No compromise

I haven't posted in a while because I haven't had anything special to report and nothing to say. Today is Monday, and I'm halfway through my classes for the day. Last week I gave my blog link to my professor for Intercultural Studies(ICS from here on in) because a lot of the stuff we were discussing lined right up with what I was writing here. Because he's such a character, I have written about him in past- so he found out the truth of how people write about him on their blogs. (Hi, Mr. Laidback) (Mr. Laidback probably isn't totally accurate, but it is true when he's compared to the typical Korean professor. 'Mr. In-your-face' would be more accurate, but that's longer to type.)(Hi, Mr. In-your-face)

Today in ICS we discussed mixing cultures, especially mixing the 'culture' of one's Christian perspective with the culture of the people one hangs out with. This led to a surprising amount of rationalization. The students who spoke up/were prodded to speak seemed to think that a balance of perspectives of okay in this context. A normal answer to any other cross-culture question, but not when you're talking about the perspective of sin vs. righteousness! There can be no question as to which perspective should reign there. ...which brings me to today's word.

Handong seems to have a lot of trouble on this point. HGU describes itself as "Handong God's University" - but continuously pays lipservice to the 'non-Christians' who apparently attend. In every class, meeting, gathering, or what-have-you, whenever God is mentioned it's always sandwiched in a disclaimer that the teacher/speaker etc realizes that maybe not everyone is a Christian and that's just fine- pretending as if the Christians in the room are in the minority, and would not non-Christians in the room please bear with us as we pray? I'm almost offended by the way that HGU constantly knuckles under to this silent minority who I've never actually seen. Everyone I've met at HGU professes to be a Christian. While I don't doubt that they are there, you'd think they'd have to be a significant and vocal percentage for the school to go to so much trouble not to offend them. Why is God's University apologizing to the heathens for praying? Why is God's University just OK with some shampoo marketing program plastering the campus with posters of barely-dressed women? Why is this acceptable?

Forgive me for comparing HGU to my own culture, but I must. At LeTourneau, we also actively professes our faith: "Faith brings us together, ingenuity sets us apart". Okay. We know that there are some non-Christian students despite the statement-of-faith document that everyone signs coming in. That's just the reality of serving the local community- students from out of state and beyond come to LeTourneau expecting a Christ-centered university, students from town come to LETU because they can live at home and take classes. Do we, in view of these inevitable non-Christians, constantly apologize for our faith? Do we try to make sure that non-Christians are not offended? No! Teachers do not preface their devotions with an equally-long apology to the non-Christians in the room. Meetings that start with prayer do not make sure not to offend people of other religions. We are a Christian university, and we say that if you come to LETU expecting anything less than devotion to the true God and savior, then you can deal with it.

WHY does HGU do this crap? It's a compromise, and God is not something that may be compromised to fit the ideals of a sinful world. Come on HGU, buck up. Take a stand, because God expects nothing less.