Too Much Tolerance? Another op-ed piece from my college's newspaper

It's been a truly fascinating journey for me these past few months after finding an online archive of The Pendulum, Elon University's student newspaper.  I'm finding articles written by me that I had forgotten about.  I can really see the person I was then, and contrast him with the man who I am today.  There is a lot of growth there.  Some things changed in the intervening decades while others remained starkly the same.  I think my beliefs evolved, while staying true to the heart meat of my being.

So here's my essay from The Pendulum's October 1st, 1998 issue... gadzooks that was twenty-five whole years ago!  Well, this one calls for some background.  A year and a half before this was published Joycelyn Elders - the former surgeon general under President Clinton - visited Elon and spoke one night.  And I was a hot-blooded American youth "full of piss and vinegar" who was going to confront Elders on her radical stance on abortion and sexual policies.

Long story short: I did not comport myself as the Christian I had become five months earlier.  Instead of trying to change hearts I only made myself look very foolish.  Some fellow students liked that I had "taken her on."  But over the following weeks and months I came to realize how wrong I was in doing that.

I decided that I had to do something to try and make things right.  This essay was in part an attempt to do that.  Some people expressed appreciation for it.  Others ignored my apology and homed in on what I wrote about homosexuality.  Which wasn't the main focus of the article at all.

Well, anyway, here it is.  Click on the pic to embiggen it.

What do you folks think?

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Biggest sporting event in Elon history?

I just got back from Burlington a little while ago. On the return trip I decided to stop by Sandy's Subs, located near the campus of my alma mater Elon University, to get a sandwich to take home.

I had totally forgotten about how Elon is playing Appalachian State today in football. Bear in mind that a few weeks ago Appalachian State pulled off an amazing victory against Michigan, one of the top-ranked teams in the nation. And then factor in that this is Family Weekend at Elon.

When Lisa and I were dating, she was a student at University of Georgia. Whenever I visited her on Saturdays in the fall, if Georgia had a home game going on the whole place was pandemonium. I'd never seen people go so positively bonkers for football as I did whenever it was a game day at Sanford Stadium.

What I saw today, driving through Elon, was in some ways crazier than anything that I saw at Georgia! The number of Appalachian State fans that I saw tailgating alone is something that still has my senses reeling.

I have never seen that many people around Elon before. And Elon is certainly not as big a campus as Georgia.

I wish that I'd had my camera with me, 'cuz mere words can do it no justice. But take my word for it: if you're familiar at all with Elon University, today might be the biggest sporting event in the school's history. It's already well known that this is the first-ever sellout game for Elon's footballl program (at least since the school had a stadium to call its own).

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It was late and I was hungry ...

Working late on a few things, and I had to go out for a bit. This was like at midnight. And I was feeling both that I needed a good nighttime drive, and that I was feeling hungry. How many places for good food are open at this time of night though?

So 20 minutes out from home, just before 1 a.m., I stopped by Sandy's Subs and Italian Grill at Elon. This was a place I loved to eat at when I was a student at Elon. Well, Thursday through Saturday nights they're open 'til 4 a.m. I got a foot-long ham and cheese and brought it back home. And it was dee-licious!

Sandy's Subs is on Haggard Avenue not far from campus (if you're on Williamson Avenue coming through from the direction of I-40, turn left and it's just a short distance on the left, near the Domino's Pizza). Well worth checking out if you're ever in the area.

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