Multnomah: Jocks V. Nerds

The age old jocks v. nerds debate...

Anna Babcox. 20. Junior year at Multnomah University. Bible & Theology and Pastoral Ministry. 5’ 8”, 160 lbs, dead-eye from 20 feet, black belt, published poet, 1.5 miles in 12.5 mins, 3.6 GPA.
I throw in my hat. 

I remember a couple of years ago I was in the cafeteria navigating the vegetarian obstacle course, when I overheard a fascinating little discussion between two of our professors.
The one with the hat: Well what do you think, should we accept non-believers as students?
The other one: Well it depends on what we are trying to do here. Are we evangelizing or are we making leaders?

I took the discussion back to my table and it became pretty thick, as most impromptu debates do. “Well is this boot camp or youth camp people? I know why I’m here.” I interjected-- I was here for boot camp.

Another deep cafeteria discussion popped up this year that was just about as noteworthy. I was sitting with some friends and new students for lunch and one of them wanted a professor recommendation. Two different profs taught the same class and they wanted the inside scoop. “Oh don’t take him he is so hard!” someone advised, “Take the easy guy.” I piped up for a moment as the ranking student at the table (yeah a sophomore was the upperclassmen in this group). “In any situation where there is a “hard” professor and an “easy” professor, I know this sucks, but go for the hard one. You will cry, and almost die, but you will always be glad you did it.” And I meant it. This school has almost killed me--every semester, and it has always been worth it. They didn’t agree. I got more fries.

I have seen a few things during my time here. My observations are thus: 

-There are men and women of God on this campus that I am honored to be acquainted with and humbled to have the privilege to learn from.

-This school was created by one of those spiritual giants whose vision was to build a bible school for Christians who wanted to know how to read their Bibles and be spiritually whole, Christ-centered, missional people.

-We aren’t that school anymore.

-It’s not the athletes fault. 

There is a culture clash here at Multnomah that has nothing to do with our respective cultures. The rift between students has nothing to do with our majors, sexuality, or friend groups—it’s a heart clash. We aren’t all playing for the same team. Sports didn’t do this, hearts did.

The answer to this observation of course comes in the form of the other prof’s question. “What are we trying to do here?”

As a follower of Christ and a student of Biblical Theology my longing and desire is to grow into a well-educated spiritually mature Christian. I am not taking my classes for the sake of my academic plan or the completion of a required credit load. I am here for the Bible--but we just aren’t all here for that.

This may be a harsh indictment for my fellow students, but I implore you: the attitude that leads to a class hour spent on YouTube doesn’t spiritually enrich you, your backrow neighbor, your family, your church or your world as much as the truth coming out of your professor’s mouth.
Call me old school, a military brat, a prude, self-righteous, or a nerd but I just think that the issue at hand is not about what we do here but why we are here.

Multnomah has long had sports teams and their teams were known for something special. They didn’t play for stats, championships, or fame they played for fun and they played because they were missionaries.
That team brought people to Jesus at half time.

 “The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.”

--Thucydides