Stone Deaf
My alma mater in Norman, a bastion of secular liberalism, is home to some pretty offensive stuff -- like this, for example, and this and this and this and ... look, I don't have all day. You get the idea. And when I was on campus Saturday I noticed something new.
There's a peaceful little garden on the north side of campus honoring the late Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, an heroic woman who was the first African-American to be admitted to the OU law school. More than 40 years later, in 1992, she was appointed an OU regent. OU loves this storybook ending, of course, going so far as to declare: "In Psalm 118, the psalmist speaks of how the stone that the builders once rejected became the cornerstone."
Now granted, the young lady was rejected and then one day became a regent. To be sure, her remarkable life is worth commemorating. But let's be a little careful here. The Bible itself makes it abundantly clear that the stone that the builders rejected is none other than the resurrected Christ.
There's a peaceful little garden on the north side of campus honoring the late Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, an heroic woman who was the first African-American to be admitted to the OU law school. More than 40 years later, in 1992, she was appointed an OU regent. OU loves this storybook ending, of course, going so far as to declare: "In Psalm 118, the psalmist speaks of how the stone that the builders once rejected became the cornerstone."
Now granted, the young lady was rejected and then one day became a regent. To be sure, her remarkable life is worth commemorating. But let's be a little careful here. The Bible itself makes it abundantly clear that the stone that the builders rejected is none other than the resurrected Christ.
... Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead -- by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.It's unfortunate that, in honoring Mrs. Fisher, the university overreached by invoking the psalmist in this way. Unfortunate, but not surprising. For even today, the vast majority of the "builders" on campuses like this continue to reject the stone.
