Sometimes "Champion" is the Wrong Word

Champions?

So I'm looking over my blog, thinking of ways it could be improved (besides getting someone else to write it), and I notice a text box lower down on the right-hand side in which is a Bible quotation from the book of Romans. It's been there since I started this blog but I had forgotten that the text was hyperlinked. So I clicked on it and it took me to a page on the website of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Now, one never quite knows what one will find when clicking around on the Internet, especially with all the pop-up ads these days. So I wasn't too surprised to see an ad for Liberty University Online. What got me was Liberty's motto: 

"Training Champions for Christ Since 1971."

I'm sure Liberty is a fine school but, seriously, champions for Christ?

Have you ever read a New Testament epistle that began with something like, "Paul, a champion of Jesus Christ, unto ...?"

Me neither.

Did you know that "champion" is found in the scriptures only three times, and that each time it is a reference to a Philistine named Goliath?

I'm thinking maybe Liberty, if they are serious about their image as a 'Christian university,' could use a new PR person.

Ohio Democrat Proposes Draconian Homeschooling Legislation

"But the Home School Legal Defense Association has a different take, calling it the “worst-ever home school law” and saying Senate Bill 248 “is breathtakingly onerous in its scope.”

“It requires all parents who home school to undergo a social services investigation which would ultimately determine if homeschooling would be permitted. Social workers would have to interview parents and children separately, conduct background checks and determine whether homeschooling is recommended or not. If it is not recommended, parents would have to submit to an ‘intervention’ before further consideration of their request to home school.”

"That intervention would include individual and/or group behavioral counseling and classes on parenting, decision-making, personal or household finance and homeschooling – plus anything else the agency might decide is needed. Agency social workers would decide whether the intervention was successful, or not – and whether the parents will be permitted to homeschool their children."

Read more ... 

"Silent Night" is Offensive to the Religious Left

Well, I've got to start somewhere. So, there's this ...

School officials at Kings Park high school on the northern Long Island coast in New York have demonstrated their commitment to academic freedom by forcing their religious beliefs on their students. In the view of these hypocrites, the old Christmas hymn, Silent Night is offensive. Consequently, they have disallowed the hymn to be sung as originally written (John F. Young translated Joseph Mohr's "Stille Nacht" into English).

Offensive phrases include: "Holy Infant" and "Christ the Savior."

Kings Park high school has existed since at least 2007, but only now, as its students prepare for their annual Christmas concert, has its pharisaical leaders felt brave enough to declare--A&E Network-like--that the words to Silent Night must be banned.

"Welcome to the Kings Park Central School District," the district's website proclaims. 

"The Kings Park School District will provide an excellent education for all children. Students will be given the opportunity to develop academically, physically, socially, and emotionally, while learning the necessary skills to communicate effectively. This will be accomplished in a stimulating and challenging environment that maximizes every resource available."

Yeah, right. This will actually be accomplished by the school's censoring of historical texts.

In demonstration of the high school's official's higher learning, we are informed that their "intent was to avoid offending non-Christians." So they end up offending practically the whole audience.

No, their intent was to demonstrate to their students, to their students' parents, and to their community how enlightened they are, how superior they are to mere citizens. Their intent was to shove their own religious views down the throats of their aforementioned audience.

The article concludes by telling us that the school's principal later apologized and that officials promise that something like this "won't happen again."

Don't hold your breath.

Naomi Schaefer Riley, Black Studies Programs, and the Sorry State of Higher Education

Naomi Schaefer Riley

I have added to my list of "counselors" author Naomi Schaefer Riley.  I heard Ms. Riley on the radio a couple of mornings ago being interviewed by former education secretary, Bill Bennett. She is the author of a recently published book on higher education: The Faculty Lounges: And Other Reasons Why You Won't Get the College Education You Pay For.  It's a book I'm looking forward to reading because, over the years, I've had the distinct privilege of working with a lot of people who obviously did NOT get the college education they (or somebody) paid for.  Her interview with Bill Bennett drew my attention because it was mentioned during the course of the discussion that she had been fired for something she had written.  I should mention that it never fails to grab my attention whenever I hear of someone has written something that has gotten them in hot water with the powers that be.  So, obviously, I'm looking forward to reading her book.

The Book

The subject of the piece that led to Ms. Riley's dismissal as a contributor to The Chronicle of Higher Education's "Brainstorm" blog was the concept of black studies programs in major colleges and universities or, more specifically, why they should be eliminated.  After a storm of mostly juvenile criticism, Ms. Riley published a response on the same blog.  At some point in this war of words, she was fired, and the editors of blog had this to say by way of justification.  In response to her firing, Ms. Riley took to the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, where she is a frequent contributor, to declaim about the "mob mentality" that prevails in many circles of higher education these days.

So, it's not just because the catchy title of her book interests me, it's because, after listening to her discuss the subject with Bill Bennett, and after reading the aforementioned articles, I am persuaded that Naomi Schaefer Riley not only knows what she's talking and writing about, she's such an authority that she deserves a place on my exclusive roster of counselors.

twh

Rules for High School Students

Got these from Neal Boortz who got them from a book by Charles J. Sykes called Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, Or Add. 

Rule No. 1: Life is not fair. Get used to it. The average teen-ager uses the phrase "It's not fair" 8.6 times a day. You got it from your parents, who said it so often you decided they must be the most idealistic generation ever. When they started hearing it from their own kids, they realized Rule No. 1.

Rule No. 2: The real world won't care as much about your self-esteem as much as your school does. It'll expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. This may come as a shock. Usually, when inflated self-esteem meets reality, kids complain that it's not fair. (See Rule No. 1)

Rule No. 3: Sorry, you won't make $40,000 a year right out of high school. And you won't be a vice president or have a car phone either. You may even have to wear a uniform that doesn't have a Gap label.