Getting Caught Up: ORU, God is NOT on our side, 8 dollar hot dogs

While preaching sermons, running back and forth to soccer practice & games, installing sinks and screen doors at the house and hosting all sorts of family in town…life has been going on. I have been jotting down a slew of thoughts to blog on and finally I have a chance to post 'em. Here we go in no specific order.

ORU and ORU President Richard Roberts get Sued

A friend emailed me with this link: ORU faces Lawsuit. Three professors are suing the school and many of the officials for wrongful termination. They said they were fired after refusing to take the blame for ORU's assistance in a local political campaign. More disturbing to me than the allegations of political campaigning is the list of alleged financial improprieties by Richard and Lindsay Roberts. The thirteen page suit lists several allegations including multiple instances where the Roberts have used school resources for personal uses. I am trying to reserve judgment. I am an ORU alum and I have donated to the alumni association over the years and I feel that I have a vested interest in the allegations.

Richard Roberts has said that the former professors are interested in money. In a chapel service he told the ORU campus: "Some may think that I might ought to hang my head in shame, but I won't do that. I am confident that when the real truth is known, there will be no more questions." (Source: Tulsa World) I hope that the real truth in this matter comes to the surface. Roberts should answer all the questions that are raised in the suit. If he doesn't offer an explanation to the allegations , then the board of regents should require that he does so. I cannot find a list of the board of regents anywhere on the ORU website. I have emailed the alumni director at ORU for a complete list of the board, but I have not received a response. I am cautiously waiting.

God is not on our side

I added The Times They are A-Changin' (1964)to my Dylan collection last week. The songs are filled with the anti-war and civil rights vibrations of the 60s. This pure folk album was Dylan's third studio recording. I was particularly drawn to the song "With God on Our Side." A much covered tune by other folk singers in the 60s, singers like Joan Baez. The song is not so much a protest song or an anti-war song. It is also not a theological slap in the face of God himself. The song undermines people's tendency to artificially bring God into our agendas whether political or otherwise and give some kind of moral justification to our agenda. This song should remind us of the tragic foolishness of claiming that God can be on our side. God transcends much more than we think. We should seek to be on his side, rather than pulling him down and forcing him into our camp. God cannot be brought into our agenda, because God is no thing. He is not a thing or an object. The is the great I AM. The holy self-existent maker of heaven and earth. How could I ever claim with moral superiority that God is on my side? Jesus says to seek first the kingdom of God. The kingdom is God's agenda. The kingdom is God's side. I am on a journey, exploring that kingdom.

Here are the lyrics:

With God on Our Side
Bob Dylan

Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.

Eight Dollar Hot Dog

I am missing two conferences this week. My boys have fall break and so I am spending this week at home. I turned down opportunities to travel to two different conferences. I could not have done both, but they were conferences I was interested in. Brian Zahnd is hosting his annual leaders conference this week on the theme of A New Way to Be Human -- the New Humanity. (Check out the cool YouTube video preview)

I also missed the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta. Two of my pastor friends and I were going to go up there together, but I had to say no. I am not bitter…really. There is always another conference! Anyway, I have been getting updates from Todd Rhoades on Monday Morning Insight (MMI). He had posted a youtube video clip used by Chris Seay in Chris' presentation on consumerism in the church. It is well-done and a griping reflection on poverty and prosperity. Here is the video:

The last thought for the day comes from G.K. Chesterton:
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.

May we not shrink and turn back on the way that is narrow and difficult. May we not fall into the ruts of consumerism, materialism or intellectualism.

That is my prayer today.