Biography

Submitted by Pearson on Sat, 08/11/2007 - 16:39.

Name: Dr Chuck Pearson (yes, that’s a PhD in Biophysics from Ohio State)
Job: Professor at a small Southern Baptist school (and not only do my posts here not represent them, they might disavow all knowledge of my posting here)
Youthful church background: Disgruntled United Methodist
Current religious leanings: Disgruntled United Methodist (yes, there was a period of time between my youth and now when I was not a disgruntled United Methodist)
First church culture memory: Having memory verses for Vacation Bible School come from - of all places - Romans 10. (So I’ve always had a weakness for Romans.)
Strangest church culture memory: Praying the sinner’s prayer for the first time - while taking a friend to her Christian school’s PROM. (It wasn’t a real prom, mind, there was no dancing whatsoever. I’ll leave it to your imagination what we actually did, and how it morphed into actually getting altar-called and praying the prayer. To be totally honest, I don’t remember the details myownself - it was just brain-breaking.)
Claim to fame within church culture: Probably the cascade of posts I made to the rec.music.christian Usenet newsgroup between 1992 and 1999. Most of that time, I was a young married grad school guy. I probably got as much education out of rec.music.christian as I did out of grad school. And not just about Christian music.
First CCM song heard: “Restless Heart”, Michael W. Smith
Book that changed my life: Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, Mark Noll
Most embarassing thing about church culture circa 2007: Kirk Cameron. I don’t know why I’m so desperate to hide my head in the dirt every time I see him hawking this “Way Of The Master” crud. But I am.
Church culture weakness that will probably never go away: Not only am I a PUNK RAWK KID at age 35, but I will still go bonkers over a good Christian rock band. I still don’t know why Luminate doesn’t have a major label deal, I’m a bigger fan of Red than most of my students, and I cannot get enough of Anberlin. And yeah, I linked their MySpace pages. Wanna make something of it?

(Oh, by the way, the below picture - contrary to rumor - is not me doing the robot to Family Force 5. I emphatically deny I was doing the robot. And, if you want to know how deep into the culture I have been in my life, look closely at the shirt.)

(Um, “below picture”? Jeff? Where’d my picture go?)