straightshot

Honest thoughts on ministry,culture, and living in Utah

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Location: Logan, Utah, United States

I love diversity. I love studying the Bible. science (especially biology and astronomy),and history. I love music, the outdoors...and my family of course. They give me the greatest joy I have ever known!!

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Inmates Running the Asylum.....Again

I've been saving this news item in my email since last Thanksgiving. No doubt it is happening again this year somewhere:


GOD BANNED FROM THANKSGIVING Maryland public school teachers are free to explain the history ofthe Mayflower and the Pilgrims and their three-day feast with NativeAmericans, but they are not allowed to explain that the Pilgrimsthanked not only the Native Americans, but God as well. "We teach about Thanksgiving from a purely historical perspective,not from a religious perspective," said Charles Ridgell, curriculumand instruction director for St. Mary's County Public Schools."Schools don't want to do anything that would influence or act againstthe religious preferences of their students," said Lissa Brown of theMaryland State Teachers Association. But others see this omission of religious material from lessonplans as a form of censorship. "School administrators need to get abackbone," said Joel Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute."We are in real danger of throwing out cultural heritage in ourcountry if we don't know what Thanksgiving is really about." Harry Hornblower points out on his Web site (www.plimoth.org) thata secular Thanksgiving ignores the holiday's original premise asstated by George Washington in his Thanksgiving Day proclamation: "Itis the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of AlmightyGod ... and to be grateful for his benefits."
Long ago and far away, in graduate school, I learned first hand how biased the education community is (even the sciences). That things like this go on is glaring proof of an orthodoxoy of anti-theistic thinking at almost all levels of some educational communites. America's heritage is so obviously infused with Christian thinking and influence, only an ignorant or willfully blind fool would try to deny it.
I would love to invite such people to visit the US Capitol in Washington DC. When I was there a few years ago, I marveled at the huge paintings on the rotunda ceiling. One is entitled "Embarkation of the Pilgrims" and depicts their pastor, kneeling in prayer as they prepare to leave Holland. It was commissioned by the US Government in 1836.
Some have suggested that one day we could see workers all over DC sandblasting all references to God from all the monuments, etc. in our nation's capitol. If that day comes, perhaps we will find ourselves pilgrims once again, searching for a place to worship.... freely.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Voices from the Commode

I had just entered what appeared to be an empty men's room on the campus where I minister. All was silent as I put down my briefcase. Suddenly a loud voice began talking, apparantly from one of the stalls. Who was he talking to, the guy next to him? No, he was talking on his cell phone-loudly. I heard all about his deer hunt plans, when he got out of class, etc. I wonder if the person on the other end knew where all this was coming from. No wonder live video phones have never really taken off.

Much has been written about the intrusion of modern technology into our lives. Silence, it seems, is to be avoided at all cost, especially on a college campus. Students walk, ride the bus, and even use the bathroom with i-pods or cell phones firmly stuffed in to their ears. People do not talk to each other in lines anymore, only their friends via the airwaves. What is this doing to us? How can we hear the voice of God if other voices are constantly in our ears?(What it is doing to our physical ears is another concern. Recent studies show hearing losses appearing earlier and earlier, even in young children and teenagers. Kids today stay plugged in all day long and the human ear was never designed for that.)

"Be still and know that I am God", advises our Creator. Perhaps a footnote in our modern translations should read "... and take off your headphones."