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Mark B Vodell, Principal

IT'S WORTH A THOUGHT

Gilson Gazette Editorial - December 2nd, 2011

In a few short weeks we will be having our College awards nights where we will celebrate achievements at all year levels and our Year 12s will graduate.  It reminds me of similar event some years ago in The Land of Lincoln’ (Illinois) where a public school was also having their graduation ceremony.
A student (whose name is irrelevant), together with her parents and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) launched legal action to prevent the public Washington Community High School from having a prayer as a part of their program. A temporary injunction was granted which stopped an 80-year tradition and angered the rest of the community.
Many of the students met by the flagpole to have their own private prayers, some came with religious slogans written on the mortarboards. The ironic thing about this event is that there was probably far more prayer throughout that weekend as a result of some poor individual’s misguided attempts to remove God from the program.
The best response to the court’s injunction however came from a student whose name should be remembered.  Ryan Brown was one of the graduates who was scheduled to make a speech during the event and on his way to the podium he stopped, bowed his head and delivered a silent prayer.  When he reached the lectern he simply sneezed. At that point his friends in the audience all called out, ‘God bless you.’ He thanked them and sat down while the applause was still going. The attempt to remove God, even with legal support, failed miserably.
Recently when in Athens I visited the Areopagus where the Apostle Paul met with the city elders almost 2000 years ago.  In Acts 17 it mentions that Paul had found an altar in this place that was dedicated to ‘the unknown God’.  About 400 years later Augustine wrote “Lord, you have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.” (Confessions 1.1.1.)  This has generated the expression that it appears that we all have a ‘god-shaped hole’ in our hearts that only He can fill.  If our searching is always in the horizontal then it will be in vain. A fuller understanding of our life must include the vertical (looking for God).
“When men choose not to believe in God, they do not simply believe in nothing, they just become capable of believing in anything.”  G.K. Chesterton


Mark B Vodéll
PRINCIPAL