It's A Shame We Can't Mention God Who Painted the Sky Carolina Blue

On Mother’s Day I was in Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, along with 35,000 friends, family, and graduates for the 2014 Commencement of the University of North Carolina. Everyone had on Carolina Blue—the speakers, the graduates, the workers, the people—I had on a Carolina blue shirt in honor my oldest grandson who was graduating with honors and is going to Medical School in the fall.  God even painted the sky Carolina Blue.  (Oh my, I forgot. I’m not supposed to talk about God!) God wasn’t mentioned at all, but the blue devil sure was. (You know, the one in Durham) 

There was much talk about tradition during the ceremony; about UNC being the oldest state university and the first female chancellor, Dr. Carol Folt, referenced the first UNC female graduate who started a new tradition way back in 1889. However, there was one great tradition at UNC’s graduation that has been forgotten.  For the first 190 commencements an invocation was part of the ceremony, but they stopped the practice in 1993 and now God is not even acknowledged.  It’s not just Carolina.  A professor at ECU sent a letter to the graduates this year encouraging them to provide a personal statement for graduation “that discusses future plans or thanks someone.  However, you can’t thank God.”   

        Don’t you think this is kind of---ridiculous!

        A university is a place where all different thoughts and theories are presented, where our traditional beliefs and views are challenged, where our intellectual cages are rattled as professors push the envelopes of our minds past our comfort zones.  You and I know that college students are exposed to all sorts of views on every extreme. There is no subject that is taboo, no extreme that is off limits, no theory too outlandish to consider, well—except God. We wouldn’t want people to be offended so God is completely left out of the equation.  We are like the Emperor with no clothes, pretending to be so rational, sophisticated, and inclusive that we cannot see the naked truth of our intellectual blindness.

        I’m not talking about having a sectarian prayer.  I actually disagree with the May 5 Supreme Court ruling that allows sectarian prayers before governmental meetings.  A prayer should never be exclusive or divisive.  But there is not only a place, but a great need for a non-sectarian prayer that simply affirms the truth that we don’t have all the answers.  There is a greater power, a divine creative force that overshadows all of life.  We can’t do it on our own.  Whether one is a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist, or another religion we all agree that God is greater than we are.  A brief, articulate non-sectarian prayer simply affirms our proper place in the creative order.  The purpose is not to evangelize or indoctrinate or exclude, but to center our lives and focus under God, whatever our understanding of God may be.  That is the beginning of wisdom.

        On this Memorial Day weekend we remember the brave and courageous men and women who gave their lives for our freedom. It is this freedom that gives young men and women the opportunity to study in great universities like UNC-Chapel Hill.  God is not censored on the battlefields where freedom is preserved.  Retired Chaplain James Puchy recently said:  “Regardless of the circumstances of the battlefield, the cry of the soldier remains the same: God help me.”  He goes on to say the last words that many of those heard as they died were words of faith, prayer, and Scripture from a dedicated chaplain who was beside them providing comfort.  If God can be acknowledged on the battlefield in life and death, then our refusal to acknowledge him at times of great accomplishment in the free society they died to save strikes of intellectual arrogance. 

        Last summer I had the great privilege of being on the aircraft carrier, the USS Eisenhower, with my Navy son.  At night the Chaplain would come on the intercom and led a brief devotion closing with a prayer.  It was a beautiful, non-sectarian prayer that comforted, guided, encouraged, and most of all, simply acknowledged God.  Every sailor on the ship stopped, removed his hat, and listened to his words.  He was praying to the God who created them and protected them, the God who also painted the sky Carolina blue.  It’s a shame they wouldn’t mention that at my grandson’s graduation.