Rationalist, Skeptic, or Pagan?
2 Comments Published by Michael on Thursday, April 06, 2006 at 6:14 AM.
Just for fun, let's play a little game. I don't know if you've heard, but it's actually the fastest growing game in the world...really, the world. You guessed it: "Rationalist, Skeptic, or Pagan?" For those of you new to this phenomenon, and it must be asked, "where have you been?", here's how it works: I lay out a scenario and you judge whether I'm a rationalist, a skeptic, or a pagan. Let's play.
Background:
Yesterday was a strange day at the o'l Academy. Each week on Wednesday there is a mandatory chapel that I lead worship for...and by "lead worship" I mean that I play 3 songs on my guitar that everyone hates and no one participates in. You know, "worship" (that's how it works, right?). So I did my song and dance and then I took off to go to lunch, because they were going to do a testimony time from those who went to church-camp with the school last week. I've been to enough of these to know that I didn't want to hang out for another.
Anyway, yada-yada-yada (I caught that Seinfeld episode late last night), two hours later they emerged from the 3rd Great Awakening. The entire rest of the day was devoted to crying and altar-calls of various sorts, which I was not privy to. I was informed of most of this during our weekly staff meeting. Our 1 hour staff meeting started as a time of reflection over the changed lives of several of the students, which I can totally support, but it got progressively stranger. Soon the conversation moved to the "R" word, and the fact that this was obviously the start of something akin to the Asbury Seminary Revival in the 70's.
The disturbing part was when we started discussing the purpose of Christway Academy. The words, "academics is secondary, spiritual life is primary" were spoken and affirmed with many 'amen's', and there was much mixing of the words "church" and "school". In other words, it was said in different ways that the church and the school must share the same mission, exactly the same mission.
My Case:
Let me be blunt: I thought I was a teacher at a school, not a minster at a church. I'm all for the spiritual regeneration of mankind, but I'm also a proponent of academic excellence. Were it not for ministers taking an interest in my spiritual health in high school who knows where I would be, but I also claim that if teachers had taken the same approach with my education I would also be quite different. I believe we are doing a disservice to these students by placing academics on the back-burner in favor of a 5-day a week church. Is God more honored with altar-calls than quality research papers? Am I less holy for desiring that my kids spend time in their studies that they could have been spending in mission work? Is the cultural mandate of Genesis to be forgotten, because it seems that willfully tossing education for the sake of religious fervor is making our students ill-prepared for work within our culture; it is divorcing them from culture entirely.
Your Turn:
So......rationalist, skeptic, or pagan?
Background:
Yesterday was a strange day at the o'l Academy. Each week on Wednesday there is a mandatory chapel that I lead worship for...and by "lead worship" I mean that I play 3 songs on my guitar that everyone hates and no one participates in. You know, "worship" (that's how it works, right?). So I did my song and dance and then I took off to go to lunch, because they were going to do a testimony time from those who went to church-camp with the school last week. I've been to enough of these to know that I didn't want to hang out for another.
Anyway, yada-yada-yada (I caught that Seinfeld episode late last night), two hours later they emerged from the 3rd Great Awakening. The entire rest of the day was devoted to crying and altar-calls of various sorts, which I was not privy to. I was informed of most of this during our weekly staff meeting. Our 1 hour staff meeting started as a time of reflection over the changed lives of several of the students, which I can totally support, but it got progressively stranger. Soon the conversation moved to the "R" word, and the fact that this was obviously the start of something akin to the Asbury Seminary Revival in the 70's.
The disturbing part was when we started discussing the purpose of Christway Academy. The words, "academics is secondary, spiritual life is primary" were spoken and affirmed with many 'amen's', and there was much mixing of the words "church" and "school". In other words, it was said in different ways that the church and the school must share the same mission, exactly the same mission.
My Case:
Let me be blunt: I thought I was a teacher at a school, not a minster at a church. I'm all for the spiritual regeneration of mankind, but I'm also a proponent of academic excellence. Were it not for ministers taking an interest in my spiritual health in high school who knows where I would be, but I also claim that if teachers had taken the same approach with my education I would also be quite different. I believe we are doing a disservice to these students by placing academics on the back-burner in favor of a 5-day a week church. Is God more honored with altar-calls than quality research papers? Am I less holy for desiring that my kids spend time in their studies that they could have been spending in mission work? Is the cultural mandate of Genesis to be forgotten, because it seems that willfully tossing education for the sake of religious fervor is making our students ill-prepared for work within our culture; it is divorcing them from culture entirely.
Your Turn:
So......rationalist, skeptic, or pagan?
For me that raises some questions: Is the school afilliated with a particular church? If so, is it run by the church?
I'm quite intimidated by your philosophical babbling...you are much too old for your years! I thought I'd give it a try, though. :-)
Maybe your school has the beginnings of the right idea. What is education all about? As a teacher in a public school I often wonder why I have to teach most of the things I "have" to teach. What good will it do them in their life? Will knowing that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence change the course of their existence? Or will knowing how to write an excellent research paper get them into heaven? I don't think so. The most important thing for us to give our students is a sense of self-worth and intrinsic motivation. It doesn't matter if you're teaching English, math, history or Bible it is the relationship you build with them that they will remember. Think about your own teachers...what is it that you learned from them? Maybe you will teach them something that they will actually use, but being an example and treating them like they matter will benefit them far more.