Straight White American Jesus - The Orange Wave, Ep. 8: Old School
Aired: 2022-05-10
Duration: 03:00


=== First Step Into Faith (02:59) ===

[00:00:00]  Axis Mundi
[00:00:08]  Axis Mundi
[00:00:34]  In 1999, I enrolled as a freshman at Azusa Pacific University, about half an hour from my home.
[00:00:41]  APU is an evangelical university.
[00:00:44]  It has a heritage with what was then my home church's evangelical Quaker denomination, along with some Wesleyans and influence from the Pentecostal movement related to Azusa Street in Los Angeles.
[00:00:58]  As a high school senior, I hadn't applied anywhere else but Christian universities.
[00:01:02]  Biola, or the Bible Institute of LA, Westmont, and APU were the only places I sent applications.
[00:01:10]  I never even glanced at the UC application, like my peers.
[00:01:14]  Never considered a Cal State campus.
[00:01:16]  Never considered going to Occidental College, a liberal arts college in Los Angeles, where I had garnered interest from the basketball team.
[00:01:24]  My eyes were set on a Christian education, in a Christian context, with Christian people.
[00:01:31]  I didn't want to be around the debauchery of a frat house or beer pong tournament.
[00:01:35]  Didn't want the influence of secular humanism, Marxism, or Darwin on my thinking.
[00:01:40]  I wanted to train as a Christian leader.
[00:01:43]  Entering APU was my first foray into religious education.
[00:01:47]  Up to then I had been a public school kid through and through.
[00:01:51]  At APU, we were required to attend chapel three times per week.
[00:01:55]  Professors took prayer requests at the beginning of class.
[00:01:59]  Some led the group in worship songs for the first 15 minutes or so.
[00:02:03]  All of this was a huge change for my first 13 years of schooling, and it took a while to get used to.
[00:02:09]  Thanks for listening to this free sample of The Orange Wave.
[00:02:26]  My name is Brad Onishi, the author and creator of the series.
[00:02:31]  I want to invite you to head over to our show notes and to hit the link if you'd like to continue listening to The Orange Wave.
[00:02:37]  I know a paywall isn't something you want to see, and I get it.
[00:02:40]  But I poured my heart and soul into making this docuseries, and we're an indie podcast.
[00:02:45]  We're self-funded, self-produced.
[00:02:47]  We do everything we can on our own to do this work.
[00:02:50]  And so, it's a nominal fee, and your contribution will help us make more of these docuseries, continue to do our show a couple times a week.
[00:03:00]  Thanks again.