Tag: students

On to Defending the Academy

Well, much has occurred since a past post, “We Can’t, No We Won’t”, was published as an outdoor educator in the California redwoods. Late April, after much prayer and contemplation, it was decided that I would resign at the end of the program year in June. In May this was made known to the whole team. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” “Thereby,” I told them, “I can no longer serve in a ‘ministry’ that is unable to speak this foundational truth.” For the next month no one questioned or argued with me about it.

A peace was over me. Where was I going next after the summer? No clue. All that was set was a seasonal return to a small conference center in the Sierra Nevada. The last two weeks of the program, I affirmed that wherever God placed me next, Christ (the Logos) is my life’s foundation. I would be thankful, even if it meant long term manual labor at a more genuinely Logos centered establishment.

June comes. My car is loaded with all my possessions. I am ready to serve with my hands for the summer. Teaching applications up to this point have either been rejected or some administrators set up interviews only to not follow through. One particular gentleman from a little school in central Arizona shows the most interest, likewise, equal courtesy when declining my offer. Thank God, he was right about me soon acquiring a position. Before the end of the month, following three somewhat awkward interviews, a slightly larger classical Christian academy in Arizona recruited me for upper high school (some middle school). Apparently, choosing me was made significantly easier after receiving torrents of praise from my grateful recent employers. Certainly, these past few assignments were a part of His plan for this occasion.

Now, an unprecedented task. Indeed, something more intimidating than the last within these three years of persistent preparation. For a whole academic year, the souls/minds of youths are under my direct influence. Their intellectual and spiritual faculties will be impacted, a rippling effect on the succeeding generation. May Christ grant me the wisdom & strength to meet the daily needs of this responsibility. As I fulfill the role of teacher-mentor, may my own soul/mind be further refined in holiness and knowledge. Becoming an increasingly edifying educator is key to my secondary duty – defending the academy.

What does a school need to be vigilant of? Why so serious? I watched my own excellent private high school decline over a summer break from worldly changes in education philosophy. I have encountered countless students weighed down by “neutral” pluralistic curriculum. Aye, and the few ministries trying to get along with institutions teaching according to the policies of the State, not universal truth. When a program has more sociologists, psychologists, and education degree recipients managing operations than those experienced in teaching/researching across academic fields, you have a government-corporate enterprise instead of an academy. Yes, Lord, help me guard this house of learning from any encroachment that will remove Logos from the classroom. Let the younger generation know their God and His creation, so they may not fear the pride and wrath of man.

5 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for

“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”

6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 5:5-11

Christian Men & College

There have been a number of articles by Christian women explaining why females of the faith should avoid going to college, though may still obtain a post-secondary education/degree. Examples: https://thetransformedwife.com/godly-men-prefer-debt-free-virgins-without-tattoos/ & https://mrspriceisrighthomeschooling.blogspot.com/2010/05/should-young-women-go-to-college.html

I am going to voice my opinion on why Christian men should likewise be cautious if not opposed to attending college. As a disclaimer, I do not consider this Gospel. It is more so advice to consider like Paul’s preference for celibacy over marriage (1 Corinthians 7:6-7). After all, we are to be in the world but not of it. Often that means refusing to partake in certain matters, this case being how our intellect is formed.

Now, it is apparent to most that higher education is anti-Christ. Worldview, philosophy, and practices are in enmity with the things of God. As fruits of this rebellion, corruption infests the academics, organization, and finances of college institutions. What benefit do the majority of even non-Christian men have “learning” from these proud decadent halls? The primary reason advocated to acquire a degree is economics, not a way to a more intellectually/spiritually prosperous culture.

Get a degree, get a job. In other words, become more able to sell yourself in the market place. Tell me men of God, were you called by your Creator to be a source of goods and services for the wants of our fallen world? I find it vile to be viewed as a resource for the state or a company. We are meant for the glory of the Lord. Our minds are to be endowed with knowledge for His will, not the vain ambitions of men.

Truth in the lecture hall and seminar is a mere product of whatever fancy people have. Competing ideals jockey for influence more than actual instruction in substance. Virtues advocated are inversions of holiness. Social justice is praised, although it requires students to practice diverse types of shallow prejudice revolving around the like of ethnicity/race, sex/gender, age, politics, religion, etc. Good and evil are relative to popular consensus, hence the anarchy of pure democracy warned of by ancient thinkers. Repeated results of math and science are likewise discredited when they intervene with radical agendas regarding the triviality of human life, sodomy, transgenderism, fornication, divorce, environmentalism, profiteering, usury, centralized power, elimination of checks & balances, etc. What is a man to do in the presence of such reckless hate?

Well, according to the general left-right wing perspectives, just accept much as progress, while objecting to some through the power of the ballot and dollar. Or simply try to survive the changing tides, staying above the storm. There is some truth to each, except it falls far short of the courage God expects of us. College more often than not encourages us to be weak, divided by our fears and sinful passions. Yes, pressured to put down the Word, that sword that can behead giants of wickedness, pierce dragons of deception, cast holy light in the demonic darkness. What do I propose as an alternative?

Colleges are not based on truth, marring the perspective of reality of the student body. Public and private funding impair administrative judgement, along with affiliated organizations, hence contributing to the underlying prioritization of money. The majority of advocacy groups support things anti-Christ (Logos) in nature, playing a hand in facilitating a degenerate campus (& contemporary) culture. In and outside the classroom, abstract/esoteric theories tend to supersede facts whether it be literature or the more concrete material of biology. Ah, pride in tandem with love of mammon.

Essentially, this is what Christian men can do: 1. Be very selective attending a still devoutly Christian college, including Catholic and Orthodox. 2. Find an online program to obtain a degree or at least minimize campus attendance. 3. Discernment in choosing liberal arts major, tech program, and/or trade school/apprenticeship (not everyone should go to college). 4. Have an intimate community wherever you go via family, church, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. 5. Live a life in accordance with the two greatest commandments, loving God with all your strength and your neighbor as yourself.

Grow as a man of God, pursuing how He wants His sons to live according to Scripture, supplemented by sound tradition. Neither be steered by mortal ambition nor the anxious uncertainty of your future. Fear Christ, knowing the truth, for it will set you free from false promises and looming insecurities. Raise a home – beloved family, fruitful labor, and nurturing food. If you are going to submit to something, let it be the Cross, not pointless human desire. If you end up choosing to attend any institution, do so in the Holy Spirit, with wisdom and strength. Godspeed, my brethren.

9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.

12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, 13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.

14 I know that whatever God does,
It shall be forever.
Nothing can be added to it,
And nothing taken from it.
God does it, that men should fear before Him.
15 That which is has already been,
And what is to be has already been;
And God requires an account of what is past.

Ecclesiastes 3:9-15

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”

5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’

and,

‘In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”

7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”

8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

Matthew 4:1-11