I don’t know much about Shorter University in Rome, Georgia. What I do know is what I read yesterday—that it’s a Christian university associated with the Georgia Baptist Convention and that it has decided to be consistent with that convention’s beliefs by asking its employees to sign a pledge indicating their agreement with the basic tenets of the church. To me, that’s only common sense. If you say “this is what we believe and this is what we seek to teach our students,” you should expect your professors and other staff to be in concert with your goals.

The pledge, though, has now become a center of controversy. More than fifty professors and staff have resigned rather than sign it. Why? What awful points of doctrine and/or practice are included? Here’s what university employees must agree to:

• No homosexual lifestyle
• No pre-marital sex
• No adultery
• No drug use
• Be an active member of a church
• Live as committed, Bible-believing followers of Jesus Christ

My, how oppressive! A Christian university actually expecting their employees, including professors who are supposed to be teaching within a Biblical worldview, to live as Christians! [Note: I don't usually go overboard using exclamation points, but they seemed to apply this time.]

Let’s keep in mind this is a private Christian university that has the authority to set up whatever ground rules it considers appropriate. Not being involved in sexual immorality and not being a druggie would seem to me to be minimum requirements for any institution that claims to be Christian. Yet, as can be expected, this has created a firestorm.

What bothers me the most about this is that some of those who resigned had been there for many years. One of the librarians was openly homosexual. This university doesn’t seem to have cared a whole lot about its Christian commitment for quite some time. By being lax in its internal discipline, it opened the door for the current controversy. If it had been consistently Christian from the start, this would be no big deal now. Therefore, it is now suffering the consequences of its previous policies.

All that said, I congratulate the university now for its attempt to set things straight, so to speak. But this is an object lesson for all Christian colleges and universities: be warned—you may go through a similar rough patch if you aren’t being faithful to Biblical standards now. We need to keep in mind these bracing words from the apostle Peter:

For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

Indeed.

The Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case has put racism back on the front page again, at least in the minds of some. One can argue, however, that it has never left the front page with the current administration. The Eric Holder Justice Department is setting a record of sorts by challenging a number of commonsense laws, from photo IDs for voting to Arizona’s attempt to stem the tide of illegal immigration. Yet it dropped a case of voter intimidation by the Black Panthers. Sources within the department say race is the determining factor for much of what goes on there.

I thought the election of a black president was supposed to lead us into a paradise of racial harmony. Well, not if you bring an aggrieved attitude with you into the office. All you do is fan those racial flames. I think we’re actually in worse shape with respect to race relations now than we were before Obama entered the scene. Charges of racism fill the air:

It’s not just a black/white thing, either. In what passes for higher education in our country, we see a strange sort of discrimination at work:

And if you’re a conservative who wants to be a professor at one of our institutions of higher learning, you may be in for a rough ride, as shown by an incident that has made the news lately. Discrimination comes in all forms when progressives are in control:

I write about double standards quite often. They are one of my pet peeves. Of course, they go far beyond peevishness; they are pernicious to the spiritual health of a nation. As long as sin abounds, they will exist; but we can temper their influence by insisting on judging people righteously, according to their character. I seem to remember someone who once said he had hope for a day when character, not the color of one’s skin, would be the determining factor for one’s worth. We’re going backwards.

The end of the semester nears; my classes are winding down this week. Teaching university students can be a joy one minute and a frustration the next. To any of my students reading this, let me emphasize that I like you and that I believe I am carrying out God’s will to be there. Some days are quite fulfilling, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.

But there are obstacles to overcome, in general, with the present generation. All that talk about short attention spans and apathy is all too often real. There are times when I feel like I have to be an entertainer to keep their attention. Boring one’s students seems to be the greatest possible sin.

Not that I think I’m all that boring, but one definitely has to be called by God to continue on the “down” days. My desire is to bring new information to them that will cause them to think more seriously about God’s claim on their lives. At the very least, I would like them to grasp key principles to help them analyze the trends in our culture. One of the reasons, though, why the current generation may not be up to speed on these principles may be the quality of the professors they are forced to take in their courses:

It’s a long uphill struggle, and it has been for the twenty-three years I’ve taught at this level. The society overall is no longer very attuned to eternal truths, or even the idea of truth. We want to be entertained instead:

Timeless truth is a hard sell nowadays, but I’m grateful for the opportunities I have to explain how that truth applies to history, politics, government, and the culture. When you know God’s call, it makes all the difference.

There are some days I just want to do comics. Congratulations, you’ve stumbled across one of those days. Enjoy these [in no particular thematic order]:

Unless I can replenish my comics supply, I’ll actually have to think of things to say tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Occasionally, people comment on my selection of cartoons for this blog. They seem impressed by the ones I use to connect to pressing topics. It’s not really that difficult. First, I just check out the best political cartoons each day to find the ones that are most appropriate. There’s one particular comic strip, though, that is always fresh, and I’m not sure how many are aware of it. It’s one of my favorites—Mallard Fillmore. I find that name especially fitting for an American history professor.

Here’s a blurb about the comic strip that pretty much explains it:

Mallard Fillmore continues to be one of the most highly contentious and celebrated comic strips, providing a unique conservative viewpoint to the comics pages. Mallard Fillmore has been a lightning rod for controversy with the right-leaning duck addressing hot button issues and lampooning liberal politicians, the media, and cultural establishments.

So true. Here are some examples I’ve been storing this month:

An economics lesson that few will ever learn. Yet it’s made quite clear in just one panel. And how about this one ridiculing our fear of profiling?

Lately, he’s been combining  a couple of worthy targets: modern “higher” education and liberal discrimination:

Keep up the good work, duck. Don’t be frightened by political correctness. There are too few voices like yours.

We held our Constitution Day commemoration yesterday at Southeastern. Each year I’m responsible for bringing in a special speaker to draw the students’ attention not only to the historic event itself, but to the principles underlying the U.S. Constitution and how they should be carried out in our nation.

We were privileged to have with us this year Dr. Michael Farris, who is, in my view, one of the best, if not the best, constitutional lawyers and scholars to be found anywhere. As founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association and Patrick Henry College, he has been in the forefront of alternative education for over thirty years. Through his efforts, parents who desire to homeschool their children can now do so without penalty in all fifty states. Students at Patrick Henry College, where I used to teach, have shown themselves to be of the highest quality anywhere in the country. Mike has developed an exceptionally strong moot court program; students enter those competitions and win the highest awards. I recall when I was at PHC that a moot court team there went to Oxford and beat the Oxford team.

His chapel message was “The Battle for the Bible and the Bill of Rights,” showing how the development of the English Bible led to our concepts of self-government and liberty of conscience, the latter enshrined in the First Amendment. Then he held court, so to speak, in a Q&A session for over an hour, offering Southeastern students and other visitors from the community his analysis of various constitutional controversies raging today and revealing how if we would only retain the original meaning of the words in the Constitution, most of our most harrowing problems would be solved.

I was particularly pleased that the local homeschooling community was well represented at these sessions. In fact, approximately half the audience for the Q&A was comprised of homeschooling parents and their children. I want them to know that Southeastern is a place where they are appreciated and welcomed. I’m hoping that some of those sharp homeschoolers will one day decide to be in the ranks of our history and government majors.

Yesterday’s topic was unions. I wrote quite a bit. How about if I keep it short and simple today? Same theme, though, brought to you by our friends at the National Education Association, where seniority is everything and quality education is not an issue. After all, what’s really most important, right?

To all the very good teachers out there, this was not directed at you. The establishment is the problem. For some eye-opening revelations, try Googling the NEA’s annual resolutions. Doing one’s own research can be quite rewarding.