Details

Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 06 May 2024

What conclusions have you drawn about the pro-terrorist social contagion sweeping the nation’s university campuses?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #148 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

Why do “protesters”– generously named for sure – believe performative outrage, annoying disruption of others’ lives, outright threats or harassment of other American citizens, hunger strikes, or vandalism will persuade others to their point of view?

None of this, certainly not vandalism, validates any point of view, other than lawlessness. Boorish, immature, threatening language or behavior wins no social advancement to any cause celébre.

What kind of mass psychosis has gripped so many people in America, including public university faculty and administrative leaders, and misnamed so-called “progressive” politicians that they have no moral conscience, no common sense, no respect for law or order, no evident patriotism—-and worse, openly support Hamas?

Demonstrations now occurring on more than 80 public university campuses nationwide are not the same as demonstrations in the 1960s. 

1) the demonstrations in the 60s focused upon the Viet Nam War in which Americans were directly involved. Not so today. 

2), 60s demonstrations, including those focused upon gaining civil rights for Black Americans were based upon US Constitutional law and other American founding documents. Today’s demonstrators specifically reject these documents and their values.

The right to express oneself, to disagree, even to protest is indeed an American civil liberty defined by Free Speech in the First Amendment. As far as that goes, I’m all in. But an extensive body of law developed largely in the 1960s clearly states that protests qualify as free speech as long as they remain peaceful, do not impede others as in highways, tunnels, streets, and walkways, do not incite violence or endanger others, do not commandeer, or destroy property, and do not turn violent. Today’s demonstrations have repeatedly crossed these lines in multiple locations.

Politicians and celebrities are rushing to assert the protesters are just courageous students speaking up on behalf of Palestinian human rights. But this gaslighting has now been debunked in several cities, including prominently at Columbia University in New York. “Outside agitators,” professionals, some paid, are involved. They are “fifth-column anarchists,” some from elsewhere in the world. 

Actually, “America's ‘leading’ university campuses have been completely overrun by an infestation of riotous, anarchic Hamas sympathizers. Jewish students and faculty on campus are suffering the worst antisemitism in the history of the American republic.”

Predictably, numbers of students do not know why they are there or what they are protesting. 

Student protesters and agitators are yelling, chanting, singing, and signing not simply pro-Palestinian messages, something that is at least worthy of discussion, but antisemitic, anti-Israel, and “Death to America” slogans. For example, “The Final Solution,” or “Long live the Intifada,” meaning kill all the Jews, “We’re all Hamas,” “Go back to Poland,” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied.”

American university students don’t seem to realize or care that calling for the genocide of Jews includes fellow students and faculty members, the US Vice President’s husband, Doug Emhoff, former President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, movie mogul Stephen Spielberg, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen Bernie Sanders, and thousands more. Do they really want to kill all these people too?

What we are seeing is, yes, a minority of students in public universities, but still, these are our kids. What we’re seeing is evidence of that “collapsing standards, and increasingly politicized and mediocre faculty reflect a collapse of the university system.”

“Faculty hiring had become increasingly non-meritocratic based on diversity/equity/inclusion criteria. New faculty hires have sought to institutionalize self-serving DEI and recalibrate higher education to prepare a new generation for self-perpetuating radical ideologies. Entire generations are now suffering from prolonged adolescence as they drag out college to consume their early and mid-twenties.”

My 35 years in higher education makes me ache when I watch all this. I loved academia, debate and critical thinking, and the campus atmosphere. But today, “one of the great ironies in contemporary college systems is how rampantly anti-intellectual they have become over the course of the last generation or so. Cerebral rigor, open-mindedness, and challenging information have long been underpinning aspects of university life. These days, those same elements are regarded as threats on too many campuses.”

“Advocacy has increasingly displaced academics in higher education. Activism now permeates higher education as social justice becomes the touchstone for many departments.”

“The emphasis on advocacy at the expense of education has also contributed to the increasing hostility toward opposing views on campus. These professors and students often show little tolerance for others’ views and “advocate” by canceling or silencing other views as ‘harmful.’”

“As usual with the radicals, "objectivity" or "bothsidesism" is painted as evil, and anyone speaking in support of Israel is automatically a maniacal Zionist who must be deplatformed.”

Students believe only in “their truth,” and once brainwashed, in solipsistic moral superiority, they believe no other view should be considered. And virtually anything is legitimate in the pursuit of their performance outrage, including tossing paint or powders on centuries-old sculptures or artworks, anything for a good TikTok video.

If American democracy is at risk, as we often hear these days, it is not from conservatives or Christians. It is at risk from those on the Left – not Liberals – but Leftist, so-called “Progressive,” socialists—American extremists—who hate their own country, promote class warfare, chaos and disruption like campus mob rule, and reject traditional American values like freedom of speech, free enterprise capitalism, law and order, and patriotism. Why? Well, the US is one of the great “Oppressors,” “colonizers,” inherently racist.

Leftists know they cannot win on the merits of their arguments, so they fall back on power. They prompt street chaos, social debauchery, and lawlessness to create a need for stronger central government led by the new philosopher-kings, the Left.

But Leftists are not nice or happy people. “The Left has devolved into intolerant, inflexible, illogical, hateful, misguided, ill-informed, un-American, hypocritical, menacing, callous, ignorant, narrow-minded and, at times, blatantly fascistic behavior and rhetoric.” The Left is illiberal. Even late-night liberal comedian Bill Maher knows this.

This is what we are seeing on public university quads, the product of a public education that is not values neutral.

“As absurd as this may seem, not only is this the insane world in which we now appear to be living, but even more absurd than this, it is a world based upon an insane system of beliefs that we ourselves have created. Put succinctly, with our culture’s abandonment of our Judeo-Christian principles and beliefs, we have now trapped ourselves into being required to operate within the warped logic of a man-made amoral system of beliefs that now prevents us from opposing even that which is evil.”

What do we need to do to adjust, or some would say reclaim, America’s universities, and America itself?

These steps would go a long way:

1. Significantly reduce federal funding for illiberal universities, which receive tens of millions, even billions, of federal tax dollars every year.
2. Fire “Woke,” Pro-Hamas administrative leaders and faculty and staff. I’m not naïve. I know this would be an enormous, litigation-fueled task, but it’s what should be done.
3. Suspend further funding and promotion of DEI or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. These programs talk a good anti-racist game even as the promote racism, destroy incentive while promoting mediocrity, and are anything but fair or equitable. And as to diversity, on most public university campuses today there is very little if any intellectual diversity allowed, meaning conservatives need not apply.
4. Expel, not just suspend, students who commit violence, destroy property, harass nearby Jews, or otherwise threaten public safety.

It feels like America is committing suicide, but for most Americans this is not true. But this is exactly what the Left is seeking by generating chaos in pursuit of power. We must protect our own ideals.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. 

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2024   

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://twitter.com/RexMRogers.

Details

Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 18 March 2024

Does what a child learns stay with him or her for life? 

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #139 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

I confess that all my life, I thought the verse, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it,” found in Prov. 22:6, provided a principle directly referencing Christian education and behavior – until last week.

And of course it does. The verse is used by countless churches, Sunday Schools, Daily Vacation Bible Schools, pastors, church camps, Christian universities, Christian schools, and Christian families as a reminder that God will bless children who are taught moral truth, who are encouraged and expected to live righteously, and who seek to live out their faith as a testimony to God’s purposes in the world. Yes, this verse means all that, and it is a wonderful promise – “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

But what hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks last week is that this verse does not specifically reference any of those good, Christian behavioral practices. What it says is that what a kid learns when he or she is young is going to stick with him or her for the rest of their lives and in all probability will define their character. That idea, train up a child and he will not depart from it, works for good and for bad, for righteousness and unrighteousness, for blessedness and evil. That’s what hit me. 

I was thinking about the hundreds of American students and others who poured into the streets in the past few weeks, shouting antisemitic slurs, spouting diatribes against Jews, Israel, and often America too, and even siding with terrorist Hamas.

Where did these people come from? Where did they learn this hatred?

The short answer is they learned it, or at least the value basis for it, in public schools, or maybe online from internet influencers, or maybe from their often-fragmented families.

So, train up a child and when he is old, he won’t depart from it is a principle at work every day with millions of children and youth. The problem is the trainer and the trainer’s values are not always what they ought to be. And bad influences yield bad results.

All these shouting, virtue signaling, immature but loud voices letting rip chants, slogans, animosity toward Jews – me hearing things I never thought I’d hear in the U.S. – where did these people come from?

Short answer: they came from public schools that are far more anti-Christian, anti-learning or anti-critical thinking, and anti-patriotic than we thought. They came from families where right values were not modeled and right behavior was not demonstrated, or effectively demanded.

Now someone said recently, public education is not neutral. 

“This surge of antisemitism in schools stems from a decade-long politicization of the education system, infiltrating every aspect from educational philosophy to curriculum and classroom discussions…We must understand its driving force: the new leftist dogma. At its core is “critical pedagogy,” an educational philosophy that fuels resentment, victimhood, and collectivism, while promoting hatred towards certain groups. It indoctrinates students to view the world through a lens of power dynamics and oppression. Cloaked in euphemisms such as "inclusivity" and "social justice," this ideology – like all aspects of woke education – contains a destructive mind virus.”

Yet for all this, “many young people believe all of this and conduct themselves accordingly, yet they’re not very happy. This decades-long bombardment of young people with anti-family, anti-religion and anti-personal responsibility messages is working, and the primary casualties are the people at whom it is directed. This is not happening by accident. Authoritarians (and this is not a conspiracy theory) have known for more than a century that it’s easier to subjugate a population when they are removed from allegiances higher than the government. That includes the family, the church, even their innate nature to strive. Americans under the age of 35 have been inundated by cultural and political messaging that paves the road to serfdom and the net is that many more of them are not very happy.”

Does this mean every teacher or professor in public education buys into leftist or radical or socially progressive philosophies contrary to a Christian worldview?

No, of course not. Many public school and university educators are dedicated to their task of teaching, appreciate and love students and learning, and work diligently to share not only subject content but character values that help young people mature.

While their numbers are dwindling, those conservative teachers and professors who remain active are a minority who themselves can experience harassment, professional peer pressure, silencing, threats of losing their jobs, and in some cases, actually being fired for refusing to embrace ideas like preferred pronouns, trans names, anti-America philosophies and attitudes, hostility towards free speech, or suppression of freedom of religion, specifically Christianity. Meanwhile, some of these same teachers and professors committed to teaching fall under immense social and professional pressure to embrace gender fluidity, America as a colonialist-settler nation that exists today solely because white supremacists took land from Indians, reaped bounty from the backs of Black slaves, is comprised of greedy capitalists and the materialistic middle class, and is an oppressor of one victim group after another.

Students are taught not to love their country and the freedom ideals upon which it was established but to distrust or despise their country as a place unworthy of its place in the world, and certainly not a country that has afforded them anything positive or good.

Students don’t know who Americans fought in order to win their freedoms or why, or what any of this means to them today. They think that capitalism is a synonym for raping the wilderness and stealing from the poor. They believe Abraham Lincoln was a racist. They don’t know what Americans and the Allies bequeathed to them via their ultimate sacrifice during WWII.

They’ve been given inflated grades, have been removed from any experience of competitiveness or earned accomplishment, have been led to believe they deserve more, more than whatever they have now, all of which has been handed to them, and they’ve consequently not learned a work ethic, to value punctuality, to honor authority, or to assume responsibility.

They’ve been led to believe various versions of pacifism is somehow higher order moral thinking that works in the real world and makes them feel superior for proclaiming it. They’ve been brainwashed to believe social activism, “by any means necessary,” including vandalism of property or assault upon innocent bystanders is somehow laudatory. Train up a child and when he or she is old they will not depart from it.  

In 2018, Christian social analyst, George Barna, said his research on Gen Z (that’s people born mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years to early 2010s as ending birth years) shows that they are the first truly post-Christian generation. And Gen Z is twice as likely to be atheist as any previous generation. 

In other words, they are not given the truth of the Gospel or a Christian worldview and are allowed if not encouraged to grow up thinking, paradoxically, moral relativism is an absolute. There’s no better than, no right and wrong, other than what they prefer, a might makes right proposition. There’s no accountability to God, so there is nothing they won’t do. There’s no truth, so they get to decide what is “their truth,” and there’s no objective standard to which they compare anything, so anything goes.

This generation is sometimes called the “Connected Generation” because they are online as no cohort ever before, even more than Gen X and Millennials. Yet while they are connected to thousands, they also express feelings of loneliness, detachment, worry, disassociation with the family and an inclination not to have children in a world where climate change is going to kill us all, and depression and suicide.

These feelings of angst and anomie are being reinforced in public schools and in families. Train up a child. 

How we train or what we train the child in has consequences. We’ve possibly lost a generation. In our post-Christian culture, we seem to believe that what kids learn doesn’t matter – a dangerous mistake.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. 

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2024   

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://twitter.com/RexMRogers. 

Details

Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 22 February 2023

Is the revival that seems once again to have started on Christian university campuses real, genuine, God-ordained, and will it ultimately make a spiritual impact?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #71 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life. 

Revival on college and university campuses are not new to American history. But in the current post-Christian culture one no longer expects it.

That said, revival services started this month at Asbury University, Wilmore, Kentucky. “Impromptu nonstop prayer meeting over the past week, drawing visitors from across the country, attracting millions of views on social media and fueling talk of a nationwide religious revival.”

Scripture reading, public prayers, confessions, arms raised, worship singing, some students being saved by making professions of faith in Christ.

“Personal testimonies have gone viral on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, racking up millions of views and inspiring carloads of visitors to descend on Wilmore, population 6,000, to share in what some are calling a movement.”

The movement has spread to other Christian institutions of higher learning: “Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee; Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio; Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky.” Also, revival has now been reported at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama and Campbellsville University in Campbellsville, Kentucky.

“What is happening resembles the famous Asbury Revival of 1970…That revival shut down classes for a week, then went on for two more weeks with nightly services. Hundreds of students went out to share what happened with other schools. But what many don’t realize is that Asbury has an even more extensive history with revivals—including one that took place as early as 1905 and another as recent as 2006, when a student chapel led to four days of continuous worship, prayer and praise.”

The fact of these revivals seems to fly in the face of recent predictions suggesting Christian colleges and universities may soon be a thing of the past.

John Hawthorne, a retired Christian college sociology professor and administrator, said, “Denominations won’t budge, so colleges will need to lead the way. “Otherwise, they might not survive, because students are used to values far different from churches’ teachings.”

’Today’s college freshman was born in 2004, the year Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage,’ Hawthorne said, suggesting there might not be enough conservative students in the future for some of the universities to survive.

“The majority of Christian colleges and universities list “sexual orientation” in their nondiscrimination statements, and half also include “gender identity” – far more than did so in 2013,” according to Jonathan Coley, a sociologist at Oklahoma State University who maintains a Christian higher education database of policies toward LGBTQ students. 

“At some evangelical schools, the argument has now moved from fighting over student's sexual and gender equality to fighting for LGBTQ diversity in faculty and staff hiring.”

“This year, Eastern University, located in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, and affiliated with American Baptist Churches USA, amended its policies to allow for the hiring of faculty in same-sex marriages.”

So, in this view, Christian colleges and universities who don’t “get on the right side of history” and alter or jettison their biblical beliefs about human sexuality are likely to fade into the sunset very soon. Meanwhile, God may have other things in mind.

“People and media have been converging on the (Asbury) campus to try and understand what is happening; what is God doing?...Among those who have attended, who are believers, there seems to be little doubt the hand of the Holy Spirit is at work. The revival began without any famous Christian leader or band being involved. It was not pre-promoted.”

William M. Wilson, president of Oral Roberts University, said, “The revival is helping fill a spiritual void among members of Generation Z.” In his view, “these young people are feeling in their life this spiritual vacuum, somewhat of an emptiness in the society they’re in and a real need for hope.” 

“The mental health crisis in this generation is significant. The uncertainty of the times, the feeling of lostness, in a world of 8 billion people, who are they, in the midst of it, the desire for purpose. I think,” the ORU president said, “all of these are driving a generation to look beyond themselves for the answer.”

In 1 John 4, the Scripture says, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.”

So, we need to ask questions even as we pray in hope regarding these revivals:

• Is this revival consistent with the Word of God?
• Will students’ humility be sustained?
• Is Jesus Christ exalted?
• Does this revival involve confession and repentance, obedience, salvation by faith in Christ, open confession of love for Christ?

• Will God move this revival to public universities?

At Asbury, students are arriving from other universities: the University of Kentucky, Purdue University, Indiana Wesleyan University, Ohio Christian University, Transylvania University, Midway University, Georgetown College, Mt. Vernon Nazarene University, and many others.

After witnessing the revival for himself, an Asbury Theological Seminary theology professor said, “There is no pressure or hype. There is no manipulation. There is no high-pitched emotional fervor.

To the contrary, it has so far been mostly calm and serene. The mix of hope and joy and peace is indescribably strong and indeed almost palpable—a vivid and incredibly powerful sense of shalom. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is undeniably powerful but also so gentle.”

I do not know what God is doing at Asbury or these other universities, but I do believe God is working, that he is doing something powerful and far-reaching.

I pray that the Lord will send his Spirit upon the land beginning perhaps with the most spiritually bereft of places in America—not Hollywood or Broadway, not Bourbon Street—but the college and university campus.

Students coming of age in America have been sold a bill of goods. Our culture has taught youth to reject God, absolute truth, morality, even biological science. Instead, they’ve been taught skepticism and cynicism, that nothing deserves their faith, that nothing and no one is worthy of their trust, certainly not patriotism and not the USA. And sadly, a lot of adults have given youth good cause for their cynicism.

Youth are taught in school, in their music, in their celebrity worship, in their sexual confusion that nothing matters, that there is no purpose, just uncertainty, angst, disquietude.

And nothing has been put in place of this deconstruction of timeless verities. All young people have is nihilism – the idea life is absurd and meaningless. 

Is it any wonder that there is an epidemic of mental health issues among America’s young people?

Nihilism—a philosophy that is irrational, false, wicked, and the face of death, destroys everything it touches, and now it is destroying the nation’s next generation, making them believe life—their lives—are meaningless.

Then the Spirit of God moves among some of his children, speaking in a whisper (I Kings 19:11-12). Perhaps God is whispering at Asbury University and other Christian colleges and universities eager to hear.

If the Lord sends revival across the youth generation, he will change the future of not only their lives but their families, the culture, and the country.

I encourage you to follow these revivals. Pray the Spirit of God will move. Pray God bless America.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. 

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2023   

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.  

Details

Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 22 July 2022

Can you remember a schoolteacher that made a special impact upon or contribution to your life? Did you know this kind of teacher is becoming increasingly rare?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #37 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

Public education today, from kindergarten to graduate school is in serious trouble, and in many examples, moral free-fall.

Once a destination for international students the world over, due to the excellence in teaching, scholarship, and learning to be found there, now public institutions – in general, which is to say most of them – are hothouses of ideological discontent and sources of propaganda rather than truth, something many no longer even believe exists.

Public education today has been co-opted by the Left in ways I’m thinking the average person has no clue. And why would you?  

Unless you have children or youth in school now, unless you take the time to investigate—which since the online schooling that occurred during the lockdowns, began to happen—parents, and even more-so those with no connections to education, just don’t know how fast and how far public education has fallen.

Allow me to take a moment to emphasize that I am not, most definitely not, impugning the integrity or values of every teacher or professor or staff person serving in public education. Far from it.  

Among those who are standing firm for truth, critical thinking, First Amendment liberty, and morality, I think they are our new “First Responders.” These diligent teachers, professors, and staff members are the ones in positions to help children and youth before they are overwhelmed values contrary to science, history, religion, and common sense.

And not every school has surrendered its educational philosophy to the ideological Left to the extent of other schools.  But the exceptions are an endangered species.

Public education from kindergarten to graduate school is now home to: 

• equity of results not equality of opportunity, 
• LGBTQ orthodoxy and drag queen story hours, 
• gender as a social contract, 
• sexually explicit curricula in elementary schools, 
• climate change propaganda, 
• critical race theory promoted by the organization Black Lives Matter, a theory that oddly teaches racism as a means of eliminating racism, then argues endlessly for the absolutized values of diversity, inclusion, and equity, labeling anything not to their liking as white supremacy, 
• Woke political correctness and so-called micro aggressions, 
• Extensive politicization of sports, 
• hostility toward Christianity, 
• victim mentality, promoting victim hood, 
• casting aside science, reason, history, and biology, and often repress freedom of speech and diverse opinions.

Honestly, it is so bad in many public universities that I find it sad and disconcerting when I can’t get excited at the announcement that a friend’s son or daughter has gained entrance at a certain Public U. Some of the big-name schools are better known for their football programs—a sport I enjoy—than their academic programs, many of which have succumbed to anti-Americanism, promotion of abortion on demand and unfettered sexual expression, the class conflicts of cultural Marxism, and the worship of race.

Liberal education in American education was once an engine of free civilization and economic development. But liberal education—a concept once defined as "a philosophy of education that empowers individuals with broad knowledge and transferable skills, and a stronger sense of values, ethics, and civic engagement ... characterized by challenging encounters with important issues, and more a way of studying than a specific course or field of study” is now fast fading from the educational landscape.

Take this example: critical thinking was once a primary goal of liberal education. But now, in many public educational institutions, “critical thinking” really isn’t—or at least it isn’t what employers mean when they use the term. Organizations want people who can be objective and analytical, using logic and reason to solve problems. 

That’s what the term ‘critical thinking’ means to them, and what it has meant to most of us for decades…”

“Today, however, that is not at all what colleges and universities mean—or perhaps I should say, what most professors mean. ‘Critical thinking,’ for them, is a Marxist exercise in ‘critique,’ what Marx himself called ‘the ruthless criticism of all that exists.’ It seeks not to solve problems but to break down, or ‘deconstruct,’ all aspects of society, beginning with but not limited to language.”

So, colleges and universities are teaching students to deconstruct, to tear down, to reject traditional values, to rely on emotion over reason or evidence, to be victims, to believe life and society are unfair though they are entitled, to be in a continual state of anxious anger. Logic, reason, dispassionate observation, hypothesizing, experimentation, problem solving, and a search for truth are all passe, out the window.

Take this second example of the decline of liberal education: debate has given way to “dialogue.” There was a time when evidence, reason, and logic mattered. So genuine debate could take place. “Not so with the new orthodoxy. Here disagreement is an intolerable personal affront. It is construed as a denial of others, of their experience of who they are. It is a blasphemous assault on that most high god, “My Identity.” Truth-as-identity is not appealable beyond the assertion of identity.” 

The late Christian philosopher Francis A. Schaeffer pointed out this trend in the 1970s. He said, “’All A is A and all Non-A is Non-A and therefore A cannot be Non-A and Non-A cannot be A.’ This is the concept of thesis and antithesis. The concept that there is an absolute objective linear truth and that thesis and antithesis make a contrast.”

But the philosopher George Wilhelm Friedrich “Hegel showed up and said that thesis and antithesis shouldn't equal contrast, they should equal synthesis.

In other words, there are no absolute truths, there is no "right" thesis, only many ideas that may result in synthesis.”

“The loss of antithesis in American culture led to what Dr. Schaeffer coined the ‘line of despair’ or giving up all hope of achieving a rational unified answer to knowledge and life.”

As Schaeffer saw it, “Thesis is met by antithesis, and instead of one having to be true and the other false, both are reconciled to develop a synthesis. ‘The conclusion is that all possible positions are relativized and leads to the concept that truth is to be sought in synthesis rather than antithesis.’”

So, debate, a search for truth based upon merits of an argument, long one of the building blocks of real education, is now no longer acceptable, only dialogue =  endless discussion in search of consensus and some synthesized understanding of life. The problem with this is that it leads nowhere, only to power plays or despair.

Theologian Erwin Lutzer described the problem this way: “If we think we can fight against deceived culture by winning the war of ideas, we are mistaken. The best ideas do not win very often in a culture obsessed with empty utopian promises…The America we thought we knew is no more.”

This is the sad state of public education. It exists to educate but no longer remembers how, or why.

Again, to quote Lutzer: “In a time of universal deception, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

This is where the First Responders come in—teachers, professors, staff member, and yes, parents who have the courage of their convictions, who will stand for truth against ideological and intentional error. What’s at stake are the hearts and minds of our children and youth. What’s at stake is the soul of this country and the potential of its future.

I admire and salute public education First Responders who are standing in the face of a tsunami of philosophies intended to tear down rather than build up. Pray for and support these First Responders—public educators and staff members who know truth and still seek to make it known. They are standing in the gap for the future of our children and youth.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022   

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.  

Details

Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 21 June 2022

In a secularizing culture, can Christian colleges and universities thrive?  Can they even survive?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #30 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life. 

During April 2007, just before my time as president at Cornerstone University concluded, the campus was visited by an uninvited group of gay and lesbian students, along with other supporters, who called themselves Soulforce. 

Big money backers had recruited them and organized a national bus tour of Christian colleges and universities. Their intent, they said, was to protest and bring awareness to what was then called the Gay Rights movement. They lined the campus boundaries for a time, then spread out across campus walking into classrooms demanding access and dialogue. Clearly, the Soulforce students had been trained, and tried to force their way onto private property in the hopes of getting arrested and creating photo ops.

The next morning the group first disrupted, then basically tried to take over chapel. While I spoke with several Soulforce individuals, I had told their leaders the day before, “No thank you,” regarding their demand to enter our classrooms, and I got quoted that way in the local press. At the chapel, I walked to the front and dismissed everyone.

Other Christian colleges and universities at the time responded differently. 

Some invited the group for discussions, some treated them to refreshments, others like us said, No thank you. In my role as president, I never criticized or demeaned the students, though I thought their moral views and their methods were wrong, and I also thought they were being used by sophisticated national gay politicos and donors.

In the aftermath, I received about 150 cards and letters, the most I’d ever received referencing any controversy. Some 98% supported our respectful “No thank you” approach. Of the about 2% who criticized my approach, I found it amazing that, almost invariably, somewhere in the missive they mentioned a family member who had come out and who they loved, hence their point of view. 

LGBTQ+ is an issue—almost like no other—that seems to lead people to develop or even change their moral understanding or even their theology, not because they believe they hold a new insight to biblical interpretation, but because they love a family member or friend. 

Looking back, this all seems rather tame, because Christian schools are now in serious trouble, or at least they are under considerable and mounting pressure.

Harvard University was the original Christian institution of higher learning in the new world, founded in 1636, but it long ago left its Christian moorings. 

The same can be said for most of the colleges and universities east and many west of the Mississippi River, most of which were launched by religious organizations. 

Now, among nearly 4,000 post-secondary institutions of higher learning functioning in the U.S., only about 140 present themselves as avowedly Christian and maintain membership in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, along with perhaps 9 others that have chosen to withdraw from the CCCU. 

These are the colleges and universities now facing genuine threats to their survival. Why?

1. National drop in college age students, some estimates at 15%, due to abortion, changing attitudes toward higher education, higher costs, and more.

With the college age student pool declining year by year, competition becomes fiercer, costs of recruitment increases, and students place greater premiums upon perceived institutional prestige. None of this helps generally smaller, private Christian colleges and universities.

2. Decline in families with a Christian worldview who want a Christian education for their youth.

In 2020, Christian researcher George Barna found just 6% of American adults possess biblical worldview. And only 43% of them believe in absolute moral truth.

Among 18- to 29-year-olds, a mere 2% possess a biblical worldview. If you look at several other demographic subgroups, the percentage of individuals who deny the existence of absolute moral truth is much higher: LGBTQ adults (73%), political liberals (67%), Hispanics (65%), Blacks (63%), Democrats (63%), people under age 50 (62%).

If that is not enough, there’s more to this perfect storm.

3. American culture—especially education—has embraced ideologies promoting moral relativism, critical race theory and woke philosophies, and the sexual revolution, including same-sex marriage, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

While race politics, emphasizing diversity, equity, and inclusion, have created controversies for Christian colleges and universities, LGBTQ+ politics is the real point of the spear.

LGBTQ+ students, alumni, and associated activist organizations now have Christian colleges and universities in their crosshairs. They claim that Christian institution’s faith statements discriminate against them when such statements maintain biblical views considering homosexual behavior a sin and define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

LGBTQ+ students at Christian colleges and universities are increasing in number, forming campus organizations, becoming more open about their sexuality, 

and pressuring the boards and administrations of Christian institutions to change their doctrinal statements, student lifestyle policies, and personnel employment policies, in their vocabulary, “accepting and affirming,” LGBTQ+ individuals. 

In the CCCU, “Two member schools went on record to permit same-sex "marriage" couples on faculty and staff – Goshen College and Eastern Mennonite University,” which caused other schools in the CCCU to resign from the association.”

"Azusa Pacific University specifically removed language that barred LGBTQ relationships as part of a standing ban on pre-marital sex" from its student handbook, according to media reports.”

Protesting students at Seattle Pacific University recently handed a rainbow flag to the President as they marched across the platform to receive their diploma. This took place as students staged a sit-in in university facilities demanding the Board reverse its decision to maintain a commitment to biblical views of human sexuality. 

The Christian Reformed Church recently affirmed its understanding of the Scripture and its creeds and doctrinal statements to mean a prohibition of homosexual activity and other sexual behavior outside the bonds of monogamous heterosexual marriage. Students at Calvin College and some personnel reacted with disappointment, suggesting the CRC’s and the school’s policies are homophobic and discriminatory. 

In 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Bostock v Clayton County that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. This means conservative religious institutions may be subject to legal challenge if they cannot show that they are entitled to a ministerial exception under the law.

“Thirty-three LGBTQ students are suing the Department of Education in a class-action lawsuit. The students allege that they faced discrimination at 25 federally funded Christian colleges and universities in 18 states,” including Liberty University. “The ultimate goal of the lawsuit is to strike down Title IX’s religious exemption.”

In 2021, Fresno Pacific University administration denied LGBTQ+ students the ability to form their own Pride club on campus. Students filed a formal Western Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation complaint against the school and called for a formal investigation to take place. 

Regional and state accrediting agencies, without whose accreditation schools cannot offer recognized degrees, are putting increasing pressure upon Christian institutions to align their policies with LGBTQ orthodoxy, what is now considered the only acceptable narrative, embracing all expressions of sexual orientation.

“The Human Rights Campaign, America's largest and most powerful LGBT lobby organization, is pushing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to target Christian educational institutions, demanding that the Biden Administration strip colleges that adhere to rules and positions opposing homosexuality of their accreditation.” This activist group is pressuring President Biden to advance a proposal to eliminate nondiscrimination exemptions for religious colleges if the institutions support biblical definitions of marriage or fail to offer "scientific curriculum requirements."

In other words, LGBTQ+ demands, increasing cast by activists and the courts as civil rights issues, are now going head-to-head with First Amendment religious freedom guarantees.

And it’s not just Christian institutions. 

A NY County Supreme Court judge recently handed down a ruling saying Yeshiva University, despite its Jewish religious convictions, must recognize an LGBTQ Pride club on campus.

So, it appears some Christian colleges or universities are changing, some would say capitulating, their moral views in an effort to survive, fearing possible loss of accreditation, tax-exempt status, and access to federal funds. Others are thus far standing firm. 

No one knows where this is going. But it is certain the next five years are going to make or break some Christian colleges and universities.

What we are watching here is the frontlines of the now intensifying “Second American civil war,” a worldview war pitting an ascendant non-biblical worldview vs the Judeo-Christian values upon which this country was founded. It’s a battle for America’s soul and its future.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. 

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022   

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.