Category: Christians & Culture

Commentary, from a Biblical perspective, on current events that are primarily cultural. There may be some overlap with politics and government, but the emphasis is on broader societal developments apart from politics, which also includes analysis of specific individuals.

Healthcare & Abortion

Pro-lifers rejoiced recently when the abortion language was dropped from the House healthcare bill. That rejoicing may be shortlived. President Obama has now made it known that he wants federal funding of abortion inserted back into the final healthcare bill that comes out of Congress. For those who may not remember just how pro-abortion this president is, let me jog your memory. As an Illinois state senator, Obama took the most radical position possible on this issue. When a bill… Read more »

Education's Historic Shift (Part V)

In a previous post, I pointed out a second group in the nineteenth century that was bent on setting up government-controlled education for its own ideological purposes. Led by Robert Owen, this group sought to educate Americans out of their belief in private property and free enterprise. They set up the Workingmen’s Party to achieve their goal. One of the party’s adherents was Orestes Brownson. Later in life, he defected from the party and his old beliefs, and turned to… Read more »

Education's Historic Shift (Part IV)

The somewhat strange-looking man on the left is Robert Owen. He’s the next major figure in my retrospective on how education changed in America. I’ve already noted that Unitarians sought to wrest control of education from orthodox Trinitarian Christians, but although they had some success in Massachusetts, they had little support in the rest of the nation. Owen arrived in America from Britain as a believer in utopian communism. He was also a bitter foe of Christianity. Once here, he… Read more »

Education's Historic Shift (Part III)

Unitarians wanted to remove education from the hands of the orthodox Christian churches. They sought to make all education the responsibility of the state; they were able to impose their will on Massachusetts by the 1830s. The first secretary of the state board of education was a man by the name of Mann. Horace Mann was a Unitarian who was placed in control of Massachusetts state education in 1837. He exhibited all the beliefs of the Unitarians with respect to… Read more »

Education's Historic Shift (Part II)

In a previous post, I noted that Unitarians in early America wanted to take education away from the orthodox churches and place it in the hands of the government. Unitarianism was hardly the dominant theology of early America; the primary place where this view prevailed was in the Boston area and Harvard, so that’s where they tried to make the change first. They decided to push for “common” schools in Boston for all elementary-age chidren. Convinced that many children were… Read more »

Education's Historic Shift (Part I)

Almost all early American education was private. That which was paid for by taxes, particularly in New England, was still local and controlled by a committee that reflected the beliefs of the towns. Early Americans weren’t attracted to the idea of government-sponsored and/or -controlled education. Why were they resistant to this idea? Three reasons come to the forefront: They feared that a government-controlled education system would impose a uniformity of thoughts that would endanger liberty; They believed that education was… Read more »

A Nation's Grieved Soul

I’ve been reading through the Old Testament book of Judges lately. I’ve always been fascinated—perhaps astounded is the better word—by ancient Israel’s capacity to forget God, no matter how miraculously He worked to deliver them from all manner of evil [mostly of their own making]. One particular passage stood out to me in my reading yesterday in Judges 10:13-16. It begins this way: But you have forsaken Me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. Go… Read more »