"It's just sad to see that in this day and age, the most offensive thing on a shirt can be what people see as a religious symbol." Stephanie Bennis.

What's that all about you say?

Well it seems that Stephanie, a senior at Penn State University, has created quite a little stir among the Nittany Lion faithful. Apparently every year Penn State has what they call a, "White Out" game at one of the football teams regular season games. If you're not familiar with the Nittany Lion's football team, they are nationally ranked down in the States and their uniform is a simple white jersey with a number on it, and a simple white helmet with a blue stripe running down the middle. To celebrate the white out game all 100,000 fans who attend wear white, creating as you can imagine, a sea of white in the stands. As part of this celebration, each year students design and then vote on a shirt that is to be sold and worn at the game. Hey, it's capitalism at its finest. Create an event, and then sell t-shirts for it. Who says you can't get a good education at a university anymore?

So, this year Bennis and a fellow student designed the shirt that was chosen by the students as the best design and the one to be worn at the white out game. It's a white shirt with a blue stripe running down the middle of it (just like on the helmets) with the school's name, "Penn State" cutting across the stripe. At the top of the stripe is the ubiquitous Nike swoosh, hey they want a piece of the action, and on the back of the shirt are the words, "Don't be intimidated... it's just me and 110,000 of my friends" printed over another blue stripe running vertically down the middle of the shirt. If you google it you'll find a picture of the shirt.

Well, apparently the front of the shirt bears a resemblance of a cross and which has created a small amount of consternation among people, fans and non-fans alike. As an evangelical Christian, when I saw the shirt I thought it looked like a cross. If anyone should be offended it should be those of us for whom the cross is an important symbol of our faith and the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross for our sins. I could argue that the cross shouldn't be taken lightly, or misused. Let's face it, though, I could clearly see that was not the intent of the designers and I have enough common sense to realize that all they were trying to do was emulate their school colors and the simplicity of the team's helmet.

The uproar, pardon the pun (Nittany Lions, you get it?), hasn't come from the evangelicals, it's come from the loony left who find anything even remotely resembling a Christian symbol offensive, even when it's obviously not a Christian symbol. We've arrived at the place where paranoia and a lack of common sense now rule our public discourse. Of course I'm just cynical enough to believe that these anti-religious groups don't really care whether it's a cross or not, they're just in it for a piece of the action. Their names in the headlines and their palms in front of their donors, that's what this is really all about. Fortunately, in the fight against everything that is P.C., cooler heads have prevailed and the shirts were not pulled from campus bookstores. Rather, all 30,000 shirts were sold. (At $15 a pop, that's $450,000. I wonder what the mark-up on one of those things is.)

All that to say, "It's just sad to see that in this day and age, the most offensive thing on a shirt can be what people see as a religious symbol."

Central Heights is a vision of God and we exist to savour, strengthen and share that vision.

1.    Savour - we savour God as we worship Him, exalt Him, and declare His glory. Our facility should enhance our worship experience by pointing and directing our attention to God. It should reflect our view of His worth, glory and value which then results in the praise of His name. When we declare the greatness of God and proclaim His glory, but our building is worn out, tired and lacking aesthetically it sends an inconsistent message of who God is and how we view Him. Not only should the facility enhance worship, but it should make the transition from the curb to the pew easy and pleasant as people enter into our building.

2.    Strengthen - we strengthen people in God as we educate and disciple them. It is our duty to see that each person who comes to CHC has the opportunity to hear and learn about the greatness of God. Each generation passes onto the next one the infinite value and worth of God by teaching, educating, and modeling the transforming power of the gospel. Among other places, such as the home, educating and modeling takes place in the context of a classroom which facilitates and enhances learning and discipleship. Having the space for education is important, but our building also needs to be attractive and contribute to the learning process by allowing for ease of access, movement of people and a sense of security and well-being for parents dropping off children.

3.    Share - we share God with people as we reach into our neighbourhood and community with the message of the gospel and by offering programs and ministries that meet the needs of people. Our building should not only house these ministries, but help promote them by being inviting and beneficial to hosting people. Our building stands as a beacon in the community and adds to our message of the gospel. Through it we communicate to our neighbours that we are active members of our community and ready to help them. Our building speaks to people of how we view God. Thus it communicates a message of the majesty and worth of our Lord and Saviour. As such, our building is not just a facility, but it tangibly represents part of the message we proclaim.

Have you seen the story about Professor Lawrence Scott Ward, a marketing professor from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business? Apparently the good professor is going to be doing some hard time for making child pornography and lying to authorities regarding a Brazilian teen he was trying to smuggle into the United States. Officials say Ward has preyed on teenage boys from around the globe for years. His sentence is for 25 years and as he is 66 years old he may never get out of jail. I hope for his sake he gets help while in prison and can make peace with God, but he is where he needs to be for the good of society.

Two things about this report from Fox news entitled "Ivy League Professor Gets 25 Years for Making Child Pornography by Exploiting the Poor!" concern me though. First, the way the article reads what really got Professor Ward into trouble was his lying to the authorities concerning what he was doing. Lying is bad! No argument there, but it almost sounds as though if he had come clean he wouldn't have gotten as much jail time as he did. Am I to understand, then, that if he hadn't lied he would have gotten a significantly reduced sentence? Me? I think child porn deserves 25 years on its own merit. For lying to authorities, tack on some more time. My second beef with the article is the insinuation that exploiting the poor somehow made this whole thing worse. If the kids he was exploiting came from middle class homes would that somehow make it better? I don't think so. Now having said that, I recognize the poor often get taken advantage of and they are easier to prey on because of the lack they suffer, but isn't child porn bad enough without the class distinction or have we reached the place where we are so desensitized to crimes such as this that we have to bring up the added offense of exploitation to really get people upset?

I mention all of this on top of the breaking news that Roman Polanski, the film director, was arrested in Zurich Switzerland for having sex with a 13 year old back in 1977. There is a notable hue and cry from Hollywood's elite over Polanski's arrest with the sentiment being the relationship was consensual and therefore Polanski did nothing wrong.

While many of us are outraged, none of us should be surprised. This is, after all, the fruit of the lie we have bought into. We have exchanged the glory of God for a pitiful substitute and we worship and serve ourselves and creation rather than the creator (Romans 1:21ff). Paul tells us in Romans God's wrath is being revealed because we no longer honor God or give thanks to Him.

All we're doing as a society is substituting one value for another. We're exchanging a diamond for the tennis ball the dog chews on. We're exchanging gold for rebar, rubies for nuts and bolts. Let's do the opposite. Along with Paul let's count everything rubbish that we might gain Christ. Do not exchange God for anything. Exchange everything that you may gain God!