Category: Education

Christian Churches, Universities/Colleges, Clergy Should Not be Entrusted with Your Children

“One study by Samuel Abrams found an astonishing 12:1 ratio of liberals to conservatives among administrators on University Campuses (71 percent identified as “liberal” or “very liberal”; only 6 percent identified as conservative)….

For faculty in the humanities, the ratio was 32 Democrats for every one Republican.”

Jonathan Barth

It’s Time To Upend the Modern University

Real Clear Politics

“The fundamentalist parents of our fundamentalist students think that the entire ‘American liberal establishment’ is engaged in a conspiracy. The parents have a point. We do our best to convince these students of the benefits of secularization. So we are going to go right on trying to discredit you in the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly rather than discussable.”

Prof. Richard Rorty

Philosophers and Their Critics – pp.21-22

As Biblical Christians (as opposed to those who masquerade as Christians) we must realize that the Universities/Colleges (hereafter U/C) are utterly lost to us. This is especially true to those U/C that adopt the adjective of “Christian.” Christian U/C are merely 10 or 15 years behind the “secular” U/C in worldview treason and moral turpitude. At best Christian U/C will give a Christian coating to this or that subject, or maybe they will open class with a prayer or maybe even still have chapel three times a week, but the substance of what they teach and what they model smells of sulfur.

I am reminded of a Mother who contacted me a few years ago, asking for advice about her son who had attended both of our Alma Mater (Indiana Wesleyan University). She was weeping that her son had lost his faith while there and that the reason for that was the teaching he had received from the IWU (formerly Marion College) professoriate.

A couple of years following that I had a student contact me who had been bounced from his honors track at Indiana Wesleyan University for simply wearing a Halloween costume that was not accepted as politically correct. I don’t remember if he was wearing an Indian (Feather, not Dot) costume or exactly what it was, but I do remember the young man was turned into an example for future students who wouldn’t kowtow to the DEI agenda of the University.

Similarly, Calvin University (formerly Calvin College) strives to be left of Chairman Mao. Grove City college, as another example, finds Dr. Karl Falseman, who supports socialized health-care, teaching students, while misrepresenting the Reformed faith to his students. There may be one or two exceptions out there but on the whole it really doesn’t matter which Christian U/C you name, as the general lot of them have been infected with one form or another of humanism.

But why should the Christian U/C be any different though, given the state of the Christian church? Most Christian Churches, along with the clergy, don’t object to their Christian U/C because they are themselves bollixed up in the same manner. The PCA couldn’t discipline Greg Johnson. The OPC lost some fine ministers over the whole Aimee Byrd/feminism fiasco where the clergy of the OPC decided to turn on the young clergy as opposed to turning on Byrd’s feminism. The OPC also had the ghost racism General Assembly where they were flailing and flinging about denouncing “racists” in their midst before they realized they really didn’t have racists in their midst, and it all was a case of clergy going in circles chasing their Geneva gowns.

All this to say to Biblical Christian parents… “You can’t entrust your children to the clergy. You can’t entrust your children to the Churches. You can’t entrust your children to the Christian U/C. You have to do all that work yourself.” Parents could get away with trusting these Christian Institutions and men once upon a time but in this climate if parents turn their children over to these Institutions their children are not likely to hit 18 or 22 and remain Biblical Christians.

Caveat Emptor

 

The Canker Work of Political Correctness

Political Correctness is the anti-standard standard, a negative device designed to overthrow traditional (Christian) mores and Institutions. It does so by arguing that the previous standards were arbitrary, oppressive and characteristic of those who colonize. The PC crowd then masqueraded their anti-standard standard in the guise of the demand that academic freedom and tolerance must be allowed to “enlarge” beyond the previous constraining standard that limited the teaching context to the traditional mores.

All of this explains much of the reason behind the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s grandstanding on January 15, 1987,  at Stanford University’s grand main entrance, chanting with 500 Stanford Students the uber poetic,

“Hey hey, ho ho,
Western Civ has got to go.”

Jackson and company were protesting Stanford University’s introductory humanities program known as “Western Culture.” For Jackson and the protesters, the problem was its lack of “diversity.” As a consequence to this romper room protest Stanford’s faculty and administration raced to appease the protesters, and Stanford’s course of “Western Culture” was formally replaced with a new course labeled, “Cultures, Ideas, and Values.”

The new program included works on race, class, and gender and works by ethnic minority and women authors. Western culture gave way to multi-culture. The study of Western civilization succumbed to the Left’s new dogma, multiculturalism.

Notice here that the Stanford’s previous standards here were not expanded so much as they were replaced. The demand of the students most certainly did not lead to more diversity. Instead, the demand of the students eventuated in a remaining narrow curriculum except as channeled in a different direction.

Once the standards were expanded so that for example, students in the University were reading Black Rappers, Native American Hieroglyphics and Lesbian Literature  as being equivalent in value to reading Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton the West was in principle finished as Universities around the country moved to being Multi-diversities finding their “Uni” in the lack of “Uni”. By “expanding the standards,” the old Christian standards were tossed and new standards were introduced and codified since at the end of the day the idea of absolute standards is limited to the time available for what is seeking to be accomplished by the University.

By hiding their demands and this agenda behind the full throated enlightenment cry for academic freedom the Politically correct crowd tore down the previous standards implemented new PC standards and forced the Institutions that built the West to become the Institutions that would now tear down the West.

And conservatives were party to this because they did not know how to answer this demand for “free speech” rooted as they were in the classical liberal worldview.

The proper response should have been “Your expansion of standards can go bugger themselves.”

Hey Indiana Wesleyan University Bureaucrats … Leave Those Kids Alone

I grew up Wesleyan and so there will always be a place in my heart for Wesleyans. When I say I grew up Wesleyan, I don’t mean merely that I attended a Wesleyan Church. I mean that Wesleyans were my best friends. I mean Wesleyans shepherded me through some pretty tough adolescent times. I mean Wesleyans took me in as a foster child at age 17 and helped me finish high school. I mean Wesleyans educated me on the first leg of the higher education journey.  I mean the first sermon I preached was in a Wesleyan pulpit. I attended their summer camps, I dated their daughters, and I studied their theology.   Because of all this and more, I will never cease being grateful to God for the Wesleyans.

I think (at least I hope) that it is this gratitude that every once in a while finds me dipping into their culture to see what is going on as well as prompting me to go after the same kind of stupidity they are pursuing as you find in spades in the “Reformed” world. Recently, that stupidity was brought before me as my wife directed my attention to the Alumni magazine that we receive (and which I almost never look at).

The stupidity of this June 2020 edition of “Triangle” is so jejune that I just had to write something here on Iron Ink. Below find III Roman numerals and my engagement with them.

I.) “Under Vice President Diane McDaniel’s leadership within the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, many important initiatives began or have strengthened in the last six years.”

BLMc responds,

I comment here in order to put into the absolutely ridiculous nature of the titles these people are holding. We are looking at three people here and here are the offices/titles they are associated with putting back to back;

1.) Office of Diversity and Inclusion
2.) Intercultural and Global Office
3.) Executive Director for Inclusive Excellence and International Education
4.) Executive Director of Multicultural Learning & Engagement

The least egregious sin of #1 is that it is redundant. If you have an office of Diversity doesn’t that automatically mean you’re chasing down Inclusion? I mean, how can an Office of Diversity be exclusive at the same time?

All of these offices and Titles are sucking off the Worldview teat of Cultural Marxism and Critical Race Theory. Having an Office of Diversity and Inclusion is just another way of saying, “Office of We Need Fewer White People.” Think about it … How many Universities in Peking, China have an “Office of Diversity and Inclusion?”  No… it is only stupid white people swigging away at Marxist hooch who create an “Office of Diversity and Inclusion.”

All of these Offices/Titles suffer from Job Title Inflation. What a resume enhancer it must be to have once been the Executive Director of Multicultural Learning & Engagement of some backwater Wesleyan University who was a Critical Race Theory wannabee.

Next, consider the money that is being bored into the budgets of these nonsensical (make-work) offices and positions. Every year I have my Alma Mater — Indiana Wesleyan University — calling me or sending me junk mail begging me for money. Never once have I called them or sent them junk mail asking them to support the Church I serve. Yet, were I to send them money they would pour it down the rat-hole that is “The Office of Diversity & Inclusion,” or give it to some feminists working in the “Intercultural and Global” Office. You know these people with the titles of “Executive Director” are making 6 figures easy. And yet despite the fact that Indiana Wesleyan University is pursuing an anti-Christian Worldview as part of their University culture (Critical Race Theory), they want the working blue-collar people of the Denomination to send them money to fill their blood money coffers. This goes beyond being criminal to become sacrilege since it is all being done in the name of Jesus.

If you’re a Wesleyan, and you’re sending money to support Indiana Wesleyan University you’re doing the Devil’s work.

II.) “Dr. Joel Olufowote joined IWU Marion’s Intercultural and Global Office in 2018. He serves as the executive director for inclusive excellence and international education.” During his first two years, Dr. Olufowote laid a conceptual foundation for inclusive work that is Kingdom-focused. He helped to systematize aspects of our protocols and culture that reflect the Lord’s color-blind love.

BLMc

The “Lord” is color blind? The “Lord” doesn’t know the color of the people He calls to Himself? Certainly, when it comes to salvation, the “Lord” is no respecter of persons, but to suggest that he’s color blind would suggest some imperfection in the “Lord,” and that I find quite curious.

Alternately, maybe they are saying that God doesn’t care about the color of one’s skin when building the Kingdom. But if God is color blind on these matters shouldn’t His people be as well and so not emphasize color by having an Executive Director of Inclusive Excellence? I mean, what else is the University doing but emphasizing that God does see color by having an office that is all about seeing color and making sure that the color quota on campus is met every year? It seems to me that God indeed is color blind but all the University is seeing is color everywhere.

I mean … understand that Olufowote’s work is to make sure the Campus is not too White. The man was hired to see color … to be “Inclusive.” God may not see color but I guaran-damn-tee you that Olufowote does. If nobody was seeing color nobody would notice that color was lacking and needed to be pursued.

II. B) With the events of this past summer, Joel’s work quickly moved to action. “Because of COVID-19, our students were not here [on campus],” said Dr. Olufowote. “Still, we wanted them to know that we are always here for them. We knew our students were being impacted but they did not have a community to process with, to lament with. At the same time, they were being overwhelmed by the media. We thought ‘we should reach out and listen.’” Through “I Can’t Breathe” forums for students and employees, Dr. Olufowote fostered an opportunity for the residential community to lament, to listen, and to learn. It gave him the chance to arm IWU’s commitment to move along the spectrum of inclusion…. The outflow of these conversations will manifest themselves during this 2020-2021 academic year; one of note is the formation of the Black Student Union.

BLMc responds,

a.) Let me get this straight … students were doing school online at home because of COVID and so not on campus but the poor tender darlings couldn’t cope with the stress of it all?  The students — now off-campus — needed some “lament outlet” because the media was bruising them so badly and Joel was there to rescue them by providing a “I Can’t Breath” forum? This is the stuff of a stand-up comedy routine. Who comes up with this drivel? Indiana Wesleyan University is paying this guy six figures to be a hand-holder and wet nurse for adults who can’t find the intestinal fortitude to go on with life because of the pain coming from TV media anchors?

I can only speak for myself but I found myself constantly thinking when I was a student at IWU, “I wish the bureaucrats would just leave me the hell alone.” Apparently, now the students need bureaucrats to help them get through life even when the students are not on campus.

b.) I’m sure it is just coincidental that Dr. Olufowote, who is black, is forming a Black Student Union. I’m wondering which Latino IWU is going to hire now so that he can justify his salary by forming a “Hispanic Student Union.”

III.) Dr. Karen A. Dowling, executive director of multicultural learning &
engagement, collaborated with IWU National & Global leaders to address these same missional interests. As a team, they organized two “Hoping Together” forums for online students and another ten “Growing Together” sessions for employees as a response to the “Sharing Our Hearts” employee forum….move forward in this important work. One faculty member took the initiative to form a task force to evaluate program curricula for more integration of inclusion and equity content.

When is the work done? When Biblical justice and equity is the common culture of our communities, and specifically IWU…

BLMc

a.) I’d bet my retirement that Dr. Karen A. Dowling is a full-blown feminist.

b.) Hoping Together/Growing Together/Sharing Our Hearts? Is this University or is this pre-school? Did she put on her sweater and tennis shoes before getting started like Mr. Rogers used to do?

Honestly, if students really do need this kind of stuff we are in more troubled waters than I even thought we were.

C.) Twice in #3 the word “equity” is used. This is the main tip that we are talking about Critical Race Theory in this whole agenda. Keep in mind that equity is a step beyond equality. (And equality the way Progressives define it is already a step too far.) Equity is about redressing past grievances. Equity says that since perverts, women, and minorities were (allegedly) discriminated against in the past, therefore, it is fitting, proper, and necessary for white people (especially white males) to be discriminated against today. Equity is about settling old scores against the putative way white people treated minorities, perverts, and feminists. When the word “equity” is used it means payback.

Indiana Wesleyan University has now become an arm of the Cultural Marxist movement to marginalize white Christians by reinterpreting Christianity through the prism of Critical Race Theory. I would guess that many of the Professors there who are contributing to this worldview shift are just useful idiots who don’t know what they are doing. I suspect even President David Wright falls into this category. However, you can be sure that there are some people on that campus who know exactly what they are doing. You can also be sure that some people are on campus who are against this but who are too fearful for their professional careers to speak out against this nonsense.

All of this is ubiquitous on Christian campuses of every Denominational stripe.

 

FDR’s Right to a Good Education … A Rebuttal

“We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
 
Among these are:
 
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
 
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
 
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
 
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
 
The right of every family to a decent home;
 
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
 
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
 
The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.”

Franklin Delano Roosevelt 
US President – 1933-1945

So here Roosevelt promised one of the rights of Americans, the right to a good education.

Edwin Viera points out the reality that has come about,

The reality: the biggest and cruelest hoax of all, because it affects the future more than everything else. America’s elementary and secondary schools cannot teach children to read, write, and figure, let alone to think critically—but they can fill their heads with every form of sexual perversion imaginable. Colleges and universities are the last bastions of unadulterated, unreconstructed, unapologetic Marxism, radical feminism (a variety of Marxism in which the gender struggle substitutes for the class struggle), apocalyptic environmentalism, blatant racism, Keynesianism, and every other socially destructive “ism” known to modern man. In any event, even graduates who have mastered some useful discipline cannot find jobs in their areas of specialization but are saddled with tens of thousands of dollars of debt for student loans.

In all actuality, American education since this speech (and even before it) has never been about Education. Instead what American education is about is teaching children about how to be good little cogs for the American Corporatist, and Statist system. The last thing the Amercian educational system desires to produce are students who have the capacity for critical thinking.  Those kinds of students would foment counter-revolution overnight.

Instead what American education is, is cultural Marxist social engineering at its finest. It is about teaching 7-year-olds to come home and lecture Mommy and Daddy about not letting the water run lest the Mississippi river run dry. It is about teaching 9-year-olds about their white guilt against non-Caucasians.  It is about teaching 4th graders about how to put condoms on cucumbers or bananas. It is about a 3rd grader learning about who Harriet Tubman was before he learns about who George Washington, Thomas Chalmers, or Christopher Columbus was. (These are all true stories of which I have first-hand knowledge.)

American educators use mottos like, “No Child Left Behind,” but what they don’t tell you is that the necessary corollary to that statement is that “No Child Gets Ahead.” The reason that no child is left behind is that those who excel are slowed down and forced to mentor the dim bulbs. What “No Child Left Behind,” did was to yoke thoroughbred racehorses to plow horses. This is socialism in education that results in everyone being equally dumb.

Now, some might appeal to the American University, but in all truth, the American University is to our secondary education what the finishing school is for turning out ladies of etiquette. With precious few exceptions the American University system, as well as the American Seminary system, churn out graduates with an underlying commitment to recoil against anything that smells of historic Christianity.  Patriarchy? Revolting! 5th commandment unique love for one’s kith and kin? Racist! Disgust for sodomy? Homophobe! All of this is learned behavior as taught by the best Luciferian social engineers that money can buy. 

 In the end, if children can be taught at any level without seeing the connection between the God of the Bible and His Christ and what they are “learning” then they are being catechized into a false religion, as headed by a false god, with the consequence that the knowledge they are gaining is false.

Contrary FDR, there is no right to a good education and when the government takes upon itself to guarantee such a false right you can be sure that the result will be what we currently have; to wit, the enstupidification of Americans. If you have your children in public schools, from secondary schools to University and Seminary, you can be sure your children are destined to be dullards apart from a remarkable work of Grace.  Do not put God to the test.

Research it for yourself,

The Cloning of the American Mind — B. K. Eakman
The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America — Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt
The Leipzig Connection (Basics in Education) — Paolo Lioni
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling — John Taylor Gatto