I haven’t paid a whole lot of attention to APU goings on for the last few years as I’ve had so many irons in my fire. Besides, with my college classmate Jon Wallace at the helm, I felt we were on solid theological ground. However, there have been several things that have brought my focus sharply back to APU in the last 8 weeks. As I was driving home from a trip to southern CA, I heard an ad on the radio that talked of a new environmentalist organization called the Evangelical Climate Initiative .Hmm… I thought. What a very strange combination. The course of the journey caused me to have to change radio stations and again I heard the ad on a different station. (These were both secular talk radio btw.) This time I memorized the website address so I could follow up upon arriving home. (www.evangelicalclimateinitiative.org) When I read the initiative I thought, “whoever wrote this isn’t really an evangelical; who signed this anyway?” Imagine my surprise when I saw the name of Jon Wallace, President of Azusa Pacific University! I must admit that I was shocked by many other names on the initiative and, by the same token, definitely not shocked when I saw names that are far ‘left-wing’ liberals. Not knowing what to think I did more research and began to become familiar with a new movement in the Christian world called the “emerging church”. This would be a complete website in itself but suffice it to say that I have been shocked the more I have read. It would probably have stopped there, however, had I not received a copy of the statement from Jon Wallace regarding the bringing on campus April 5, 2006, of a homosexual activist group called ‘Soulforce’ whose stated mission is “freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from religious and political oppression through relentless non-violent resistance”. (www.soulforce.org). When I read Dr. Wallace’s explanation for welcoming this group on campus I was somewhat mollified until I viewed Tony Campolo’s chapel service just prior to the arrival of this group. (www.apu.edu/chapels) Since Tony Campolo was invited to speak in what is the spiritual hub of APU he comes with the “blessing” of the administration and students would presumably expect that he speaks for the school. What seems odd to me is that Tony Campolo strongly implies that God does not deliver individuals from homosexual temptations and therefore we are to love them as they are and not seek to help them change. I felt very bad for all the young people in that audience who may be struggling with homosexual tendencies, because he basically told them there is no hope for them and he offered them nothing. Interestingly, his wife Peggy Campolo is an advocate of homosexual marriage.

During these last few weeks I have found myself researching so many issues and there are threads (read websites and blogs) that weave many disturbing things together. Suffice it to say that I am deeply grieved and concerned about the spiritual future of our beloved school and want to know if there are any likeminded former or current students out there. My purpose is not to call anyone names or impune the character of anyone. What I have discovered pertains to people that I have tremendous affection for, not the least of whom is Jon Wallace who I have committed to pray for daily as he seeks to overcome cancer. I will end this particular posting by quoting that old hymn:

I take, O Cross, thy shadow for my abiding place.

I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of Thy face.

Content to let the world go by, to know no gain nor loss.

My sinful self, my only shame; my glory all the cross.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 14th, 2006 at 3:52 am and is filed under APU Concerns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a

Visiting with Don and Pauline Grant at my 30-year reunion was so much fun.  They look great and are the same loving Mom & Pop we all knew.  It’s time for the Dynamics family to get together again for music and fellowship. We have thought about homecoming weekend 2006.  Out-of-towners could stay at the same hotel and we could reserve a banquet room for fellowship and music rehearsals or maybe rehearse at the school.  This way people could bring their kids (or grand kids?)  What do you think?  I’m open to any and all ideas.  Though our goal is homecoming weekend 2006 we will be willing to wait a year (2007) to make it happen so that more people can be there.

Melody (Watson ‘75) Unruh is the last person anyone would expect to host a blog yet here it is.  The reason is my affection for my alma mater and my concerns about some of the events surrounding the school of late (I will write about them later).  For now, I’m glad you found this site and please bear with me as I figure out how to do this.  I’m not a computer person, I’m a music teacher.