Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Superman May Not Be Coming to Tennessee


Tennessee has two educational systems; one for the rich, one for the poor.

This two-tiered system is not rich people’s fault. It is the result of political cronyism under the thumb of an educational monopoly.  The wealthy are often chastised for removing their children from the schools and blamed for not contributing more to them. But one can hardly fault the wealthy for funding their children’s escape from a system that routinely turns out students who cannot read and write.

Kudos to our governor. He is trying to address the situation.

Davidson County, where our capital city is located, keeps fighting him. The governor wants to bring in first class charter schools to supplement our public school system. He wants poor kids to have the same choice as rich kids: to study in classrooms that are orderly because teachers can actually dismiss the children who won’t behave. He wants poor children to be able to focus on learning the basics of civilized life, just like rich kids. And, he believes he can achieve this by giving working class citizens a choice about how they educate their children, just like wealthy parents.

So the wealthy parents are not the ones trying to stop him. 

Last week, it was the officials of Davidson County who turned down one of the nation’s most celebrated charter school systems, a system our governor had specifically recommended. They said the charter schools in question were not up to their standards. Of course, the real reason is that our teacher's union doesn't want the competition. It is the same reason Bud’s Pretty Good Diner doesn’t want the new Applebys to move into town. And what would it take to live up to Davidson county school standards anyway, pray tell? 

I don't fault our teachers for Tennessee’s shameful educational standards. In many of our counties, the teachers are underplayed and overworked. Many of them can barely keep enough order in the classrooms to even teach. They must constantly placate parents that are either apathetic or who are constantly irate about something. They know when they and a student disagree about something, the parents will nearly always side with their children. They even have to put up with a blog like this, which despite my intentions may come across as unfair to them and their work.

So I don't want to beat up on our teachers. The systemic failure of Tennessee public schools in all but our wealthiest counties is due to a number of factors, many of which stem from changing societal norms.  A teacher can hardly control that. What mostly hinders us from educating our children in this state is an ideological monopoly, informed and maintained by the Teachers Union.

Lets take a look at the underlying ideology of this monopoly.

The Lord of public American education, John Dewey, believed that social engineering ought to be the core component of our public schools. This well-intentioned bit of idiocy gradually made teaching children how to think into (at best) a secondary goal.  The waves of educational reform that have come since him have gradually made subjects like grammar, geography, civics, history and literature nearly disappear in many of our school districts.

Even Dewy would have been appalled.  His original idea, which was, after all, to prepare children for responsible citizenship in a democracy, assumed that students would grasp at least the basics of our civilization. The fruit of his ideas however have not been good. 

I am not an enemy of public education, by the way. I am one of its products. I still remember that not so long ago, American public education was the envy of the world. I acknowledge that numbers of public schools, lead by people who keep fighting to keep their schools healthy and productive, still perform admirably.

I am also aware that caring for multicultural children in today’s schools can be extremely challenging. I am a bilingual person from a multicultural family. I understand the difficulties of leading a classroom of children from different backgrounds. However, given my tenderness toward immigrant children and their needs, I hope I have the right to say that getting an education in this nation involves having a good grasp of English and a deep understanding of the culture that birthed our nation. The globe is delightfully multicultural because its nations are culturally distinctive. Any ideology that prohibits a people from privileging its own culture, especially when educating its young, does nothing to advance unity among the world peoples. It merely cripples the ability of its youth to compete in the world and makes the unique contribution their nation offers to the world unattractive to others.

Teachers must be kind and respectful of the various cultures of the world, but they should also teach, without shame or apology, the values of western civilization. In many school districts, this work is undermined in the name of respect for other cultures but at the cost of dishonoring our own. 

Dewey did not foresee all of this. However, his philosophy of education made much of this educational mess inevitable. It is time to dethrone him. It is time to understand that much of our studies in education at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate level are farcical phantoms of ideological orthodoxies that refer back to themselves in endless loops. These vacuous ideas require layers of specialized jargon to hide their emptiness from the unwashed masses. That makes the educational programs seem impressive whether or not they address anything of substance.

Ideology is not our school's only problem.  Their institutionalization of incompetence may be even more damaging. In many districts, administrators cannot dismiss teachers that cannot teach. They are forced to rotate bad teachers within their system, or trade them for other incompetent teachers from other districts. The bad teachers get paid the same as the good teachers. The teacher’s union won’t stand for any evaluation of their teachers except to note the level they have reached in Dewey’s educational catechism.  Paying for all this incompetence doesn't leave enough to pay good teachers enough to keep enough of them in the classroom. 

And speaking of money ...

Finland pays its teachers enormous amounts of money. However, the teachers there are highly trained. They are also evaluated periodically, not only for their knowledge but for their ability to teach. Finland respects its teachers too much to allow a person to impersonate one simply because he belongs to a union. As a result, Finland actually educates its children. That is why Finland's students consistently rank high in every subject when compared to the students of other countries.

As I write this, we are pouring billions of dollars into an election. Both parties are telling us how crucial a choice we face and how it will affect our country's future. But in the long run, the nation has proven that it can survive incompetent or even wicked presidents. But it cannot survive this continual slide into barbarism. If we do not begin to actually educate our children – all of our children – no future president or congress will have the ability to pull us out of the hole.

That's why I stared at the television in disbelief as our county voted down the governor’s request to invite charter schools into our city. To be fair, I had just watched Waiting For Superman on Netflix. So was already worked up.

(Every American parent should see this documentary about America's educational system.  It reveals how the inequality of our educational system is not the fault of rich people not willing to pay for education, nor does it blame the wealthy for pulling their children out of our public schools. It places the blame where it belongs: on the lack of educational choice among the poor and working classes.)

I for one would be willing to pay very high taxes to support a school system that really works. But more money will not fix this mess. Our public schools need competition, not in order to shut them down but to wake them up. Our nation's teachers especially need an alternative to the present plantation on which they are forced to work. If another system can pay them better, give them better control of their classrooms and will respect them more, why shouldn’t they have that choice?

The poor kid in the documentary kept waiting for Superman to come to clean up his ghetto. But Superman couldn't get into his part of town. The ghetto’s guardians kept insisting they could clean it up themselves.

Well, the kids of Davidson country are still waiting. And, if our school boards and teacher's union have their way, the educational monopoly will continue as children keep advancing from grade to grade whether or not they can add and subtract or ever get around to learning what the words in the Declaration of Independence mean. 

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Accessing Infinite Supply



 I rarely try to turn sermons into blogs. For one reason, I want the freedom to express private opinions and a blog is a better place to do that than a sermon. For another thing, sermons are too long, and that includes this one. 
Nonetheless, I decided to post a sermon  because I thought it might encourage someone who is struggling with a financial need. 
The sermon comes from a story from the life of Elisha and begins when a widow asks for his help.
 In a world without social security or the other kinds of care that a healthy community offers to the socially vulnerable, Widows were particularly defenseless.  This was especially true in the ancient world. Widows had few resources to provide for themselves. It was, therefore, the responsibility of God’s people to provide for them.

In this case, the widow had inherited her husband’s debt but did not have assets to pay the debt.

The creditors were even planning to sell her children into slavery. She was distraught because she was facing utter loss and ruin. That’s why she went running to the prophet: to see what, if anything, could be done.

Elisha listened to her story. He didn’t say, “I’m sorry; the people have not been giving and so our budget is shot.” He didn’t say, “I am a poor man too; I simply don’t have any way to help you.” He certainly didn’t say, “your late husband got you into this mess. I am not obligated to bail you out for his mistakes.” He was not a modern preacher, thankfully.

What he said was similar to what the apostles told the lame man sitting at the temple gate; “we have no silver and gold. But we have something far better. In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk.

The prophet told the widow to borrow as many pots and pans from her neighbors as she could find.  He didn’t tell her mooch off her neighbors, mind you. He just told her to tap into the capacity of her community. “Go tell your friends and neighbors to help you prepare for a miracle,” he said in effect.

So she did. She a lot of borrowed pots, pans, and bottles. She turned away from her despair and depression. She began preparing to receive God’s provision.

Now here is a question for you: are you preparing yourself for provision or for loss? Are you asking your neighbors to help you prepare for a miracle or are you asking them to share in your misery and despair?

This woman was terrified. Her future looked bleak. Nonetheless, after hearing the prophet’s words, she turned away from her dark mood, and got to work preparing for what God was getting ready to do.

This was the attitude the mother of the Lord expressed to the angel, “let it be done unto me according to your word. “ It was Abraham’s attitude who “staggered not at the promises of God.” It is the attitude God wants all of his children to cultivate. It’s not always easy but it is important to work on it.

Lately, I have been reading through St. Luke’s Gospel. I have noticed that in all the early chapters, Jesus keeps meeting people who are in real trouble. They are going through are storms, dealing with demon possessed people, and morning the loss of family members to death. When he meets these people, they are acting out of fear. That is the natural response to disaster, or even to the potential of disaster. But in every case, the Lord first shifts their mood by proclaiming to them a different future than the one they are envisioning. When their attitudes shift, he does miracles for them.

That is what the widow in this story experienced. She had a mood change. After meeting with the prophet, she went home and filled her house with expectancy instead of with weeping and wailing. In obedience to God, she took her meager supply of oil and began pouring it into all the containers she had borrowed from her community.  She stopped gripping her resources. She released those resources into the containers. And when she did, to her great delight, the oil just kept running and running until it had filled every container she had available.

That’s how she paid off her debts and got back to raising her boys.
Now you need to ask yourself a couple of questions right now: what is my oil? What limited resources am I gripping tightly because I don’t believe there is any more where they came from? And, is it possible that God is asking me to pour out that resource into the containers around me?

As you think about how to answer those questions, think with me about another story.

This story comes from one of the Lord’s sermons. He said that a rich man going on a journey asked three servants to manage his goods while he was away.

The first one faithfully read the Wall Street Journal. He invested the boss’s funds in a moderately risky stock portfolio but which his research indicated would probably bring a healthy return. 

The second man was not as knowledgeable as the first. He invested the boss’s money in a mutual fund that had been doing business for sixty years and which had a reputation for integrity and stability. The servant thought this fund would be safe enough but would also bring a modest return.

The third man was troubled that his boss would load him down so unfairly with this responsibility. He even began to think that it was some sort of a trap to get him into trouble. After thinking about it a bit, he took the boss’s money and put it in a safe deposit box at his bank.

When the boss came home from the long trip, the first man reported that the Japanese had bought out a little computer company that was a part of his stock portfolio.  This had resulted in huge profits. The boss’s investment had doubled.

The second man reported that to his relief, A.B. F.& G Mutual Funds had proven to be reliable. The boss’s investment had experienced a healthy increase.

When the third man came in, he explained that when he had realized what a shrewd boss he was serving, he had determined to do nothing that would get him fired. So he had kept the boss’s investment in the safe. Here was the original investment, safe and sound, down to the last penny.

Surprising perhaps, Jesus said that the boss was furious at this servant’s attitude. He took the money and gave it to the other two in gratitude for their services.
         
Thinking about these two stories this week led me to ask four questions this morning. If you answer them honestly, you will experience a shift of attitude, in this very service, that will prepare you to access God’s infinite supply.

The First Question: Do I live in a world of scarcity or in a world of abundance?
            When the widow went to the prophet, she went assuming that she lived in a world of scarcity. She had done her best. She had worked hard. She was not responsible for the mess she was in. Nonetheless, she had no other resources that what she could see.

The prophet didn’t rebuke her. After all, her response to the situation was normal. Anyone with a heart could see that. But her obsession with scarcity was keeping her from accessing provision from the invisible world, from that place where there is infinite supply.
The man who hid the money in the safe had that same mentality of scarcity. He believed the world contained finite resources.
         
This is the attitude our Lord tells us to discard.  If we believe we live in a world of scarcity, in a world of finite resources; then only some people, those are powerful, intelligent or well connected, can get what they need. The rest of us must live under their dominion and in their shadow. We can only get things if those powerful people help us. The rest of us may not deserve, or at least cannot obtain the things we need.

“NO!” God shouts.

“Look at me! Stop looking at the nation, the bankers, or the advertisers. Look at me! Ask me for what you need. I will give you your daily bread. I will provide and guide. But look to me. If you look at other places, even at the church, their resources are indeed finite. But mine are infinite.

I created the entire universe out of nothing. I can provide everything you need out of nothing. I am not limited by your resources.”

I have had a good reason to think about these things this week.

Most of you know that two weeks ago, Trish and I put our children and grandchildren on a plane for Ireland. It was a very difficult day for us. Three of our four grandchildren have lived with us since they were born. We have seen them nearly everyday. We see our granddaughter who lives in Phoenix three or four times a year and that has been rough. Now we have no grandchildren living near us. I have found that tough to accept.


I hope it is not melodramatic to say I have grieved this change in our lives.

Austin is getting his masters degree this year in classical languages and is working with Discovery Church in Galway. That’s good. Tiffany is parenting three children while trying to have some sort of personal life.  Together they are all having an adventure in Ireland and I’m glad for them.
            (You can read about my children’s Irish adventure at: http://www.roadtoiona.com )
            I saw all of this coming a few months ago and dreaded it.
One of the things that worried me the most was them living in another country without enough means to support themselves. So I started trying to structure my budget to serve as a safely net for them. I figured if there was an emergency of some sort, or if money didn’t come through for them, I would be responsible.
            Then the day came to take them to the airport. They finally went through security and turned once more to wave.  The last thing we saw was our youngest granddaughter, waving goodbye to us from the other side. When she did that, Trish and I held on to one another while Sherri Banks prayed over us. Then we went home to an empty house and started cleaning up several years’ worth of toys.
            The night before, Joshua McLeod had written me an email to remind me that I had agreed to give a sum of money toward buying a camera for Shawn Brown. Shawn is a professional, award-wining photographer who takes stunning photographs of our church people as they work, pray and play. We use those photographs a lot. Much of the ones you see hanging on the walls around here are his work. He has been doing all of this without good equipment of his own. So Joshua figured that if we all chipped in, we could get a great camera for him. That would bless Shawn and he would keep on blessing us.
            That sounded good to me until that morning Joshua called on me to make good on my pledge. The reason it became a struggle was that my children’s plane had been delayed in Charlotte. That had made them miss their flight to Ireland. As a result, they were stuck in the airport with three children and would be there well over twenty-four hours.
            I knew they needed a hotel room and food. Even with those things they would be stuck in the airport for several hours. I didn’t want them to use their limited funds. So I thought I need to get them some money.  The problem was, my cash flow had already been stretched for the month. So as I tool the money for Shawn’s camera to Joshua, I was thinking, “gosh, I need to be careful with my giving this year.  My children will need this money and they are my first responsibility.”
            I think you can see that my attitude became fear-driven. I was falling back into the heathen belief that we live in a world of scarcity, the very belief God tells  us to avoid.
            God graciously pulled me out of that attitude.  Here is how he did it.
            Before I could arrange to get some money to New York, someone beat me to it. A person called and paid my children’s hotel bill. Then, a previous Christ Church staff member, who now lives in New York, went and picked up my family (and the Carlsons, who were traveling with them) and took them all on a sightseeing tour of the city.
            When my children got to Ireland, they discovered that people here had been sending them money as people there had been working to get them settled and secure in a new country.
            Here is what I learned from all of that.  I should care of my own children.  It is right to think of my family as my first responsibility. However, as I do, I must remember that I have finite resources but that God has infinite resources. If I become my children’s supply, there will not be enough for all of us. But if God is their supply there will always be enough.
            Not only that. I must learn that I cannot hold back from giving generously to others. God will meet my need, my children’s needs, the church’s needs and the needs of all the people of this community. But I have to keep pouring my oil out.  If we become generous toward one another, we will tap into God’s infinite supply. If we act out of fear, from a belief that we live in a world of scarcity, we will never tap into God’s infinite supply.
            In other words, an inordinate fear of scarcity is an obstacle that restricts, or even prohibits, our ability to access infinite supply. Stinginess is not faith. Control is not faith. We must learn to become generous.
            Here’s the take away for our church: we should not worry so much about the church’s financial resource that we become stingy in providing for the personal needs of God’s people. If we discourage giving to one another in hopes of getting more money for this institution, we will diminish our capacity to give and receive. What we must do instead is invest in one another. We must pour our oil into all the containers around us. 
When we help Shawn get a camera, you see, we are giving him a tool to make money and art. That increases his capacity to give.
            If we help those whom need training get that training, we are helping them survive and thrive in this very changed economic situation. We should help some get tools. We should help some gain access to our personal contacts. We should help some with advice. We should help yet others with a word of encouragement.
            What we must do above all is cast out and overcome the belief that we live in a world of scarcity.  We must reject any fear-based attitude. We must drive out any cynicism and sarcasm. We must get to work increasing our capacity to receive God’s provision. When we do this, we will receive miracles.

The Second Question: What Do I need?
            I urge you this morning to identify the thing you most need. Tell God what that is.  Then, tell God’s people.
            Some people on our staff need money for seminary.
            Many people no longer view the ministry with respect. They believe pastors just rant and rave about things they know next to nothing about. Some of that has occurred because we expect ministers to meet our spiritual needs without any training, and then work for nearly nothing. It’s a recipe that insures pastoral failure and disillusionment. It also undermines the work of God’s church. More than at any other time in history, we need informed, intelligent and capable minsters of the gospel to lead us in the days ahead. But we are not doing much to see that that happens.
            That’s why several of our leaders are going to seminary. We all need to support them. If we do, they will bless us, now, in in the days ahead.
            Now, these are some of the needs I know.  
            There are hundreds of others in this church that I do not know.
            I certainly don’t have enough money to fund all of our dreams or even our needs. The church as an institution doesn’t either. But God does. The church is not our infinite supply. But God is. If he leads us to do something, he will fund it. But we will not be able to access it if our eyes remain fixed on some finite source, or our attitudes remain trapped by a belief in scarcity.
            What we must do then is discover and acknowledge our needs to God and to our neighbors. Even as we acknowledge our needs to others, we do not expect them to become our supply. They may become channels for getting God’s supply to us, but if we look to them for our supply we will once again be relying on a finite source. We must learn to access the infinite source instead.
           
The Third Question: Will God Provide What I Need?
            The third question is about our trust in God. Will he provide? Now, one thing for sure, he may not provide things that are not good for us or which are outside the scope of his plan for our lives. Some people probably need a jet to do their work. I am not one of those. My material needs are actually modest. Give me a room over my head, some books, a guitar a piano and something to write with and I can do most of my life’s work. I can provide for myself with those tools.
            That was not always true. Once upon a time, I needed money to get an education. God provided that, often through others.
            If we give Shawn a camera, he can provide for himself.
            If we give a trained carpenter tools, he will have what he needs to do his work.
            However, if God calls you to become a surgeon, that training will cost a lot of money. If you don’t have the money, God has to provide it. The question is: will he? Will he really? That doubt, that God will provide, quickly becomes an obstacle that hinders us from receiving God’s provision.  It will encourage us to get frantic, to begin looking at finite sources, sources that cannot possibly support our hopes. We will return to fear and the old belief in scarcity. We will lose faith, and possibly, our dream and joy.
            What the Lord teaches us in these two stories, and throughout his Word for that matter, is that He is trustworthy and that He can create something out of nothing. In fact, he manifests his presence among us by providing for us. But a shift in our attitude must occur so we will see His provision and receive it.

The Fourth Question: How Will God Provide for Me?
            This leaves us with a final question? How will God provide for us? Discovering how that happens is the great adventure of life. How He does that differs for each of us. However usually God’s provision for us works to heal us of our greatest fear. God uses our need, and His supply of our need, to heal our souls. If we are afraid of human disapproval, his plan may lead us through times we must tolerate the disapproval of others. If we fear financial loss, God may allow us to experience times of loss so we will lose the fear of it.  Whatever God does, He is always working to bring us into the abundant life He has planned for us. Naturally, the abundance may not always be what society defines as abundance, but it will always be what will bring us deep joy, the presence of God and a sense of fulfillment.
            To move into God’s abundance for us, we must release our notions of how He ought to provide for us, or by what means He chooses to provide. Receiving provision may require you to meet new people. It may mean involve back to school. It may mean selling your house or downsizing your lifestyle. I have no idea; that’s between you and God.
            So I don’t know what receiving Gods provision will mean for you except for one thing: it always involves becoming a generous person. It always means learning to give. It always involves moving way from stinginess, as I had to do last week! Receiving God’s abundance for you, you see, requires you to want others to have abundance and to do everything you can to help them get it.
            This sermon may sound like those prosperity messages that define an “abundant life” as one without suffering. The Bible does not promise us this. In fact, it tells us the opposite. But paradoxically, believers will experience joy even in their suffering because they are living the life God designed them to live. They are fulfilled because are living out their purpose. None of us like suffering. However if we trust the Lord, He will keep working out his plan for us.
So, as much as possible, we must release self-pity and despair, even when we are suffering. That usually takes some work. It sometimes and requires time to walk through the painful changes of life that cone our way, or to face our unrealized dreams. Even then, we must ask the Lord to help us be generous and gracious. We must forgive those who have harmed us, either intentionally or unintentionally. We must do that not only because these negative attitudes hurts us but because they will distract us from the life of abundance God intends us to enjoy.   
            Finally, in a real sense, I think we are both like the widow in need, and the neighbors whose pots and pans she needed. We must share our pots and pans to help meet the widow’s needs. But when we do she may turn around and share her miracle oil with us. If we stay closed up, preoccupied with our own need; if we fail to share our pots and pans with our neighbor, we may never discover the infinite supply that can meet all of our needs “according to His riches in glory.”
            Today, not tomorrow or next week, I urge you to make your need known to God and His people. At the same time, step out to discover, and then help meet your neighbor’s needs.  As we do this together, we will experience the glory of God. We will watch His release life’s greatest joy: being and doing what He created us to be and to do. 

Saturday, August 11, 2012

The Blessings of Ignorance and Political Life



No one likes to be called ignorant. That makes the word an insult when we use it to label others.

Oh, in Southern West Virginia we used to say “yr ignert,” to a person who had said something we found unbelievable. But we didn’t mean that as a real insult. It was merely our colloquial way of saying “I can hardly believe what you are saying is true.”

The often quoted, “ignorance is bliss,” was first used, as far as we know, in 1742 by Thomas Gray. However, the old cliché is simply not true, unless the perception of our own ignorance leads to greater understanding.  At any rate, Gray didn’t mean the phrase the way we have typically used it. What he actually said was (of those uninterested in learning) 

Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more.
Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise".

I have been thinking a lot about ignorance, especially since reading The Trivium, by Sister Miriam Joseph. I have been plugging away at that blessed book, almost every morning for a couple of months. I read and reread each page.  I often stop to ask myself “what IS she saying?”

Why do I torture myself that way? Well, figure that out and I’ll never spend another dime on a counselor! Perhaps I’m just an intellectual masochist, inviting mental pain because I find in it some kind of twisted pleasure.

Then again, maybe I just don’t want to be ignert.

Miriam Joseph’s book is about the foundation of a classical education, which of course is the Trivium; the three liberal arts of logic, grammar and rhetoric. 

Grammar is the process of understanding the building blocks of language, and hence, of thought.

Logic is the process of bringing ones thoughts into agreement with reality, with what actually is.

Rhetoric is the study of how to communicate one’s thoughts to another person, and do so in a way that allows the recipient to understand what the writer or speaker intends.

As it turns out, we have not been learning this stuff in school. Because we have not, discourse has become slippery – as though we are all speaking our own private dialect. We are not sure of the meaning of the words we use to think or of what they mean to the people with whom we speak. We just talk and use words however we want.

The study of grammar, logic and rhetoric was developed to give a culture common tools for interpersonal discourse. Without them, we have to yell at one another. We have to hope that some of what we want to communicate with others gets through somehow. Swearing can evidently help with this, since we are doing a lot of that these days to compensate for our lack of common communicative tools.

But back to ignorance.

I have figured out that there are four forms of ignorance:

1.     The uninformed; one who doesn’t know that he doesn’t know;

2.     The teachable: one who knows he does not know and wants to learn;

3.     The wisely ignorant: one who knows he doesn’t know but understands that his time and abilities are limited and so must therefore focus on learning things that most relates to his own life and vocation, and;

4.     The fool: one who knows he does not know and does not wish to learn

The wisely ignorant would like to know everything about everything and is willing to apply himself to learn. However, he realizes that cannot learn all the languages of the world, everything there is to know about botany, how to play the cello, do well in banking and become a first class surgeon. So he may learn a little bit about a whole lot, a lot about a little bit, or a do some of both. He knows he is not God. He realizes, therefore, that he will always be ignorance in some area of life. That is the nature of mortality and the basis of forming healthy community with others, who are hopefully knowledgeable in areas in which he is not.

There are two types of fools:

a.     The slothful and apathetic, who won't expend the energy to learn; and
b.     The intellectually perverse, who are proud of their ignorance and make it a mark of their identity.

When one has a disagreement with another he must first determine whether the disagreement is real. In a real disagreement, both parties understand similarly the words used in the discussion and follow one another’s arguments. Nonetheless, they reach different conclusions.  A Roman Catholic and a Jewish scholar may be equally sincere and knowledgeable and take the time to understand one another and still not come to agreement, for example. Their disagreement is real.  

A disagreement is not real when one or both of the parties have little knowledge of the things they are discussing, use words that mean different things to each, or when either (or both) are fools. If they are fools, they will finally shout and insult one another, having run out of anything meaningful to say. Their discourse is really much ado about nothing, generating much wind and little else. 

The purpose of a disagreement though is to discover truth, not to convince another that our opinion is correct. 

We assume that our opinion is correct of course, or we would not have it. However, if we are wrong, we want to know that. Hopefully, we want to discard ignorance in favor of truth.  Therefore, we do not fear being ignorant as much as we fear dying without becoming wise.

Paradoxically, wanting to become wise is a form of wisdom. If we want to become wise, we may actually develop the habits of life and thought that cultivate wisdom. 

When wise people have a discussion, they will often begin assuming they are using words in similar ways.  At the first whiff of disagreement however, they stop to ask for clarification. If the other person in that discussion uses a word in a slightly different way, each takes note of the difference and keeps that in mind as he or she speaks and listens.

A wise person also acknowledges the superior knowledge in a given area of another. He admits it when his opponent makes a good point and asks questions to grasp the implications of that point.

“I can see that your grasp of paleontology is greater than mine. Would you mind taking a moment to explain the background of your last statement?”

“Wow, that’s a great point. I admit that had not occurred to me.”

“I’m not sure I was following you. Would you recommend a book I could read that might help me understand this point better than I do?”

“If what you are saying is true – and I’m not certain it is – the implications are staggering. We may have to resume this discussion after I have gained a better grasp of what I just learned.”

This is the process by which an uninformed person becomes informed. It is also how the consciously ignorant person learns, and thus ceases to be ignorant.

These are good things to consider as we enter the final stage of our heated political contest. If we want to learn and become informed voters and citizens,  we must seek to understand the opinions of our opponents. We must figure out why they think as they do.  When they make a valid point, we must concede it. We must humbly seek more knowledge about what they teach us. If, in the process, our opinions becomes more nuanced than what either party can presently accommodate, that may be the price of pursuing wisdom.

Of course, if learning that we are ignorant becomes too uncomfortable, we can always decide to become fools. 

Saturday, August 4, 2012

The Presence of Absence


Joe Namath was number twelve when he played for the New York Jets. There has not been a number twelve on that team since.

When a player does an outstanding job, or has a large following, his team does not replace him with anyone else. His place remains because his team acknowledges his absence.

Joe Namath’s presence remains. The acknowledgment of his absence maintains a presence. That presence affects everyone who remains aware of it.

That is because absence is not a nothing. It is an awareness of something that is, at least for the moment, and in some sense, inaccessible.

Last week Trish and I enjoyed the physical presence of my family. My Dad and Mom, sisters and brother, their children and grandchildren, our two daughters and all of our grandchildren were physically assembled, in one room.

We enjoyed it.

We also took some time to acknowledge some who were absent. My elder brother, who lived for only a short time, was remembered. Our grandparents, great-grandparents and others, some who died more than a century ago, were remembered. We were acknowledging that none of the living has taken the place of any who has died. Their places in our family remains secure.

Next Thanksgiving, I will recall, several times during the day, that my grandfather ought to be preparing the turkey and dressing. He can’t because nearly forty years ago he left for worlds unknown. But my acknowledgement of his absence creates a presence. He will only be gone when his face and name no longer appears in our thoughts. Until then, he continues to influence the present members of the family, whether they knew him personally or not.

To remember is to re-member. The living members of our family gathered to enjoy ourselves and that’s what we did. But we also took time to re-member our entire family by telling stories, showing pictures and calling names. The young ones, who never met my grandfather, saw his face and heard his name.

That’s how I came to know my great-grandfather, although he died before I was born. All four of my grandparents and my great-grandmother told me stories about him. They called his name in family gatherings. They told me Joseph Jarrell was a good model to follow.

That’s how my great grandfather has been a continual part of my life. That's how he has always encouraged me to become a good man, though he has been dead for sixty-five years; because his family remembered to re-member him.

Our family even names some of our babies after those who we remember. We don't do it to replace our ancestors, but to keep their names alive and to give the young children a heritage to build upon.


Our faith does the same thing.

Jesus told us to do a several things. For example, we are to share the gospel with everyone in the world and are to forgive others as we have been forgiven. But Jesus only asked us to do one thing that serves no other purpose except, to re-member Him.

“As often as you do this, do in remembrance of me.”

I wonder; if we fail to do that one thing are we breaking a pattern of remembrance that has effectively kept his presence real among us for two thousand years? Will we be shifting from a presence of absence to an absence of presence?

I thought about this today because my children and grandchildren are no longer physically present in our house. For nine years, I have been living away from my daughter and granddaughter, who live in Phoenix. That has been tough. But last week, I and watched my other daughter, my son-in-law, and my other three granddaughters walk through security and then fade from view. That means none of my children or grandchildren are physically present.

I find this terribly difficult to accept.

I think of my children as I rise in the morning and as I go to sleep at night. I find myself listening for their voice but they are not here. On the other hand, they are not gone. I have been finding dry cheerios that my grand baby left behind the chairs. I had been discovering pictures the other ones drew. My Phoenix granddaughter left a paper cross that hangs on the wall. There are pictures and other remembrances all over this house that acknowledge an absence, and those acknowledgments creates a presence.

As a missionary kid, I recall when letters took a month. Phone calls were expensive and unreliable. Thanks to technology, I can see my loved one’s faces. I can write notes, which will usually get answered within hours.

I do many things to  turn their absence into a presence. I read things they like to read. I am studying some of the things Austin is studying  in Ireland. I have become even more interested that I was before in classical education because my daughter is involved in classical education. I keep doing these things to remain connected to their world -- not in an intrusive or creepy way I hope, but simply to stay connected.

I do things things to re-member; to hold together our connections, so that even though we are, at least for the moment, physically absent from one another, we are not separated.

In my last blog ( Is There Room for an Altar?) I asked some questions about church décor. I wanted to know whether the way we decorate our churches is spiritually important. The answer surely depends on whether we want keep the attention on us – the living and our present needs --  or are willing to share that attention with those we wish to re-member (and whom we wish our children and new converts to remember.)

It would be a great loss to our family if no one ever again thought about Joseph Jarrell. If he were forgotten, his saintly life would no longer influence his descendants. He would no longer be merely an absence – he would be nonexistent. Even characters in novels influence the reader, so they exist, at least in some sense. However something that does not exist in any sense cannot influence me.

People whom we do not mention and do not acknowledge will cease to exist, at least on this earth. To keep their influence among us, we must look for ways to acknowledge their absence.

Fortunately, our Lord has a book of remembrance. He knows the names of people we forgot centuries ago. They are all in his book. Their angel's faces are before him continually, day and night. They are remembered. But some day they will be literally re-membered. Their memories will transform into present, living beings.

Our Lord told us to look forward to that day. He told us that the entire family will sit down at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God. Until then, He has a request: “as often as you do this, remember me.” Until the entire family is physically reassembled at the table, we must recall their presence at the table by being mindful of their physical absence.

So we use art, prayer, songs; habits of piety; conversation peppered with things our Lord said and did. We remember him. And, he remembers us. We remember all the saints we can recall. We remember the best we can for now. Our Lord promises us that one day our hands touch the faces that we can now only conjure in our hearts. We will once again hear the voices that for now only faintly haunt our dreams.

Our loved ones are all safe because they are all remembered. The circle will not be broken. This family, scattered though it is through the nations of the earth and in heaven above, is kept whole by God’s remembrance until time shall be no more and the morning breaks eternal bright and fair. And we, imitating the Giver of Life, do all we can to mark the presence of all that is absent until that absence has once and for all been transformed into the eternal presence.