I was thinking about a section from a book I've been reading lately, "Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning," on my way to class this morning as I listened to a D. A. Carson sermon on "Justification". I can't remember exactly what Carson was saying that sparked my memory of a part of this book, but it did connect somehow. I then thought about how important it is for Christian Professors to really be grounded in Scripture and to not be swayed by the liberal theology that seems to be sweeping a lot of Christian colleges and universities. It's I quite frightening actually. I attended a more liberal Christian university for a semester and ran into some pretty crazy ideas about how a Christian is supposed to live and what they should believe. That in and of itself woudl take up a whole entry, so moving on.
I've also been thinking a lot about the fact that those younger than I and myself are the "next generation." I'm an adult now, making adult choices, and at the age where I could have my own children. The reality that this country is going to be run by my peers and those younger than I is pretty jolting. Then the fact that I could be responsible for passing on faith, values, and worldview among many other things, gives me a small anxiety attack. It makes me want to be more serious about the choices I make, what I believe about Christ, and what I feed my mind on. I really can't be as careless as I once was. Life is about so much more than making myself happy and comfortable.
Anyway, this is the section that I was pondering this morning. It led me to pray for Christian professors, those that I know and those that I don't, those that are currently teaching and those that will be teaching in the future. Oh and also, I would highly recommend this book to everyone, especially Christians and Christian artists. I have really been enjoying learning about the philosophies and worldviews behind each movement of art history. I feel that it has been encouraging me more and more to be a "thinking artist."
"The arts are often dismissed by Christians as mere entertainment, a leisure activity. Aren't there more pressing issues calling for our attention--such as what's happening in the White House?"
Secular people know better. Consider a much-quoted line by Todd Gitlin, former president of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). After the 1960's student protests, Gitlin said, the Left began 'marching on the English Department while the Right took the White House.' Today we must ask ourselves: Which was the more effective strategy? The 1960's radicals who avoided the draft with student deferments made their way up through the universities, became professors, and inculcated their radical ideas into the minds of generations of young people--ideas that shape the way they now vote.
This explains why Christians and other moral conservatives continue to lose ground culturally, in spite of a huge increase in political activism in recent decades. Sociologist James Davison Hunter, author of Culture Wars, says evangelicals have grown adept at mobilizing money and manpower to reach political goals. But they overlooked one crucial fact: that America's secular elites had already reached an intellectual consensus on the legitimacy of things like abortion and homosexual rights 'far earlier than any kind of legislation or court decision that would ratify that consensus.'
In short, what came first was a shift in worldview. Ideas are born, nurtured, and developed in the universities long before they step out onto the political stage..."
- Nancy Pearcey
From: http://www.amazon.com/Saving-Leonardo-Secular-Assault-Meaning/dp/1433669277/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335819964&sr=1-1
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