck with them about college and what means so much to them now is not the scintillating lectures that we professors give or the brilliant research papers that they wrote as students. Of course, those things have their place. Nevertheless, as the years go by, what remains of supreme value about college are all the intangibles: the relationships, the conversations, the outside-of-class (even chapel) experiences.

The “will-it-help-me-get-a-good-job?” obsession is vastly over-rated and ultimately counterproductive! Can we imagine this irony? Our grim determination to ensure our future is, once we slow down and look, rather hapless and silly. We’re all going to die. There’d better be much more to life that having that good job. And there is.

What Are We Doing?

As an academic, I fall into that class of people often accused of being eggheads; ivory-tower; bookwormish; all theory and no practice. You know, I can talk, but can I get anything done?

I’m still trying to get over an article I read in Sunday’s Wichita Eagle. It was about the importance of technical schools in our area to provide qualified workers for the various industries. That point is completely legitimate. What got me was a comment made by the president of one of those technical schools. He said that he was the “poster boy” for going to college and getting a degree and then not being able to find a real job. College: what it’s good for?

I, myself, also don’t like the ivory tower mentality. I’m so skittish about the term “scholar” that I often tell people that I’m really a “blue collar scholar.” I love academics, but what I’m really interested in is how scholarship helps life actually to work.

I confess, however, that I wish people paid more attention to what academics generally call for: the discipline of thinking carefully, seriously, and thoroughly. Political campaigns always cause me to think that way (and in this day of the perpetual campaign, our calling for careful thought seems even more timely). Economic crises do also. When the pressure is on, even smart people do and say stupid things. There’s some twisted force within us that causes us to dispense with the measured, the careful, the sensible.

When I see it take place, it makes me ask, what in the world are we doing? When Nancy Pelosi can’t resist sticking her finger in the Republican party’s eye in the very speech she is making to try to win their support for the “bailout” legislation, what is she doing? When Sarah Palin tells the world that she can handle foreign policy because she wakes up every morning and can see Russia, what does she think she’s doing? Can thinking people really swallow these demonstrations? And worse, the partisan sound-bites, the tortured, goofy rationalizations that follow make we want to pull my hair out.

All of a sudden, I sound like the snooty academic, don’t I? Yes, mea culpa. I work with young people (college students) every day. In times like these, I’m acutely aware of the practical value of serious, sustained, careful, nuanced thought. I want my students to practice asking, what are we doing here? What’s going on? I want them not to get jerked around by irrational, partisan politics, nor do I want them to perpetuate it. I want them not to get swept away in anxiety by either alarmist or reactionary language of any kind. I want them to recognize good thinking from bad thinking. Skill in thinking gives confidence in acting, just like it does in practicing and using any other skill.

So, just what are we doing these days? What is happening? What is going on? Does anybody know? We’d better. We need to think about it.

The Tongue is a Fire

On the way to work this morning, I was listening to a local rock station. It’s not just classic rock, exactly. It’s hard to characterize because they play such a wide range of sub-styles, which is one of the main reasons I like to listen (besides the fact that they’re local).

This morning the two DJs were meandering through their stream-of-consciousness dialogue when they landed upon the topic of mothers protecting their kids from “dangerous” rock group marketing gimics (ones I’d never heard of, except for “Kiss”). What caught my attention was the disparaging tone they used about mothers who are “against everything,” playing off the organization, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

My first thought: “Don’t these guys have mothers? I wonder how their moms reared them.” My next thought: “It’s so easy to demean and belittle people we don’t know whose beliefs we don’t like.”

Which sent me on my own flight of fancy. I caught just a portion of the “Cafferty File” yesterday evening on CNN. If ever there was an acerbic TV journalist, it’s Jack Cafferty. He always ends his segment on Wolf Blitzer’s show with a few emails from viewers. The hot topic yesterday was Barack Obama’s ability to say “Pah-ki-stahn” rather than the Americanized “Pakistan” (as in “Pacman”). “Finally!” one emailer opined, “A candidate who pronounces the word correctly,” as if doing so proved Senator Obama’s worthiness to be president. Another emailer noted, however, that we don’t get upset when other words are Americanized in the same fashion, so what’s the big deal?

That exchange made me think of popular opinion about President Bush. Right now, he’s one of the most unpopular presidents ever, exceeded in that status, we should not forget, only by Congress. I’ve heard him referred to as “stupid,” “embarrassing” and “a cowboy.” So, maybe he says “Pakistan” (with short a’s). He also says “nukular” for “nuclear,” and people snort and moan about that, too. But he also speaks fluent Spanish. By the way, it might be a Texas thing. I recently heard the present Governor of Texas pronounce “nuclear” the same way. Come to think of it, I believe my dad pronounced it that way.

So, we feel liberty to belittle people whose intellectual deficiencies are demonstrated by their mispronouncing certain words. It’s funny. They also just happen to be our ideological opponents. I wrote in my journal a couple of days ago, “The tongue is a fire” (or “fahr” for some of you). Yep, I’m guilty. I don’t want to be. I use the word “idiot” far too much. I get riled up and spout off and feel (momentarily) justified because the stakes are high. There’s a difference, however, between venting hostility and speaking prophetically. We Christians often don’t recognize the distinction. But we should.

Might God Just Leave Us Alone?

In my prayer time this morning I read Psalm 109, a prayer for vindication in the face of the psalmist’s accusers. Most of it describes the accusers’ accusations, but the final 1/3 begs God for vindication. And the psalmist is none too kind to his enemies. Verse 29 says, “May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle.”

Sensitive believers (both Jew and Christian) have long struggled with how such an idea – in a book purportedly revealing the heart of God – could truly express God’s will. Some would say, “It really doesn’t. It merely expresses the heart of the psalmist who wants God to step in and straigthen things out.” I think that’s too easy an answer. It’s also too easy to “harmonize” scripture and explain away the sting of this one with “spiritualzing” words. The psalmist wants his enemies hoisted on their own petard. What about forgiveness and mercy and all that stuff?

I can see justice as the assumption behind the psalmist’s prayer: he thinks of himself as the righteous victim. Justice necessitates his vindication, which means his enemies are publicly proven wrong (thus shamed). But can one truly be so identified with the just nature of God that one could pray such a prayer with a holy, pure heart? Well, clearly there are people in this world who believe that the justice of God will bring an end to their suffering, so it’s not too big a stretch to think that the psalmist is so in tune with God’s nature that he could pray such a prayer – and in so doing it might even reflect God’s heart.

Which leads me in this direction: the psalm also made me think of the end times, of final judgment. The Bible clearly has a vision of “the present age” and “the age to come.” In the age to come, God’s justice “wins” and the plans of God’s enemies are foiled. Are there truly such enemies of God among human beings? Could the accusers in Psalm 109 actually be such enemies of God because they are enemies of God’s servant? And if so, can they stay God’s enemies forever? Might God’s enemies incur God’s wrath forever?

These questions prompted a memory of Donald Bloesch’s (Essentials of Evangelical Theology) concept of hell. Hell is the ultimate expression of God’s wrath, but it is also a function of God’s profound mercy. As I remember Bloesch’s argument, every soul God has created has tremendous value. God is both merciful and just, therefore God must judge all evil even if God desires to be merciful. God’s nature thus creates a dilemma: what to do with people who hard-heartedly resist the will of God to the very end? To “annihilate” a soul (one of the theories about what happens to God’s enemies is that they just cease to exist) goes against God’s purposes for life and creation. To save everyone (universalism – another popular attempt to avoid the difficulties of the concept of hell) sounds wonderful, but it certainly seems to undermine the idea of God’s justice and, ultimately, it seems to take away from human freedom, a pretty important part of the image of God in people.

So, we’re back to the possibility of the reality of hell. According to Bloesch (and C.S. Lewis, among others), in hell, the enemies of God are still sustained by God, but they’re getting exactly what they want – for God to leave them alone. The “flames” of hell are symbols of what it is like to be left to our own sin-twisted resources for eternity. When we are left merely to our own devices, we wind up tormenting ourselves and others. Dante’s depiction of hell, though literary and not to be taken literally, is pretty apt.

In hell, God still sustains us. He just leaves us alone. We asked for it. We got it. That truly would be hell.

Wrap Up, General Conference

The last day of General Conference, May 2, was a doozy for ram-rodding business through the system. It always happens that people start leaving that last day, particualrly international delegates who have to start their long journeys home.

As I drove away from Ft. Worth Friday afternoon, I felt a little sheepish leaving my delegates in a lurch, but I had to return to Winfield. Saturday and Sunday were full of college convocation and graduation activities and since I was a reserve delegate, and since I had college responsibilities, I thought I probably should go ahead and leave.

In terms of the amount of work yet to be done, it was not pretty for the last day of General Conference. As the day began, there were still almost 90 petitions that needed action. (As Nathan Stanton and I crossed the border into Kansas at about 6:00pm that evening, he called one of our delegates. They still had 50 petitions to work through.) They somehow managed to wrap it all up and close the books on yet another conference.

My view of the combined highlights of the final day and General Conference in toto:

1. From the beginning to the end (when the budget was considered), we talked of four missional priorites:
– Developing principled Christian leaders;
– Creating new places for new people by starting new congregations and renewing existing ones;
– Engaging in ministries with the poor; and
– Improving global health, especially attacking the killer diseases of poverty.

They’re huge. I’m especially interested in the first one, but all are critically important. And we’re trying to marshal our human and financial resources to address them. This move is evidence of the very encouraging attempts of a large, bureaucratic denomination to get our numerous agencies together to pull for common concerns. May God bless and optimize these efforts and this vision!

2. Some change in the Book of Discipline language related to abortion. I’ve been a supporter of our stance on this question, but, I admit, I take a “pro-life” reading of it and some do not. It says that we recognize the “tragic conflicts of life with life.” We condemn birth control abortions (most of them done in this country). We also decry gender selection abortions. As with homosexual practice, abortion is a political football in the church, one of those topics that mires us in political debate. Thus, I find the additions to the language encouraging because it helps us get to actual ministry rather than mere rhetoric: We will support ““ministries to reduce unintended pregnancies” and we will support those ministries which help women “find feasible alternatives to abortion.” I like these statements because, regardless of how we feel about the rights of women and fetuses (or babies, if you prefer), we can surely work to reduce the need for abortions by engaging in these aims.

3. Because I’m a bishop candidate, I find this next item intriguing, though it actually passed earlier in the conference: we raised the mandatory retirement age for bishops from 66 to 68. I think it’s a good move. If a bishop is in good health and still has passion and gifts for ministry, why not make it so that she/he can serve? Surely a person of such venerable age also has wisdom!?

I’m not sure I ever have “final” thoughts, but let me try the following in response to General Conference 2008. First, there is a core United Methodism that is, I believe, firm, if not as vocal as some other parts of the church. I know some people who might read this comment will be offended, but I make this claim because, in my chats with people across the 10 days, I often heard a sentiment that matched mine. On many of the hot issues, there was another opinion that often went unvoiced. The people who go to the microphone at General Conference, most of the time, are pretty bold. The vast majority of delegates never approach the mic. I’m going to avoid using the word “middle” or “center” (there is nothing automatically virtuous about being there), but I do believe there is a core United Methodism that is strong.

On the other hand, the sheer range of ideas, commitments, beliefs and experiences that fit under the denominational label makes “United Methodist” as an identifier almost meaningless. There was a lot of talk (and I mean a lot) about “holy conferencing,” but in truth, some people were there to protect their interests, pure and simple. I think, in large part, our structure is to blame. I mentioned in an earlier blog that we act almost like a religious United Nations. I think our denomination has been shaped too much by American liberal (no pejorative intended) democratic principles. (Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon are marking more sense to me all the time.) In this framework, advocating for one’s one’s interests is expected. We may use the term “rights,” but often the issue is really “interests.” Some interests are diametrically opposed to other interersts. There is deep animosity in our church. Some United Methodists are enemies of others.

We try to make nice about this animosity by interpreting the hatred as just the emotional heat and pressure of General Conference. We’re kidding ourselves.

As I finish this blog, I’m keenly aware of the disaster in Myanmar. One of our students who graduated Sunday is from that country. Her father is a United Methodist bishop there. The latest count I’ve heard is that more than 20,000 are confirmed dead with more than twice that many missing and as many as a million people homeless. The United Methodist Committee on Relief has set up an account for the Myanmar Emergency. I just made a donation. If you wish to do the same – and I beg you to do – the reference number is UMCOR Advance #3019674.