Perceptional Truth

December 26, 2017

Year 2, Day 360 | No Comments

Section of Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger

During the mid-1930s in Akron, Ohio I would walk through shanty town to go from one area of my paper route to another. Most of the residents were African-Americans. The people of shanty town could not afford the newspaper which cost twenty cents a week, including Sunday, or three cents for a single copy and ten cents for Sunday’s. I received one cent for a single sale and six cents for weekly customers. I felt deeply for these people, at the bottom of the culture of The Great Depression. One day there was a ruckus. I diverted my usual route to see what was happening. One of the men was about to accost another man, not a resident, for taking… Read more

Animals

December 14, 2017

Year 2, Day 348 | No Comments

Section of The Taking of Christ, Caravaggio, 1602

Animals are important to the biblical story and the history of mankind. They are noted as the property of God. In pre-technology days they meant the difference between prehistoric and historic advancement for humanity. It would be difficult to recover the full story of our debt to animals. Before the Europeans touched the western hemisphere after Columbus, the native peoples we identify as Indians did not have draft animals like horses. Those helpful animals were introduced very early in the movement of the white race westward. The Indians took easily to the horse, as a working animal and mount for transportation. It may be difficult for modern Americans to think of Indians without the horse. Without the horse the Indian… Read more

Thanksgiving

November 23, 2017

Year 2, Day 327 | No Comments

Section of The Descent from the Cross, Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435

Voltaire, the radical revolutionary and atheist Frenchman preferred persons in official capacity in his household to be Christians. He found a Christian servant could be better trusted not to pilfer, not to violate his or her assignment than those who did not believe in God. He recognized that Christians had a value system superior to the persons who had no deliberate guide for their lives. Numerous sophisticates have echoed the same sentiment. Humanists, accounting honestly for human conduct, have no place to go to find values except to their own accountings. If scientifically oriented, humanists say that they believe that science will ultimately account for what is moral and right. At the time of this writing the effort continues, but… Read more

God’s Goodness

November 19, 2017

Year 2, Day 323 | No Comments

Section of The Infant Jesus and St. John the Baptist, Guido Reni, n.d.

There are compelling reasons for the existence of nations and laws, with the call for nations to make fair laws, and enforce them. The record of nations is spotty, but historically in the natural world that is all we have for communal living – unless we include God, who espouses values, in the equation. Mankind can’t find agreement, from nation to nation, even from community to community, what the law should be. Slavery was legal (good) in one part of America, and illegal (bad) in another part. The death penalty is legal in some states and illegal in others. There are vehicles legal in some states and not in others determined on emissions of spent fuel. Gambling is legal in… Read more

The Fault Line

November 1, 2017

Year 2, Day 305 | No Comments

The ultimate death of national racial prejudice, as a legal factor, was foreshadowed in the American Civil War, and was given coup de gras during the middle of the 20th century – during my era. Prejudice wasn’t ended as personal orientation for some persons, but we speak here of legality and generality. As racial equality was gaining force to approval, movements for women’s (gender) rights were also under way. We remember that African-American men gained the right to vote a half century before women were afforded that right. We likely are not well educated relative to the extensive influence of the church in movements for human rights. (One wonders if there is not a secret of mystery about all of… Read more

Under God – Excellence

October 28, 2017

Year 2, Day 301 | No Comments

The word excellent is bandied about a good deal, as I have noted on another Page in these volumes. It is the most repeated word I have encountered in higher education in answer to the question: What is your purpose in education for your particular institution? The answer in almost every case is: That we might have excellence in what we do as an educational institution. By that they mean not only that they have excellent education, facilities, faculties and supporting services, but by gaining an education from the institution students will presumably graduate committed to excellence. I have encountered many institutions deserving of the honor of excellence, and some institutions, claiming excellence that are not really there yet –… Read more

Irrepressible Conflict

October 23, 2017

Year 2, Day 296 | No Comments

There are always keys to understanding Scripture, and as keys have a habit of doing, they also get misplaced from time to time. When they are recovered there is an aha experience – clarifying, comforting and satisfying, even life changing. The same principles hold for secular materials of study through history. Culture is a vital factor (key) in interpreting meaning, as the archaeologists clearly demonstrate. Culture is a key in evaluating events of history, so advising against arrogance and stupidity in the conclusions of an advanced or degraded generation relating to some other. Even God permits his own interpretation to use this culture key to evaluation. (Acts 17:30) How did mankind seem to leap so recently to civilization? A key… Read more

Minority Opinion

October 13, 2017

Year 2, Day 286 | No Comments

Section of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, Benedetto Luti, 1715-20

Society ought to look beyond the sciences (nature/knowledge) and mechanics (work/arts) in its education and civics (humanity/citizenship). Almost always, when the subject is broached, the purpose of education in the world is currently related to some professional context that will provide for the student a better income, and higher prestige in job selection than day laborers who without significant formal education will perform ordinary assignments in serving public needs. These latter are presumed to relate to a few days or months of training in skills that presumably require little in formal education. The two groupings are not really that far apart when one accents the historic uses of education, accents that may have been muted. Historically a person was not… Read more

Higher Education

August 26, 2017

Year 2, Day 238 | No Comments

Section of Christ and the Adulteress, Lucas Cranach the Younger and Workshop, ca. 1545–50

I completed high school in 1940, on the edge of America’s entry into World War II, a war already underway in Europe. The Great Depression continued, until national ramping up military needs for products and manpower broke the long economic stalemate. To go to college, was a dream of many serious students (and idealistic parents for their children), but the costs were daunting as we imagined them at the time – although a pittance compared to current standards. Even in the contexts of differences in economic eras, the current cost is considerably higher to excess than it was during my years of formal education. My mother was insistent that I take the College Prep program at the public high school… Read more

Experiencing God

August 24, 2017

Year 2, Day 236 | No Comments

Each person must focus his/her own experience related to God. This is aided by Scripture and prayer, by Christian ministers for the experiences witnessed and modeled by believers. The world is interested in its societies, more than its individuals. God is interested first in the individuals. Societies follow. Both God and mankind are interested in societies, but the matter of priority is vital. Each person is responsible for self, but the interest and necessity for society means high regard for society, and how it functions. The point here is that the first order is with the individual, the specific denominator of the created universe. Because of that, the individual should not have a barrier in his approach to life, except… Read more

Category Archive: Values