The main reason American society is today so double-minded on so many issues is that its people have been repeatedly assured that "religion and science" operate in different spheres. So, of course, do "religion and education," "religion and economics," "religion and politics," "religion and business," "religion and art"--or "religion" and any other combination you want to make.
The more you can persuade people that all these are hermetically sealed, independent components of life, the more you enable those people simultaneously (and shamelessly) to believe contradictory things about life. Now you have generously allowed them to believe everything, without offense to anyone on any side, but also without any insult to their critical faculties.
In 1681, there were no newspapers anywhere in Britain's American colonies. But Massachusetts ministers united to plead for careful coverage of "Illustrious Providences, including Divine Judgements, Tempests, Floods, Earthquakes, Thunders as are unusual . . . Remarkable Judgements upon noted Sinners, eminent Deliverances, and Answers to Prayer." The ministers wanted stories about such sensational events because they understood that all occurrences are "ordered by the Providence of God," so that news stories are as much about God as man.
Their understanding that God is active in the world made journalism not trivial but significant; Cotton Mather wrote that "To regard the illustrious displays of that Providence wherewith our Lord Christ governs the world, is a work, than which there is none more needful or useful for a Christian."
Christian school, home school, public school. For Christian parents, those three have one thing in common: They all require Godly wisdom and diligence.
When it comes to public school, that challenge is critical in ways different from the challenge of Christian school and home school. Parents are faced not only with false teaching their children may be receiving, they are faced with the flip side--the vital teaching their children are not receiving at school.
Christian parents--especially those with children in public school--are faced daily with this sometimes brutal reality: Education works. Teaching does accomplish learning. So the content of that teaching is of utmost concern. And by legal mandate, most classrooms in America assume the position that the real world is one where man is in charge and nature created itself.
The more you can persuade people that all these are hermetically sealed, independent components of life, the more you enable those people simultaneously (and shamelessly) to believe contradictory things about life. Now you have generously allowed them to believe everything, without offense to anyone on any side, but also without any insult to their critical faculties.
-- Joel Belz, WORLD magazine
In 1681, there were no newspapers anywhere in Britain's American colonies. But Massachusetts ministers united to plead for careful coverage of "Illustrious Providences, including Divine Judgements, Tempests, Floods, Earthquakes, Thunders as are unusual . . . Remarkable Judgements upon noted Sinners, eminent Deliverances, and Answers to Prayer." The ministers wanted stories about such sensational events because they understood that all occurrences are "ordered by the Providence of God," so that news stories are as much about God as man.
Their understanding that God is active in the world made journalism not trivial but significant; Cotton Mather wrote that "To regard the illustrious displays of that Providence wherewith our Lord Christ governs the world, is a work, than which there is none more needful or useful for a Christian."
-- Marvin Olasky, WORLD magazine
Christian school, home school, public school. For Christian parents, those three have one thing in common: They all require Godly wisdom and diligence.
When it comes to public school, that challenge is critical in ways different from the challenge of Christian school and home school. Parents are faced not only with false teaching their children may be receiving, they are faced with the flip side--the vital teaching their children are not receiving at school.
Christian parents--especially those with children in public school--are faced daily with this sometimes brutal reality: Education works. Teaching does accomplish learning. So the content of that teaching is of utmost concern. And by legal mandate, most classrooms in America assume the position that the real world is one where man is in charge and nature created itself.
-- Norm Bomer, GWNews
No comments:
Post a Comment