I came to faith in Christ in the late 1940's. My grandpa, John Murphy, had fought in the Eastern theater of World War II. He was in the movie Sands of Iwo Jima, I think he might have been a part of the real thing too. But I came to faith when he was back home going to Abilene Christian College. He was using some Veteran's Affairs money? But he also had a job. He was working campus security. Funny, When I went to college in the same place, now Abilene Christian University, 59 years later I don't remember them having any ex-military security guards.
Why did they have security then? Was it because of the post war boom? Full employment and the only hemisphere that didn't get blown the smithereens? Were Americans worried about Japanese or German reprisals in the homeland on a back water Christian college? Was Grandpa armed?
I suspect that there was security because the college and the parents specifically that sent their kids to the college cared a lot more about the morality of the students. Grandpa's job was to keep the kids from doing anything their parents wouldn't like. No sneaking out of your dorm after hours, I suspect 9 pm. No going to get a coke with your best guy or your best gal. I bet they had 'lights out' back then. Now they have curfew only for freshmen and then you can stay up and watch whatever you want whenever you want.
Grandpa was patrolling the grounds; probably a lot less grounds to patrol. They should have started building a bunch of dorms that decade. He was patrolling with no gun, no badge, just a sense of moral clarity and stern expectations on loan from that generation's parents, our great-grandparents. They fought World War I and fought modernity like girls and boys bathing (swimming) together and girls wearing pants, and even, sadly, black people getting educations. But they fought tooth and nail to keep their kids on the straight and narrow.
There is John walking his beat. And what's that? There is a girl sneaking out her window to get a coke after curfew. The girl is Lois Williams. My grandmother. She is 16 he is 23. John writes her a citation and turns her into the dean. He gets her 'campused' for two weeks, it's euphemism for grounded. Her foray into a life of crime started with a trip to get a coke after hours has now ended in a complete and utter loss of freedom. Grandpa visits the young girl everyday for the next two weeks. I bet he even brought her a coke or two. By the time she's 20 she has 3 babies with him.
That was how my faith was handed down to me. From a warrior saving the world from the aggression of a maniacal dictator, to a mall cop making sure the truly religious stayed truly moral. From a man enforcing the dictates of some real and some imagined pharisaical rule book to a man starting a life with the wayward wayfaring 100th sheep. It was a beginning of Christ calling me not the beginning.
