2009-03-26 00:45:04

Abilene: Folks Down There Don’t Treat You Mean

Filed under: Art,Faith,Travel
Posted by: Craig

What do you think of when you hear the words, “Christian University?” Visions of dress codes, mandatory chapels and dry campuses may blow through your mind. This week, at Abilene Christian University, I found far more creative expression than collective repression. I saw public spaces covered with contemporary art. I toured an $18 million facility dedicated to theater, music, and dance. I marveled at a soaring sculpture by Professor Jack Maxwell that captures our aspirations to “Touch the Sky.”

ACU is home to the local National Public Radio station. I toured a convergent newsroom where print and broadcast both deliver their stories via the Internet. I paused before the Pulitzer Prize winning photographs of ACU grad David Leeson taken from the front lines in the Iraq War. I saw a diverse group of students performing a Step routine to announce a book signing for Purple State of Mind. They call themselves, “Shades.”

John Marks and I talked to freshmen who were handed iPhones as an essential part of their college education. We looked at clips from confounding films like Blue Velvet and Jesus’ Son. We discussed the shocking images of war violence created by Francisco Goya. We heard scat singing and saxophone jams. Our ears soaked up pianos playing Variations on Haydn by Brahms in poetic synchronicity. Outside the glistening recital hall, students rehearsed salsa dance routines. We were treated to a festive dinner at the Beehive with twelve of the brightest theater and music majors imaginable. ACU embodied the claims of George Hamilton IV’s 1963 song, “Folks down there don’t treat you mean, in Abilene.”

Somewhere along the way, we showed Purple State of Mind to 200+ enthusiastic faculty and students. The audience howled with laughter at the opening and entered a respectful silence during the most personal parts of our award-winning documentary. We fielded thoughtful questions about gender, identity and how to live out an ancient faith in contemporary contexts. We ate steaks at Joe Allen’s. At Abilene Christian University, we saw the best of Christian education in action.

This was the first stop of our 2009 Spring Swing for Purple State of Mind. Professor Al Haley and the Center for Christians and the Arts invited us to ACU. Al brought together a remarkable coalition from the English, Art, Music, and Theater departments to sponsor our visit. My Purple State partner, John Marks, had an opportunity to reconnect with his family’s West Texas roots. I was introduced to impressive colleagues within Christian higher ed at a “Purple State on a Plate” luncheon. The professors and staff at ACU delicately balance the expectations of parents and alums with the probing questions posed by students. They uphold Christian conviction alongside a deep interest in our world and how it works. They seek to depict things both the way they are and as well as how it might be.

While we were talking to students, President Barack Obama delivered a remarkably calm and measured speech about our economic crisis to the pundits in the press. Those who may approach this particular moment of history with fear would be encouraged by a few days at Abilene Christian. You’ll find remarkably sweet and sincere people, discussing enduring texts from Plato and Aristotle, to Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre. Yes, students are required to attend chapel. No, there isn’t alcohol served on campus. But surely this sobering moment of financial collapse requires clear thinking from the next generation. On graduation day, they will inherit a mess. But until then, a community of learners draw upon who we’ve been in hopes of figuring out who we still need to become. Two windy days in Abilene might reassure even the most skeptical among us.

Comments (2)

2 Comments »

1. I’ll say it — that there is a money shirt.

   Comment by Bryce — March 31, 2009 @ 3:23 pm

2. What a wonderful article. WHAT A WONDERFUL COLLEGE!! This information lifts my spirits for young people and blows a bit of fresh air into my soul. Stick to your convictions and common sense plus wonderful imagination to blend REAL progress and answers for the good of all people. Thank you.

   Comment by Patricia A. Wells — April 2, 2009 @ 3:36 pm

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