Religion: A Pastor Ponders

About Virginia Tech

By Pastor William Jenkins

April 25, 2007

As I write this there are memorial services happening on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. There will be speeches and prayers for the students and faculty that were among the 33 persons murdered yesterday in the worst domestic killings in our nation’s history. Professionals at many levels will be analyzing what happened and why for many months.

The memorial gatherings will have the markings of a religious service on a college campus. The President of the university said, “The services would be the first of many campus-wide opportunities to ‘share our collective soul.’"

I applaud all the services and those who are making them happen. Wouldn’t it be wonderful though if there could be religious services on our campuses that were not in response to a tragedy? When all the reports are in will there be any that will suggest a need to invite God back into our educational system?

After all, doesn’t the idea of “soul” suggest a Divine origin, and wasn’t education birthed by religion? Inviting God back into our educational discourse would be a way of being proactive rather that reactive to situations like this.

I cannot claim to be a person educated in crisis analysis, but I am an observer of the culture. It appears that our culture began to deteriorate at a more rapid pace when the Ten Commandments were removed from the classroom walls. The Ten Commandments are not religious they are God’s rules for an ordered society. They are a standard for right and wrong behavior.

C.S. Lewis was on to something when he said, “The concept of “right” and “wrong” is a clue to the meaning of the universe. Someone out there is trying to get in touch with us.” Perhaps there would be more respect for life if once in a while someone read a command from “Someone out there” that said “Thou shalt not kill.”

League City United Methodist Church is located at 1411 Main Street (FM 518), one block east of Interstate 45. For information, call the church offices at 281-332-1557 or visit the website at

HYPERLINK - http://www.lcumc.org