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| Education and Foolishness |
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45 years ago today Washington DC was in a panic, because 100,000 black people were expected to descend upon the city for a "peaceable" march. Major league games were cancelled. Alcohol sales were suspended. Congressional secretaries were asked to stay home so they wouldn't be raped. Blood plasma was stockpiled in the hospitals.
The march was indeed a peaceable one, with our memory of it today little more than that of a speech made by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., something about having a dream . . . No stories of riots. No stories of violence.
Why such panic? Because most of our nation was white, and filled with ignorance. Ignorance begets fear and prejudice, and fear and prejudice are passed from one generation to the next, until something interferes. The something that can interfere with ignorance is education. It is noted that the higher the level of education the more the prejudices are dissolved, and those for whom racism has become a passion are almost solely of lower educational background. Also notable, our ignorant fear is almost solely toward those who are outside our own experience. How many black people do you know who are prejudiced against black people?
Education teaches us about the mistakes of our past so we will not continue to make them. Education trains minds to find cures for polio, and smallpox, and cancer. Education opens world cultures and languages for those who will become our nation's leaders on the world front. Education teaches us to critically analyze all we read and hear and to recognize the biases and flaws it carries. Education opens the gates of opportunity beyond our imaginations.
Have you ever advised a young person to drop out of high school because education is unimportant, or perhaps because God's Spirit can't work in an educated person? Me either. That would be foolishness, would it not? But . . . have you ever heard a Christian brother claim that those with higher education cannot hear God speaking to them? Is this not equally foolish?
God's work in the lives of His children is not dependent on what level of education they have. The Spirit can work in the lives of those who cannot read, and He can work in the lives of those with PhDs. Again it is ignorance that causes us to make such judgments about each other's spiritual lives, whether based on skin color, education level, or any other difference.
I have never heard someone with a high school diploma advise his son to drop out of high school. I have never heard someone with a seminary degree advise other pastors not to go to seminary. It is not the college graduate who shouts loudest about the ungodliness of a college education. Those comments are almost always about levels of education that have not been attained by the one voicing the claim, one who has never had that educational experience. And almost always voiced in response to a difference of opinion. (i.e. Educated people are perfectly acceptable as long as they agree with everything we say.)
Is it not far wiser to rejoice with those who seek to learn more? To edify them in their studies and the hard work and long hours they commit? To pray with them that God will use their education as He so chooses? Is it not far wiser to get to know those who are different from us, rather than to voice platitudinous judgments about them?
God does not require any certain level of education from His children. He desires to use all of us in the worlds He has placed us. He desires to use those without educational opportunity and those who live in academia. In the spiritual realm, one is no greater than the other. His desire is that we treat each other with love and kindness, respecting each other's unique gifts. His desire is that we realize the oneness we have in His Spirit. His desire is that, no matter what the prejudice, we learn to recognize it and fall before Him in repentance.
Education is a value our nation cannot afford to let slip away. Ignorance is a destroyer of God's created people. May we never allow ourselves to put down another's education. May we join hands together, black and white, prospering and struggling, educated and less educated, to combat ignorance, all in One Spirit! 1:9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 7:14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Note: This blog was inspired by a 7:45 minute story aired this morning on NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94038251 |
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| To add a comment to "Education and Foolishness" |
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| August 28, 2008 |
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Beautiful....
A thousand stars... |
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| August 28, 2008 |
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| I was just thinking about this topic. I am getting my Master's and I have achieved so many other things, but now I realize that those things didn't satisfy me. Right now, I just want to pursue God like I pursued those things. |
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| August 28, 2008 |
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Kathy,
I totally agree with you and would add one more thing...those that achieve education cannot, should not neglect those who don't have it. I believe there is a balance here that requires those who have been given much to a greater trust. Let's face it...some of the loftiest cliques are formed around education. Those walls need to come down and stay down as well. IMHO, that is one of the beauties of the internet...it allows walls to be penetrated, as long as there is mutual respect among those communicating.
Therein lies my question for you...whose responsibility is it to reach across those walls? Is Christ our example by being the greatest of teachers as well as the greatest of servants? If so, how do we walk out what you have so eloquently described? |
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| August 28, 2008 |
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| Beautiful Pastor Tim, amen guys! |
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| August 28, 2008 |
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So true, very educated people can be of the simplist minds in truth.
....Jesus is The Way to the heart which brings true truth!
14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me.
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| August 28, 2008 |
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Cheryl, thank you for the thousand stars! :) Your point that educated people can miss God's Truth is of course a certainty, not because they are educated, but because all people, regardless of educational background can choose to follow God to not. Educated and uneducated alike make both choices. Have you started your classes?! I'm happy with you about this opportunity!
Amen, Destiny! As the writer of Ecclesiastes said, without God all else in life is vanity. Congratulations on your upcoming Masters degree. Give it to God, and it will be well used! Thank you for commenting!
Voice, as always, you pose some piercing questions! Indeed the respect across the educational divide must be a mutual respect, and I agree that outside the church, the two sides are not likely to meet. Within the church, however, and here on MyChurch, it seems we should be on a higher plane, realizing that the only division that really counts is the choice to follow Christ or to deny Him, and that division is not for us to make, but God's. All else pales to nothingness.
Whose responsibility? Christian responsibilities are always "mine," meaning none of us should take a back seat and wait for the other side to love us. If "I" see the rift, it is "my" responsibility to reach out. That said, this verse comes to mind:
12:48a Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more.
I suspect you have some thoughts on your own questions. Please feel free to share!
Pastor Tim, I love the Lewis quote! I would enjoy discussing with him though the current tendency to mislabel members of the Christian family as "heathen" when they are in disagreement. God calls us to live, not in total agreement about every issue, but in unity of Spirit, within the Body. Is this even possible in our current Christian culture? (Matt. 19:26) I also love the "Manifesto" you quoted, especially the regret that Christianity has placed a wedge between itself and science, and agree with you completely that it is the most educated people who usually make the greatest and the most atrocious contributions to our world, as education in itself, without being given to God, is lacking in wholeness. Even C.S. Lewis, however, probably played an important role in Hitler's mindset, as his anti-Semitic writings helped shape the attitudes of that part of the world. We must all be constantly bathed in prayer, realizing the power within us, and our human fallibility. Even C.S. Lewis, as much as I love him, was in error on an issue of gravest importance, and only God knows what it cost! I hope I will never believe I have everything figured out perfectly. May God continue to mold me nearer to His image! Thanks for the great quotes! I love to ponder deep thoughts after midnight! And congrats again on your recent MDiv! |
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| August 29, 2008 |
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| Great one Sister! |
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| August 29, 2008 |
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Thank you, Doyle! God bless you today!
Thank you, Pastor Tim! Never apologize for a good quote! My great apologies though for attaching C.S. Lewis' name to antisemitism! This is how rumors get started! I really should not be writing at 12:41am! I was thinking of Martin Luther, not C.S. Lewis!
I suspect Hitler's mindset came from generations of both flawed intellectualism and flawed theology. It is stunning to look at all the Christian theologians who were on board with Hitler because it was the accepted thinking of the German culture of the day. A comment from another of my blogs, with Martin Luther's own words:
If you have ever wondered how a civilized Christian society could be so undeniably evil toward another group of people, you only have to read these writings in which Luther demonizes an entire group of people with a black and white, fear-mongering, scripture-filled ideas. Martin Luther laid the seeds of the Holocaust when he wrote his pamphlet "On the Jews and Their Lies" in 1543. 400 years later Adolph Hitler fulfilled his wishes. All because "they are not like us"...
http://www.humanitas-international.org/showcase/chronography/documents/luther-jews.htm
What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate their conduct, now that we are aware of their lying and reviling and blaspheming. If we do, we become sharers in their lies, cursing and blasphemy. Thus we cannot extinguish the unquenchable fire of divine wrath, of which the prophets speak, nor can we convert the Jews. With prayer and the fear of God we must practice a sharp mercy to see whether we might save at least a few from the glowing flames. ... I shall give you my sincere advice:
First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom... Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. For they pursue in them the same aims as in their synagogues. Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a barn, like the gypsies. This will bring home to them the fact that they are not masters in our country... Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping... ...that all their books their prayer books, their Talmudic writings, also the entire Bible, be taken from them, not leaving them one leaf... But what will happen even if we do burn down the Jews' synagogues and forbid them publicly to praise God, to pray, to teach, to utter God's name? They will still keep doing it in secret... In my opinion the problem must be resolved thus: If we wish to wash our hands of the Jews' blasphemy and not share in their guilt, we have to part company with them. They must be driven from our country....
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| August 29, 2008 |
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Kathy, you hit on my thoughts exactly. I often see those who are educated looking down on those who are not. To separate ourselves for any reason goes against God's desire, IMHO.
Pastor Tim, love the Lewis quote! Thanks! |
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| August 29, 2008 |
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Mattew 25....He is Looking for a Perfectly, Polished, Ready & Prepared Bride.
The Annoucement went out........The Husband Man is Here But many were Dull & unprepared
to meet Him.
Jesus is Looking for a Perfect Match....not Unequally yoked mis-match.
An EQUAL
Thinking Caps are Good. |
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| August 29, 2008 |
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God says He uses the foolish things to confound the wise. I mean, He used a donkey to speak to Baalam for petes sake lol.
And He also used Paul, one of the most educated and brilliant men of his time to spread His word to the gentiles.
This is a very good blog! =D |
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| September 01, 2008 |
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Again dear sister,
You prove that your education is not wasted! There are times we we feel that perhaps if we had not studied so long or learned so much but then we receive a note that tells us someone has received a wee blessing for a gem or nugget that we have found. You are a sterling example of living in both worlds the physical and the spiritual. Are we all not suppose to be a bridge between God and men?
Denis |
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| September 02, 2008 |
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Amen, Gravity! Thanks!
Thank you for your comments, Michael! Christ's bride is not a perfect one, but may she be nearer to perfection on that day than she is today, ever growing nearer in likeness to her Lord . . .
Dr. Denis, I like your picture of us as bridges between God and men, rather than that of separatists isolated from those to whom we are called to minister! We are citizens of another world, but as long as we are living in this one, may we use our time to touch the lives of those who need a touch! Thank you for commenting! I love to hear from you!
Voice, I agree completely! Our human nature seems to demand that we deem ourselves superior to some other group of people, whether it be based on ethnicity, education level, denomination, or job status. God, forgive us, and mold our minds to reflect that of Jesus! |
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