Distortion

July 31, 2017

Year 2, Day 212 | No Comments

Section of Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michaelangelo, 1508-1512

Always pressing mankind, from variant sources, are odd influences in personal and social lives that sometimes work for good and sometimes for ill, sometimes for virtue and sometimes for carnality, sometimes to lift and sometimes to drag down. They may be continued for years to advantage or loss for generations. The following are a few observations to which we ought to give attention for continuity. GENDER – My concern here relates to males. Leadership Quarterly, in 2011, included a squib about men in current context, with emphasis on the younger generation. We are told that the shift in interest is from more to different. I may not want a good thing, but a different thing. I may even want a… Read more

Heaven’s Perception

July 22, 2017

Year 2, Day 203 | No Comments

Section of The Taking of Christ, Caravaggio, 1602

One of the monumental omissions of modern life is the loss of awareness about values. This loss has become so prevalent that even educational institutions may back away from serious discussion about them. Some openly say they leave the topic to religion. But, ideals make quality persons and societies. If values were to return to their proper place in lives and society (beginning with individuals and families), for all human behavior, we would create a refreshed world that would restore: some ideals and meanings that have been lost or muted; some objectivity about the parameters of life; some clarity about how persons should function in all they think and do. Out of this renewal there would emerge heightened sense of… Read more

History And Historians

July 16, 2017

Year 2, Day 197 | No Comments

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

Late in the 20th century there was a resurgence of interest in the founders of The United States of America. Numerous biographies were published. Each writer made an emphasis of his own. Reading several books on each life (Washington, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, the Roosevelts and others), I formed fresh opinions about each, relating to them, their personal lives, religious views, effectiveness, ideas, strengths and weaknesses. The focus here is on one factor mentioned earlier in these Pages: the religious orientation of George Washington. Biographies of the decades infer or assert a deistic position for Washington, which position makes God irrelevant to the world of human affairs. Several allege that Washington did not refer to Christ; that for a… Read more

Independence Day

July 4, 2017

Year 2, Day 185 | No Comments

The year, 1976, was the most active of my life in the number of times I was asked to speak publicly, often on some national theme. There was extended programming throughout the country, and a number of my appointments included national celebration. On July 4th I was the speaker at the Hume Lake Conference grounds where an overflowing audience gathered in that King’s Canyon location in California for the purpose of Christian conference, vacation and, in 1976, national observance. It is remembered by me, at this writing, as one of the high points of my professional life. One could feel the appreciation for life in freedom, for faith in God, and a prevailing sense of values characterizing a massive population. … Read more

Church Building

May 23, 2017

Year 2, Day 143 | No Comments

Section of Adoration of the Magi, artist unknown

I hold firm faith in God, God identified on earth as one – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At some point in the sifting process of value factors in my life, I may begin at the bottom of the pyramid of values that makes up the important matters of my life. Each block in the pyramid is important to me, but as I ascend to the high point some factors, although important are identified so but less so than those above them. At the top there is God only – into whose presence we prayerfully relate, with his assistance. One is reminded that all his/her values are important to the individual, but some more important than others. Arts, or what… Read more

Do-Gooders

May 1, 2017

Year 2, Day 121 | No Comments

Section of Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger

Much, perhaps most, of what appears in these Pages is well known to students of life, especially Christian students. That is to say, those who perceive nature and God, good and evil, knowledge and ignorance, love and hatred and the additional multiplied factors making up daily life. They are aware, and sometimes confused, by the normalcy of things, and how mankind can mess up the contexts. These factors may be graphed as continua with negative factors to the left on lines, and the affirmative factors to the right – or the reverse recording. The purpose of the continua is to try to find the gradations of the circumstances, perhaps percentages, of differences, from extremes, or within boundaries. We know there… Read more

Value Rationalizations

April 1, 2017

Year 2, Day 91 | No Comments

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

In a magazine advertisement for an edition of the Bible, a lead-in thought was accented: NOTICE: Prolonged Use May Result in Maturity, Wisdom and Character. The words ring true, but may invite oversimplification, perhaps even distracting in some contexts. A purpose of education ought to be related to thoughts and words in context. The person who can mentally separate alfalfa from roses, and understanding that both plants have value in particular contexts, and may be troublesome in unrelated or fragmented contexts is well ahead in the ephemeral conflict between ignorance and knowledge, between the ideal and the objectionable. Context does not feed roses to cattle and alfalfa to a bride. We ought to begin, as responsible persons, with a rather… Read more

Addiction

January 20, 2017

Year 2, Day 20 | No Comments

A free society finds it difficult to deal with addictions. It becomes even more difficult when the society lightens its views: on values, on cultural and educational context, on family life and solidarity, and on the matter of self-discipline (self-control). The idea of addiction implies there is a loss of self-control, and that the addiction has become so influential that self-control will be difficult to find (or rediscover) and install for the individual who is addicted. Some areas of professional life seem more vulnerable to personal addictions, like drugs and alcohol, than others. Entertainers, for example, seem to be caught more commonly in these than business persons. Business persons may become addicted to money (greed). Sexual addictions cross all contexts. … Read more

Education and Values

January 1, 2017

Year 2, Day 1 | No Comments

I feel strong urges to write about thinking, values and wisdom relating to Christian faith. Issues can be addressed simply at outset, but become complex and evasive as we get into them. Solomon rightly related wisdom to the process of thinking (theorizing), testing (experimenting), and acting (doing). This essentially puts the educational method to work, but Solomon would incorporate more than other teachers might include. In that larger inclusion he would think values before science or engineering. Early in my educational interests I thought that right thinking would tend to focus similar conclusions for us. I now believe that the most insightful writers on thinking, attaching rightness (values), to verbal truth leading to response (assertion and action), succeed in showing… Read more

Information

December 21, 2016

Year 1, Day 355 | No Comments

We remember that Mary was sixteen or so years of age when she became pregnant. Sixteen was a common age for girls to marry. Pregnancy in mid-teens in the ancient world was common. In traditional patriarchal homes, girls were well taught from early years, what their role was to be in intimacy with their husbands; in the care of the home; and, in the rearing of children. That was, for the vast numbers of women, the whole of their natural lives. By current standards, adolescence holds during the teen years, and, during my lifetime, has extended into college years. If we nurtured our children as the ancients did, we might modify our current opinions. As a father of two daughters,… Read more

Category Archive: Values