Congratulations to all the seniors at “Calvin College”:http://www.calvin.edu, my alma mater, who will be graduating tomorrow. Particular congratulations to my cousin Lauren, who’s among them.
Special congratulations, too, to all the members of the Calvin community who aren’t taking the fact that George W. Bush is their commencement speaker lying down. My thoughts are with all who have already voiced their opposition, whether to his presence or his policies, and with those who plan to protest in one way or another tomorrow.
From what I’ve been able to tell from a distance, Bush’s impending arrival on campus has already sparked no small amount of furor, tumult, and debate. There probably won’t be many fireworks tomorrow — the speech will most likely be uncontroversial and unpolitical. But regardless of whether Karl Rove (who engineered this particular gig, as has been widely reported) sees this appearance as a gesture to the Christian right or the Christian center, he’s not getting a warm-fuzzy campaign stop, but a reality-based cross-section of the many different responses that people have to this President, even in West Michigan. And, as a result of what modest nationwide coverage this whole affair has been getting, America is being reminded that Christianity comes in a lot of flavors.
Finally, a side note to every single reporter who’s written on this topic: Calvin College is not a “bastion of evangelical thought,” it’s a bastion of _Reformed_ thought. The Reformed tradition is big on having Christians engage _with_ the culture at large instead of dwelling apart from it, which means a Reformed college is going to do a way better job at preparing its students for, y’know, going out and dwelling in the real world. It’s also a refreshing antitode against developing a “completely irrational persecution complex”:http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2005/05/persecution_con.html.
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May 21, 2005 at 9:24 am
Chad
The mood among faculty members, as far as I can tell, has abated somewhat. Even those who have not taken this news lying down seem somewhat surprised at just how much coverage the protesting has received. Several faculty members who spearheaded the movement to wear armbands to the ceremony have personally decided not to protest even in that very docile manner.
They are now concerned that they would be distracting from the real business of the day: celebration of our graduates. They did want to send a message to the public at large that Calvin College is not “a bastion of evangelical thought,” but they tend to feel that that message has now been heard by those who have ears to hear it. The day itself should be devoted to the graduates.
I applaud these faculty members for swallowing their pride in the interests of honoring students. This is, in my opinion, typical of the kind of responsible, circumspect, and caring people that work at Calvin College. (And I don’t just say that because I teach there!)
Unfortunately, deciding not to wear an armband is not the kind of story that makes flashy news. It reflects one quality of Calvin College that I would most like the world to see, but which will almost certainly remain invisible.
May 21, 2005 at 4:46 pm
A Coqui in Winterfell
Pres. Bush at my Alma Mater
I been following this story off the blog, since I am not only a Calvin alumnus, but a former GR resident with many friends that live in Grand Rapids and work at Calvin.
May 22, 2005 at 9:55 am
little more than a placeholder
Bush at Calvin: Wrapping Up
While we enjoyed the postponed Earth Day fair in Kalamazoo, the story that has dominated my blog entries of late…
May 22, 2005 at 12:52 pm
nate
Chad:
Thanks for your comments. Sounds like the actual day was pretty low-key, and the speech was short and appropriate.
Your point is well taken, that controversy ran the risk of distracting from the real business of that day. That’s probably something the college admins should have thought of before agreeing to let Bush speak in the first place. It’s not that any President at any time would have been too controversial — but this one, at this time, most certainly is.