Brilliantly Foolish

The Associated Press reported today in my local paper a story, entitled More surrender in SAT scandal, dealing with students cheating.  This report tells of not just a couple of kids getting caught passing notes during a class examination, but of twenty (20) current or former high school students paying money to have local college students bring fake ID's to the SAT or ACT examination site, pretend to be the paying customers, and complete the test for them.  These are no regular tests, but college entrance exams - and not just typical high schools, but top flight schools that already have college acceptance rates of almost 100%.  What we are talking about is well-to-do, intellectual high school students with the ability to pay between $500 and $3,600 each to these college students (totals that presumably do not include the cost of production for a fake ID).

What is most disturbing about the story is the response.  "Honest, hardworking students are taking a back seat to the cheaters, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said.  'This is a system begging for security enhancements."  Did you catch that stated solution: security enhancements.  The problem apparently is that security measures were not adequate enough to catch the cheaters until after the fact.  New York agreed as they convened a special meeting and retained former FBI Director Louis Freeh to review the security measures.  Mr. Freeh is a busy man today and in great demand by prestigious High Schools and Universities alike as he is currently leading the Penn State internal investigation for the Sandusky matter.

It seems so simple to just understand that human nature is that we know what is right and we don't do it.  Security measures are not the problem.  They may be necessary in light of the recognition of the truth of the nature of man just stated, but they are not the problem.  What is probably a better question is why are the young men being brought up on charges and treated with such disdain?  Aren't they being taught that human existence is purposeless, meaningless and arbitrary?  Aren't they being taught that language, history, literature and any other written text is to be interpreted by the individual with complete autonomy?  Aren't they being taught that morality is relative and based solely on current acceptable societal norms and concepts of benefit to the greater good and human flourishing?  Why are we punishing them for living out exactly what they are being taught?

These are questions not easily addressed by the former Director of the FBI or any other DA or instructor of higher learning if they are living with the Existential, Materialistic and Naturalistic framework on which they so freeing and staunchly hold in their classes.  These twenty young men could have simply interpreted the rules of the High School the way they felt worked out best for themselves, decided in their own minds that it harmed no one, felt that the risk of penalty was worth the potential benefit and altered the relative standards of morality according to their own understanding.

If we are going to stipulate that there are no absolute moral standards to which all humankind must adhere, if we refuse to acknowledge attributes of humanity that are intrinsic to all (Truth, guilt, shame, etc.), if we are going to teach relativity and deconstructionism as part of a postmodern metaphysical presupposition on which all of society is based, and if we are going to plump for an existence devoid of any ultimate purpose, meaning or value then why are we so surprised when our children grow up and decide to do whatever makes them feel good and works out for their own benefit, regardless of what rules are broken and who else is hurt in the process?  These students are brilliant and foolish because they have been trained to be so.

Until we realize that we cannot posit a blank slate of morality on which everyone gets to write in their own system and correctly identify the problems in humanity as sinful instead of misguided, there will exist in this nation a continued and increasingly complicated arms race between those whose very nature is to live opposite to the purpose of their existence and those who are trying to build a better mousetrap.  The United States of America is racing with abandon toward a completely secular society, laughing, cheering and celebrating all along the way.  It is inevitable, however, that the closer we get to the finished line the busier Mr. Freeh will become.

True Love

Imagine two young people, been in church their whole lives, one a pastor's daughter and the other a deacon's son who pursue each other and finally get married who now have four children and fifteen grandchildren.  What would you say about that couple and their beginning?  Super couple with a great background and off to a solid start?  No chance of divorce with those two?  Perfect example of how Christian families should begin and will work out if done right?  Well, Norm Wakefield from Spirit of Elijah Ministries described his relationship with his wife (and her relationship with him) as idolatrous, and testified to the first 10 years being a "train wreck".  I suspect this is the case far more often than most believers will even admit, for fear of letting out the awful truth that we who profess Christ as our Savior mess things up sometimes too.

Do we really think about Love in terms of Christ's love for us?  I mean really think about it that way.  A brief review of scripture shows with certainty that He loved us BEFORE we did anything to deserve it.  Do we really love people before they do things we want, or give us things we desire?  How about it husbands, do we love our wives, serve them, bring them flowers, write them little love text messages throughout the day, buy them gifts for no reason, without any expectation of physical intimacy later on?  How about it fathers, do we spend time with our children, read books, play sports, work projects, have devotions, without any expectation of obedience or verbal approval of our parenting as a result?  Do we love our families, giving of all we are, without any expectation of something in return - or do we love them like a football team, spending time and cheering them on as long as they are winning for the entertainment we derive from the investment?  Sobering to think we are all creating for ourselves idols and carving them with precision every day.

Go to Spirit of Elijah Ministries website and look into the book "Equipped to Love" by Norm Wakefield.  The man is gifted by God to speak to relationships in real terms, identifying real loving relationships from idolatrous ones.  It will open your eyes, as his talk did mine, to the correct way to think and pray for help in experiencing God's love for us in a deeper and more intimate way, and how we can be successful in loving others and ourselves in the way God loves us.

We don't have relationship issues, or communication problems, or repressions of this or that from past situations by and large.  We have a sin problem in that we are experts in habitual creation and formation of idols from which we derive our fulfillment.  We need all the resources we can to identify ways in which we can rely completely on our God and Savior to bring fulfillment in every area of our lives.  Norm's book is a good one to add to your collection.