Self-Absorbed, Narcissistic College President Writes Blog Post To Self-Absorbed, Narcissistic Students…
The guy pictured above is Everitt Piper. He's the self-absorbed, narcissistic president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University. It's a small liberal arts Christian college in Bartlesville.
According to Wikipedia, these are "the four pillars" of the school:
• The primacy of Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, who is the lens for all learning and the Lord of our daily lives.
• The priority of Scripture as the inerrant and authoritative written Word of God that guides us in all matters of faith, learning, and living.
• The practice of Wisdom as an objective, attainable reality grounded in the person and example of Jesus Christ and anchored in the Bible.
• The pursuit of Truth as the goal for all members of the university community, who work to promote healing and wholeness in a broken culture and hurting world.
Not to pull a Bill Maher or anything, but doesn't Pillar Four kind of contradict Pillars One, Two and Three? It's kind of hard to pursue truth while prioritizing things in a 2,000 year old book that haven't been proven true, right? Or, since it's capitalized, are they talking about some different sort of "Truth?" I wasn't indoctrinated as a youth so I really don't know.
Anyway, Dr. Piper –which is also the name of my new underground prog rock band – posted a blog post the other day where he whined and complained about some student who whined and complained about a sermon or something. The post has gone national, and been covered in outlets like NBC, The New York Times and now The Lost Ogle.
This is Not a Day Care. It’s a University!
This past week, I actually had a student come forward after a university chapel service and complain because he felt “victimized” by a sermon on the topic of 1 Corinthians 13. It appears that this young scholar felt offended because a homily on love made him feel bad for not showing love. In his mind, the speaker was wrong for making him, and his peers, feel uncomfortable.
I'm not sure if I should be embarrassed about this or not, but I had to look up the definition of "homily." It's defined as "a tedious moralizing discourse." Basically, a student was offended because a tedious moralizing discourse on love made him feel bad for not showing love, which probably means the homily was about Internet porn.
I’m not making this up. Our culture has actually taught our kids to be this self-absorbed and narcissistic. Any time their feelings are hurt, they are the victims. Anyone who dares challenge them and, thus, makes them “feel bad” about themselves, is a “hater,” a “bigot,” an “oppressor,” and a “victimizer.”
Yes, please tell me more about our self-absorbed, narcissistic culture, Mr. Angry College President Who's Writing a Public Blog Post For The World To See About It. Your opinion matters way more than those self-absorbed, narcissistic students who "feel bad" about themselves.
Actually, I do agree with Dr. Piper on one thing. Today's students are self-absorbed narcissists. Then again, I try to avoid hypocrisy, so I don't feel like calling them out on it.
I have a message for this young man and all others who care to listen. That feeling of discomfort you have after listening to a sermon is called a conscience. An altar call is supposed to make you feel bad. It is supposed to make you feel guilty. The goal of many a good sermon is to get you to confess your sins—not coddle you in your selfishness. The primary objective of the Church and the Christian faith is your confession, not your self-actualization.
So here’s my advice:
Before we get to his advice, let me get to mine. Go to a different school! I'm proud to say that during my six-year run at OCCC and UCO, I never had a college professor lecture me about love, or try to make me feel guilty for asking a question about something I heard at school. Well, except for that time I walked in on a professor having sex with a student. That was awkward.
If you want the chaplain to tell you you’re a victim rather than tell you that you need virtue, this may not be the university you’re looking for. If you want to complain about a sermon that makes you feel less than loving for not showing love, this might be the wrong place.
In other news, if you want your university president to chastise you for sharing an opinion about a preachy "homily," then Oklahoma Wesleyan is the perfect place for you!
If you’re more interested in playing the “hater” card than you are in confessing your own hate; if you want to arrogantly lecture, rather than humbly learn; if you don’t want to feel guilt in your soul when you are guilty of sin; if you want to be enabled rather than confronted, there are many universities across the land (in Missouri and elsewhere) that will give you exactly what you want, but Oklahoma Wesleyan isn’t one of them.
First of all, you're really trying to compare this situation to the protests going on at Missouri? Show me on the doll how these things are related. One student whining about a stupid sermon doesn't equal an administration's lack of response to racism on campus.
Also, who's playing the hater card? The student who privately complained about the subject matter of a sermon, or the angry, out of touch, 50-something-year-old college president who writes a 500 word blog post criticizing students for expressing their feelings?
At OKWU, we teach you to be selfless rather than self-centered. We are more interested in you practicing personal forgiveness than political revenge. We want you to model interpersonal reconciliation rather than foment personal conflict. We believe the content of your character is more important than the color of your skin. We don’t believe that you have been victimized every time you feel guilty and we don’t issue “trigger warnings” before altar calls.
Uhm, does Dr. Hypocrite... errrrrr... Dr. Piper have any self-awareness? Maybe he should practice personal forgiveness, interpersonal reconciliation and stop playing the victim card, too. Then we wouldn't have to suffer through these blog posts.
Oklahoma Wesleyan is not a “safe place”, but rather, a place to learn: to learn that life isn’t about you, but about others; that the bad feeling you have while listening to a sermon is called guilt; that the way to address it is to repent of everything that’s wrong with you rather than blame others for everything that’s wrong with them. This is a place where you will quickly learn that you need to grow up.
This is not a day care. This is a university!
Heh, based upon those four pillars and this preachy blog post, Oklahoma Wesleyan does feel more like day care than a university.
Anyway, that's it for his post. What do you think? Is Oklahoma Wesleyan more like a day care than a university? Does he have self-awareness? Is he aware of hypocrisy? Let us know in the comments.
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