When the Angel of the Lord comes to Gideon. He greets Gideon, “”The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” It is obvious, however, that Gideon is not. While the Angel is saying this, Gideon is threshing wheat in a wine press because he is scared of the Midianites who are controlling God’s people through their maniacal version of Midianite Food and Drug Administration which does not allow the Israelite to grind grain. He is hiding because he is scared. The Angel tells Gideon to tear down his father’s altar to Baal and the Asherah (Baal’s female counterpart) beside it. Gideon, “the mighty man of valor”, does this, but he does it at night because…well…he is scared. Later, Gideon requires two (not one) signs from the fleece to get his act in motion. When Gideon is called, he is obviously not what the Angel says he is, but he becomes (in just a chapter) exactly what the Angel calls him. He defeats the Midianites host with 300 men. He becomes a Mighty Man of Valor.

The application of this passage is that we need to be careful to hear what God calls us and we need to tell our sons and daughters what God calls them. We need to encourage them to be what God says about them. Remember, our culture is speaking to your children. It is naming them. The names that our culture encourages are based on despair and, I fear, a desire to demean. Wicked people demean others mainly so that they can take advantage of them without opposition or qualms of conscience.

God’s names—“son,” “overcomer,” “tower of strength,” “mighty man,” “woman of discretion,” “stone,” “jewel,” “fruitful vine.” These images paint a very different picture of life than the titles that our culture shouts at them. Make sure your children know who they are. They are who God says that they are.

This is one of the glories of a classical Christian education. It wars against the voice of culture by showing children what people have been like at other times—both biblical times and past history. It lets the air out of some of our culture’s winsome, sly voice when it calls our children to be less than they are.

First Plea: Read the Bible daily. Nothing encourages me more each day than this time listening to God’s Word and praying.

Second Plea: If you are reading the Bible, make sure that you are reading this Old Testament. It is incredible. It corrects so much each day. Here is a “friendly slaps in the face” that I received this week from the book of Judges (one of my favorites and very helpful in chaotic times):

First, a lesson from the Song of Deborah in Judges 5 entitled: Be Happy when the Wicked Take a Tent Peg in the Head

Here is a little context. God’s people had forsaken Him and He had disciplined them by giving them over to be oppressed by Jabin, (the King of Hazor). Jabin and his chief general Sisera are ruling over and beating down God’s people. Jabin is not a major ruler in world history. Sisera is not Hannibal or Scipio. This, of course, shows you the level or decline amongst God’s wayward people. They are being ruled over by two-bit thugs whose goals in life range from raping to pillaging. Eventually, God’s people cry out to Him for help. He hears and raises up Deborah to Judge them and eventually tells her to call up an army led by Barak. The not-too-brave Barak is willing to go out to war, but only if Deborah goes with him. She will, she says, but a woman will gain the glory in the battle. Well, to make a short story shorter. The Israelites clean house in the battle, but Sisera escapes. As he flees justice he runs to the tent of a seemingly friendly Israelite who has made peace with Jabin named Heber. He goes, in fact, into Heber’s wife’s tent—her name is Jael. She hides him, gives him some warm milk, waits until he is fast asleep, and pounds a tent peg through his head.

The modern react to stories like this is mixed—really we do not know what to do with it. (I have yet to see this on a flannelgraph and I cannot imagine a VeggieTales episode on this story.) We want to look away. It is gruesome. It is grotesque. We hope that these sorts of things passed away after Jesus died. Not so fast. The biblical reaction is staggering different. We look away. We wonder why Jael did not wake him up and share the Four Spiritual Laws with him. We wonder if it might not have been better to just let the bum go. The Bible recommends another reaction—it celebrates. Deborah writes her song and this episode with Jael takes up an important part of that song. Here is the pertinent section vv. 24-27:

²⁴“Most blessed of women be Jael,
   the wife of Heber the Kenite,
   of tent-dwelling women most blessed.
25 He asked for water and she gave him milk;
   she brought him curds in a noble’s bowl.
26 She sent her hand to the tent peg
   and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet;
she struck Sisera;
   she crushed his head;
   she shattered and pierced his temple.
27Between her feet
   he sank, he fell, he lay still;
between her feet
   he sank, he fell;
where he sank,
   there he fell—dead.

We want to look away, but verse 27 rams the awful (or is it beautiful) scene into our heads. This thug went down. Note, the proximity of where he gets his payback—“between her feet”. He gets the payback just where he has perpetrated some of his most egregious crimes. This warlord has been into other innocent women’s tents and not by invitation. Now, he finds payback coming to him just where he had perpetrated his crime. Deborah glories in his fall and in his death. This makes us uncomfortable, but what comes next is much worse. After saying “Ho-rah!” for the death of the Sisera, Deborah takes her taunting back to his mother who is waiting and watching for his return:

 28 “Out of the window she peered,
   the mother of Sisera wailed through the lattice:
‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?
   Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?’
29Her wisest princesses answer,
   indeed, she answers herself,
30′Have they not found and divided the spoil?—
   A womb or two for every man;
spoil of dyed materials for Sisera,
   spoil of dyed materials embroidered,
   two pieces of dyed work embroidered for the neck as spoil?’

Our first modern reading of this passage shocks us. It seems cruel, but look closely. Mom knows what sort of boy Sisera is. She thinks he is delayed by picking through the women and stolen goods. This is what he has done before—many times (note verse 30). Many other moms have wept because of her monstrous son. Now it is her time to cry.

We look at this messy passage and want to turn away, but Deborah wants more of it—she calls the tent peg incident an unqualified good:

 31 “So may all your enemies perish, O LORD!
   But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might.”

How do we apply this? I am not sure, but it is clear that we need to have some recognition that there should be joy when evil men and wicked schemes tumble down. We should jump for joy when the oppressor gets his due. Also, we need to be honest about our girls. If you are raising a daughter who will not pound a ten peg when the times comes, you might need to do some more training. Women in the Bible—and in the classical and Medieval world—are not weak little flowers to be hung on the wall and dried. They are cunning. They are wise. They smile but might have something behind their back, so sleep at your own risk.

Perhaps this is why I have some concern about very biblically minded folks who want to give their daughters an education to be a dependent rather than a tower (Song of Solomon 4:4) or the president of a home based real-estate company (Proverbs 31). No one profits from weak or uneducated daughters—not the daughter…not her husband…and, certainly, not the Christian community. So, as you are doing your Christmas shopping this year, make sure you consider getting your daughter a tent. When she asks why she got a tent, grab your hammer and say, “Let me show you how use this peg thing.”

New Programs Welcome New Students

Here are some of the best and the worst. First, the worst:

• At Penn Manor “pupils will be able use their iPads, Web-linked cell phones and laptops in some classes—the teachers allow it.” Having kids use cell phones in class—bad idea…really bad idea. I have never seen kids learn worse than when they are distracted by their cell phone (adults are the same way BTW). The whole push for technology throughout the choices this year is troubling. Most of the ideas as best I can tell are really based on cost cutting instead of improving the education that students are receiving. Cutting costs is good, but cutting cost and diminishing educational quality is rotten.
• Random drug testing at Manheim Township. I run a school and I cannot imagine this sort of behavior. I have talked with a superintendent about it and he claims that parents love it. I am aghast. In a culture where adults are increasing permissive this seems hypocritical. One question: “Do teachers, administrators, and school board members face this testing?” I am not against testing for athletes on performance enhancing substances, but random testing of students makes school start to look a lot like minimum security prison.
• School districts starting their own cyber schools (CV and Ephrata). They are not doing this because of conviction or because they hope to improve education. It is a money grab. That never goes well.
• Hempfield (who is most praised) has “virtual field trips” for middle schoolers. Bad idea. I have tried it. The kids are always more tech savvy than they teacher and middle schoolers will quickly realize that this is not a field trip. Try this with K and 1 maybe you can fool them for a quarter.
• Manheim Township dropped a plan for single gender classes. I thought that this would be an interesting idea to see them implement, and am sad that they backed off. The story says that “Recent research does not support the need for the classes” (i.e., we are bowing to the second wind of political pressure having already bowed to the first).  
• McCaskey eliminated 8.5 positions for teachers for gifted students. As if it were not hard enough already for a gifted student to thrive in a “challenging” environment, McCaskey cuts funds. I have said this over and over. It is unconscionable what is happening in the city. We are all responsible for this. The most needy are being given an education that none should except willingly for their children. We will all pay dearly for this.
• McCaskey (please tell me I am misreading this) is expanding teaching Chinese to K and 2^nd. May I suggest that focusing on English or some language that connects to the West like Latin would be a much better choice. This seems like an idea that someone came up with that sounded good during some late night meeting. Bad idea. Probably also costly.

Here are some of the best ideas:

• E’town’s new WWII elective: “Hitler, Nazi Germany and WWII” looks interesting. I bet that there is a passionate teacher somewhere at the root of this.  
• Hats off to Hempfield School District. They have a lot of money (I am envious) and they used it to be 32,000 new books to spur more interest in reading. Good decision!
• Again, Hempfield implemented an idea that costs no money (excellent). They wanted to get kids to eat lunch slower because they wanted to race out to recess (who doesn’t), so instead of working to re-educate kids on chewing more slowly (you can laugh but I have seen programs on this) they simply moved lunch after recess. This will change the behavior and it costs $0. There are some bright folks in the Hempfield district. Hempfield wins the cost free award.
• Octorara cut all middle school sports. This is sad, but at least some school district is starting to come to grips with funding problems. One hint Octorara: if you would simply make the teams community teams that were open equally to homeschool, private school, and public school kids for a fee, you would have all of the money you need. Octorara wins the honesty award.  

The reaction of the church to this shift in education is discouraging on a number of different levels. To get a sense of the depth of the problem it is crucial to think through the reactions that the church could have to the present crisis. We know that this could happen because at points in history (some very recent) it has happened. Faced with a “public school” system that claimed neutrality but was in actuality Protestant, American Catholics banded together to build an alternate school system for their children. The church backed that system and still does. While the Catholic system has flaws and while I fear that it is being pulled in the direction of mediocrity (most don’t teach Latin anymore!), it has produced good students against exceptional odds and consistent discrimination. Protestant churches could do the same thing. There are no rules against it. Also, ministers could band together and preach vigorously to the culture and to their congregants. They could remind them of passages like Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 6. They could tell their congregants that they need to provide a Christian education for their children. They could even (maybe not now but if they would have been prescient enough) have demanded that public education be turned over fully to the control of parents so that at least the local consensus concerning religious and moral teaching could hold sway in each school (this would be much better than the increasingly militant secularism that students face entering public schools now). We could have fought when the fight would have been an easy win…but we did not. We could charge into inner cities and pour money into founding educational institutions that would serve as beacons of hope in places that are now despairing. We could have, but we did not.

What instead has been the reaction of Protestant churches to the “Jesus” problem?

1. We have refused to take a side. We portray educational choices, and rightly so, as a parental prerogative (like choosing a car). We are not honest with parents, however, about the cost of the choices that they are making both for their family and for the culture in general. Do we imagine that Jesus would not take a side? Do we imagine that He would remain neutral?
2. We have refused to speak to the obvious, terrifying social consequences of the removal of Jesus from the classroom. Presently, public schools tell our children this story: You are an accident. You learn in order to accumulate wealth, comfort, and power (there might be more than this but we cannot mention it). Then you die and go into nothing. Our school is going to give you an adequate education for your life. Jesus is unnecessary for that education. We wonder why (with the vast majority of our kids being raised in this system) that some poles have forecast roughly 4% of our children will follow in our faith in the next generation. Warning bells are sounding and we are ignoring them.
3. We have refused to fund educational alternatives for Christian families. The politicians on the left are smart—smarter than us. They knew and know that the control of the schools is crucial. They fund these schools well and do it with forced taxation of supporters and non-participators. (Some in the schools pull against the wishes of the political left, but Christian teachers and parents have failed to pull back or even slow the trajectory of the public schools.) We could rally our forces and our dollars and provide a lower cost (massively), better quality (exceptionally) alternative that calls students to love and serve Christ. We have not. This is not on our list of priorities.  
4. We have refused to speak in favor of those alternatives. This is hard to believe. We have not even been able to muster the courage to simply say, “Hey, this is not working.” We have not been able to see or speak clearly and cogently. Usually, this fear is driven by a desire to avoid offending Christians working in (and sometimes leading) the public schools. First, we must remember that Christian can work and sometimes should work with a clear conscience in public schools forestalling, as best they can, the damage being done by bad philosophy. We need to say hard words about the system without condemning the good people in it. But we have to say those words and we have to tell people that with the public schools teaching what they are teaching and refusing to teach what they omit,  it is not an environment for children being raised in the faith. We cannot or have not been able to summon the gumption to say even this.      
5. We have turned a blind eye to the educational apocalypse happening in our inner cities. This might be the saddest reaction of the church. We simply have not seen the needs of the poor. Is it any wonder that our culture will not hear the gospel when we preach it. What gospel, what liberty, what life have we left for the child of the immigrant in the inner city? What future do they have? Would we let any of our children be educated this way? Of course not! Why do we tolerate it for the needy? We either don’t care or (closer to the truth I believe) we are so tied up in our own personal concerns that we have lost the ability to consider the needs of others. If our brother in the inner city, have no hope, no Jubilee, no prospects for Psalm 128’s benediction, then our work is not done.  
6. We have refused to say hard words when they are merited. We have stopped speaking to any part of the culture except the political culture—and we only speak there to Washington. We should be fomenting resistance to bad ideas on a local level. This might offend someone or it might hurt someone feelings. So when the local high school starts teaching the kids in our community that homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle instead of opposing them vigilantly locally and calling for Christian parents to walk away from these lies, we fling stones at political airplanes (Washington D.C.) that are too far away to hear us or take notice and then we go to bed contented that we have done our part fighting evil today.
7. We have decried the culture direction and its destructive forces, but we have failed to connect obvious causes and effects. This is really infantile. We would tell a drunk that the first step to sobriety is to stop drinking the bottle of gin that he presently has in his hand. When it comes to education and cultural calamity, however, we seem befuddled. The ancient Stoic philosophy Diogenes was not so foolish. The proverb goes something like this: Diogenes seeing an reckless youth found his tutor and struck him saying, “Who has made him thus?” Education has consequences. We presently get all bent out of shape concerning the next morose example of our cultural disintegration (if you do not believe me watch the yelling on some parts of Fox News for angst concerning the culture disaster de jour). We are not able, however, to place two with two and make four. What has made us so? The public school’s philosophy does NOT account for all of it, but teaching and training pull immense weight in our culture. We are fools if we do not see this bad philosophy that leaves the very center of wisdom and knowledge (Jesus), that omits the very Lord of Heaven and earth (Jesus), that refuses to teach kids the claims that their Creator and their Lord has on their lives (Jesus, again). To fail to see this and to fail to speak and act merits great condemnation. The chains of our slavery have been fitted and fashioned. We hear the faint clanging now. We deserve what is coming. Lord have mercy!

Why have we failed so miserably. There are many reasons. Here are a few really important ones.

1. We are so divided that we don’t talk to each other or work together. This is most true of Protestants. We do not even work well with those in our denomination. We ignore everyone else. Some of us profess that we believe in the Nicene teaching on the church “one, holy, catholic and apostolic”, but it is a good thing that there are not lie detectors at worship.
2. We care mainly about ourselves not others. We have become the opposite of the reflection of the Trinitarian love of God. He keeps reaching out in love. We stick our hands in our pockets.
3. We are so addicted to our comforts that we cannot and will not help each other. We would rather have upgraded cable and an extra car rather than caring for the needs of the poor.

All our idols, however, will crumble. They seem to be trembling a bit now. I plead with you as you consider these words to remember that hope is not lost for Christ is not in the grave. His life is more powerful than death and Hell. His grace can give life to dead. He will conquer all and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. No philosophy, no wrong thinking court, no badly informed politician, no cowardly clergy man or congregant, no force in heaven or on earth can stop this. The sun is rising. Lux venit. This dark night will give way to eternal, unchanging day. 

Jesus is not the problem. He is the solution!

The first group we could call the “trapped”. This mainly consists of the poor. They have no educational options and our political leaders seem to want it to stay this way. The cycles of poverty and poor education in the inner cities are almost a cliché, but, of course, things could be done. The failing schools could simply be dropped into the free market by giving people some sort of tax credit to use at private schools. Many would leave the failing schools and change would come. Do not, however, hold your breath for this. The poor have no political weight to make this happen, their representatives are servants of the educational status quo, and those outside of the inner cities are more apt to turn a blind eye to their needs.

The second group would be the “discontent”. I am one of them. They see the problems with the present system—problems of philosophy, quality, and economics—and they know that change must come. They get queasy when they think about the ponzi scheme that now funds our schools and know that if we do not change our ways we are on the road to serfdom (and in the fast lane).

The next group is the “middle class.” They are fairly content with the status quo, and I am afraid in them De Tocqueville’s most ardent warnings about democracy have come true. I am also one of these folks sometimes. They have become, as the 19^th Century French Aristocrat/Social Prophet clamored, almost completely self absorbed. They do not want any one picking their pockets mind you, but their deepest felt needs center on personal comfort and prosperity in the present. They give little time to broader concerns of the future. They are sometimes Christians, but they have little patience for the alarm bells being sounded by the “discontent”. They look at the “trapped” with pity, but usually are not ready (too busy, no time, not enough imagination or leadership) to see the Titantic is taking on water. They have recently showed some signs of discontent and enough might wake up during the next election that some changes might be made. I worry, however, that if unemployment were at 4% and personal incomes were rising that this group would be content to simply let things go.

Finally, we have the “educational priestly class”. This does not include all people that work within the educational status quo. Most public school teachers that I know are in the “middle class” (some are even numbers among the “discontent”). This class is made up of people whose job it is to keep the status quo and, particularly, the money attached to the status quo flowing at regular or increasing volume. I used to think that these folks simply could not see that the system was failing and that change needed to come. I am increasingly convinced that they simply are doing a job. They do not look up to see if change is needed. They do not care. Their job is keep the money flowing to them and to their constituents. We could get angry at these folks, but I think that this is how most people today approach their jobs. (Also, their efforts are not going to keep the present system going much longer. It is grinding down.)

If broad changes is going to come, the “middle” must become discontent. This will only happen if the “discontent” and the “priestly class” both do their job competently. The “discontent” need to found schools, teach excellently, and provide leadership and winsome arguments that help the “middle” to see that our school and (especially) Christian kids need to be in an environment that challenges them educational and that affirms their faith. The “priestly class” also must do their part. They will provide the sparks that will start the fires by consistently overreaching for dollars. This will stir up discontent in the “middle” and give plenty of blog material to the “discontent”.

In our next installment, we will look at the church.

The right, it seems to me, competes with the left to see how supportive it can be and how much money it can give to the schools that keep Jesus assiduously outside. Candidates are on the fringe if they are in favor of school choice or vouchers. No candidate on the political right simply calls for decreases in funding or deeper levels of accountability (i.e., accountability that could result in systemic failure) for the public schools. Why not? The answer is simple. They are trying to get elected or stay elected and this sort of view will not aid them even though someone saying this and doing this will be necessary fiscally if we are to survive. To put a finer point on this: our public schools cannot continue to survive economically into the short term future. Here is a story from the Reading Eagle (Reading!?!?! As far as I can tell the Intelligencer Journal whiffed on this one) that was forwarded to me by a friend:

Education costs years of taxes

Reading Eagle

May 28, 2010

Contact David Mekeel: 610-371-5014 or  dmekeel@readingeagle.com.

NOBODY LIKES paying taxes. Sure, we recognize the need for well-maintained roads, police departments and decent public education — and that those things take money. But no one really likes forking over big wads of cash each year. One of the biggest tax hits comes from school districts, which are largely funded through property taxes. A frequent refrain is from older residents, their children long since finished with school, who say things like, “I’ve been paying taxes for 30 years. I’ve paid my fair share.” But have they really?

A recent discussion with Dr. Solomon Lausch, the Schuylkill Valley superintendent, got me thinking. He claimed that most families will never pay enough in taxes to cover the cost of sending two kids through school.   I was intrigued.

About a week later, I came across the 2010-11 tuition rates for the Reading School District. Set by the state, they’re basically what it costs to send a kid to school for a year. Based on those numbers, it costs just under $100,000 to educate a kid from kindergarten through graduation.  And with a current tax rate of 16.46 mills, a person owning a city home assessed at $100,000 pays $1,646 a year in school taxes.  So, based solely on school property taxes, it would take that person about 60 years to pay the cost of putting just one child through school.

In Schuylkill Valley, the cost to send a kid through the school system is about $130,000. With a current millage rate of 24.43, a homeowner with a property assessed at $100,000 needs about 53 years to pay off one student’s bill.

Obviously, schools aren’t funded only with property taxes — there’s state and federal money, too. But even if you figure generously that people contribute an equal amount toward education through state and federal taxes, it will still take about 30 years to pay off one kid’s education.

These figures aren’t meant to be an excuse for districts to raise property taxes. I’ve presented them in a vacuum, without figuring in factors like changing tax rates or considering if districts are spending too much per student. Heck, many would argue property taxes are the wrong mechanism for school funding in the fi rst place.  I only presented them as food for thought.

The point is only half made here. Because the person seems to think that Federal Taxes offer hope. They are, of course, coming from a government further in debt than most sane men believed impossible only a short time ago.

When will the political right get some courage and grow some backbone and begin to campaign against the schools that are teaching kids to become members of the political left (because of the political affiliation of most teachers, the staggering need for funds without commensurate accountability, and the simple absence of “Jesus” who stands as the very center of truth and life). Until this happens. Until the ownership of the school reverts again to parents and to the local community who must run the school without running a deficit and with the knowledge that people can and will leave if they do not teach well, our country will continue its dreary march to the abyss.

In the next installment we will examine how the rank and file American reacts to the “Jesus” problem.

“Ich bin ein Berliner” speech

I had read it before, but had not seen it. You should watch it. For me, having just finished the morning paper which proclaimed that President Obama is backing the construction of an Islamic Community Center near the mass grave that we call Ground Zero, I was slapped across the face by the dissimilar approaches of these two Presidents. Kennedy knows Communism to be an evil enemy. He slashes the naivety and support that some could have for Communism by summoning them to Berlin to see what Communism is like. He denies that we can even work with Communists. He is boisterous and his saber is rattling. He knows that the Communists are listening and he wants them to know that until they change, we, the free people of the world, will be there to oppose them. He does not deny the imperfections of democracy, but notes tellingly that “we have never built a wall to keep our people from leaving!”

This approach is to be set next to President Obama’s consistent fawning over the Islamic world. As an aside (maybe a meaningful one), I agree with President Obama on whether Muslim’s should be allowed to build their community center. I think that it would be horrifically tactless to do so. I also believe that it will be dangerous. I do not, however, want ad hoc laws on tact being enforced by this or any other present American government. They will (and have even now started to) use these sorts of laws to make the preaching of the gospel or the proclamation of God’s Law illegal. I dread a Muslim Community Center going in near Ground Zero, but I believe that giving the government the power to stop it would be worse than the Community Center. My gripe with the President is this: he does not know his friends from his enemies. He chose to make this issues a national issue. He did it calculatingly during the Muslim Feast of Ramadan. He announced it before a Muslim audience. He, as President, is the head of the American Government. He, however, is consistently refusing to represent the interests of Americans. This is happening now at an alarming rate. Here are a few examples:

In Arizona, our President is taking the side of illegal aliens against the interests and the safety of the people of Arizona. Not only is he refusing to do his job (i.e., protect the border), he is fighting against the efforts of the government and people of Arizona to protect themselves. He has taken them to court. When it comes to the rights of illegal aliens vs. the rights of the people of Arizona, our President firmly supports the rights of illegal aliens.

When it comes to courting international Islamic support vs. the lives of American medical workers, the President seems stone cold quiet. This week an aid worker from Lancaster County, Glen Lapp, was murdered by the Taliban. Ten others were killed as well. What was their crime? Bringing medical relief to needy people in Afghanistan. Did our President make this a national and international issues? He did not. He was quiet. He sat on his hands. Waiting for the right moment to make the Islamic Community Center the top issue. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure President Obama did not approve of these murders—who could? There is only one group who would approve of long time medical workers being gunned down in cold blood—the world of radical Islam. These are the people, whose support our President seems to believe that he can win by supporting the Community Center.

Finally, we have the Community Center issue itself. This did not need to be national issue. President Obama need not take a stand on it. Federal law will not decide it. If he wanted to offer an opinion, he could have offered one like mine—“I believe that it is legal for Muslim’s to build there but I plead with them to build somewhere else further away from the place where radical Islamic terrorist murdered thousands of New Yorkers.” He did not. When it comes to a choice between representing the people of New York City and kowtowing to people who would like to kill most of the people in New York City, our President again is choosing to side with those who are against the American people.

I do not believe that President Barack Obama is a Muslim. I do not question his American citizenship. I do believe that he should take a lesson from Presidents like Kennedy and Reagan who successfully confronted evil. Mr. President, radical Islam will not be won over by kindness and support. They have deep reasons for hating us—ironically many of them are exactly the reasons why communists hated us. These will not be ameliorated by your flexibility. Name evil as evil and look out for the interests of the American people.

I also want to do a quick post here on the governmental side of the money equation. During this last week President Obama got Congress to pass a law touted as the Save Our Teachers Bill. This bill authorized the spending of $26,000,000,000 (it is fun to write the numbers out) a portion of which was used to “save the jobs” of 160,000 public school teachers. All of this sounds a little suspect sitting here in Pennsylvania where Governor Rendell (you can watch him on Eagle’s Postgame Live soon) has increased public education spending by close to $500 million over the last two year (when everyone else was cutting back). I have not examined the bill closely. I am quite dubious about its necessity, but whether it is necessary or not is has no bearing on the following argument.  

Both of these instances are examples (Obama nationally and Rendell in PA) of one thing—the political left unabashedly supports  schools that do not have “Jesus” and they do this with money from families that are both willing and unwilling. (Heck, they even take money from people who do not at the present exist.) This is not a rant about public education. My concerns about the philosophical undergirding of modern educational practices and thinking is well chronicled. I also know that here in Lancaster County because of the work of many godly people in the public schools some of the horrors elsewhere are only now creeping into our schools. “Jesus”, however, has been removed (assiduously) from the public schools. He has been removed not because local communities want Him removed (if it were on a referendum in Lancaster County all schools would be Christian, no doubt), not because all teachers would want Him removed (some in Lancaster County would heartily vote to bring Christ into their classroom). He is removed because, in the main, the leadership of the teachers unions—and in many places the rank and file of public school teachers—are players on the political left. They use their clout with politicians to reap mountains (yeah, think Himalayas) of dollars. So, the schools that have dismissed “Jesus” are funded well by those who might, given the choice, send their dollars to schools where Jesus is in attendance.

In summary of Parts 1 and 2 of the “Jesus” Problem. First, corporations—particularly large ones—are now unwilling to give to anything that bears Christ’s name. If they do, they are pilloried by the left. No help for schools committed to Jesus will come from them. They will and are instead pouring their money into schools where “Jesus” is not allowed on campus. Second, the government will not be sending any financial support to schools who admit “Jesus” because they have their own school system (with Him outside of it) and they have a funding mechanism for it that ingeniously takes money from everyone to support that system. The political left relishes handing our monetary favors to their constituents. The rest of us are sheep to be sheared. In Part 3 of the “Jesus” Problem we will examine how or whether the political right counter this annual harvesting of funds by the left.

Then, suddenly, the deal falls through. Why? As the supporter takes their idea to leaders of the corporation (I am imagining that the legal department is involved), someone stumbles upon the fact that we are a Christian school, then we are in the midst of the “Jesus” problem. The company gets cold feet because they do not want to risk being associated with a religious institution—particularly a Christian institution (I am betting that some of these companies happily give to Islamic groups). Jesus ends up being a stumbling block for them. Our contact is always sort of apologetic and shamefaced. They know that we were hoping for their support and they still love what we are doing, but it’s just that Jesus fellow.

This is not a note of personal frustration. God has been very gracious with our school. We had our greatest year of giving last year (remember that the economy was not the best). God continues to open doors for Rob Spykstra, our Development Director, and our supporters give graciously. I guess I just wanted to post this concern because our culture is increasing ushering Jesus off to the side. Businesses, large businesses, and governments do not want to be associated with Him, yet it is His teaching (and His power) that upholds their authority, and their freedom.

These organizations, however, do give. I was reminded of this in the news today. Here is the story:

Organizations Giving Support

Target made the mistake of giving money to a candidate that did not support homosexuality. Now, gays are protesting outside Targets and the company is negotiating how much penance they have to pay. Definite no to Jesus…He messes up the commerce in Sodom.

So, Christian organizations are not supported in our country because people either do not want to be associated with Him or because they are afraid of the price that they would pay because of the association.

These classes will provide interested adults an excellent opportunity to dig into the Great Books. The classes will blend lecture and integration activities helping adults place these events on a broader timeline, understand the art and architecture of each historical period, and will deepen their understanding of these books which have been so critical to the development of Christian Civilization in the West and particularly in America. Here is the reading list:

Course Offerings

Omnibus I, Ancient Reading

Fall Semester: Genesis, Exodus, Gilgamesh, Hammurabi, Readings from the Odyssey, Herodotus’ Histories, C.S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces, and The Chronicles of Narnia.

Spring Semester: Readings from Livy’s Early History of Rome and the Aeneid, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Revelation, and Kreeft’s The Best Things in Life.     

Omnibus II, Medieval Reading:

Fall Semester: Selections from: Eusebius’ History of the Church, Augustine’s Confession, Athanasius’ On the Incarnation, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, along with Beowulf, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Spring Semester: Shakespeare’s MacBeth, along with selections from Dante’s Inferno, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Song of Roland and the Lord of the Rings.

Instructors

These courses will be taught by Veritas Academy faculty members Chris Walker (Omnibus I) and Graham Dennis (Omnibus II). Mr. Walker is a graduate of Hillsdale College with a B.A. in Classics and Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia with his Master’s of Arts in Religion. Mr. Dennis graduated from the University of South Carolina with a B.A. in philosophy; he also studied classics at the University of South Carolina, and theology and Biblical languages at Columbia Bible College and Friedrichshaffen Biblical Studies Institute (Germany). He also earned a Master’s of Philosophy at Boston College.

Details

The classes will be held at Veritas Academy from 6:30pm to 8:30pm on Thursday nights. Fall classes will be held each Thursday starting on September 16^th and ending November 4^th. The Spring session will begin on February 24^th and continue through April 14^th.

Cost and Early Registration Discount

Each course will cost $185 per semester ($200 if you sign up after August 30^th), but if you sign up for both a Fall and Spring Course we will give you the discounted price of $350. Books will be provided for the class (with an option to purchase). Child care will be provided for a nominal fee. 

Class size is very limited, so please sign up now if would like to participate.

If you would like to register for classes contact the Veritas Academy school officer at 717-556-0690 or email us at Office@VeritasAcademy.com.