{"id":5205,"date":"2002-12-06T11:45:13","date_gmt":"2002-12-06T19:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/?p=5205"},"modified":"2002-12-06T11:45:13","modified_gmt":"2002-12-06T19:45:13","slug":"bonos-welcome-at-wheaton-college-does-grad-proud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2002\/12\/06\/bonos-welcome-at-wheaton-college-does-grad-proud\/","title":{"rendered":"Bono’s Welcome at Wheaton College Does Grad Proud"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

You could say it was a sort of homecoming.<\/p>\n

Since Saturday, I\u2019d been on the road, bird-dogging U2\u2019s <\/a><\/a>Bono across the Midwest on his mission to save Africa from the one-two punch of an AIDS pandemic and the kind of poverty most Americans simply cannot fathom.<\/p>\n

Wednesday, his Heart of America tour arrived at Wheaton College, and I found myself sitting in my alma mater\u2019s chapel for the first time in a decade.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a room I know well. I attended chapel there\u201310:30 to 11:15 a.m., three days a week, for four years.<\/p>\n

Wheaton is a religious school in the truest sense. More than that, it\u2019s an evangelical Christian school, dedicated, as the stone sign at the front of campus says, \u201cFor Christ and His Kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many graduates, I had mixed feelings about my Wheaton experience after moving into the \u201creal world.\u201d I was out of town in October and missed my 10-year reunion, but I don\u2019t know that I would have gone had I been in town.<\/p>\n

Wheaton, like many other private colleges\u2013religious or not\u2013is a bubble. And I don\u2019t care much for bubbles. I never felt comfortable in a community where my religious identity was presumed to define my politics, gender identity and taste in pop culture in a narrow way.<\/p>\n

Not that Wheaton dictated what political persuasion (Republican), gender identity (definitely not feminist) or acceptable pop culture (Amy Grant, yes; Ani DiFranco, no) its students should adhere to. But there was an unwritten dogma about the secular world with which I did not agree.<\/p>\n

Then, there was the matter of \u201cthe pledge,\u201d a social contract all students are required to sign before they enroll. No drinking, no social dancing, no tobacco products, no gambling, no sex. It set up a hierarchy of sin and a dichotomy of those who kept the pledge religiously and those who did not. Some people were \u201cstrong Christians,\u201d and others were not.<\/p>\n

Wheaton had many fine attributes. By and large, students were compassionate, empathetic, intellectually curious and spiritually aware. But I left Wheaton feeling that Christianity, in the particular, narrow evangelical form found there, was not a place for me.<\/p>\n

A lot changes in a decade. I stood a few feet from my senior-year assigned chapel seat and had an epiphany. Ten years ago, I\u2019d sat in that seat, with a poster of <\/a><\/a>Bono on my wall and dreaming of a life as a journalist. Now I was walking in here with that man, a journalist there to tell his story. I am blessed.<\/p>\n

A few days before we arrived at Wheaton, <\/a><\/a>Bono and I talked about the school and how different that venue would be from the large state universities he\u2019d visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf these are religious folks, I want to redirect them to the fire that is in the Gospels,\u201d <\/a><\/a>Bono said.<\/p>\n

I told him I wasn\u2019t sure how his message would play at Wheaton.<\/p>\n

Amid the din of 2,000 screaming, clapping, ebullient students standing and howling for <\/a><\/a>Bono and his band of humanitarians, I realized I couldn\u2019t have been more wrong about the place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am blown away by your joy,\u201d Ashley Judd said.<\/p>\n

For two hours, the Wheaties, as we called ourselves, listened raptly to <\/a><\/a>Bono\u2019s call to action and responded to fleece he laid before them. It was easily the best night on the tour, <\/a><\/a>Bono would say the next morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was fantastic,\u201d he said. \u201cThey asked tough questions. They asked the things people should be asking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of my friends from college apologize before they tell someone where they went to school. I\u2019ve been guilty of that myself.<\/p>\n

After Wednesday, I\u2019ll never do that again.<\/p>\n

Wheaton was, at least in those moments, the best of what Christianity can be.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been prouder to say I\u2019m a<\/a><\/a>Wheaton grad.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m grateful to <\/a><\/a>Bono for that sort of homecoming.<\/p>\n

This column originally ran in the <\/em>Chicago Sun-Times, where Cathleen was the religion writer and columnist from 2000-2010, <\/em>on Dec. 6, 2002<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You could say it was a sort of homecoming. Since Saturday, I\u2019d been on the road, bird-dogging U2\u2019s Bono across the Midwest on his mission to save Africa from the one-two punch of an AIDS pandemic and the kind of poverty most Americans simply cannot fathom. Wednesday, his Heart of America tour arrived at Wheaton […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-godstuff-2","category-onemoms"],"yoast_head":"\nBono's Welcome at Wheaton College Does Grad Proud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You could say it was a sort of homecoming. 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