By: Les Herron
There is something wrong in academia today and in deed, our world. There was an editorial in the Chronicle (Sunday, May 21, 2006) that shared some thoughts from a professor at the University of
There is something wrong in academia today and in deed, our world. There was an editorial in the Chronicle (Sunday, May 21, 2006) that shared some thoughts from a professor at the University of Michigan who said something similar to the following…
"the academic world’s primary ethic is the right to say whatever you believe"
Do you want your teenager entering a university class where the teacher's primary ethic is the right to say whatever they believe?
The academic world's primary ethic is the pursuit of truth and if what they believe does not line up with truth then their mouths should remain closed and their books filed on the fiction shelf of the library.
Education is about the truth. It is about learning how to think about what is true and what is false and then to determine to live by what is found to be true.
Education does not end with truth yet begins with it. To know the truth and not to live the truth is to be double-minded with a personality split between the truth we know and the lie we live.
Truth sets us free. Not the truth of the facts but the truth that is applied. Knowledge is not power but is potential power in that truth not applied leaves us powerless.
Education or discipleship is meant to produce a specific product at the end of the class or the end of the internship. In the case of an accounting class it is specific accounting principles and functions that will benefit the student later on in college or at a job. In the case of discipleship it is specific spiritually practical principles and functions that will benefit the student throughout their life.
A professor at a university is meant as a beginning point for the student and not the final authority on any given topic. After the class the student builds upon that information and then applies it in a real world situation. The same is true of a disciple. The teacher standing in front of us is not the final authority, the information is meant to be built upon, and then applied in a real world situation.
We are all meant to disciple others yet we administer no tests and take no grades. We do not hold the standard and we do not know all the answers. We model the truth and the principles of the universe yet we are not the model that is presented as the end result. The Apostle Paul said it well with “whatever you see me do that is like what He would do, then do that”.
Yet, we know the one who is the answer. We know the one who is the model. We have perhaps had more time with the model than those we disciple and act as guides along the path, always encouraging others to move forward in their spiritual journey.
Yes, all things are open for discussion. But no, all things are not true. Just because we believe something to be true does not make it true and just because we write about it and are passionate about it does not make it right.
We usually do have the freedom to say whatever we want but people then have the right to shut us up. In fact, those in leadership have the responsibility to correct and direct those who are misinformed, misleading, manipulating, or lying. Leadership that allows fairy tales and old wives tales to get equal time with God’s word is weak and does not protect those who seek their leadership.
What is freedom? Freedom is not the right to do whatever we want to do. Freedom is the ability to operate within the constraints that society has placed on our behavior and that the physical world has placed on our activities.
We do not have the right to do anything we want yet we are free to pursue life goals that society has determined are good and right.
By the misuse of our freedom we can place ourselves in bondage. I live today as a free man but if I don’t follow the rules of the IRS then I will no longer be a free man. I am free to live according to the rules stated by society and when I break those rules I lose that freedom.
The same is true of the freedom I have in my physical life. I am confined and in fact held captive by the laws of physics, the rules of gravity, and the workings of my physiology.
As Christians we are free from religious restraint yet not from eternal principles of the universe. So, walk in freedom from man but remember that there is no freedom without giving our lives to Christ and living for Him.
