111 thoughts on “Bubble Wrap? (I guess?)”

    1. Number Six has been looking for you.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zalndXdxriI

      Where am I?
      In the Village
      What do you want?
      Information
      Whose side are you on?
      That would be telling . . .
      We want Information
      You won’t get it
      By hook or by crook . . .
      We will
      Who are you?
      The new Number Two
      Who is Number One?
      You are Number Six

      I am not a number . . .
      I’m a free man!

      1. And then:

        “Who is number one?”

        “You are, number six!”

        The most crucial comma in the history of television.

        Be seeing you. 😉

  2. I want my 1:28 of my life back.

    If these guys go to ‘school’ and act like that I imagine they would get demerits for being all touchy-feely.

  3. Prof. x, just hired by a well known Fundy U, gets ‘initiated’ at his first day.

  5. How does an 18 year old rate his own spiritual walk and leadership skills? Or is that part of the joke too?

  6. Under the “Academics” label: “Why WCBC Does Not Seek State Accreditation”

    And as you read it, you realize that West Coast Baptist College is another diploma mill.

    The descriptions of their math courses is a joke. But then, they are preparing people to teach math in their Christian high school. That usually turns out to be a joke as well.

    Viewing their “Secondary Education” section one gets the idea that they think that a rehash of high school is all one needs to teach there.

    1. I have read that “essay” many times and I DEPLORE it. Not the least of which is because it is a lie to call it “state accreditation.” Paul Chappel never hesitates to say whatever it takes to advance his “college.”

      1. “Paul Chappel never hesitates to say whatever it takes to advance his “college.”’

        YES!

        YES!

        YES!

  7. Golden State (IFB college north of WCBC) will have SO much fun bringing this up in chapel…

    1. Explain, please… do they not like WCBC, or just poke fun at things that they would not do?

      1. I think MT is referring to the competitive aspect of the two CA colleges.

        Both leaders, Paul Chappell and Jack Trieber, go way back. Trieber worked as song director at Paul’s dad’s church (the infamous Larry Chappell) in the 1970’s. Paul came to work at Trieber’s church, but was “called” to Lancaster.(as the “official” NVBC story goes, but it wasn’t the Holy Spirit sending him out! The actual reason for his leaving NVBC has been hushed-up-ancient history, only Trieber & a handful are left to remember why)

        With gritted teeth, these two preachers acknowlede one another as ‘IFB Brethren’. I believe, it was Paul who got ahead of the game by starting WCBC shortly before the opening of GSBC, as it was well known in Fundystan as Trieber’s vision to start his college first.

        The commentators here have a good understanding of both college’s reputations. GSBC is definitely “Old IFB School” and WCBC is considered in Fundystan as “IFB Trendy”, if there’s such a thing!

        1. Just FYI

          The infamous Larry Chappell is back in business at Grace Baptist Church in La Quinta CA. He has brought at least one WCBC grad onto his staff too – the poor sap was encouraged by leadership at WCBC to work there.

        2. Anon,

          Why did Paul leave NVBC?

          I was told NVBC gave him financial support during the early years. I remember Trieber preaching at LBC before WCBC was started.

          But I was not aware of other motivations for leaving NVBC.

        3. To UTBF,

          I’m not one of the handful, only know a few of them, so I’m not willing to say any more than, it was more of a pre-emptive strike than a “calling”.

  8. What a conundrum.

    If you rate yourself too high, they’ll think you lack humility.

    Too low, and you won’t be accepted.

    Oh, no!

  10. Finally! Some truth in advertising about how protected and isolated one will be at Fundy U. And every one should have a slider button to rate their spiritual walk and humility…

    1. That’s true, there’s a pretty serious freudian slip going on here. “Come to our school, where we’ll do our best to keep you inside the bubble.”

  11. WCBC had another video up on YouTube recently (entitled “Baptistery”), but made it private after it received criticism. Some felt they were making a mockery of the ordinance of baptism. This just shows how little West Coast Baptist College tolerates the opinions of others.

    If you are not willing to swallow the Kool-Aid, you should avoid the place.

    Independent thought is not welcomed there.

  12. Air-brushing abs? HAH! More likely airbrushing skirts and long pants on his vacation pics, so as not to be shipped home for tempting his roommates.

    1. The sliding scale is for how much you want to be insulated. What they don’t tell you is their scale goes all the way up.

      1. Well, I thought it was amusing for the first 5-10 seconds after the bubble wrap appeared… and then I found it juvenile… and then I started wondering if there was some obsession with farting… because that is what it seemed to degrade into.

        How can one call this a promo for the college? What does one learn about WCBC as a result of watching it. Some people will go to the application page just to see if they had the sliders there, but if I were considering a college, I’d want to know a lot more about them.

      2. It seems like West Coast Baptist College is trying to give the impression they are like a big frat house (minus the booze, sex and any personal freedom).

        Why would any serious student be interested in this place at all?

        1. West Coast’s marketing is unusually slick, especially considering the crap product they are selling. Their “library” is located in a trailer. I remember one of my sisters being frustrated because she was told to write a paper using three sources “from the library” and it was hard to find three sources on any one topic because their library was so small. Just one example of the short shrift they give to creating anything even approximately resembling a real college.

          My mother was infuriated when my wife and I refused to attend my sister’s WCBC graduation – because my LAW SCHOOL graduation was scheduled for the same week! We got into a huge and unfortunate fight, but she kept telling me stuff like “West Coast just cares so much about winning souls” and “They have such a spirit of joy there” and “They are so on fire for the Lord” etc. I told her, “All of that kind of stuff is just marketing.” That made her maaaaad!!! But it’s true!!

  17. The leadership slider disappeared as a result of the bubble wrap slider being used.

      1. Lol! Right? I think he was trying to channel Jim Carrey…but it came off less funny and more terrifying.

        2. That would make sense! But I agree about the effect. Watching it, I thought, “I think they want us to think this is funny, but this is just weird!” Part of it, I think was that the bit went on a long time. Or maybe that’s just me expecting it to be the length of a typical TV commercial. They just kept playing and playing and playing with the bubble wrap.

        4. I was thinking Steve Carrell (or Michael Scott) as well. If you kind of squint, the video freeze frame looks like Steve.

    1. My sentiment exactly. Then again, what do you expect from a “college” where a applicants grades and SAT scores are irrelevant to the admissions board?

      1. My sisters are at WCBC and they didn’t take the SAT because “God doesn’t want women to take that test. They don’t need all that math to be wives and mothers.” I wish I was making this up but I’m not.

        1. As much as I am for “traditional gender roles” (as the modern phrase goes), their statement irritates me a great deal. My dear wife is good at math and uses it in both her shopping and cooking (perhaps ratios, and not calculus, but it is still math). She remembers prices and double-checks the items as they are rung up. Again, may be more a memory for numbers and facility with numbers, but the kids & I are impressed with her.

          And then what about women who aren’t going to marry? I don’t remember what the population ratio is, but it isn’t exactly 1-to-1… in the USA, there are more females than males. So, not all women will marry.

    2. That would my response, too. That, and running far, far away, just in case the idiocy is catching.

  24. So, I am curious, in the commencement addresses, the President says “By the power vested in me by the college board and the State of California….”
    So, does anyone know how he is allowed to say that if they don’t have accreditation?

    1. Isn’t it fascinating that he says that even though they DON’T SEEK “state accreditation.” What they claim (falsely) is that they have the authority of the State of California to grant degrees basically on the legal theory that since California doesn’t prohibit them from granting “degrees” then it must be actively authorizing them.

      1. IMHO West Coast Baptist College could not gain accreditation if they wanted to. LOW QUALITY SCHOOL.

  28. It’s not as if other colleges and universities, including my employer, don’t do stupid things to recruit students. The problem here is that the gimmick has no relation to anything about the college. The video conveys an image of mindless fun (so mindless that, I still think, suffocation is a possibility). But does anyone believe that “fun” is what this college is about? And if so, is it this kind of fun? It just seems excessive and desperate.

    1. Fun IS what that place is all about. My wife and I call it the IFB party school. They take days off all the time to send the students away for entertainment outings to Disney Land, Six Flags, Dodgers games (where they all grandstand by singing Victory in Jesus en masse), the Reagan library, the beach, etc. Those kids goof off non stop. Very little education takes place. But the students are required to go “soulwinning” to boost the numbers at the church so it’s all cool. 🙄

      1. The forced “soul-winning” is bad enough, but the terrible, eternal consequences they cause when they tell (imply?) that by saying a magic prayer, people will go to heaven. No new birth really takes place, but if someone tries to show them that they are lost, the response is “I’ve done that”.

        They are messing around with someone’s eternity for the sake of their numbers!

        1. Absolutely! After the Spirit put the desire for God in me,I tried for months to get saved by saying the magic words. I spent months in terror – walking aisles, reading tracts, praying the magic words. Nothing.

          And then one day God opened up Isaiah 53:6 to me – and I believed and was changed forever. No magic words. No aisle. Actually – no tears. I laughed with relief.

        2. I agree, GR, and there is the further issue that they are one of those smallish IFB schools that uses the Bible college for the SOLE purpose of bulking up the numbers (and revenue) of the associated church.

      2. Lancaster Baptist’s high school feeds into WCBC and quality-wise it lags behind the public and private schools. Lancaster Baptist’s TOP students can not take the advanced classes available at other schools.

        Top public school students take 3-4 (AP level) years of foreign language, while this church school only offers 2 years max.

        Calculus? Nope.

        Advanced Placement anything? Not available.

        Unless the parents supplement them in other ways, these kids can not hope to compete with the good public school kids for admission to REAL universities. REAL universities in CA are very competitive.

        And maybe this fact works to West Coast Baptist College’s favor – since they become the easiest school for their unprepared students to enroll.

        I think West Coast Baptist and LBC’s K12 school are doing a great disservice to their students.

        1. Not to mention the fact that the University of California system is viewing all applicants who didn’t take a state-approved science curriculum with extreme suspicion. I have never ever understood why fundies can’t stomach the thought of teaching the theory of evolution as such. They don’t have to tell their kids to believe it if they don’t want to, but why not at least teach it???

        2. Oh I wish they would teach evolution! Might have prevented my spiritual crisis when I got to university. When all you’ve heard is “it’s wrong” and certain extreme examples of wrongness, you have no answer when faced with intelligent people teaching it as fact. Caricatures don’t stand up to reality.

          I say this having survived the crisis thanks to an outreach event featuring Answers in Genesis materials. Whatever else people might say about them, they helped me. I still don’t believe in life from non-life, but I’ve learned to work with people who do (hint: doesn’t come up in conversation often).

      3. The two kids I know who have gone to WCBC specifically chose it because they don’t enjoy school and couldn’t hack the academics at other Fundy Us.

  29. It’s just a youth conference skit. There was probably some “in” joke going on you would have had to be there to understand. They have a couple other spoofs and skits on their Youtube account. Some friends and I made videos and did skits all the time based on stuff that happened at school. None of you would get it, but the other students thought they were hilarious.

    1. Their baptistery video was not so innocent.

      But they have removed it from public viewing now…

  30. The bubble-wrap hat on the creepy guy looks like a condom. I’m sure that was accidental.

  31. The thing that gets me is how you can rate spirituality, leadership, etc. How weird is that?

    1. All the APCs and PCs at BJU took a test rating us in 19 character traits such as Holy, Prudent, and Respectable. Our answers were rated and we were given a numerical value that identified us in each trait as either a New Christian, Normal Christian, or Mature Christian.

      1. There is so much judgment implied in calling the middle ranking “normal Christian.”

      2. Two guys jumping about having a blast with Bubble Wrap, oh yeah, they’re Mature Christians all right. 😛

      3. I’ve written published articles on so-called Christian worldview tests. Is there a way I could see a copy of that test?

        1. I’ll be sending Darrell a copy of the evaluation that APC/PCs did of their roommates. I don’t have the quiz that WE took, however, only my results and the booklet explaining all the steps to take to help achieve those 19 character qualities.

        2. Wow, PW, Bob Jones was wimpy with their 19 qualities. At ATI (Bill Gothard) training centers, we had to be evaluated as to 49 character qualities!! (They were divided into sets of 7 and each set was keyed to one of the “seven spiritual gifts.” Whichever set you got the highest score was supposedly your spiritual gift.)

        3. Gothard is crazy for checklists and steps and vows and steps for spiritual success.

          BJU used the qualities listed in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9, combining some like “not soon angry” and “no striker,” thus coming up with 19.

      4. I don’t remember anything like that at PCC; I was APL my senior year, I’m sure only because I was the oldest. I remember our PL was one of those really spiritual people, but where it’s kind of forced, you know? And I dreaded when we had to hold prayer meeting in my room–I always felt like she was rating me.

  32. That, and right at the end when they showed the last unpopped bubble. All I could think was, “I wonder where exactly that bubble is?”

    1. Since the unpopped bubble was on his chest… that means the bubbles in “other” areas had already been popped…

  33. Soooooooooooo, the way to get more students into Fundy colleges is to offer an unlimited supply of Bubble Wrap? 🙄 Because let’s face it, all that stuff about Leadership and Humility and a Spiritual Walk with GAWD really aren’t very evident there, and not nearly as much fun as Bubble Wrap. :mrgreen:

  34. These people are so isolated from the real world that they think of the most odd things to be funny.
    When I was in one of these schools, I remember the stupidest things considered funny. You can see another example of this kind of dork humor here at a similar school

  35. In case you are unfamiliar with the (pop culture?) reference from the boys’ video, there is a marketing campaign put out by a credit score website with commercials just like theirs. Here’s a link to the playlist on YT: http://bit.ly/Zcbw7E
    These boys have been watching commercials… sinners.

    1. WCBC is immersed in pop culture, believe me. They pay lip service to all the typical fundy rules, but it’s more of a “wink, wink” type of situation. Their students wear just about whatever they want, watch just about whatever they want, and listen to just about whatever music they want. They have finally figured out the formula that the rules are there to attract donors and parents while the lax enforcement is there to attract students.

      Having watched two of my sisters go through their program, I have come to the conclusion that they are essentially an evangelical school like Liberty or Regent or Baylor with a very thin veneer of IFB layered on top. However, they use that IFB veneer to justify offering a crap “education” instead of holding themselves to real academic standards.

  37. Interesting that they choose to promote their Christian School that way. A dear fundy lite pastor friend of mine tells the youth of his church to be wary of what the “draw card” is for Christian schools they visit. Are they selling the food? the “fun” atmosphere? the campus? the cool glass elevators? or perhaps a program that will allow them to learn the scriptures and be drawn closer to Christ? Wise words.

  38. WCBC has always tried to be hip with cool graphics and videos, more so than any other Fundy U. But this video is just plain stupid, methinks.

  39. Isn’t this the same bunch who did the video of their administrator wrestling the school mascot?

    Their sense of humor is … well, different.

      1. I assumed it was supposed to be humorous, since it doesn’t make sense as anything else, but now that you mention it, I don’t have any real evidence of humorous intent, such as, for example, any actually funny parts.

  40. Thanks, George.

    That was supposed to say, “Wouldn’t have guessed it was called ‘humor’.”

  41. I thought it was rather assuming. Some of you are so anti-fundy that you can’t see a little humor. I think some fundamental churchs could hand out $100 bills and you would complain that it wasn’t $200. Lighten up and quit trying to bash anything a fundy does.

    1. I’d agree with most commenters that this wasn’t that funny – the overall feel was that the guys were milking a lame joke too hard, and the actors seemed way too excited – creepily so at points. This isn’t fundy bashing per se – although this approach to selling a college is, well, refreshingly honest? I don’t know. My kids are going to secular universities/colleges/community colleges. They’re seemingly OK.

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