GIVE IT THE OLD COLLEGE TRY

"Give it the old college try," is an expression that dates back to 1917 when former major league baseball player turned evangelist Billy Sunday put the expression on the lips of the New York Giants manager John McGraw. Manager McGraw after watching a rookie outfielder just out of college miss a heroic catch which resulted in a homer, said, "That's the eye, young fellow. The old college try." The expression means to attempt something with a vigorous, committed effort.

THE BIG I

American colleges are giving it the old college try at the "Big I," and It's an amazing attempt. The "Big I" is "Inclusiveness" and the universities of our country are giving it the old college try to be inclusive. Keene State College in New Hampshire has a Campus Commission for Diversity and Multiculturalism (another name for the Big I). Other schools have set up Departments for Inclusion. All such Big I commissions and departments have developed purpose statements. The one at Keene State College says that the purpose of the Big I Commission is:

"To address issues related to the multiple dimensions of diversity including but not limited to gender equity and gender expression, age, class, culture, differing physical and learning abilities, ethnicity, race, religion, and sexual orientation. To promote a campus environment in which differences between people are recognized, understood, and accepted in all areas of academic and community life." That's a mouthful. Sounds like a committee has chewed up a dictionary and spit out vocabulary.

THE KEY WORD

You probably noticed the key word in the mission statement: "accepted." The Big I means acceptance of all of the above. It was the Big I that drove the administrators of many schools such as the University of Tennessee at Knoxville to give it the old college try to ban Christmas parties. (This action so incensed the Tennessee legislators that many of them demanded that the university be defunded and chancellor Jimmy Cheek resign for giving it the old college try. Marsha Blackburn a member of congress from Tennessee wrote, "He needs to step up, shape up, or step down.") According to the Big I, the word, "Christmas" and certainly a Christmas party aren't inclusive.

TURN ABOUT

In return, the Big I can be infuriated, and what angers the Big I most is Christianity. Let's examine why.

WAIT A MINUTE

But wait. Isn't Christianity inclusive? Yes, it is. It declares that all men are created in the image and likeness of God.

But wait. Isn't Christianity inclusive? Yes, it is. It pronounces all to be sinners in Romans 3:23--separated from God.

But wait. Isn't Christianity inclusive? Yes, it is. I John 2:2 says that Christ's death on the cross was the satisfaction for everyone's sins, for the sins of the whole world. Isn't that as inclusive as you can get?

But wait. How about the Great Commission? Yes, the Great Commission is inclusive because it's a command for the Christian to go where? Into all the world. "All the world" sounds inclusive.

But wait. How about every believer? Each believer is a member of the body of Christ, each believer is a priest before God, whether they be male or female, slave or free, Jew or gentile, red or yellow, black or white. All believers are one in Christ, equal in position in Christ. No one believer is more saved than any other and all believers are included in the 34 things that accrue to all believers at the moment they trust Christ alone. That sounds inclusive.

THERE'S NO SATISFYING THE BIG I

But that's not what infuriates the Big I. What makes the Big I angry is that the inclusiveness of Christianity is limited by free will. Although Christ's death renders every person, red and yellow, black or white, savable, not all are saved because each person must place his faith alone in Christ alone in order to be saved. The Big I see that the vast majority doesn't do this and therefore, by their own free will are not included (Matthew 7:21-23). For those who want nothing to do with Christ and Him crucified and raised again, God honors their free will choice--He lets them live out that choice: eternal separation from the Christ they chose to have nothing to do with. He's simply giving them what they wanted.

What also infuriates the Big I is that Christianity will not abide by its mission statement "to recognize, understand, and accept gender expression . . . culture . . . religion . . . and sexual orientation." Christianity will not accept any and all gender expressions because it declares some to be sinful; it will not accept any and all religions because Christ is the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to God except by Him; it will not accept any other book as equal to or above the Bible. Christianity will neither accept as right all sexual orientations nor all practices of all cultures because some "orientations" are sinful and some practices of all cultures are sinful, no matter what culture we're talking about, even the American (Romans 1).

Christianity refuses to treat all behaviors the same by being "understanding" and "accepting:" Mark 8:15; Galatians 6:10; Titus 3:10-11; Matthew 18:15-17. In this regard, Christianity refuses to rename sin, calling evil "good." (This is inclusive in one sense: the Bible won't rename sin for the believer or the unbeliever. Sin is sin is sin. Adultery is still adultery, no matter who's involved.)

The Big I is giving it the old college try, but it will continue to fail because, for all it's inclusion, it will accept every book except one. It will accept every person except One. It will accept every ethic except one.