Secular Education / Higher Education (Part 1)

As a youth I resonated to T. S. Eliot's lamentation: "Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" (T. S. Eliot, The Rock [1934], I).  How much more is his lament true now in our ‘information age?’

As a mid-to-late-teenage boy I read and loved the Holy Bible.  As enlightening as the Bible was to me, however, I soon found that by including prayer and pondering I was being led more-and-more to the conclusion that there must be something more.  Didn’t even my Bible reading of Paul suggest that? “…Be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love … grow up into Him in all things. /  Wherefore He saith, awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead [meaning intellectual and spiritual stupor] and Christ shall give thee light. / Walk as children of light. / Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 4:14-15; 5:8, 14, 17) In short, I didn’t buy the conclusion my protestant mentors posited--that revelation of truth was over; that God wasn’t talking to man any more—it had all been said. I knew the Bible simply didn’t teach that. 

Later, when I came much more fully into the Gospel light I read this related warning and explanation: “For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men whereby they lie in wait to deceive and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it.” (Doctrine and Covenants 123: 12)  From The Book of Mormon the prophet Nephi lamented over those who "will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge" (2 Nephi 32:7).  Clearly he was referring to a particular kind of knowledge.  If we understand the Bible, we know there is higher knowledge, indeed eternal truths God wants us to understand,  but that kind of knowledge comes only by revelation and, thereby, is only "spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14).

In reflecting upon my young life, when I read this I knew it to be true.  Truth could be found!  In my early adulthood I had found it—at least an important part of it.  I found it on the path Jesus trod. 

But of my associates then, and some even now, I have also come to know that many had not pursued this quest for truth—the ‘higher education’ that the Gospel promised ; it was something they no longer, if they ever had, even thought about.  These good, but ‘natural men,’ pursued the secular ‘higher education’ essential to get along well in the work world, but insufficient, for a complete education that could direct them to ‘the truth , the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.’  The apostle Paul said, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)  

By contrast, those who diligently sought spiritual 'higher education' would be gifted with a ‘pearl of great price’:  “For by my Spirit will I enlighten them [the spiritually enlightened], and by my power will I make known unto them the secrets of my will--yea, even those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet entered into the heart of man.” (D&C 76:10)  Knowledge that is ‘spiritually discerned’ does not come without knocking, seeking, searching, pondering, and committing, and is not always easily or with persuasion communicated by the receiver to the non-believer who will not make the same diligent effort to know. 

Embedded in the scriptures, of  the Old World and New World,  are the words ‘truth’ and ‘understanding’ and a plea not to be ‘unwise.’ Implicit is the notion that there is such a thing as ‘truth’; we can come to ‘understanding’, and we should not be ‘unwise.’  

  

It is clear from scripture that some truths turn out to have a place in a hierarchy of Truth that the world doesn't understand. The highest education, therefore, includes salvational truths, bringing us “a knowledge of  things as they really are, as they were, and as they really will be" (Jacob 4:13; Doctrine and Covenants 93:24). Christ's manner of life is truly "the way, the truth, and the life," and he has directed us to pursue it.  (John 14:6; see also Matthew 5:48; 3 Nephi 12:48; 3 Nephi 27:27).

The point I am trying to make is that all knowledge is not of equal significance. There is no democracy of facts or even knowledge, and certainly not of wisdom.  It should be clear that many things may be factual but unimportant.  Our challenge is to give the weightier matters their deserved prominence without leaving the lesser learning chores "undone" (Matthew 23:23).

Neal A. Maxwell commented that:

“Brilliance, by itself, is not wholeness, nor happiness. Knowledge, if possessed for its own sake and unapplied, leaves one's life unadorned. A Church member, for instance, might describe the Lord's doctrines but not qualify to enter the Lord's house. One could produce much brilliant commentary without being exemplary. One might be intellectually brilliant but Bohemian in behavior. One might use his knowledge to seek preeminence or dominion. Such are not Jesus' ways, for he asks that perception and implementation be part of the same spiritual process.” 

The Prophet Joseph Smith observed, "If you wish to go where God is, you must be like God, or possess the principles which God possesses" (Teachings, p. 216). God possesses perfect knowledge, but he also possesses perfect love and mercy.  Elder Maxwell again observed: “What a contrast He is to those mortals who are bright but bad, who are clever but carnal! Even genius without goodness can be dangerous.” 

No wonder, therefore, "to be learned is good if [we] hearken unto the counsels of God" instead of setting them aside as if we have somehow outgrown them (2 Nephi 9:29). How can one ever outgrow Christ's beckoning example of knowing, behaving, and doing? What happens, however, is that some easily fall into the trap described by Paul, "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3:7). For example, one might learn a great deal about the physical characteristics of this planet earth but yet be ignorant of why it was created (for us) in the first place (see Isaiah 45:18; 1 Nephi 17:36; Moses 1:33,39).  The highest education deals much with who, why, and when.  ‘How,’ I suppose, will come later.

Who's in Control?

By all appearances, the normal are not in control. 

The talkers, the takers, the enabled, the fringe element act as if they are, but who is really keeping things afloat in our land?  Who is keeping the families together? Who is keeping our society and economy together—our businesses, the military, our legal system, our churches, educational institutions at all levels, health care, our scientific community, our government—community, state, and national?  

Some people—the noise makers—do not want to hear it; it is so ‘politically incorrect. ’ But the facts are, folks, that the discredited Baby Boomer generation of predominately white men and women are keeping this battered ship afloat. It is they who hold the keys, or in today’s world, the passwords. 

No, I did not miss the last election.  President Obama was elected, but as he found in the last four years, he was certainly not in charge.  Neither was even President Lincoln, as good a man as he was, truly in charge in his fractious administration. 

Who should be? How about those of whom President Lincoln spoke: a “government of the people, by the people, for the people” of, as we of my generation subscribed to, “one nation under God.”  

We ‘boomers’ are not perfect—far from it, but it is we who hold the great majority of political offices, who are on the boards, the councils, in positions of leadership in industry, education, service clubs and organizations, the military and law enforcement, and in all the constructions and institutions that provide the backbone of this country. It is the boomers who are the producers and the providers the populace falls back on. 

The Boomer generation is the safety net, the resource base, the ocean if you will, that keeps afloat all who ride on its ample bosom.  It is they who are the middle-aged and the grandparents (no longer the great-grandparents who are the so-called ‘Greatest Generation’) who try to hold ungrounded, irresponsible, dysfunctional extended families together, who own and direct the businesses that supply the jobs, the farms that supply the food, who own the homes that provide the shelter, who are the fire and police chiefs and captains, the military officers, the experienced teachers and college professors, the investors, the men and women who provide the brainpower and willpower and stability that keep the whole thing afloat and on course. 

Of course the chronically unemployed and uneducated, the chronic recipients of governmental welfare or parental support, the lawbreakers, the anti-establishment misfits and radicals, the fringe elements would have us believe otherwise,  but I would ask you, what, really, have they contributed besides a leak in the cistern?

I contend that there still is a vast silent majority of middle-aged Americans, the body of water, so to speak, that has had so much waste dumped into it, that supports all the great ships and little boats that float upon it.   We should be grateful that it hasn’t dried up or that some greater power has not yet pulled the drain plug.  That Power may yet. It is not an inexhaustible resource and He does not have inexhaustible patience. 

  

In saying all this I am not disparaging the younger generation or peoples of color or ethnic or religious groups or anybody who is here in this country legally and who believe and act in accordance with the duties and privileges of citizenship. Their day is coming and I hope they are prepared to lift the load.  I am just saying to them, to mix the metaphor, what I remember being told as a boy: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.    
The mood of our country is unanchored; the fleet has come loose from its moorings.  It needs to get the strong hands on deck to drop a more substantial anchor into its traditional bedrock of in faith in God, respect for the law, knowledge of and fidelity to our founding principles and necessary institutions. Being loose, our various-sized-and-aged and many-colored vessels are being buffeted by contrary winds that threaten to sink them.  Every vessel needs to have a compass, a rudder, a sail, an anchor. 

And then it needs to use them.

It should also be glad to have a safe harborage and a body of water to sail upon.

Thanksgiving 2012

In case you were not a reader of this weblog last year and you would like to review my thoughts on Thanksgiving I would direct you to my archives (right hand column) and click the bullet beside 2011 and then the bullet next to November and then 'Thanksgiving.' My thoughts have not changed.

If you do not feel that you have too many things to be thankful for this year then I would suggest you do this:  kneel with a loved one, hold his/her hand, open your prayer to God,  wait, thank Him for what/who comes to your mind and then contact that person or do something related to that insight and see what comes of it.  I think you will, at that point find something else to be thankful for--related to that thing/person.  Then build upon it.  It will then be a day of thanksgiving for you.  The Lord works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.

I give thanks for whomever you are reading this -- that you have allowed me to place a residual of thought into your mind this day.  May you be blessed. 

Fiscal Cliff / Moral Abyss

Fiscal cliff

First a word about the looming ‘fiscal cliff:’  This politically-imposed day-of-fiscal reckoning will, I predict, be just another kick-the-can-down-the-road date that will come and go (probably extended) as our lawmakers continue to play out what has become a personal and political national habit.  That habit is, of course, to postpone, borrow, mortgage, take, or steal from the future or from those who still have some resources, so one can get what he (or the liberal element in our government or body politic) wants now.  That is the crux of the problem. 

It is the issue, on the political/industrial front, that Ayn Rand’s 1957 book Atlas Shrugged so ably explored.  

The ultimate reality, the real cliff, will be when the national well actually runs dry and the other guy’s well, who the political Robin-Hoods were counting on, also runs dry.  Extending or expanding the debt will not do for our credibility will by then also have run dry. Then will come the severe belt-tightening, the political austerity ‘solution’ and the historical knee-jerk-lets-find-a-scapegoat revolutionary response that is likely to follow.  One thing leads to another. 

   

My view is that much of our fiscal problem—personal and national—is trying to buy or otherwise procure what we can’t afford or need, or have no right to. It is to spend what we don’t have: the too big or too expensive house, the expensive car when a more modest one would do, or the newest electronic acquisition we think we can’t do without.  It is also caused by trying to buy or demand what is, by then, much needed health care once we have squandered our health by acquiring poor health habits—overeating, smoking and drinking, not exercising, taking drugs.  Vices (a word no longer in our national vocabulary) cost money.

Our problem is caused by our increasing entitlement mentality.  It is caused by the takers not knowing what it costs the givers to provide—or not caring. It is a lack of moral understanding and self-discipline.

 Moral Abyss

It is the moral abyss so many of us have fallen into that causes/contributes greatly to the above problems as well as our nation’s many other social problems.  It is, for example, the attack on the sanctity of marriage and the family, the practicing of unhealthy ‘relationships’ in and out of marriage, it is pornography, the killing of unborn babies, a lack of respect for and disobedience to the laws of the land, and most of all, a disregard, even a repudiation of God, His commandments and the eternal principles that lead to happiness. 

“For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root.” (Henry David Thoreau) We have not struck at the root.  The root is moral weakness.  

We have become morally bankrupt and we are being forsaken by God.  He has to, because He is a God of justice. 

  

It is no wonder we have these problems.        

A 'Life Coach'

I met a man this week who said he was a ‘life coach.’  Think about that.  I asked him how he became qualified to become a life coach and he said he had read a book by Tony Robbins.  

Well, I’ve been a soccer coach, a wrestling coach, volleyball coach, football coach, golf coach, track and field coach and baseball coach.  But a LIFE COACH!? 

How would one become qualified to become a ‘life coach?’  I guess it would be to become well-acquainted with life.  Without putting a label on it, I suppose about forty years ago when I determined to continue on with school and become a doctor of philosophy that inchoate thought might have been on my mind. (I actually took my doctorate in education.) I liked history and philosophy and psychology and teaching and religious studies, and through my Church was starting to get a handle on life in ways, I have learned, that simply listening to Tony Robbins or Dr. Phil, or Ann Landers, or Delilah, et al., could not have qualified me.  

  

In process of time I have learned that by trying hard to be a good husband and father and serve with effectiveness in the Church and read as much as I could I was, in fact, becoming much more qualified to become a man of wisdom, or philosopher or ‘life coach,’ though I still hadn’t put a label on it, than I could have simply by taking every course in the university catalogue or by reading a book by a single motivational speaker.  (However, Stephen R. Covey’s writings will take one a long way in that direction if he/she has the other requisite life experiences.)

The larger question might be, why should one aspire to becoming a ‘life coach,’ or in former days a ‘philosopher’?  On one level the title does sound presumptuous, but I suppose there are a few counselors or psychotherapists, even sectarian pastors who are not in it simply for the money, or status, or power, but truly do want to help others come to a more abundant life.  And that is a worthy goal. 

 In fact, I think most legitimate ‘life coaches’ are known by more familiar titles: dedicated mothers, or fathers, or grandparents, or lay Church workers--even teachers, and I salute them. 

Jesus was called rabbi (teacher); indeed, he could have been called the true ‘Life coach’ since he came “that [we] might have Life, and. . . have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) If we need a model, and we do, He is the One—the Life Coach par excellence.