{"id":3803,"date":"2015-01-29T14:14:20","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T14:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=3803"},"modified":"2015-01-29T14:50:13","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T14:50:13","slug":"thinking-our-way-back-to-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/thinking-our-way-back-to-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking Our Way Back to School"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Evangelicals throughout the nineteenth century had not worked very self-consciously at thinking about the best ways, consistent with the Bible itself, to push thinking from the Scripture to modern situations and back again. That is, habits of patient study were far less well exercised than habits of quick quotation. Proof-texting did not cause great damage so long as the culture as a whole held to general Christian values, but when those general Christian values began to weaken, the weakness in evangelical theologizing \u2014 even more, in thinking like a Christian about the world in general \u2014 became all too evident.” (p.108,\u00a0The Scandal of the\u00a0Evangelical Mind).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"bart-simpson-generator\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mark Noll identifies a major weakness in recent evangelical history: we have abandoned the capacity to think and substituted instead with quotes of convenience. It’s time for a change.<\/p>\n

In the province of Ontario, our public school health curriculum will be undergoing a significant change in the fall of 2015. These changes were first introduced in 2010 but will now, it seems, be mandated in just a few months. The premise is that the times have changed, digital influence has changed and therefore we need to be educating our children about their bodies, diversity of families, and what counts as consensual sexual activity – from as young as Grade 1.<\/p>\n

An interesting quote from a grade 8 student at the January 27, 2015 news conference:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether or not teens are going to be having sex when they’re 13 or 14 … learning about abstinence isn’t realistic because sex is a part of society, part of our lives,” she said. “Not learning about consent means not knowing what consent is when you do decide to have sex.”<\/p>\n

You can read the full article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s just say that the conservative side, including evangelicals, \u00a0of our province has been in quite a stir and it continues to get a little more frenzied as the time for implementation draws near. There is truth in many parts of this adolescent sentiment. It will serve the evangelical community well to listen to the truth within it. We must be willing to acknowledge what is true and earn the right to be heard.<\/p>\n

“The Bible will always provide the deepest and most far-reaching orientation for carrying on the life of the mind. But proper examination of the world is required in conjunction with proper use of the Bible in order to understand the world as God ordained that it should be understood.” (p.53)\u00a0\u00a0While I don\u2019t necessarily have solutions readily available, I do believe that retreat from our public education schools is not an answer. Neither are demonstrations or \u2018grandstanding\u2019. Mark Noll, in the Scandal of the Evangelical Mind<\/em>, said it this way: \u201cAs the New Testament so vividly illustrates, Christianity seems to work best from a modest position. That posture keeps its advocates humble, which is the paradoxically powerful servant stance.\u201d (p. 248)<\/p>\n

The incarnational example of Jesus is that He came into a world that had not had any sign, prophet, message or king who was God\u2019s representative for hundreds of years. He was born into a culture of violence and fear. \u00a0Mark Noll, in Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind<\/em>, says it better this way:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it is true that the Word became flesh, it must also be true that the realm that bore the Word, the realm of flesh, is worthy of the most serious consideration. (Loc. 449)\u2026 If Jesus Christ shows us God in human flesh, does not God-in-human-flesh also show us something of great importance about humanity? (Loc. 478)<\/p>\n

Yet he never came with a temporal political agenda, instead He took time to get to know the people around Him, understand their interests, points of view and then spoke clearly and resolutely about the truth of God as it related to that matter. He asked questions, and He was willing to accept ridicule and mockery along the way from those who, were inwardly challenged by the depth of Truth He spoke, while they outwardly tried to hang onto their power, position or possessions.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 posture enabled Him to serve the needs of those who were looking for God; His words communicated that God was also looking for them. In a practical sense, for our situation, that means that:<\/p>\n