Torch, Summer 1991

And Life's Most Important Issues by Dr. Paul Dixon, President our years and $35 ,000 later, what does a young person have to show for a college education at Cedarville? A degree? Probably. And far more, if we accomplish our mission in a student' s life. Life's most important matters, hopefully, will have been brought into focus and internalized. This issue of Cedarville TORCH explores, broadly speaking, what are life's most important issues-God, family, and ministry. Every trustee, faculty and staff member, and student at Cedarville must address how he or she will relate to them. I can tell you this: in chapel, classes, sports, ministries, in every facet of the Cedarville experience our students hear what God states is most important in life. This makes a Christian college education distinctive, more than just academics. How we Christians value God, family , and ministry will determine what we believe about a host of other important matters. Often the students hear me speak in chapel about integrity. It is one of life's most important character traits. We must be honest in all we are and in all we do. People of integrity are real people. They are genuine people. As Coca Cola says, "The real thing! " We don 't need "play Christians" whose walk and talk are not in step. A watching world and our great God expect us to keep our word, to give a full day's work, and not to cheat on a test, our employer, our government, or our mate. Employers tell me this quality of integrity as well as excellent academic preparation is what makes Cedarville graduates so marketable. What has happened to moral purity today? Is this no longer important? We live in a nation of adultery, of homo– sexuality, of premarital sex, and of abortion. The statistics on teenage pregnancy, college student promiscuity, and marriage infidelity are astounding. We are being destroyed as a nation, not by an enemy without but rather from within. The answer from most comers is "safe sex". God 's counsel is, "Be ye holy for I am holy. " At Cedarville we teach our students to be pure and to stay pure. Apparently total abstinence is out of style today, unimportant. At a time when the cry from outside the church is to bring a stop to the alcohol problem that is destroying families , wrecking lives and killing innocent men, women, and children on the highways, the church is trying to justify social drinking! God help us!! Conventional wisdom tells us drinking in moderation is harmless. God warns in Proverbs 23 :29-32, "Who hath woe? Who hath Dr. Paul Dixon with President's Trophy winner Cynthia R. Commons and her parents, Dr.and Mrs. William Commons of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder." At Cedarville we take a strong position on total abstinence. No apologies. College years are like no others. There is a maturation process that is taking place, and the young adult is working through and crystallizing his or her own value system. We can treat a college stu– dent one of two ways: either this is our last chance with a child or our first chance with an adult. The latter entails trust and challenging the student to think. We count it a privilege to work with young adults. A graduate walked into my office and excitedly told me the story of how she came to make a major decision in her life. As she wrestled through the problem, searching for a solution, she saw a com– mercial on television in which the owner of the restaurant chain turned to the cameras and exclaimed, "Where are your values?" Immediately she recalled the importance of her value system and took her problem back to that test. Then she made a godly decision. Praise God for young people who know what is really important in life !•