New Podcast

Recently I began a new venture in the world of podcasting. I've been hesitant for a while, asking myself if we really need another person talking in cyberspace. But I think there is a need for yet one more podcast. 

We are all submerged in the modern world to some extent. We can't and shouldn't try to abandon the world in which we live. Jesus did die for it, after all. If He immersed Himself in the daily matters that surrounded Him, ushering in God's kingdom, we should do likewise. 

Slavery has always been a temptation. We understand how selling others into slavery is sin, but we don't understand the problem of giving yourself over to slavery. That's the wisdom of the doctrine of man's natural depravity. Not the straw-man version of depravity, but the realistic teaching that man naturally desires to rule himself rather than submit to God's rule. Ever since Adam and Eve, the serpent has presented the false-story of God-as-tyrant and ____?____-as-deliverer. These potential deliverers can all lead to slavery, whether bad things (drugs, ideology, communist dictators) or good things, e.g. technology, money, etc. A good life is about learning to walk free from the slavery of sin and become a faithful member of God's kingdom.

In this podcast we'll talk to people who understand different aspects of living a good life, whether it's becoming more like Christ, loving our neighbors, growing in wisdom, or being a good steward of the gifts God has given. We will talk about what it means to live free from the oppression of the world and be an agent of God's new creation.  

If you're interested, go here...https://mattcarpenter.podbean.com/

Learning From Our Elders

 

A Review of Live Not By Lies, Rod Dreher, Sentinel Press, 2020

No one would argue that being a Christian in the United States is easier than almost anywhere else. One of our founding pillars was the freedom to practice our religion as we see fit and people have migrated for centuries to enjoy that freedom. Nevertheless, there are changes afoot. Basic moral codes, understand in the West for thousands of years, are not only being questioned but mocked and vilified. Under our current legislation, speaking plainly about what Scripture calls sin can lead to accusation of hate crime. Big businesses, once protectors of the moral status quo (whether for the right reasons or not is another matter), now enforce an actively libertine agenda through their profits and their “training” sessions. Any state who dares to oppose this risks losing the tax dollars that come from those successful businesses.

At the time of this writing Kristi Noem, governor of South Dakota and favorite of social conservatives, just vetoed a bill passed by the South Dakota legislature that would protect women’s sports to only women. She admits it was for fear of the NCAA’s potentially negative response to the bill. This even though the NCAA had yet to address the bill in any form. Just the thought that South Dakota might face collegiate consequences was enough to derail a bill Lyndon Johnson would have thought common sense. But Governor Noem is not alone. Many other red-state, supposedly reliable conservative governors have capitulated to the woke crowd. As the late columnist Joe Sobran said, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, I'm a Republican.”

Yet Christians are still free to practice their beliefs without fear, aren’t they? Yes, but with increasing limitations. States drunk with power during the COVID crisis shut down churches because of the health risk while allowing other institutions and rioting activities to proceed with few precautions. The state of Christian freedom in the U.S. is not what is used to be. That leads me to the excellent book by Rod Dreher, Live Not By Lies.

More than a Christian Veneer

 

In the 1990’s Marvin Olasky, editor at World Magazine, began editing a series of books on Christian worldview. These books included All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes, by Ken Meyers, and State of the Arts, by Gene Edward Veith (both of which are excellent). Each book in the series approached a  topic from a specifically Christian perspective. When I read Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning by Douglas Wilson in 2010, it was one of those "light bulb" moments. Revisiting that book recently, I was reminded why.  

I read the book having taught history in a government school for six years. I knew public education was mostly a farce but could not give a thorough explanation as to what should be done in response. Certainly I had ideas which I would usually discuss with my carpool companion as we rode to and from work. But they were essentially to restore rigor and discipline to the classroom. There was no cohesive philosophy of Christian education, just tweaks to the current system with plenty of Bible added.

Reading Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning was an oasis for me. The author, Douglas Wilson, not only had ideas of what Christian education should be, he put those ideas into practice. Wilson, longtime pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, helped to start Logos School in Moscow. He wanted to start a school that would be more than public education with a Christian veneer. He and the men of the church wanted an education that would nurture the soul. This is best expressed in the words of English poet John Milton. “The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection.” That quote summarizes the message of this book.

Growing Virtue Through Education

 

a Review of Norms and Nobility by David V. Hicks

One of the lesser-known cries of the Protestant Reformers was, “Ad fontes,” which means “back to the sources.” They were calling upon people to return to the writings of the Church Fathers when studying theology. The fathers were guides for many who were leading the Reformation at the time. Recently I decided to go back to a source that, while not ancient, was instrumental in the rise of the modern classical education movement: Norms and Nobility (1981), by David Hicks.

Some books allow for a quick reading and yield their insights without much effort. Not so with Norms and Nobility. Although short, it packs enough wisdom to require multiple, slow readings. Mr. Hicks’ thesis is simple: education will produce some kind of person. Whereas modern education produces utilitarian, empty souls; classical, Christian education aids the formation of virtuous souls. He believes the latter should be the intention of education, as it was in classical Greece, Rome, and the early Christian era. But modern education has abdicated that role in exchange for the diminished role of job preparation. In doing so we have failed the rising generation.

Theology of Leaven

 

Theology of Leaven

Matthew 13:33 “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”

Many people read Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option and discussed it afterwards. Many more didn’t read it but criticized it anyway. The most prominent critique was that he was calling for people to “head for the hills,” or become Amish. Of course removing yourself and your family from a bad situation is not always a bad idea, especially if you live in a place where you will be persecuted for your faith (see Acts 8). But Christians should not be known as people who only retreat.

That said, retreat is not what Dreher calls for. He calls for strategic training and redeployment. Now that may sound like a mere euphemism for retreat, but in reality it’s a separate plan.

The Role of Schools in Our Problems

 

A Review of C.S. Lewis' The Abolition of Man

Years ago when I first picked up C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man, I read a bit of the first chapter and liked what I read. But as with some of Lewis’ other works, it gets a bit dense at times. This is not The Chronicles of Narnia. So I put it down. The book remained on my shelf for some time I heard it mentioned for the seventh or eighth time by Christian educators. So I decided to read it all the way through, no matter how dense it was. My reading was thoroughly rewarded. It is a fascinating look at the world of education through the eyes of a twentieth century prophet.

The book was written in 1944, with World War Two ongoing. The three lectures that make up the book describe how modern textbooks and teachers insidiously drain the eternal forms of truth, goodness, and beauty from every part of life. This hollowing out of standards supposedly “frees” us to follow our natural instincts, but that freedom is actually a method of enslaving us to the whims of the broader society and its leaders. What those leaders do with their “slaves” in the name of “man’s power over nature” is attempt to forge a society with themselves in complete power. In other words, he explains how the rules of our world try to take over societies through the side door of coercion, rather than the front door of force.

Learning to Listen

 

A Review of Mortimer Adler's How to Speak How to Listen. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.

Communication is becoming a lost art. A mere scan of news channels or one’s Facebook feed demonstrates that many do not appreciate opposing opinions. Recent books like Alan Jacob’s How to Think, or Justin Lee’s Talking Across the Divide address the difficulty of speaking and listening to those who hold differing opinions. But communication is more than being polite when someone contradicts you. It requires thinking, pondering, and gently probing to understand what the other person is saying. It requires careful consideration of how your own words, facial expression, and body language will be understood, and striving to use these methods of expression to appropriately convey your meaning.

Mortimer Adler understood the importance of communication. His most famous work, How to Read a Book, is a timeless guide to understanding what we read. In that work he calls the reader to treat a book’s author like a conversation partner, one whom we should approach with magnanimity. His advice has helped many students gain a better grasp on receiving written communication.

Forty years later he wrote another, less famous book on communication, How to Speak, Hot to Listen. The lessons presented in How to Speak are no less important today than they were when he first penned them. Not only does he present the basics of speaking and listening, he explains the why we should care about the topic to begin with. This book is for those who are interested in communication, but he doesn’t stop there. Adler demonstrates how communication is not the end, but the means to an even greater gift: communion with others.

The book begins with two introductory chapters in which he addresses the problem of communication. The second part of the book explains various methods of public speaking, e.g. rhetoric, sales speech, lectures, etc. and how one should prepare for them. These should not be skipped over lightly because one never knows when it might be necessary to publicly address a group. The third part of the book explains what Adler calls “silent listening,” or how one should listen to public speech. He admonishes hearers to listen actively rather than passively, to carefully consider the message of the speaker and how it applies to the hearer. Part four discusses communication in day-to-day conversation. The most notable chapter of that section to me was chapter nine, “Question and Answer Sessions: Forum”. It details how one should participate when there are public meetings that allow short question and answer times between individuals. It is particularly applicable to our social media age, when short posted statements are often quickly followed by immediate responses. The lessons in this chapter may seem dated, but are still important.

My favorite chapter  was the last one, where Adler discusses the connection of conversation to being human. While all mammals communicate in some fashion, God made man with the ability to have fellowship with others, which is something the animals can never have. He then refers to Rene Descartes, the French philosopher who said that man differs from matter primarily because matter can’t think as man can. To apply this lesson today, artificial intelligence can only respond as it was programmed to respond. No matter how detailed it gets, when it is traced back to its origin, those programmed responses have their origin in man. This differentiation is sorely needed today in an age when more and more interaction is mechanical. One recent commercial showed an only child “communicating” with a robot child, and the parents looking on happily. This exemplifies the problem Adler points out. When the meaning of human communion through communication is lost, the result is the confusion in which we live. The first appendix, a lecture given by Adler to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, solidly presents further evidence for why machines can never be truly conversant with people.

Dr. Adler’s background as a philosopher is evident in his writing (I mean that as a compliment). As a classical scholar, he uses language to help the reader think about what writes, not just to score quick rhetorical points or quickly persuade the reader. This book might be a challenge for some who only want a quick, self-help book, but it rewards the reader who ponders its meaning. It is evident that he wants to help the reader grow not only as a communicator but as a human being. If communication is indeed a means to communion, Adler’s book will aid all those who pursue that worthy goal.  ow How to Speak

A Renewed Perspective of Education

 

           A Review of Dorothy Sayers' Essay, "The Lost Tools of Learning"

            For generations the education system has been floundering. Having followed the methods of John Dewey and the mechanical philosophy of Frederick Taylor, public schools are a bureaucratic mass measured by test performance and the ability to inculcate the latest social ideas. Countless parents know there are problems but do not know how to address them. Many educators know that the system is failing to provide students with what they need but have grown apathetic after years of striving within the system. Where is the hope for educating our children when such conditions exist and the system itself seems to be on an endless downward spiral?

            Dorothy Sayers’ essay, “The Lost Tools of Learning,” is timelier today than it was when it was written in 1947. The problems she identified then seem only to have multiplied in the more than sixty years hence. Students have greater access to knowledge today than they did in medieval times yet foolishness abounds. There is a world of information available through technology, but no wisdom as to how and when it should be used. And as Mrs. Sayers so aptly expressed in her essay, “Is it not the great defect of our education to-day… that although we often succeed in teaching our pupils "subjects," we fail lamentably on the whole in teaching them how to think?” 

Living In A Technocratic Economy

The study of economics includes a discussion of what are known as economic systems: the way a society chooses to make economic choices. Every society does this in one way or another. When teaching economic systems, I normally teach about command economies (government run), free market economies (individual and business run), and traditional/household economies (run by patriarchs). This year I added a fourth type, the one I believe we are living in currently: the technocratic economy. 

A technocratic economy is one managed by a combination of the civil government, big businesses, and media/technology companies, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. It is hard for some to imagine how media/tech companies work with businesses to manage the economy, but that's exactly what happens. 

As we've recently seen, when your opinion contradicts the big tech powers that be, you can simply be de-platformed (stripped of your online presence). As the biggest businesses grow in technological presence, luring people into more and tech reliance, the will to resist shrinks. As one former pastor recently said, "What will we do when everyone is has self-driving cars and the operating system no longer allows the vehicle to take us to unacceptable places, i.e. churches?" How will people respond when big business and big tech give us something like China's social credit system?  

As I was teaching this concept, I saw it in action. Many of my students had just been looking at their phones before class started; some continued to discreetly after class started (at least discreet in their minds). Until I start class, I don't often hear from many of my students because they are glued to their phones. I reminded them of this, and the response was, "You're just saying we need to all get rid of our phones." Consider how much of reality is mediated through screens: purchases, relationships, grades, jobs, they are all mediated. If, as Augustine says, freedom is having one's loves rightly ordered, and having self-control, I witness little to no freedom in technocratic society. 

What then is the alternative? To begin (my student's fears to the contrary), we can't all get rid of our phones and become Amish. That is neither possible or sustainable for most. But we can pursue wisdom in how we use technology. For example:

• Vary your technological presence among more than one or two forms. Don't just rely on Youtube or Facebook. Spread it out a bit.
• Be wise in what you post. There are many situations that are simply not our business and nothing will change if we say something or say nothing, so say nothing (Prov. 26:17). Don't put yourself at useless risk. 
• Pursue business platforms that appreciate your convictions. You should already know the major social media platforms and banks hate your convictions; while this may not matter as long as you don't rely on them too much for income, the bigger you get, the more it will hurt if they come after you. Therefore begin with someone who can meet your needs but won't throw you under the bus because of what you believe. 

Once you understand that we are not living in the economic system of your parents or grandparents, you are ahead of the game. The sooner we take steps to prepare ourselves for the ride, the better off we will be. 

Establishing Habits

 

This is the second part of a personal finance lecture on goals and habits. 

Goals must have an action plan, a method of putting the steps towards achieving that goal into practice. In our traveling case, the action plan were the roads we’ve travel to get where we wanted to be at the end of each day. This leads us into the discussion of habits.

I’m taking much of this from the book, Atomic Habits, by James Clear. It is the best book I’ve read about habits and the effects they have on people.

People often confuse goals and habits. Forming particular habits can be a goal, but good habits should not be temporary things we attempt and let go of, but permanent changes we make that form character. Aristotle refers to the four cardinal virtues as types of habits, things we must be formed in. But developing good habits is not easy. So if you set large habits it may not be attainable immediately. You should aim for smaller, more permanent habits (hence the name, atomic, i.e. atom-like” habits). These will remain with you. The author, James Clear, emphasizes the nature of compound interest when considering habits. Compound interest is the interest that builds up over time, months, and years. When we build smaller habits over time, they form larger patterns in our lives and give us the ability to achieve our goals.

“Small changes often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold. The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed. You need to be patient.” (Atomic Habits, ch. 1). Also in chapter 1, he says, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” In other words, you must have a system or a process in place to bring about your goals. He even says that goals are a waste of time, which I disagree with, but I understand what he’s saying. There must be a plan to accomplish the goals, and then there must be further goals to pursue them.

As your habits change, you will change. You will find that your outlook improves and you will grow in confidence. This is not immediate but happens as you stick with your habits. Which leads to another point – you must be willing to grow, to change. Jesus commended humility in what we know as the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), e.g. “blessed are the poor in Spirit, blessed are the meek…” These qualities are born in the person who is sees his or her life as being in God’s hands and is willing to submit his life to the direction God gives.

We all have areas in which we need to grow. Willingness to give yourself to godly habits and change is necessary to become the person He intends you to be. Never become locked into thoughts or a mindset except what is commanded by God in His word. Commit yourself to growth throughout your life.

There is much more we could say about habits, but let me tie this together with personal finance. In time we will come to discussing God calls us to be good stewards of our finances, i.e. saving and building. But having more money isn’t the end of life. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes that the rich only end up leaving their money to others (Eccl. 5:10-17). We begin this semester by considering how we are to arrive at the destination before us. But if your destination if faulty, all the planning in the world will only get you to perdition faster. This goes back to your reason for building wealth. If you see yourself as a steward in God’s kingdom and everything you have as a gift from Him, you will be more likely to pursue the gifts of God but to do so as a soldier, living as a minister of God’s restoration in the world.  

Setting Goals

This is the first portion of a lecture I delivered on goals and habits. 

Time is precious. Your time is marked when you’re young by holidays, usually Christmas or birthdays. As you grow older, those markers become more closely aligned, because you have more years behind you. As you grow, your memories collapse together. The question is, what will you do with your time?

Time is a gift, just as any other type of wealth. Every person is allotted 24 hours in a day, 365 ¼ days a year. Why do some people accomplish more than others? Because of the way they use time. If you are lazy, you will not accomplish as much. On the other hand, others follow the tyranny of the urgent, only doing the things that are in front of them, rather than investing your time beforehand. Don be that person either. We are called to invest, to be good stewards of our time. This doesn’t mean we only work all day, every day. It means we plan beforehand for how we will spend our time. ‘

One of the saddest things to hear is someone who is older who regrets wasting their time on their daily job, their bad habits, or selfish behavior. It is not possible to have everything you want; scarcity is still with us. But God has given you gifts, abilities, wealth, and time to use those things.

Your life is not your own. Throughout your life there will be stops, starts, energy, and lack thereof. Yet in everything, God controls your life. You belong to Him and He calls you to use your gifts to honor Him.

The direction of your life is largely in front of you. You have a multitude of options available, based on your gifts or skills. The choices you make in the next several years will determine the path you follow, the person you marry, and the eulogy that will read about you at your funeral. 

We will talk about those choices soon, but this week we must consider the first objective: setting goals and building habits. A goal is not just a task, but a building-block to the type of person you want to become. Years ago, when our family moved out to Idaho, the trip took 36 hours of driving, not including stops. Our final destination was Lewiston, Idaho, but there had to be planning beforehand. I planned four stops along the way. We would stay there each night and go the next morning. I realized my planning was not thorough enough because one of the stops, Denver, CO, unbeknownst to me, had three major events going on and every hotel within a 1-hour radius of the city was booked. We ended up driving until almost 1:30 in the morning and staying 1 and ½ hours further north.

You should have one or two final goals, the things you want to do with your life, which will probably resemble the final goal of others. But the stops along the way will be different for each of you, based on where you are. The stops along the way are your goals now. I thought Lewiston might be a long-term place for us to live, but it turned out that we only lived there two years. Then we repeated the trip back, although to a different place in Alabama. Your life will change and you will have to adapt at times, but your goals are still attainable.

Why set goals? They require you to set a destination. You’ve probably hear the saying, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.” That is true. There must be something you want to achieve.

They must be goals that motivate you. You won’t pursue them if they don’t. It will probably be something that you appreciate or want to become.

They should be SMART (https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_90.htm).

Specific – they must be clear, not vague. For example, when we traveled instead of saying, “Denver, CO,” I should have said, “The Holiday Inn Express at 123 Johnson Street in Denver.”

Measurable – you must know how you can determine whether or not you met the goal.

Attainable – if it is not within your reach in the time you set, you will get discouraged and be more tempted to quit.

Relevant – they should be in the service of the general direction you want to go. If we were travelling from Alabama to Idaho, we shouldn’t set a goal of stopping in Maine. It’s not relevant to our main goal.

Time Bound – there should be a specific time you plan on achieving your goal. If not, you will flounder. We planned on driving approximately 9-10 hours each day on our trip west. Establishing a time (create a website in 6 months) puts you under the gun.

Finally, they must have an action plan, a method of putting the steps towards achieving that goal into practice. In our traveling case, the action plan were the roads we’ve travel to get where we wanted to be at the end of each day.