I know I've got a few school teachers reading, and I'm curious to know (from them and from anyone else reading) any thoughts they have on this whole ordeal with Obama addressing students today.
Personally, this article from Al Mohler resonates with me. It seems like a lot of the concern from conservatives is irrational, yet Obama's administration is also responsible for a good bit of the controversy.
What do you think?
Larry,
ReplyDeleteHey! I'm a teacher in the public school system!
This comment on John Piper's blog on the subject offers a great perspective. It can be found here: http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1989_ive_read_the_presidents_speech_amazing/
I think I agree with the comment by pastorjohnsmith following blog post completely, so I'll just post his response here:
"Great perspective from Dr.Piper, but i have to say i am torn. while i think the outrage over the president giving this speech is something akin to what Douglas Wilson describes as outrage over catching someone "dumping water into the lake." In other words, he is not going to say anything, and he doesn't stand for anything that our public schools haven't for years stood for and crammed down the throats of our children. They have been molding kids politics and world view for years.
The torn part comes in at this point. Just because it has been happening for years doesn't exonerate the sin. Anything that does not proceed from faith is sin. SO even as Dr. Piper acknowledges in the article, President Obama, will not be pointing kids to Jesus Christ in his speech. Our presidents speech is just one more "very influential" drop in the flood of humanism that places all the responsibility upon ourselves and doesn't call us to our great God.
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
all that to say, the presidents speech looks good. the danger is that our school children (and the rest of us) will be satisfied with the good and miss the best."
Will
Will,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you (and the original poster) in theory, but isn't it unrealistic to expect any president that was elected by a what I would call a "secular majority" to point to Christ in a speech? He and the majority of our neighbors do not think this way. One could even say say that they cannot think this way if they are not regenerate believers.
We (believers) need to point people to the best way--the Gospel. Perhaps this is an opportunity to do so?
Ralph
I think we need to very carefully filter all of Obama's remarks through the gospel with our children. There is so much to pick apart in the speech with our children. Even though Obama is the secular majority (per Ralph) we need to help our children think critically about what they hear and see in their school culture and especially today with this speech.
ReplyDelete