Sara Palin, Vice President?

Sara Palin is now in line to become the first women to hold the office of the Vice President. I know very little about Governor Palin other than what I have read recently. As a Christian, I am anxious to find out where she stands spiritually. I do know that she is pro-life, pro-NRA and conservative so the fire works will soon begin.

We must do our own homework to evaluate this choice. We can not let the media be our lone resource for our information when they have proven, time and time again, to be bias, agenda-driven and untrustworthy? Before judging Governor Palin too harshly, consider these points because you will not hear them from the media:

1. Her experience in governance actually dwarfs that of the Democratic Presidential candidate.
2. We have heard a lot about change and a new Washington from both candidates, yet the Republican candidate's selection fits best as Palin is far from Washington and already proven to have the ability to stand up to corruption.
3. On the not from Washington front, Palin is not from the "club" as she graduated from the University of Idaho.
4. She has delivered on her promises to her people by cutting waste from the budget and sticking to that budget; something Washington knows little about.

The media will surely hate her before they even know her because she is the anti-them. I love my country dearly but am saddened by what I see in the media and in government these days. Journalists, in the past, labored to be neutral and to report truth because they respected the power at their fingertips; now, most arrogantly use it for their own purposes. Politicians, in the past, sacrificed to be in office in order to humbly serve their people. Today, words like sacrifice and humility are rarely associated with politics. As this election nears, please...do not waste your vote because voting still allows you to be part of the political process! This time it may matter more than you know. Blessings!

Gordon Clark and Moral Education

Gordon Clark's book, Essays on Ethics and Politics, is full of rich thoughts on a variety of topics. Here are some of his thoughts on education. Enjoy!

Moral Education

Can moral education be grounded on naturalism? Humanism, naturalism and atheism have no moral grounds for any morality whatsoever. Can an empirical philosophy, a philosophy that repudiates revelation, an instrumentalist or descriptive philosophy provide a ground for any moral prescriptions whatsoever? They cannot. Instead, they place moral issues on the ground of personal preference. All attempts are failures to infuse morality in a naturalistic system because there is no empirical knowledge sufficient to brand murder as wrong and private property as right. Any system of thought that denies a divine sanction of moral (for or against actions) fails to condemn murder, theft, adultery, but also fails to establish any universal laws or common distinction between right and wrong.

The Atheist Church

I read an ARTICLE recently that made me chuckle. Atheists, those who claim that God does not exist, are now openly discussing the formation of a church-like body. Quoting the article...

"The quartet of best-selling authors who have emerged to write the gospel of New Atheism—Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and Dawkins (the Four Horsemen, as they are now known)—has succeeded in mainstreaming atheism in a nation that is still overwhelmingly religious and, in the process, catalyzed a reexamination of atheistic raison d’être."

I am confused. What gospel is there to write?

More...

" Atheism’s great awakening is in need of a doctrine. “People perceive us as only rejecting things,” says Ken Bronstein, the president of a local group called New York City Atheists. “Everybody wants to know, ‘Okay, you’re an atheist, now what?’ ”

What doctrine? Let's just pretend they are right for one minute just to make a point. What they are proposing here, will it not result in another form of "oppressive religion" in the years to come? Are they not doing exactly what they are accusing so many "religious" people of doing in the past?

And, there is no "what" if there is no God. Why write doctrine when there are no rules, and everyone is free to live as they wish? As a matter of principle, their worldview demands that there be no doctrine in order to live consistently within their beliefs. If they do write and publish doctrine then they are no longer free to criticize any other religious doctrine, if they wish to live inside their worldview consistently. Consistency is the knife that slices to the marrow of worldviews. It is the Christian worldview that can be lived out consistently.

More...

"At this point, the movement can’t even agree on a name. Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great, prefers the term anti-theist because he’s entertained the possibility that God exists and finds the prospect frightening, the spiritual equivalent of living in North Korea. Daniel Dennett continues to promote the term bright, which, he has said, is “modeled very deliberately and very consciously on the homosexual adoption of the word gay.” (In the first chapter of God Is Not Great, Hitchens dismisses the term as conceited.) And Sam Harris, brash young scientist that he is, triggered a minor revolt last fall at the Atheist Alliance International Conference in Crystal City, Virginia, when he lashed out against the term atheist, disparaging those who identify with a negation. “It reverberated in atheist circles as a sacrilege,” Harris told me. “But what’s worse is adopting language that was placed on us by religious people. We don’t feel the need to brand ourselves non-astrologers or non-racists.”

I do apologize for my responses here, but it is, again, as scripture states: without God man will become proud and think he is intelligent when he really is just foolish. I know because I have been that fool many times, but each time God reached down and rescued me from myself.

One final thought: if there is no God, and man has evolved, why the militant onslaught against a none being that does not exist? Is that really the highest form of intelligence? Should anyone follow those who continue to attack a none being? Would you listen to a group that organized itself to protest the Lucky Charms leprechaun or the Keebler elves? If you desire to really know the truth, do not listen to men; instead, ask God to reveal Himself to you, and He will change your life beyond what you could have ever imagined! Blessings to all!

Michael Scott Horton and Christless Christianity

Modern Reformation had a great article by Michael Scott Horton recently. Dr. Horton's writings have always convicted me. His book, Putting Amazing Back into Grace, radically impacted my life in many ways when I was an arrogant baby Christian.

His article, Christless Christianity, is a must read. Click HERE to read the entire article. It should make you sit up in your chair and examine your own life, and then lead you to look at your surroundings with discerning eyes. We are to give every aspect of our lives to Him in order to live lives totally in Him. Blessings!

Christian Education and the Cultural Mandate

Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey write of this relationship between Christian education and the cultural mandate in their contention:

"...that the Lord's cultural commission is inseparable from the great commission. That may be a jarring statement for many conservative Christians, who, through much of the twentieth century, have shunned the notion of reforming culture, associating that concept with the liberal social gospel. The only task of the church, many fundamentalists and evangelicals have believed, is to save as many lost souls as possible from a world literally going to hell. But this implicit denial of a Christian worldview is unbiblical and is the reason we have lost so much of our influence in the world. Salvation does not consist simply of freedom from sin; salvation also means being restored to the task we were given in the beginning - the job of creating culture."

When I read this quote I think quickly of the Christian school. There I see a system, not only set up for engaging culture, but one prepared to make an impact in culture that produces a lasting change in society, and all for the glory of our Lord. I have witnessed, first hand, the change of culture, and I hope to witness, again, a new change of culture as the Truth of the gospel again takes it rightful place.

At Westminster Christian Academy, we are building our new campus not to get away from culture, but to engage culture and be a vibrant positive part of our community. Join us as we change the world one student at a time!

Vaclav Havel on Words

Václav Havel: A Word About Words

"A Word About Words" (July 25, 1989): In 1989, Havel was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Booksellers Association. It was presented to him, in absentia, at the Frankfurt Book Fair on October 15, 1989. This is his acceptance speech, which was read in Havel's absence by Maximilian Schell. It was translated by A. G. Brain and reprinted in full in The New York Reviem of Books, January 18, 1990.



The prize which it is my honor to receive today is called a peace prize and has been awarded to me by booksellers, in other words, people whose business is the dissemina tion of words. It is therefore appropriate, perhaps, that I should reflect here today on the mysterious link between words and peace, and in general on the mysterious power of words in human history.



In the beginning was the Word; so it states on the first page of one of the most important books known to us. What is meant in that book is that the Word of God is the source of all creation. But surely the same could be said, figuratively speaking, of every human action? And indeed, words can bc said to be the very source of our being, and in fact the very substance of the cosmic life form we call man. Spirit, the human soul, our self awareness, our ability to generalize and think in concepts, to perceive the world as the world (and not just as our locality), and lastly, our capacity for knowing that we will die-and living in spite of that knowledge: surely all these are mediated or actually created by words?



If the Word of God is the source of God's entire creation, then that part of God's creation which is the human race exists as such only thanks to another of God's miracles-the miracle of human speech. And if this miracle is the key to the history of mankind, then it is also the key to the history of society. Indeed, it might well be the former just because it is the latter. For the fact is that if they were not a means of communication between two or more human "I"s, then words would probably not exist at all.

Fukuyama and Education

In his book, The End of History and the Last Man, Francis Fukuyama writes about the rise of democracy in the world today. He makes the case that democracy is the best alternative in choosing a system of governance. He also writes at length about the importance of education in the rise of democracy. Fukuyama writes that,

"inequality creeps into the system as a result of unequal access to education; lack of education is the surest condemnation to second-class citizenship."

As I read his book and look at the sinking U.S. international literacy rates, I can not help but think that there is a direct correlation to our country's current condition and our low education scores. I posted about this year's rates a few months ago. The U.S. has made no gains in its international standing for many years, yet we continue, as a nation to explain away the problems in our educational system. If Fukuyama is right then the future of this country does not look as bright as it once did for one simple reason...education.

Yes, we still are a world leader in making every effort to give all children access to education, but the question must now change. It must move from one of quantity to one of quality. We have succeeded in providing education for the masses now we must think about what kind of education we are offering.

As a Christian, I desire an education that is rooted in a Christian worldview for several reasons. One, I believe that it is the truth, and two, I understand how developmentally impacting education is to children.

Fukuyama is important because he links democracy with the universal end of history for the logical reason...democracy is the end for there is no better alternative of governance available, and no other alternative coming in the foreseeable future. He does not view democracy as perfect, but he does view it as the best option that man can produce. All of this is important to understand because when he writes of education he does so inside this idea of democracy.

So when Fukuyama writes that "it is reasonably clear that education is, if not an absolutely necessary precondition, then at least a highly desirable adjunct to democracy" we must understand that Fukuyama is essential saying that democracy, which is his highest form of governance, is unattainable without quality education.

The next passage I am about to quote is extremely important. Please read it carefully because contained in it is a concise example of the power of education.

"Higher education in the United States and other Western countries today generally inculcates in young people the historicist and relativist perspective in twentieth-century thought. This prepares them for citizenship in liberal democracies by encouraging a kind of tolerance for differing points of view, but it also teaches them that there is no final ground for belief in the superiority of liberal democracy to other forms of government."

Our system inculcates in our young people this pragmatic worldview that there is no final ground for belief in democracy or anything else. The power of education is on full display here as it has changed a country in a mere thirty years. There is now only one question at hand for the Christan: can you afford not to invest in the Christian education of the next generations?

I firmly believe that Christians ought to start founding new Christian schools and new Christian colleges along with new Christian churches. At WCA we are committed to being part of this process as we move forward with our new campus in order to provide an education that is rooted in truth, excellent and committed to being a vibrant part of our community all for the glory of our Lord. Please join us!

Criticism and Thinking

What does criticism have to do with thinking? I believe criticism has much to do with thinking.

II Timothy 2:7 states, "reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all of this." We are commanded to think and to reflect on all things. True thinking involves a process that must be followed. Today, too many have succumbed to thinking that is merely two dimensional: gain knowledge and move to judgement. This two step process leads to thinking that is anything but right, and even worse, it leads to thinking that produces nothing new or innovative.

Right thinking involves criticism only if criticism is arrived at through the proper process. What then is the proper process?

Right thinking is higher categorical thinking and involves an important process that must be followed if there is any hope of thinking correctly. The process is:

Knowledge is given.
Knowledge is comprehended.
Knowledge is analyzed.
Knowledge is synthesized.
Knowledge is applied.
Knowledge is criticised and judged.
Then, and only then does innovation and discovery take place.

Today knowledge is given and most advance straight to judgment. The problem with this shortened process is that it will never lead to innovation and discovery. Discovery and innovation will never be achieved without criticism. I guess I should use the phrase "constructive criticism" because the connotations of "criticism" are such that in order to convey the needed meaning an adjective must be added.

Would the wheel have been invented if the inventor had not been criticized? How many times did Henry Ford fail before he succeeded? How many times was he criticized before he succeed? I have learned more from my criticisms than my encouragements.

The next time you think about thinking, think about criticism because in order to discover you will first have to endure some criticism. I hope that the criticism received is constructive and given in love; most is not, but that should not stop you from receiving it with love and grace. Blessings!

Another Great Quote

Here is another great quote. Today's quote was supplied by Mrs. Margie Cook. Thanks Margie!


"If we depend on Christ for everything, we can endure anything."