Earlier this month, America chose Barack Obama as the next President of the United States. He will not only be the next president, but he will be the first black president. I believe the election of Barack Obama has the potential of promoting more of the harmony God intends between mankind. Here's what I mean: when God created the universe, God made man so much like him that man is the very image and reflection of God (Genesis 1:26). In fact, he made man more like God than anything else in all creation. That's stunning!
So what, though? What does that mean for biblical harmony and for this presidential election? Well, that means that all men and women are equal to one another, that no one person (or ethnicity) is better than anyone else, and that all humans have worth and dignity. Moreover, every human being should be treated with respect and honor. Sadly, in the history of our nation, this truth has been neglected and even spurned through partiality, prejudice, slavery, racism, and countless other evils. The election of a black man to the highest office of our land represents a dramatic change in our nation and reflects more the way God intends mankind to live with one another. Who could have imagined a black man as president 50 years ago, when an entire ethnic group of people were treated cruelly on daily basis? I think we can thank God for how our nation is more consistent with the order of creation and with the nature of our Creator!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Obama's Economic Plan
Yesterday I read an article in The Washington Post about a plan to stimulate the economy from President-elect Obama. The plan gives the government hundreds of billions of dollars to spend. Where will the money go? In a separate public address, Obama said, “We’ll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels, fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead.” What should Christians make of the economic stimulus plan from Obama?
One of the cool benefits of building a biblical worldview is the way it evaluates the events of our world. We can evaluate what we see in the newspaper or the plans of a government or other institutions intelligently. A biblical worldview becomes a filter (or a grid), sifting through and understanding what is good and what is bad.
With that said I don’t think his plan is a good one. Here’s why: While stimulating the economy by creating jobs is a good thing, his plan would drive the national budget into deeper debt. I commend his desire for creating jobs so that Americans can work. God's first command to man was to work (Genesis 2:15). Work is a very good thing. Jeff Purswell has said that work completes our humanity. However, I think that while this stimulus plan might create short-term gains, it might also come with long-term pain.
Because we are made in the image of God and should reflect what God is like, our economic decisions should reflect God’s moral nature. Increasing national debt dramatically does not seem like an expression of faithfulness or wisdom. From a biblical worldview, one must be concerned about spending up to $700 billion when the national budget is coming close to $1 trillion. Proverbs says, “Be not one of those who gives pledges, who put up security for debts. If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you” (Proverbs 22:26-27). Now I don't think all debt is necessarily bad, but in principle we should avoid it. I don't pretend to have answers to growing unemployment, but I think we must protect our children from inheriting an America worse than the one we received.
One of the cool benefits of building a biblical worldview is the way it evaluates the events of our world. We can evaluate what we see in the newspaper or the plans of a government or other institutions intelligently. A biblical worldview becomes a filter (or a grid), sifting through and understanding what is good and what is bad.
With that said I don’t think his plan is a good one. Here’s why: While stimulating the economy by creating jobs is a good thing, his plan would drive the national budget into deeper debt. I commend his desire for creating jobs so that Americans can work. God's first command to man was to work (Genesis 2:15). Work is a very good thing. Jeff Purswell has said that work completes our humanity. However, I think that while this stimulus plan might create short-term gains, it might also come with long-term pain.
Because we are made in the image of God and should reflect what God is like, our economic decisions should reflect God’s moral nature. Increasing national debt dramatically does not seem like an expression of faithfulness or wisdom. From a biblical worldview, one must be concerned about spending up to $700 billion when the national budget is coming close to $1 trillion. Proverbs says, “Be not one of those who gives pledges, who put up security for debts. If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you” (Proverbs 22:26-27). Now I don't think all debt is necessarily bad, but in principle we should avoid it. I don't pretend to have answers to growing unemployment, but I think we must protect our children from inheriting an America worse than the one we received.
"Now what?" to the Image of God in Man
We cannot say we truly know something until we appropriately respond to it. In the last several posts, I've been considering how we should think about education. To this point, I've been arguing that the image of God in man is one idea that can and should shape the way we educate. This idea about anthropology (the study of man) is part of a biblical worldview of education. In this post, I want to take a more practical look at the first implication and brainstorm some ways we can educate differently.
Implication #1: I think education should develop the gifts (i.e. the potential) God has endowed upon our students so that each student can use those gifts in ways God intends.
1) Look at them with different eyes. I know how often I can look at my students self-righteously, thinking of them more like a problem than an image-bearer of God. Instead, when they're working in class quietly, running around the gym during lunch, or walking up and down the hallways, stop yourself and whisper, "These students are more like God than anything else in all creation. They are the pinnacle of all creation. And I get to work with them!" Let's view our students as the most dignified creatures in the universe. Let's see the best in them. With these eyes, don't you think you'll treat them differently?
2) Encourage our students with the potential in them. We should see potential busting out of our students! At the beginning of a class or in a conversation with a discouraged student, we can tell them that they are more like God than anything else in all creation, and that God has given them gifts to use in mighty ways. Because this potential is rooted in God, we don't necessarily "puff them up" or build unbiblical self-esteem. We actually can give them a biblical and accurate self-image that can lead them to serving God and others with these gifts. I think we come alongside of them and nurture them with appropriate respect and affection, as we encourage them in this way. I've seen my influence and trust with the students grow from this practice. I want my students to feel like I'm for them and see the best in them, which can give me an open door for guiding and influencing them.
3) Don't stop teaching until you give them a chance to act like God. As we plan and prepare for class, in particular at the unit level, let's give our students chances to practice the structural aspect of the image of God (e.g. rational gifts, moral sensibility, etc.) on the course content. Let's remember that our students are not simply recepticles for information. Remember, they mirror God not just in form but in function. They cannot know something until they use the capacities that God has given them in ways God intends. The Bible calls this wisdom.
"So what?" to the Image of God in Man
What difference does this idea that man is created in God's image make for education? In this post, I want to share just one implication for educators.
Implication #1: I think education should bring out and develop the characteristics of God that we mirror so that each student can fulfill the call of God to live (i.e. function) like God. In other words we should bring out and repair the latent gifts with which God endowed our students. Isn't that amazing!? Let me tell you something - that's the potential within each of our students! When I shared this idea with my wife, she responded, "Yeah, just like a coach." In this sense, teachers act like coaches who develop the athletic gifts within athletes so they can perform in contests successfully. For teachers we develop the image of God within students so they can live life well.
My next question: how can we apply this truth practically?
Implication #1: I think education should bring out and develop the characteristics of God that we mirror so that each student can fulfill the call of God to live (i.e. function) like God. In other words we should bring out and repair the latent gifts with which God endowed our students. Isn't that amazing!? Let me tell you something - that's the potential within each of our students! When I shared this idea with my wife, she responded, "Yeah, just like a coach." In this sense, teachers act like coaches who develop the athletic gifts within athletes so they can perform in contests successfully. For teachers we develop the image of God within students so they can live life well.
Sounds good, right? Well, I think it is good; but we must tread carefully because this principle can drift subtely to a form of atheism many now call humanism or secular humanism which stems from Englightenment philosophies that will ultimately fail. How should we tread carefully? We must remember that the development of the image of God in man is a redemptive and restorative project; it assumes a deformed and devestated image after the fall into sin that needs renewal. As Hoekema says, "This restoration begins in regeneration...The renewal of the image is continued in what the Bible calls the work of sanctification" (Created in God's Image, 86). Sanctification really is the renewal of the image of God, and education can be a means of renewing the image, a means of sanctification. This distinction can bring focus and insight into the work of a teacher.
My next question: how can we apply this truth practically?
Great Ideas that Shape Education
How should we think about education? Or in other words, what ideas should shape the way we approach the instruction and training that develop the image of God in man? Big questions, indeed, but ones that have real-life implications for teachers, students, and parents. When taken seriously, I think these questions can point us toward a biblical worldview of education. Lots of ideas can shape our worldview of education (or of anything for that matter), but I think each one points us back toward presuppositions we each have about God, about ourselves (man), and about the world. Here's one to consider:
Man is created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26). The image of God means that man is like God and represents God. So much can be said about this idea, but check out this quote from an excellent book from Anthony Hoekema, Created in God's Image: “Human beings were created to function in certain ways: to worship God, to love the neighbor, to rule over nature, and so on. But they cannot function in these ways unless they have been endowed by God with the structural capacities that enable them to do so” (Hoekema, 69). That means we reflect God with two aspects - structure and function. The structural capacities are the characteristics of God that God has endowed upon us (e.g. rational capacities). The functional capacities are the ways in which we express the structural capacities. He continues later, “God has created us in his image so that we may carry out a task, fulfill a mission, pursue a calling. To enable us to perform that task, God has endowed us with many gifts—gifts that reflect something of his greatness and glory. To see man as the image of God is to see both the task and the gifts. But the task is primary; the gifts are secondary. The gifts are the means of fulfilling the task” (Hoekema, 73).
So what, though? What difference does this idea about the image of God make for educators at work? And while the gifts are secondary, what are they? In other words, in what ways are we like God?
Man is created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26). The image of God means that man is like God and represents God. So much can be said about this idea, but check out this quote from an excellent book from Anthony Hoekema, Created in God's Image: “Human beings were created to function in certain ways: to worship God, to love the neighbor, to rule over nature, and so on. But they cannot function in these ways unless they have been endowed by God with the structural capacities that enable them to do so” (Hoekema, 69). That means we reflect God with two aspects - structure and function. The structural capacities are the characteristics of God that God has endowed upon us (e.g. rational capacities). The functional capacities are the ways in which we express the structural capacities. He continues later, “God has created us in his image so that we may carry out a task, fulfill a mission, pursue a calling. To enable us to perform that task, God has endowed us with many gifts—gifts that reflect something of his greatness and glory. To see man as the image of God is to see both the task and the gifts. But the task is primary; the gifts are secondary. The gifts are the means of fulfilling the task” (Hoekema, 73).
So what, though? What difference does this idea about the image of God make for educators at work? And while the gifts are secondary, what are they? In other words, in what ways are we like God?
What is Education?
Let’s begin by asking ourselves, “What is education?” The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines education as the systematic instruction, schooling or training given to the young in preparation for the work of life. While I was reading the OED, I noticed that the word education comes from the Latin educo, meaning to lead forth and draw out, or bring up and raise. A related word is educe, meaning to bring out and develop the latent potential in something. What difference do these Latin words make in our discussion about education? In the classroom, teachers develop the latent potential in their students. Pretty cool, huh? But is there really potential in us, or is that just a warm sentiment? At this point, I think our discussion gets exciting, because when we talk about potential in students, as Christians we must look back to the idea of the image of God in man. But before going there, here's my attempt at a definition for education, pulling from the ideas above:
Education is the kind of instruction and training which develops the image of God in a person in preparation for the call of God on their life. This preparation entails the formation of the person with the telos of virtue or holiness. In other words, education is about formation in virtue for the call of God.
Education is the kind of instruction and training which develops the image of God in a person in preparation for the call of God on their life. This preparation entails the formation of the person with the telos of virtue or holiness. In other words, education is about formation in virtue for the call of God.
Why start a blog?
My blog has a simple goal: to sharpen my thinking about various topics I find interesting. Why? Well, my mind is flabby. I suffer from "fuzzy thinking." If you don't believe me, you can ask my friends and colleagues. Because I'm young, inexperienced, and proud (and mostly because I'm proud), I do not think about things as I should and more importantly as God thinks about things. So, I need a place to think out loud, make mistakes, and subject my thoughts to God, so that I can correct my thinking, so that I can take every thought captive to Christ, and ultimately so that I can fulfill the call of God on my life, which involves the restoration of the image of God in me (restituo imago dei). Blogging is like taking continuing education classes for me, so that I can think God's thoughts after him. I hope one day my kids can read these posts and see a sinner redeemed by grace in process. I hope they can experience some encouragement as they see me stumble along the way and see God slowly transform me into his glorious image, so that He gets all the glory. To that end, let's get started!
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