Sam Weaver
Conventional wisdom
By Sam Weaver
"Education: The bringing up, as of a child; instruction; formation of manners. Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and to fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties." — Noah Webster's original definition of education, as it appeared in the first edition of his American Dictionary of the English Language (1828).
At America's founding, the average parent had little choice but to accept the inherent responsibility of every parent to educate his own children. Generally, I believe, the people accepted this responsibility willingly and whole-heartedly; and their faith, by-and-large, made them more than equal to the task! Before long, however, American parents began to cede much of this responsibility to public schools. In the beginning, most public schools were largely faith-based — relying heavily upon the Word and Will of the God of the Judeo-Christian Bible.
Fast-forward to the present day. Faith (i. e., any reliance upon the Word and the Will of God; the Laws of Nature and Nature's God; or Biblical principles, teachings, exhortations, etc.) has absolutely no role to play in public education. Any inclusion of faith or Bible-based instruction in public school curricula is considered a "violation" of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. (Strange, is it not, that the Establishment Clause implied no such thing when the men who wrote and ratified it were still alive?!) Reliance upon the revelation of God's Holy Spirit these days has been deemed "superstitious," "intolerant" and even "dangerous."
Today's public schools discard faith in God (along with most of the principles and ideas upon which America was founded), and place their confidence in what I call "conventional wisdom."
Conventional wisdom is the great body of human knowledge that rests in the minds and the writings of countless "experts." Certain scientists, theorists, advocates, politicians, philosophers, historians, textbook writers and professors are accepted by the scientific, academic and media establishments. These so-called experts are the dispensers of "truth." Anyone who dares to defy these experts or to disrupt their conventional wisdom is ostracized.
Tenets of conventional wisdom include (but are not limited to) the following:
Judeo-Christianity is a fairy tale that can be intolerant and extremely dangerous. Macroevolution is the only valid scientific explanation for the existence of all life on Earth. Freedom (even liberty) is license. The rule of law is established by man. Truth is relative. All cultures are equal; but one religion is less equal than all the others! All behaviors and "life-style choices" must be accepted. Capitalism (i. e., free-enterprise) is inherently evil. Socialism is a means toward political and economic freedom. Scientific discovery is a dialectic process.
These and many other doctrines of conventional wisdom are being preached in America's public schools and universities and are imbued by pop culture, Hollywood and mainstream media.
Opinion polls have consistently shown for years that more than eighty-five percent of Americans consider themselves Christians. As Christians, we should be familiar with such Biblical passages as Galatians 1:10-12 and Ephesians 4:12-15. Reliance upon the "wisdom" of human "experts" is a fool's destination. Devotion to the Word and the Will of God — through the Revelation of His Holy Spirit — is the essence of liberty, security and happiness.
We do ourselves and our country a grave disservice when we place our faith in experts, politicians and, especially, in government for the complete protection of our liberty, security and happiness! We forget both the meaning and the Source of liberty (see II Corinthians 3:17) when we put our trust in the reasoning of man. When we rely upon the secular "wisdom" of public education, mainstream media, Hollywood and the Supreme Court — all the while rejecting God and His Truth — then we are doomed to despotism and tyranny.
Revelation (i. e., the revealing of God's Truth through His Holy Spirit) is real and it is available to everyone. All it takes is a tiny degree of faith and a first step. The first step — at least in my case — is a desperate yet sincere plea to God for the revelation of His Truth.
The more than eighty-five percent of us Americans who call ourselves Christians have a vital obligation in these tumultuous times to heed the words of St. Paul in such verses as I Corinthians 2:6-12 and Galatians 1:12. We must scrutinize, question, debate and often reject out-of-hand the conventional wisdom of the experts of this fallen, corrupt, evil world.
We cannot enjoy the blessings of liberty until we first understand the Source of those blessings. The Source of those blessings is the Spirit of God — not the spirit of this world, or of men. If we do not walk in the Spirit of God, we cannot expect to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
© Sam Weaver
"Education: The bringing up, as of a child; instruction; formation of manners. Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and to fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties." — Noah Webster's original definition of education, as it appeared in the first edition of his American Dictionary of the English Language (1828).
At America's founding, the average parent had little choice but to accept the inherent responsibility of every parent to educate his own children. Generally, I believe, the people accepted this responsibility willingly and whole-heartedly; and their faith, by-and-large, made them more than equal to the task! Before long, however, American parents began to cede much of this responsibility to public schools. In the beginning, most public schools were largely faith-based — relying heavily upon the Word and Will of the God of the Judeo-Christian Bible.
Fast-forward to the present day. Faith (i. e., any reliance upon the Word and the Will of God; the Laws of Nature and Nature's God; or Biblical principles, teachings, exhortations, etc.) has absolutely no role to play in public education. Any inclusion of faith or Bible-based instruction in public school curricula is considered a "violation" of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. (Strange, is it not, that the Establishment Clause implied no such thing when the men who wrote and ratified it were still alive?!) Reliance upon the revelation of God's Holy Spirit these days has been deemed "superstitious," "intolerant" and even "dangerous."
Today's public schools discard faith in God (along with most of the principles and ideas upon which America was founded), and place their confidence in what I call "conventional wisdom."
Conventional wisdom is the great body of human knowledge that rests in the minds and the writings of countless "experts." Certain scientists, theorists, advocates, politicians, philosophers, historians, textbook writers and professors are accepted by the scientific, academic and media establishments. These so-called experts are the dispensers of "truth." Anyone who dares to defy these experts or to disrupt their conventional wisdom is ostracized.
Tenets of conventional wisdom include (but are not limited to) the following:
Judeo-Christianity is a fairy tale that can be intolerant and extremely dangerous. Macroevolution is the only valid scientific explanation for the existence of all life on Earth. Freedom (even liberty) is license. The rule of law is established by man. Truth is relative. All cultures are equal; but one religion is less equal than all the others! All behaviors and "life-style choices" must be accepted. Capitalism (i. e., free-enterprise) is inherently evil. Socialism is a means toward political and economic freedom. Scientific discovery is a dialectic process.
These and many other doctrines of conventional wisdom are being preached in America's public schools and universities and are imbued by pop culture, Hollywood and mainstream media.
Opinion polls have consistently shown for years that more than eighty-five percent of Americans consider themselves Christians. As Christians, we should be familiar with such Biblical passages as Galatians 1:10-12 and Ephesians 4:12-15. Reliance upon the "wisdom" of human "experts" is a fool's destination. Devotion to the Word and the Will of God — through the Revelation of His Holy Spirit — is the essence of liberty, security and happiness.
We do ourselves and our country a grave disservice when we place our faith in experts, politicians and, especially, in government for the complete protection of our liberty, security and happiness! We forget both the meaning and the Source of liberty (see II Corinthians 3:17) when we put our trust in the reasoning of man. When we rely upon the secular "wisdom" of public education, mainstream media, Hollywood and the Supreme Court — all the while rejecting God and His Truth — then we are doomed to despotism and tyranny.
Revelation (i. e., the revealing of God's Truth through His Holy Spirit) is real and it is available to everyone. All it takes is a tiny degree of faith and a first step. The first step — at least in my case — is a desperate yet sincere plea to God for the revelation of His Truth.
The more than eighty-five percent of us Americans who call ourselves Christians have a vital obligation in these tumultuous times to heed the words of St. Paul in such verses as I Corinthians 2:6-12 and Galatians 1:12. We must scrutinize, question, debate and often reject out-of-hand the conventional wisdom of the experts of this fallen, corrupt, evil world.
We cannot enjoy the blessings of liberty until we first understand the Source of those blessings. The Source of those blessings is the Spirit of God — not the spirit of this world, or of men. If we do not walk in the Spirit of God, we cannot expect to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
© Sam Weaver
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
