You ever have one of those days when you hear some news about your alma mater and you think to yourself, “Damn I’m so proud of that school” or “Wow – isn’t that just swell of (fill in the blank of your alma mater).” Yah, I suppose certain schools produce more of those moments than others. And then there are those times when you hear some news about your alma mater and you think to yourself, “What in the hell?” or “Damn, did I really go there?”
I had one of those moments this week. A great friend of mine recently told me about how a few Whitworth College students celebrated Reformation Day 2006. They created their own version of the 95 Theses and posted over 300 of them around Gonzaga University, a Jesuit school (most famous around the nation because of their basketball team, the Gonzaga Bulldogs). Anyway, I did a little research and found an article here at the Gonzaga Bulletin, which details what happened and has a quote from our President, Bill Robinson, as he apologizes publicly for the action. I also found the website that was created for Whitworth’s 95 Theses.
Sure I guess it was a prank. And some of the “theses” are kind of funny. Others are just ridiculous and portray some very anti-Catholic sentiments:
- 52) We would make fun of some kind of disconnect between what the priesthood teaches and what they actually do, but we can’t find any examples of this.
- 54) Whitworth successfully warded off the influences of nearby cults. Gonzaga, however, finds itself firmly enmeshed in the latest cult to grip our nation: The Catholic Church.
- 55) We Presbyterians pray to Jesus, instead of Joseph Smith like you Catholics.
The unfortunate thing is that there are probably many students at Whitworth (especially over-zealous Freshman Religion majors) who do believe that being Catholic and being Christian are two very different things. How do I know this? Well, I used to be one of them. I don’t know exactly where it came from; my parents certainly never taught me anything of that sort, but it was just always something I had thought…if you were Catholic, you were…maybe…kind of a Christian, but not a good one, and not the ‘right’ kind of Christian, that’s for sure. It’s assuming and somewhat disturbing to remember some of the things that I thought about my faith when I was growing up…it was all a part of my journey and I understand and respect that, but I am thankful that I am no longer in some of those places, and do not believe some of those things – that Catholics really aren’t Christian, for example.
So I hear this story, have to chuckle a bit because I remember the days when I too participated in some Whitworth pranks and was myself a somewhat zealous Freshman Religion Major who questioned the salvation of others (not to the degree that some of my peers did…). Oh Whitworth…good times, but they seem so, so far from the world I inhabit today.