Apparently, according to Christianity Today, Shane Claiborne was "uninvited" by Cederville University to deliver a lecture tonight at the university. What was the reasoning you might ask? Well...
After Cedarville's public relations office announced on January 22 that Cedarville would be hosting "An Evening with Shane Claiborne," some blogs decried the decision to invite someone they labeled as belonging to the Emergent community. Links to the blogs were then e-mailed to alumni and pastors, some of whom called Cedarville administrators to complain.
The article goes on to say...
Carl Ruby, Cedarville's vice president for student life, told CT that although there was "a high degree of receptivity on campus" to the Claiborne lecture, he decided to cancel the lecture to avoid risking conveying the wrong message about Cedarville's doctrinal beliefs.
"There was a tension between my desire to use this event to challenge students to take a closer look at a very important social issue, and the need to protect Cedarville's reputation as a conservative, Christ-centered university," said Ruby. "There can't be any confusion about our commitment to God's Word and our historically conservative doctrinal position.
Okay, so the "need to protect Cedarville's reputation as a conservative, Christ-centered university" is at the heart of all this? Interesting. For any of you who have read Shane's book, or heard him speak in the past will know this to be true - Shane is one of the most passionate followers of the way and the teachings of Jesus. His life is committed to living the words of Jesus - could anything be more "Christ-centered"?
All this, and how it went down, hits way too close to home for Jamie and I. We've been the focal point of similar situations. For those of you who have been on the receiving end of something like this, it comes out of left field and seems unreal. I think Shane's response is outstanding:
Unfortunately it's difficult to communicate with folks who will not talk to you, who only talk around you, as in this case. I do not have time to hunt down every rogue Web site. There's too much constructive work to do for the Kingdom for us to spend our energies constantly reacting to every destructive voice, especially those who do not honor Matthew's admonition to speak directly with one another in love (Matthew 18). And there is too much brokenness in the world to spend time tearing each other apart.
Well said. It's such a pity that people who claim to represent the living Jesus, can often act in ways so counter to the ethos of Jesus.
You can read the rest of Shane's response [and a whole host of comments] here.
Oh that all the Body of Christ would have a like spirit and and attitude as Shane. "The Irresistible Revolution" is at the top of my reading list. Can't wait to get into it!
Posted by: Brian Eberly | February 11, 2008 at 10:42 PM
It hurts to be "tagged" and then ignored. Stories like this scare me for my future. One day someone might say, "we thought about listening to Wes, but we didn't want there to be any confusion" as though I'm some false prophet. Not that I'm as radical as Shane but (wow, I wish I was) even this early in my life, I can feel the burn of being labeled and written off.
I feel for Shane, and I feel for you, mike, having gone through similar situations.
Posted by: Wes Ellis | February 12, 2008 at 12:42 AM
That's a shame. That is such a non-Biblical attitude. I mean, I can totally imagine this being one of those colleges that holds up the Bereans as a model for passion for the Bible and yet the point of the story is that they LISTENED and then the searched Scripture to see if it fit. Its also weird cause everything I've heard about Claiborne is that he's standup and solid.
It is kind of creepy to think about. I haven't really even started out and there are times when I have conversations with my some older Christians or just my more "normal" friends and I kind of get scared to share some of the things I disagree with them on that relates to that wing of things. And I'm not even very out there with some of this stuff. I get nervous though about later on once I start really teaching.
I'll say this for Shane, he can take comfort in the knowledge that he must be doing right cause Jesus did say that if they hated him, they'd certainly hate his disciples. And the way Shane is handling this seems to be just the way his master would. Maybe even a little calmer.
Posted by: Derek Rishmawy | February 12, 2008 at 07:44 AM
It seems a tremendous step of grace that folks keep trying to befriend the kooky fundamentalist wing of Christianity instead of simply charting their own path and leaving them behind.
btw...i would like to hear what you think about my recent post about political stuff.
Posted by: Friar_Tuck | February 12, 2008 at 05:03 PM
so unbelievable...sort of reminds me of Jesus protecting the conservative traditions, rather than confronting social justice issues in public (oh, I don't know: the woman caught in adultery, Sabbath keeping, etc.)...oh wait....
rhett
Posted by: Rhett Smith | February 14, 2008 at 03:21 PM
Hey if you're a fan of Shane Claiborne and his book, then you should really check out the Another World is Possible DVD series. It's a multimedia project by Shane Claiborne and Jamie Moffett (co-founders of the Simple Way) that emerged in response to their belief that things are not right in the world, and that they don't have to stay that way. There are three DVD's, one on war, one on poverty, and one on creation. You can find out more about them at www.awip.us.
Posted by: Another World is Possible | February 25, 2008 at 02:19 PM