For years, the American notion of a hero has been accosted, compromised, and generally diluted. Gone are the days when John Wayne rode into town and took care of business. We knew he was good—really good—and we were comforted by the fact that he would kill no one who did not deserve to die. “A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do,” Wayne sagaciously intoned. “Women have the right to work wherever they want, as long as they have the dinner ready when you get home.” Oops! I guess he said that too but never mind . . .
Not so today. Heroes exude empathy not goodness. Witness Robert Downey’s flawed, self-centered Ironman. Or Hugh Jackson’s moody Wolverine. And who can forget the poor, pathetic Hulk? Everyone wants to forget the shady, morally dubious Christian Bale’s Batman! But my personal favorite for sissy of the year is Spiderman. One Freudian self-identity crisis after another. He whines all the time. Can you imagine John Wayne whining?
One sidebar—I am arguably a candidate for sissy of the year myself. Last week I had to have a tetanus booster. Don’t you hate doctor waiting rooms? And I emphasis WAITING rooms—sometimes for hours. As I waited for my tetanus shot I imagined myself waiting for the guillotine with Sydney Carton at the end of A Tale of Two Cities
Archive for the ‘homeschooling’ Category
Homeschooling: Captain America: A Different Kind of Hero 1
Tuesday, July 12th, 2011WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN COLLEGE?
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009Be careful: what is a Christian college? Only a very few Christian colleges offer Ph.D.s. This means that the majority of Christian College faculties are trained in secular universities. That means there is no guarantee that Christian faculty will have a world view different from secular university faculty.
As a rule of thumb, in my opinion, evangelical students should try to attend Christian colleges. The fact is, if you are planning to attend graduate school, undergraduate degrees (if they are accredited) are more or less perceived equally by most graduate schools. If you have any doubt, phone the school and ask where their students attend graduate school.
Finally, in many ways it is a moot point. The majority of evangelical parents prefer to send their students to local, state or community colleges. Why? Cost. You can save on tuition and housing costs. In fact, it is not a bad idea to take most of your basic courses at a community or junior college. Keep this in mind, though. Transfer students with two years of college (c. sixty credits) virtually never receive financial aid. So, if you have a chance to receive scholarship aid, it might be more financial feasible for you to attend a four year undergraduate school immediately after high school graduation.
Speaking of graduation, why don’t some of you home school students consider a senior mission year? My son, Peter, finished his academic work junior year, obtained a good SAT Score, and spent his senior year suffering for Jesus at Maui (as in Maui, Hawaii) Bible College. It was a very positive experience for him. When he finished Bible College, he applied to college (his SAT scores were current) and he began his undergraduate education at Liberty University, Lynchburg, Virginia.
Some students wisely learn a trade before they begin undergraduate school. For instance, I have heard of a young man (home schooled) who learned how to wire houses. While an undergraduate and then a graduate student at Cornel University, he paid his way through college by wiring houses. When he graduated with a Ph. D. in electrical engineering he had no debt and obviously he was very employable.
THINGS ARE CHANGING
Friday, November 13th, 2009That is all changing—and partly due to the popularity of the American home schooling movement. In massive numbers the American home school movement—initially and presently primarily an evangelical Christian movement—is depositing some of the brightest, capable students in our country into the old, august institutions like Harvard. And, what is more exciting, the flash-point of cultural change is changing from Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Stanford to Wheaton, Grove City, Calvin, and Liberty (all evangelical universities). Before long the new wave of elite culture creators will be graduating from American secular universities and Christian universities and they shall be a great deal different from the elite of which I was a part in the middle 1970s. I am not saying the secular university will change quickly—intellectual naturalistic reductionism makes that extremely difficult. However, I do see the whole complexion of university graduates to change significantly in the next twenty years. Never in the history of the world has such a thing happened.
Something similar occurred at the end of Augustine’s life in the middle of the first millennium. Augustine lived in a time when the Roman Empire was collapsing. However, while the barbarians conquered Rome, the Church of Jesus Christ conquered the barbarians. Augustine and his elite Christian generation was used by the Lord to assure the future of the European church and European civilization.
Again, in the 1600s a new generation of evangelicals arose—the Puritans. Likewise this new generation of elites settled the New World and established the United States of America.
Young people, if you are part of this new evangelical elite, you have immense opportunities ahead of you. A new Godly generation is arising. Are they called for such a time as this to guide this nation into another unprecedented revival? We shall see.
Now, though, it is important that we look at more practical considerations. For instance, how is one accepted and able to thrive in the most competitive universities—secular or Christian? What does it mean to be a “Christian†university?
As this author argues, however one may feel about it, most of the culture creators of America graduate from 10 or 12 prestigious, competitive, mostly secular schools. That will change slowly as Christian universities become more competitive in attracting the best students (this author observed recently that the Christian evangelical university Grove City had the same acceptance rate as Princeton University!). In fact, many of the world’s decision makers are graduates of these schools. And, praise God, evangelicals have more opportunities than ever to attend these schools. We have already discussed what the liberal 21st century university looks like.
JESUS CHRIST TO THIS NATION
Thursday, October 1st, 2009Home schoolers, we are called to be Jesus Christ to this nation.
Jesus risked his life to face down death by hunger, by greed, and by tyranny. He stood eye-to-eye with raw evil and categorically refused to buy into any sort of hatred or oppression. In the face of the neighbors whom he loved He risked everything to tell the truth. He risked everything to transform situations of death into situations of life. He risked everything for people who never thanked Him–lepers, poor women, blind beggars, thieving tax collectors . . . and you and me. That is right. He put Himself at great risk for you and for me. Because He was there for such a time as this . . .
We have to be willing to enter the wilderness, to be in a place of great risk and diminished resources.
But better to be in the wilderness than in Egypt!
Our hurting world is out there with outstretched arms. Like Esther, we are called to be agents of transformation, agents of life in the face of death. But guilt is not the reason we accept the call. Our reason is that God loves us, stands up for us daily against death, transforms our lives from emptiness and despair to hope and life. Now I know that this sounds chauvinistic, but the fact is home schooled children are doing better in every arena. So what? This is a call to us to be Jesus Christ to this nation.
The missionary Robert Speer describes God’s call to his life in this way: “I think love will hear calls where the loveless heart will not know that they are sounding.” We respond to others needs because we are first loved ourselves. What else can we do?
Home schoolers, in 2009, we have come again to that sacred moment when God meets us in Jesus Christ. We are loved into becoming agents of transformation. We now need to take Him to the world. He empowers us to withstand whatever obstacles we may face.
A BURDEN OF LOVE
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009During World War II Zvi Michalowski, a Lithuanian Jew, was captured by the Nazi invaders and condemned to die, along with all the Jews from his village. Typically, the Nazi executioners lined up all the Jews in front of a ditch outside Zvi’s small town and then they were shot.
Zvi, though, had fallen into the pit a fraction of a second before the volley of shots which killed those standing with him, including his father. Later, Zvi crawled from the pit and escaped.
Nearby were several Christian homes–homes that Zvi knew were religious homes that might help him. Naked and covered with blood he knocked on the first door. The door opened. A peasant stood in front of him. “Please help me,” Zvi pleaded. The woman lifted the lamp closer to his face and responded, “Go back to the grave where you belong, Jew!”
And she slammed the door.
Zvi knocked on several doors and received a similar response.
Finally, Zvi, desperate for shelter and help, came to one final door and knocked. When the door opened, Zvi, lifting his arms to his side, cried, “I am your Lord, Jesus Christ. I came down from the cross. Look at me–the blood, the pain, the suffering of the innocent. Let me in.”
The poor woman did and Zvi survived the War.
The theologian writer Fred Buehner writes in his book Now and Then, “When you find something in a human face that calls out to you, not just for help but in some sense for yourself, how far do you go in answering that call, how far can you go, seeing that you have your own life to get on with . . .” You go as far as necessary. You go as far as you can. You go as far as Christ went. . .
Home schoolers, how much do you love America? Are you willing to die for them? Are you willing to put your children in a place of risk for this nation?
Perhaps we are called to this place for such a time as this . . .
Listen: the safest place for our children to be is in the center of God’s will. Do you believe that?
FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009“Who knows, you may have been placed in this place for such a time as this?”–Esther 4:14
In our Scripture reading today the Jewish nation is facing imminent extinction. They stand at the brink of annihilation, genocide. They are the victims of the vitriolic and uncontrolled hatred of one man, Haman, and the whimsical irresponsibility of the foolish king, Ahasuerus.
Today America is facing a crisis. While we no doubt, in spite of Sept. 11, 2001, have political and military hegemony, we have lost the high ground. That is for sure! And our world as we know it is ending. The once sacred cultural icons of this nation no longer satisfy the needs of our people. And God is lifting up a Godly movement of 3-4 million spirit filled leaders . . . What is He trying to say, brothers and sisters?
In the past God used Revivals to bring renewal. I think that in the future He will use movements like the home school movement to bring renewal and revival.
Therefore, we have a responsibility to be Esther to this nation.
The reader wonders, “Where is the calvary? Who will save the good guys this time? Who will part the Red Sea? Where is Moses?”
But there is no Moses, there is no apparent savior. There is only weak Esther. Esther, the queen of Babylon who, hiding her Jewishness, manages to become the most powerful woman in Babylon. But, the most powerful woman in the world is less powerful than the poorest, weakest man, for this is a patrifocal society. It is ruled by men, not women.
But someone must save the nation. Someone must take a stand or every Hebrew man, woman, and child will die. And they will die soon.
Someone must take a stand or the nation will perish.
Esther’s cousin Mordecai comes to warn Esther than she must give up her anonymity and take a stand or they will all perish. All Esther wants to do is slip back into the safety of her role. Who can blame her? But for the sake of the nation, Esther will risk everything to do what is necessary. Though her knees must be shaking, she determines to stare death in the face and stand up for her people. Which is what she does. Unless summoned by her husband, Esther faces certain death by approaching him,for one never approaches an Oriental monarch unsummoned. Especially if one is a lowly woman–even a wife.
Why should she help her relatives and countrymen? What had they done for her lately? No doubt they had scorned her for her fraternization with the enemy. Esther would have known much condemnation and rejection. I doubt that she had any love loss with the Jews. Why should she put herself and her children in jeopardy for people who had no doubt rejected and derided her?
Home schoolers why should we care about the rest of America? What have they done for us lately – except harass and persecute us. ; Why should we rest anything – much less everything – for this nation?
The Lay of the Land: Preparing This Generation to Be World Changers For Christ
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009We must prepare this generation to be different in meaningful ways. We must prepare this generation–like no other–to be in the work but not of the world. As Josh Harris loves to say, “American cannot take another Christian generation that just fits in.†The postChristian age is one dominated by anxiety, irrationalism and helplessness. In such a world, consciousness is adrift, unable to anchor itself to any universal ground of justice, truth or reason. Consciousness itself is thus “decentered”: no longer agent of action in the world, but a function through which impersonal forces pass and intersect [Patricia Waugh in Gene Edward Veith, Jr., Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture, p. 45]. Let’s examine some modern trends.
The first is a pervasive and abiding concern about the future. To those of us who lived through the Cold War this seem ludicrous. But it is real and this generation is one of the most hopeless in history. Interestingly enough this hopelessness has made us rather sentimental. We have become very sentimental about the past. We have lost our way; lost our dreams.Dr. Harvey Cox: “We once had dreams and no technology to bring them to pass.†Now we have technology but no dreams! Even in our most creative creations it is more of the same: Star Wars are going after the same thing we want and still not finding it. Notice bar scene. The Star Wars phenomenon is so appealing because it is about the past; not about the future. Luke Skywalker is more like John Wayne than he is like Tom Cruse. To this hopeless generation history is not sacred; it is merely utilitarian. It is not didactic; it helps make them feel better. The modern psychologist B.F. Skinner, for instance, disdains history and gives mm’s to monkeys. We have no actions–only fate driving us. We are rudderless. The fact is we Christians know, however, that God is in absolute control of history. We need to teach our children to be tirelessly hopeful. We need to make sure that we are not mawkish! We can easily do so by speaking the Truth found in the Word of God in places of deception.
Next, there is a serious breakdown of community. The Christian teacher Oz Guinness says . . .It is now questionable whether America’s cultural order is capable of nourishing the freedom, responsibility, and civility that Americans require to sustain democracy. Modernity creates problems far deeper than drugs, etc. It creates a crisis of cultural authority in which America’s beliefs, ideals, and traditions are losing their compelling power in society. Sociologist Peter Berger says. . . One of the features of our modern day has been the loss of mediating institutions, so that we now have increasingly atomistic individuals and a powerful state, with no buffers in-between. The Christian homeschooler, therefore, must not merely talk the talk, he must walk the walk. We must create an alternative community of hope. We must sabotage the conspiracy of hopelessness and self-centeredness that is so pervasive in our nation.
America Needs Homeschoolers
Tuesday, September 15th, 20092.5 million strong, homeschoolers are in almost every county in America. You, will, without a doubt, be the next successful business people, craftsmen, and professionals. Within a few years you will, I believe, become leaders in our society. Besides the fact that homeschoolers are scoring higher on almost all standardized tests, you are also better adjusted emotionally and spiritually than the general population. I believe that most of you will move to the head of graduating classes of the most prestigious Christian and secular universities in America. You will become leaders in government and industry. The Christian community has not had such an opportunity to influence civil society since the time of Constantine. This is a great opportunity and challenge!
Never has American needed homeschoolers more! At the same time that Christians are beginning to take their place in society, American culture has never needed them more. The Christian teacher Oz Guinness argues that American culture is no longer sustaining Americans. In our homes, in our work places, in our places of play–the stadium–we are struck by the facileness, superficiality, and subterfuge that permeates all parts of American society. Mediocrity has replaced meritocracy.“The Medium has become the message,†the social Critic Neal Postman writes and indeed it is. We, as a culture, have dumbed down, as it were. We do not know how to think; we do not know how to analyze knowledge. We are lost . . .
Culture has to do with making sense out of life and formulating strategies for action; and the ideas and symbols that people draw on in these fundamental undertaking are no longer working. Marriage is no longer working–over 1/2 of American marriages are failing. Fatherhood is not working–4/5 poor American urban families are single family homes. Many of the things that we took for granted are no longer working, no longer have meaning.
That is the bad news.
The good news is that I think that homeschoolers will be different. Our families are stronger, our children are more productive. There is no magic here–my wife and I have sacrificed so much for our children. But it is working and I believe that I will live to see one of the greatest revivals in human history! This generation, then, I believe is one of the most strategic generations in history. How can we prepare them?