Wikipedia. Do you know that name? It's an online encyclopedia that provides helpful information, but isn't always reliable and is often clearly biased in its presentation of "facts.”
Covenant College's graduation was this past Saturday morning. The graduating class included two of our members — Adam Herberich and Charles Wykoff.
The commencement speaker was Dr. Kay Coles James.
Wikipedia informs us that Dr. James is the president and founder of the Gloucester Institute, a leadership training center for young African Americans. It also reports that she was the director for the United States Office of Personnel Management from 2001until 2005. Previously she served as the Secretary of Health and Human Resources for the state of Virginia and was dean of Regent University's government school. She currently serves as a member of the NASA Advisory Council and as a trustee for the Heritage Foundation, an influential public policy research institute.
Wikipedia doesn’t report that she and her husband are members of a PCA congregation in Virginia, near Washington, DC, and that her husband is a PCA elder and a former trustee of Covenant College.
But Wikipedia is quick to tell us that in 2003 Dr. James was named the Distinguished Christian Statesman by the Center for Christian Statesmanship, founded by Dr. D. James Kennedy.
Dr. Kennedy is identified by Wikipedia as a pastor criticized by the Jewish Anti-Defamation League for his attempts to link creation theory to Hitler and for being "a leader among the distinct groups of 'Christian Supremacists’” who desire "to turn the U.S. into a Christian nation guided by their strange notions of biblical law."
(I have to assume that the writer of this article meant to criticize Dr. Kennedy for attempting to link the theory of evolution with Hitler.)
Getting back to Dr. James . . . I want to summarize for you what she told the graduates of Covenant College.
First, if you say you trust God with your life — then live like it. Life is a challenge. You’ve lived through 9/11. You're now living at a time of great financial challenges. Life will continue to present all kinds of challenges. But if you say you trust God with your life — then live like it.
Second, other than the Word of God, there are few things you can know for sure. You have no way of knowing what God intends to do with your life. But you can trust Him. And if you trust Him, and hold on to Him, He will use you to accomplish great things for the cause of His Kingdom.
Third, while you may think that all of this has been about you — in fact, it's been all about Him. He has been preparing you for whatever lies ahead. Preparing you for kingdom work. He didn’t save you simply to provide for you a ticket out of hell. He saved you to do the work of His Kingdom. (I know
You’ve heard that before, but that’s almost precisely what she said!)
She closed by telling the graduates that while she has had many titles in her life, this has been the most important title: “Mom." And then, she urged the graduates to marry, stay married, and raise godly families.
I know the writer of the Wikipedia article isn't overly impressed by Dr. James. But I am. I thought her address to be the finest commencement speech I've ever heard. As a trustee of Covenant College, I was proud and profoundly pleased to hear what she had to say.
"In all things . . . Christ preeminent."
Pastor Caines