Horace Mann's Legacy

I am struggling with a personal dilemma.  I feel an extremely strong conviction that I know something that can help millions of parents and their children, as well as our nation and world.  This conviction is rooted in a personal experience.  Statisticians may not be persuaded because my personal sample size is small, but others who share my values have had similar personal experiences.  My dilemma is simple.  I want to boldly encourage all of my friends and acquaintances to seriously consider my advice, but I know my view can be offensive to many.  Because my opinion on this matter relates to parenting, the subject touches very sensitive emotional tissue.  I do not want to alienate and polarize; I just want to challenge, exhort, and motivate.  I want to encourage parents to make a thoughtful, carefully reasoned decision rather than continue to follow the same path chosen by their parents because of tradition, inertia, and convenience:  "I turned out just fine.  Why should I expect things to be any different for my kids?"

Earlier this week, I watched a documentary that had been collecting dust on our shelf for a few months.  As the film began, I grew increasingly nervous that it was another low-grade, low-budget attempt by a Michael Moore wannabe who shared my values and perspective on a particular issue.  Early segments of the film included interviews of individuals who lacked credibility and name recognition.  And it didn't help that the narrator had a Scottish accent.  But then, the film took a turn in a better direction as the narrative began to build a strong case through personal vignettes, interviews of respected Christian leaders, and a brief timeline of the history of education in America.

I found the brief history of education to be the most compelling.  In short, the film shows how public education has gradually but successfully replaced the influence of parents and churches with that of the government.  Furthermore, that government has grown increasingly hostile to Judeo-Christian morals and philosophy.  What should our response be?  I would humbly submit that those who believe that truth is absolute and that Judeo-Christian values are the only stable foundation for achieving life, liberty, and true happiness must avoid subjecting their children to government-controlled education, which promotes the anti-Christian views of humanism, moral relativism, naturalism, and atheism.  Horace Mann, often called the father of American public education, argued in 1849 that "our [public school] system earnestly inculcates all Christian morals; it founds its morals on the basis of religion; it welcomes the religion of the Bible..."  This Unitarian may have meant well in his effort to provide schools for "the children of the entire community," but we have drifted far away from that situation.

In closing, consider these words from two humanists whose words reveal the progressive agenda for shaping public, government-led education in America:

"... education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness; and that the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction....  I believe that in this way the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of God." (John Dewey, "My Pedagogic Creed," 1897)

"Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every American school is a school of humanism. What can a theistic Sunday school's meeting for an hour once a week and teaching only a fraction of the children do to stem the tide of the five-day program of humanistic teaching?" (Charles F. Potter, "Humanism: A New Religion," 1930)

In my opinion, responsible Christians must prayerfully consider pursuing alternatives to government-sponsored public education for the sake of their children's souls and minds.  I think a mass exodus from government schools is the best option.

Grammar, Informal Logic, and Theodicy

This week, media outlets around the nation swarmed like sharks to blood when the GOP's Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said, "I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."  This comment set off a political firestorm, with both major political parties distancing themselves from Mourdock's statement.  The Democratic National Committee Chairwoman released a statement that "Mourdock's rape comments are outrageous and demeaning to women."  A more careful examination of the statement and the response prompts an important grammar lesson and a deeper theological reflection.

First, ambiguous pronouns are very dangerous.  Mourdock's "it" leaves an opening for his political enemies.  The context of his statement is clear:  when he uses the pronoun "it," he is referring to life.  He means that God has ordained the existence of a new life, a new human being.  He is not referring to the act of rape.  The response of the Democratic Party is predictable, as the Chairwoman employs the fallacy of ambiguity or equivocation by taking the clear context and shifting the reference of the ambiguous pronoun to the "situation of rape."  Certainly the Democratic Party does not think that a new life is outrageous and demeaning to women, especially when half of all new lives are women!

Second, this exchange prompts a much deeper question:  what is God's role in rape?  Theologians have struggled with the more general form of this question for centuries:  What is God's role in sin?  If God is sovereign, does He cause a person to sin?  Or, does He passively allow a person to sin by taking a hands-off role in the affairs of humans?  Or, is He not completely sovereign over the events in a fallen world?  These questions do not just apply to the sinful acts of human beings but also to the events of a Genesis 3 world.  In Genesis 3, God's Word says that God cursed the ground, decreeing that the earth would now produce thorns and thistles and that man would physically die.  In making this decree, did God commit an evil act?

As stated in numerous statements of faith and church constitutions,

“God from eternity, decrees or permits all things that come to pass, and perpetually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and all events; yet so as not in any way to be the author or approver of sin nor to destroy the free will and responsibility of intelligent creatures.”

The difficult theological issue regarding God's role with respect to evil is labeled "theodicy."  Jesus' words in the New Testament teach us about two kinds of evil:  moral evil associated with the willful deeds of sinful people (Luke 13) and natural evil that is not a direct result of a particular sin (John 9).  With respect to both kinds of evil, the orthodox Christian response to a question of the causality of evil must acknowledge the omnipotence and omniscience of God, His sovereignty over all things.  In addition, the believer must acknowledge that God is pure righteousness and goodness.  In the case of evil, these two aspects of God's character lead to a tension that we finite humans cannot fully understand. 

Nevertheless, in the case of pregnancy resulting from rape, we should see clearly that two wrongs do not make a right.  The evil of rape is not corrected by the evil of murder.  The pregnant woman does not face a moral dilemma just because she was raped.  Without question, she has suffered as the victim of a heinous crime, and her life will certainly be irreversibly changed.  She is a valuable human being, created in the image of God, who needs the love and compassion of her family, friends, and society... just like the child in her womb.

Meaning and Purpose – True Success and Significance

I have been recently studying, reflecting, and praying along two parallel streams of thought. First, I have approached the conclusion of a four-year study of the worldviews of the Western world. I have studied the writings of many of the great thinkers in the history of man. I have traced the course of western thinking from the Greeks and the Romans to the Renaissance of southern Europe to the Reformation of northern Europe to the founding of a nation on principles rooted in the absolute truths of Christianity to the rejection of those truths in favor of the arbitrary whims of naturalistic humanism. At the same time, in a second stream of thought, I have been reflecting on my calling, my purpose: how do I strive for significance in God’s eyes rather than success in man’s eyes? I believe that I am more than a collection of molecules driven by a complex, biochemical computer that is deterministically governed by fixed laws of nature; the entity I call myself is not limited to the material world that we can see, touch, and measure. I believe in the supernatural, including a good and active Creator who has created me in His image. Believing that God has a purpose for my life gives me a sense of meaning. Without that belief, I would descend into nihilism, a hopeless existence trapped by the conflict of a self-aware entity that exists by chance as the most advanced machine yet to exist in this part of the vast universe. To escape that nihilism, I would probably choose the drugs of the 21st century: fame and fortune. I would try to drown my feelings of meaningless in hyperactivity, running from one activity to the next, keeping so busy that I do not have time to ask why I am so busy. I would strive to earn more so I can buy more so I can distract myself more. In addition, I would avoid thinking about the future, because the future for that life ends with a mass of chemicals no longer driven by a complex, biochemical computer.

In light of these streams of thought, as my oldest child approaches the end of his high school career, I am reminded of the attitude I inherited from the culture of the 1980s: Why go to college? To earn a degree that will enable me to earn more money. Why earn more money? To enable my children to go to college. This circular reasoning, a significant factor in the guidance I received as a young person, is inherently flawed. While education itself is not a bad thing – it is a good thing – my personal meaning and purpose for existence can and should be so much more than striving for personal peace and affluence. The search for personal peace and affluence leads to pessimism for the thinking person or continuous entertainment and amusement for the person who chooses distraction over nihilism. What do I hope my children will answer if asked for their reason for attending college? Likewise, what drives me to continue to learn and grow and strive for something bigger than myself? “To fulfill my calling from God, a vocation in which I work because I love Him and I love others, a role wherein I feel God’s pleasure as I serve him and others using the particular gifts He has given to me.”

What is Love?

What is love? In recent years, wise men have said, “Love’s not a feeling.” However, can the love of a man for a woman or a woman for a man be love if it has no feeling? I think not. Emotions are a gift from God. Even before the Fall, Adam expressed strong emotions about Eve. When Adam first saw Eve, he said,

“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”

The NIV sets this text apart from the surrounding prose as if this is not just a sentence; these lines are presented as a poem. The ESV translates the first line of this poem, “This at last…” It seems that Adam was announcing, with an exclamation point and even a sense of both relief and excitement that, finally, God had provided a truly suitable partner. Because of God’s provision of Eve, Adam may have uttered the first love poem from a man to a woman. Clearly, God wired us to have passionate feelings about our spouses.

While passion is important, I believe that life includes various phases where God works in our hearts and lives in different ways, focusing on some aspects of our soul rather than others. Perhaps a season of passion in a husband-wife relationship may be followed by a season of intellectual growth, for example. Regardless, our love must follow Christ’s pattern, in which his love ultimately fulfilled the law (Rom. 13:10). Christ’s love led to giving his life out of love for his people. Likewise, the husband must in essence lay down his life for his wife, and vice-versa. How? Before he gave his life, Christ taught that the law can be boiled down to two commands: love God and love others. Clearly, such love is expressed in a multitude of ways, by various means, in a relationship. Effective love for others is positive, encouraging, and helpful: “…love builds up." (I Cor. 8:1)

The Apostle Paul also teaches, “Let love be genuine…” (Rom. 12:9) Our world is filled with illegitimate love. The media promotes love of an image rather than true love for a person. Adolescent infatuation and unashamed lust have been substituted for the selfless love of the Bible. These are not true love and are devices used by the kingdom of darkness to prevent and destroy God-centered marriages.

Better than Eden?

In describing the future state of heaven, the prophet Isaiah teaches in Isaiah 25:8 that "he [God] will swallow up death forever." This prophecy suggests a situation superior to that of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In their original state, the possibility of sin existed. God provided a forbidden tree. However, the book of Revelation only mentions a tree of life (Rev. 2:7; 22:2, 14, 19). Since death will be swallowed up forever, there will no longer be a path to destruction.

Why did God choose to offer an option to sin in the original Creation, and why does He not do the same in heaven? I think the difference is grounded in love. God loves man, and He wants man to love him. The Bible teaches that we love God by our obedience: "If you love me, you will obey what I command." (John 14:15) In the original creation, God needed to give man a choice that that man could love God. Without a choice, man could not love God because obedience would not be possible. Sadly, man chose himself over God. However, this was part of God's bigger plan to love man in spite of man's rejection of God. Although man rejected God, God responded by giving up His Son. This is the ultimate act of love: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

In the new heavens and earth, the only people that will live with Christ for eternity will be those who have made the choice, by God's grace, to obey Him. Having already chosen to love God, they do not need to be offered yet another choice. Rather, their love will be complete. Death will be swallowed up forever. There will be no more tears.

The Sacrifice of Service

The following is an article from our family's annual Christmas newsletter. If you would like to read more articles like this and are not a current subscriber, post a comment or send an email with your request, and we'll send you one!

The Hickman family has been making a real effort to give time in service to others. Sometimes, they end up giving more than they planned. This past summer, Sarah, Dan, Luke, and Leah all worked in their church’s 3-year-old Sunday school class. One Sunday, three of them failed in body fluid management. During story time, one of the children sat on Dan’s lap for assistance and guidance in paying attention and sitting still. This student still wore Pull-Ups as a precaution, although Dan quickly realized that this safety net was being used as more than a precaution. This child had pushed his superabsorbent polymer to beyond its saturation point. The result? A soggy patch on Dan’s pants, just above his right knee. Later, Sarah was comforting a weeping little girl, holding her as she cried on her shoulder. Later, in the church service, Dan noticed that the tears on Sarah’s solid navy blouse had dried, depositing a dried film of snot. That same morning, Luke was proud to show off his medal of honor: smears of blood on his khaki shorts. Undaunted by their mutual contamination, Sarah continued in her role into the fall. She was the storytelling teacher, occasionally misunderstood by the wide-eyed toddlers. For example, a teacher in the second hour recently informed Sarah that, following Sarah’s lesson on John the Baptist, complete with visual aids that included desert flora, the children continued during the playtime to recount the adventures of the prophet in the wilderness known as “John the Cactus.” Note to be outdone, but absent from the body fluid super-Sunday because she was on a summer youth trip, Leah took her turn later that week. As a helper at the American Red Cross Safety Town for pre-kindergartners, Leah missed the announcement of the recent unplanned release and subsequent clean-up. Apparently, a child had sprung a wee-wee leak, which was cleaned and followed with a puddle of sanitizing fluid. Later, Leah entered the area and sat squarely in the puddle of sanitizer.

Vitamin D for Back Pain

For about 9 months in 2009, from April to the end of the year, I suffered from a continuous, nagging lower back pain. It was as if I awoke one day with a new condition, a chronic problem that would continue for the rest of my life. I could no longer sit for more than a few minutes on our soft, cushy couches in our family room. The task chairs at our computer desk were suddenly awful.

I immediately ramped up my physical exercise routine, adding an entire stretching regimen. Surprisingly, that made little difference. Suddenly, I was unable to do certain activities without significant consequences. Raking or shoveling would set me back several days with a very stiff lower back. Running, even jogging, a short distance led to significant pain and limitation of mobility and flexibility. I was exasperated. Months of effort to resolve my problem had passed, with no solution. Was I destined to suffer this way for the rest of my life?

When December arrived, I noticed that we still had a supply of multivitamins that was not being used. With the winter before me, I decided to strengthen my immune system by taking a multivitamin daily. Within a few days to a couple weeks, my back pain magically disappeared. Then, I stumbled upon an article that claimed that declared vitamin D to be the "new supervitamin."

Apparently, more than one study has shown a correlation between low vitamin D levels and back pain. A simple Internet search makes this case. My experience agrees.