Brian On _______

Syracuse, NY

Today was Take-A-Look-Around-Syracuse-And-Pray-Leslie-Doesn’t-Hate-It Day.

Fortunately, she didn’t hate it. In fact, she really liked it and felt very much at home. We toured campus and it was very pretty. There were students lounging around on the Quad and it looked like a postcard. It made me miss OBU.

It was also ridiculously warm. According the Internet (and everyone knows what you read online is true), the average temp in July is 70.4 degrees. Of course, today it was 87 degrees. The Syracuse Physical Plant hasn’t thrown the switch from Winter to Summer, so we sweltered whether we were inside or out and about.

We met with the director of Leslie’s program (I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s a lot of letters), Dr. Scott McWonderbeard. He was actually very cool and if I were enrolling as a grad student at Syracuse, I’d be excited that he would be one of my profs. He is an Okie and did his undergrad and masters at OU. He is also an ubergeek. Want proof? He has developed a board game he’s marketing in Germany about the action surrounding the bursting economic bubble of the 1750s Amsterdam tulip market. I’m not even joking. He was still cool though. I promise.

Two students from Leslie’s betrothed program gave us a brief tour of campus and answered Leslie’s questions while I sat back and marveled at the sheer volume of information they were spouting.

Syracuse bought us lunch at this fun Irish pub and I had a very good Philly chicken sandwich.

After our official stuff was in the can and Leslie officially matriculated, we bought some Syracuse swag in the bookstore and returned to hotel to clean up and rest.

We both had some postcards to mail so Leslie googled the nearest post office. My GPS directed us there and it turns out it is the single most secure post office on the planet. It’s all good, though, because we made it out with our postcard stamps and our civil liberties intact.

Next, we went to Carousel Center, which thinks it is a really cool mall. I’d give it a 7 at best. We shopped around Borders, counseled my sister to enter an OBU Guitar Hero tourney and caught the 4 p.m. showing of Smart People. It was pretty good, but it was hard to pin down a certain theme. I must, however, give full marks Thomas Hayden Church and Ellen Page.

After the movie, we came back to the hotel and ordered pizza as we watched TV.

BK out.

Lexington, KY to Syracuse, NY
669 miles, 1o hours, 27 minutes
Total miles so far: 1175
States driven through: Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania
Dead deer seen on side of road: 14
Smokies: 18

This morning we woke up early and went to Keeneland, a racetrack/horse farm in Lex (recommended to us by the Todds). It’s nestled in Kentucky’s green rolling hills and it’s more like the sprawling equine-mecca I imagined Churchill Downs to be.

It is so large! I don’t know how many square miles this place is, but it’s easily bigger than my home town and easily has 10x the people, even at 7 a.m. on a Sunday.

We ate breakfast at the Track Kitchen and ladies and gentlemen, THIS is what God had in mind when He invented breakfast.

It’s a hole-in-the-wall kind of place, but it’s a large one. I assume it was originally meant to be a commissary for the trainers and staff at Keeneland before they decided to open it to the public. We each grabbed a tray and the kitchen ladies loaded up our plates with whatever our hungry little tummies desired. I had scrambled eggs, bacon, a biscuit, gravy and breakfast potatoes, but they also had sausage, pancakes, waffles, grits, homemade muffins and bagels, etc. It was very good and very, very hearty.

We wound through the barns and paddocks and worked our way to the Grandstand, braking occasionally for crossing thoroughbreds.

The Grandstand was closed, but we could still walk up to the fence and check out the horses training on the track. They were really impressive. I can’t imagine how exhilarating it must feel to be riding one of those huge animals as it rounds the turn.

We crossed into Ohio, but didn’t realize it because the jerks didn’t put up a Welcome to Ohio sign.

Cincinnati is very hilly.

Ohio was largely uneventful. It helped that I snored through large portions of it while Leslie drove.

She also drove across a small corner of Pennsylvania and on into New York.
The Empire State looks remarkably like Oklahoma, although their turnpikes are significantly more expensive.

We cruised through Syracuse and checked out campus. It is very stately and academic-looking. There were a lot of students walking around and it’s in a very nice neighborhood.

For dinner, we went to Dinosaur BBQ, just a few blocks from our hotel. I had a chili-burger and it was excellent. Leslie had the ribs and declared them the best she’s ever had.

Jefferson City, MO to Lexington, KY
506 miles; 7 hours 49 minutes
States driven through: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky
Dead deer seen on side of road: 8
Smokies: 6

Leslie’s flight into STL was early, so we got a nice head on the trip.

It rained about 75 percent of the drive through Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. That didn’t keep us from stopping on the side of the road and posing for pictures at the Welcome to _____ sign.

We officially left God’s Time and are now operating on Eastern Time.

Since we were passing through Louisville, we placed a quick cal to the expatriated Kentuckians, the Todds. They, of course, were not home.

While in L-Ville, we took a quick detour and went to see Churchill Downs the site of the Kentucky Derby (to be run in a few weeks). It was HUGE, but it seemed out of place since it is smack dab in the middle of urban Louisville. We were about 45 minutes late to tour the museum and shop, so we settled on just taking some pix of the exterior.

Onto Lexington and home of the Wildcats, the University of Kentucky. Lex is very hard to navigate, but we found our way to campus. Leslie almost decided to switch from ‘Cuse to UK, but thankfully she talked herself out of it.

Missourians who believe that they are not the great-great-great grandchildren of apes, now have an unlikely advocate on their side.

Hollywood. Ben Stein is an actor, writer, former college professor, game show host political analyst and former presidential speech writer and now you can add spokesman for Intelligent Design to his resume. Although he is probably most well known for his role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, his latest movie, a documentary called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed [see A Rough Cut's review here], is coming to the defense of Intelligent Design and all those who would question Darwinism. I attended a screening of the PG film in the Capitol Rotunda where the entertainer introduced it and answered questions.

Stein, it should be noted, is Jewish. Expelled, which Stein narrates with his droll, monotone, will not lead the viewer to Christ nor will insist you believe that the Judeo-Christian God created the earth in six days. It does however, equip the viewer with the tools to question the strangle hold Darwinism has on the academic community. Stein is a strong ally for many Christians and others who are seemingly being denied academic freedom because they refuse to believe in a certain scientific theory. This is what prompted Stein to make the movie.

“Nothing can be questioned about Darwinism, unless you want to be in severe academic jeopardy,” he said. “I have been very troubled by this strangle hold Darwinism has on academic pursuits and by the fact that if you raise the slightest question about Darwinism, you can get fired, lose you job, grants and websites. This didn’t seem to us to be constant with the doctrines of free speech and freedom of inquiry that are basic to the functioning of the United States of America. So many people did not give their lives so that one certain dogma could have a stranglehold on academic pursuits while everything else was expelled.”

The scientific alternative being suppressed and the focus of the film is called “Intelligent Design.” The idea says biological evidence suggests that life is too complex to be explained by random mutation (Darwinian evolution) and that the origin of life and the diversity of species on our planet is best explained by the existence of a Creator. It’s proponents argue that it is not a religious theory and that creator isn’t necessarily God. But, as Stein points out, God’s role in creating the universe makes at least as much sense as Darwin’s proponents. The movie contends that Darwinism itself and many of the scientists who believe it are openly and vocally hostile toward Christians.

“I am not a scientist,” he said. “But I am someone who can draw conclusions from overwhelming evidence.”

Kerry Messer, lobbyist for the Missouri Baptist Convention was present at the screening and gives it two thumbs up and said students, teachers, parents and church leaders need to see Expelled.

“This is one of the most well-made documentaries I’ve ever seen,” Messer said. “It weaves all the elements of the debate together in an entertaining, funny way but in engaging way too. The most important part is that you have a man like Ben Stein basically challenging us: ‘Why are you being silent? Why are you sitting there while your kids are being taught lies?’

“Everyone should go see this movie, especially students and parents of students. While this movie does focus on higher academia, the same things are going on in elementary and secondary education regularly as well. Every pastor in the State of Missouri needs to see this movie so they understand the culture their parishioners live in.”

Expelled will be released April 18 and will be playing in 1000 theaters across the country, including many in Missouri.

But promoting a movie was just part of Stein’s purpose. He was also at the Capitol adding a loud, prominent voice in favor of two bills in the Missouri Legislature that would protect academic freedom and allow for alternatives to Darwinism to be taught and would ensure that students in Missouri’s colleges and universities do not have to sacrifice their faith to satisfy a professor’s whim. In fact, he said the bills were just as much the reason for his trip to Missouri as the movie.

“When we found out these bills were pending in the legislature here in Missouri, we want to come here, wave the flag and show our support for academic diversity and freedom of speech,” Stein said.

House Bill 2554, introduced by Rep. Wayne Cooper, would offer a shield of protection should a professor want to teach an alternative to Darwinism and acknowledge that there are legitimate scientific alternatives. It does not require the teaching or exclusion of any theory.

House Bill 1315, also known as the Emily Brooker Higher Education Sunshine Act, has been introduced by Rep. Jane Cunningham and would “develop methods to ensure that conflicts between personal beliefs and classroom assignments that may contradict such beliefs can be resolved in a manner that achieves educational objectives without requiring a student to act against his or her conscience.”

The bill is named after Emily Brooker, who questioned Missouri State University’s right to force her to lobby and act in favor of issues she believed to be morally wrong, in this particular case lobbying in favor of homosexual adoptive couples. She sued in 2006 and settled out of court.

“I never want to see anyone being forced to do academic chores that are repugnant to their faith and their core personal conscience,” Stein said. “All we’re doing is giving more of an opportunity for freedom of speech. You just have to keep inquiring, keep talking and keep debating. That’s the purpose of our movie. That’s the purpose of these bills here in trying to get academic freedom. I don’t see any reason why you should surrender your freedom or inquiry rights when you pick up your registration card for high school or college.”

Messer said Missouri Baptists should support these two bills. But, he said, the larger issue goes beyond these two bills.

“It’s just another area of public policy where the Church needs to reclaim it’s rightful place in culture as the Bible says is our responsibility. The reason these things go on is because the church has been disengaged for too many years. These are fundamental bills, not only education but to our culture. More and more, the university is molding our students’ worldview. The church should be doing that and engaged is this debate.”

Stein said seeing legislation such as this crop up is the true goal of the film.

“The threshold of success for this movie will be if we can get bills like this moving and if we can get people to understand we are about academic freedom and not suppression,” he said. “We’re about freedom of thought, and of inquiry. The kind of freedom that makes this country great and makes Missouri great. Is anyone left to fight this battle? Anyone? Anyone?”

No, you are not having a nightmare. That woman is indeed holding a high-heeled shoe and yes - though it pains my soul to say it - that shoe is a Croc.

Little did I know that a mere 27 hours after I learned of the existence of Ben Stein's new documentary and wondered out loud to Leslie that I would like to interview the man. But whilst I was wittling away the hours waxing poetic about the fountain drinks at drive-ins, God was working out the details to give me a wonderful surprise (Yes, God wanted me to meet Ben Stein).

Yesterday at 4:43 p.m., I got a fax from the governor's press secretary announcing that the Gov (who is apparently a big Stein fan) would introduce Stein as he showed a pre-release screening of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. I was one of about 100 people (I was the only press, by some miracle from Heaven) who watched the documentary in the Capitol Rotunda and got to speak with Stein afterwards.

I also attended a press conference this morning (slightly better attended) where I got to hear him speak some more.

I'll post more about Ben and some of his quotes later (including a movie review on A Rough Cut), probably tomorrow. I've been swamped all day and my New Testament Survey midterm is due in less than 24 hours.