It seems to me worthwhile to reiterate that these Monday through Thursday musings are strictly off-the-cuff because I choose to write them in the second-half of my mandatory lunch hour. Whatever weaknesses in construction and development that may be discovered can be blamed on this rather than on my lack of ability (this shortcoming may be easily observed in those occasional Friday through Sunday entries that, according to my excuse, should be evidently superior because I spend more time on them).
It occurs to me that I have belabored my formative years beyond what is necessary or helpful, and so I will attempt to put succinctly where it is that I’ve been trying to get. While my academic achievement during college was anything but stellar (until the later years) I did learn many things while at Nebraska Wesleyan University. Chief among them was that neither the university nor the church was the least bit interested in my calling, my theology, or my spirituality. The United Methodist Church was intensely focused upon seminary serving the graduate school function of producing professional ministers, and the university was therefore focused upon preparing undergraduate students for postgraduate studies.
My impression of the sixties and seventies as a time of revolutionary change in our country has been affirmed by any number of studies, documentaries, etc. One of the things that were increasingly being questioned by my generation was the authority of the status quo, the notion that things are the way they are because they have always been that way. Also under fire was the very notion of the source of authority itself. Was Richard Nixon above the law because he was President of the United States? Was the Pope infallible and inerrant by virtue of being the head on the one true church? Was The United Methodist Church’s movement in the direction of academically achieved professionalism justified? There was a lot to think about.
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