Joshua Judges

I'd just like to say that I now officially agree with most of Graham's political beliefs. For those of you who know my situation and understand the struggle that this election season has been for me, that is incredibly freeing to finally recognize my feelings on the situations America faces.

I wasn't able to vote in the election because I registered three years ago in Fullerton, but my change of address form got lost in the mail and wasn't filed in time to participate this past Tuesday. I understand that that means I have no right to complain about anything that may happen :) but just know that I would have participated if I could have.

I just finished reading an interesting conversation on the Fresno Pacific message boards concerning Prop 4 and Prop 2 (which then evolved into a right-to-life debate) and felt compelled to share briefly my opinion on the situation and basically my experience at Fresno Pacific concerning all things political.

Fresno Pacific claims to be a university "founded on Christ" and features this slogan on their original school logo and in some marketing materials. Now, to increase enrollment as our debt skyrockets, we have switched to a more inviting and modern color scheme and logo and, in turn, have dropped what little reference we had to Christ from our marketing material. See, it is my observation that the school no longer prides itself on offering a subtly Anabaptist Christian experience laced through a liberal arts education (the reason I chose to attend the school... that and I figured I'd find me a nice man there, and I sure am glad that worked out!). In fact now the strategy is to sell the school as open and all-inclusive, embracing those of any walk of life. I originally liked that FPU wasn't as rigorous as other Christian schools like Biola or Westmont where chapel and essentially the Christian experience is thrust upon them. (I think they also had to electronically sign a proclamation of faith to be accepted where FPU does not... in essence you're not required to claim a Christian faith to attend.) I am not at all about to judge a person for his or her beliefs and feel that they should be excluded from experiencing all that FPU has the potential to be. This lapse in Christ-based education, however, has brought about some interesting opinions into this otherwise black-and-white realm of ideology.

I admire most of the English professors for their extra effort to bring religion into the classroom, and though they are presumably part of the liberal academia, I respect them for their knowledge and what they choose to share with their students. It is this lack of Christian character found in the acceptance criteria for this financially-struggling school that offends me. College is of course the time to look introspectively, to discover and grow into the person we are to become, so those who may have grown up in a Christian home, chose to attend Pacific for it's Christian value system and then later changed their mind about life, they shouldn't be kicked out of school obviously. I just wish a lot more emphasis was placed on the type of student accepted as a Sunbird, or at least a lot more emphasis placed on what is expected after classes begin.

This sounds like a big complaint about all those "tree-hugging devil-worshipers that have invaded my campus", but it's not. I struggled with this idea for a long time, but have ultimately decided that I am a Christian before I'm a republican and thus I choose to follow my religious beliefs when making decisions in the voting booth. I understand that not everyone in the country is a Christian, but voting is the opportunity for my one voice to stand up for what I believe in, and I want to take advantage of that opportunity. I won't go into Prop 8 whatsoever, but with the situation of Prop 4 I feel the answer is simple: we cannot successfully and safely eliminate all forms of abortion for obvious reasons. Our effort should be put into cutting down the number of abortions, and this proposition would allow that to happen. There are loop holes and ways around the situation if alerting your parents would put you into physical danger. God created a life and we have no right to take it away. (Another example of my choice to follow Jesus and not the "Religious Right": I am against the death penalty.) I feel like there should be no debate whatsoever on when a life begins. Two cells become one and voile! You have a little growing being! Just because he's swimming around for a few months doesn't mean he's not alive. Just like most things in life it is so easy to misinterpret or skew this situation to fit a certain opinion or opportunity, but life is not one of those things to be messed with.

Anyway, back to Fresno Pacific... reading a few posts from fellow students are blatantly pro-choice broke my heart. I guess all I can do is be glad God brought them here to Pacific and hopefully through our two required Bible classes they may see some value in the sanctity of life.


"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:15