Contact Us - acsiec.org eNLs/March 2019/March 2019 E… · Web viewAsk even Chris Stroop how he would improve the schools he attended and now disparages. All of us stand guilty

Eastern Canada Newsletter

Enabling Christian Schools WorldwideMarch 2019 Advancing God’s Kingdom Through Christian

Education

In This Issue The Danger of Drifting Halifax Christian

Academy Student wins the Scholastic Young Inventors Award

A Bible Memorization Strategy for Students

ACSI Eastern Canada High School Grads Get Help from Grand Canyon University

Building a Stronger Board: Knowledge, Acknowledge, and Avoid!

Questions That Must Not Be Spoken in Religiously Correct Circles

The Scourge of Wrongful Termination and Its Detrimental Effects on Christian Schooling

Ontario Auditor General Report: Concerns with the Current State of Technology in Education

Attempt to “Expose Christian Schools” Backfires—Hashtag Boomerang

Some Quotes Upcoming ACSI Events ACSI/CTC 2019 Grade 12

Scholarship

Contact UsMark Kennedy, [email protected] www.acsiec.org 705.728-7344

The Danger of Drifting by Glen Schultz February 24, 2019

There is nothing more refreshing on a hot, humid summer day in South Carolina than going to the beach. I find it enjoyable taking a float out into the ocean and just spend time floating on the rolling waves. However, you have to always pay attention to what is happening. If you simply let the ocean take you where it wants you to go, you can end up in some pretty dangerous situations. You could be pulled out to sea or the current can take you way down the beach and far from your intended location. Drifting can be very dangerous.

I was reminded about this through two things that I experienced yesterday and this morning. I came across the remarks that Dr. Jerry P. Kulah, Dean of Gbarnga School of Theology, United Methodist University in Liberia gave at the United Methodist Church Special General Conference Session in St. Louis, Missouri yesterday, February 23, 2019. I can’t remember when the last time I read such a bold speech as Dr. Kulah’s. After reading it, I found myself under heavy conviction.

This special conference was called to address the church’s stance on marriage and sexuality. According to Kulah, one group was encouraging church leaders to “take a road in opposition to the Bible and two thousand years of Christian teachings.” Kulah saw that his denomination was at a crossroads and he equated it to what God said through Jeremiah thousands of years ago. Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ Jeremiah 6:16 (NKJV)

It was at this point in his address that Dr. Kulah became very bold in his position. There was no doubt that he was committed to taking “another road.” According to Kulah that road, “invites us to reaffirm Christian teachings rooted in Scripture and the church’s rich traditions.”

ACSI Eastern Canada March 2019 Newsletter

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mailto:[email protected]

Some Quotes“And for centuries politics has dabbled in the deadly game of social engineering. The whole point of state-controlled education is that it gives to the government the power to shape the souls and write on the fresh slates of young hearts. This empowerment is the most important trust given to elected officers, and to assume that they accept that responsibility from a posture of neutrality is to live under the most destructive illusion.” Deliver Us From Evil, Ravi Zacharias

“The ideal way to help our kids not only to reject the postmodern worldview but also embrace deepened Christian convictions is to align church, home and school into a unified whole that arms our children with the truth and protects from distortions.” Josh McDowell in the preface to Kingdom Education

“From the beginning, Christians have not defended “traditional values”. They have stood for truth against prevailing cultural norms.The early Church may have been on ‘the wrong side of history’, but that’s why it changed history.” Nancy Pearcey, Love Thy Body

“It is no coincidence that the top two prescribed drugs at our state university are anti-depressants and the birth control pill.” Anne Maloney, What the Hook-up Culture Has done to Women

“What is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness without tuition or restraint.” Edmund BurkeTOP

Upcoming ACSI Events

He went on to speak the truth with great forcefulness but seasoned with amazing grace. Read his words carefully.

While “we commit ourselves to be in ministry for and with all persons,” we do not celebrate same-sex marriages or ordain for ministry people who self-avow as practicing homosexuals. These practices do not conform to the authentic teaching of the Holy Scriptures, our primary authority for faith and Christian living.However, we extend grace to all people because we all know we are sinners in need of God’s redeeming. We know how critical and life changing God’s grace has been in our own lives.

We warmly welcome all people to our churches; we long to be in fellowship with them, to pray with them, to weep with them, and to experience the joy of transformation with them.

Friends, please hear me, we Africans are not afraid of our sisters and brothers who identify as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered, questioning, or queer. We love them and we hope the best for them. But we know of no compelling arguments for forsaking our church’s understanding of Scripture and the teachings of the church universal.

As you read these words, I hope that many of you were silently, or maybe out load, saying a hearty—Amen! However, these words were not the ones that brought great conviction to my heart personally. It was what he said later in his speech.

And then please hear me when I say as graciously as I can: we Africans are not children in need of western enlightenment when it comes to the church’s sexual ethics. We do not need to hear a progressive U.S. bishop lecture us about our need to “grow up.”

I better understood the commitment to biblical truth that this man was standing on when he explained that this stand could mean that the African churches of this denomination could lose financial support from US churches. However, this wasn’t seen as a threat to Dr. Kulah. Money was not an issue with him.

Unfortunately, some United Methodists in the U.S. have the very faulty assumption that all Africans are concerned about is U.S. financial support. Well, I am sure, being sinners like all of you, some Africans are fixated on money.

But with all due respect, a fixation on money seems more of an American problem than an African one. We get by on far less than most Americans do; we know how to do it. I’m not so

sure you do. So, if anyone is so naïve or condescending as to think we would sell our birth right in Jesus Christ for American dollars, then they simply do not know us.

We are seriously joyful in following Jesus Christ and God’s holy word to us in the Bible…Please understand me when I say the vast majority of African United


April 4

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April 11

April 18

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May 3

May 7

May 10

May 24

June 5

Ontario Principals’ Meeting

Early Education Conference

Ontario Chess Tournament

Submission Deadline for the 30-5 Student Film Festival, One Act Play Festival

Ontario Math Olympics

Maritime Principals’ Meeting

Ontario Coaches Meeting

Maritime Public Speaking Festival

Ontario Early Education Meeting

Maritime Track and Field

More information on Student Activities can be found on our website under: www.acsiec.org/StudentsTOP

ACSI/CTC 2019 Scholarship

Methodists will never, ever trade Jesus and the truth of the Bible for money. We will walk alone if necessary... [emphasis mine].

I went to bed Saturday night wondering if I would stand and walk alone if necessary, like Dr. Kulah was willing to do? Then I went to church Sunday and the message was on Hebrews. The key verse that the pastor preached from was, Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. Hebrews 2:1 (NKJV)

Another translation states that we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. As I was driving home, it seemed like God was asking me are Christian schools at the same crossroads that Dr. Kulah’s denomination is at?

What I am about to say can be easily misunderstood. I am not condemning in any way development strategies, learning methodologies, research findings about effective schooling or a host of other great things happening in Christian schools. However, I am burdened that we may need to pay much closer attention to the things we have heard! We cannot compromise the importance of knowing, understanding and being fully committed to a biblical philosophy of education in our homes, churches and schools. If we don’t take such a stand — even if it means we must walk alone — will we be selling our birth right in Jesus Christ? Drifting may seem enjoyable but it is extremely dangerous!TOP

Halifax Christian Academy Student Wins Scholastic Young Inventors’ Award

Congratulations to Samuel George, a grade four student at Halifax Christian Academy, who has won the Scholastic Young Inventors Award. His invention was a machine that turns on the lights for you. His prizes were a 13-book non-fiction library and a microscope valued at approximately $200.00.TOP

A Bible Memorization Strategy for Students

Thanks to Kelly McLellan at Valley Christian Academy in Rothesay, NB


http://www.acsiec.org/Students

For more information about how to apply for the 2019 Grade 12 Student Scholarship, sponsored by the Canadian Test Centre, visit our website: www.acsiec.org/Students TOP

Do you still have questions about something? Your first stop should always be the ACSI Eastern Canada website: www.acsiec.org

for this good idea.The Problem: some students learn their weekly memory verses the night before ‘the test,’ then promptly forget them a few days later.

Kelly’s Solution: Make memory verse ‘cumulative’ monthly—that is: Recite or write memory verse A at the end of week one,

B at the end of week two, C at the end of week three.

Recite or write all 3 verses (A, B and C) at the end of week four.

At the end of week four students write or recite verses A, B, C, D, E, and F.

At Valley Christian Academy, students aim to recite all the verse from the whole school year at the end of May! TOP

Grace Christian School Students to Compete in World Robotics Competition

Two students from Grace Christian School in Charlottetown are taking their custom-built creation to the Robofest World Championship in Detroit in May, 2019. Mengjue Chen and Charlotte Cluney, along with their coach, Jordan Ellis, won the berth on the world stage after coming fifth out of 27 teams at a competition in Wolfville, N.S.

This is the inaugural year for the robotics class at Grace Christian, said Ellis, and he wanted to find an opportunity for students to test themselves. TOP

ACSI Eastern Canada High School Grads Get Help from Grand Canyon University


http://www.acsiec.org/

http://www.acsiec.org/Students

In November Mark met with former ACSI Global President, Dr. Dan Egeler. Dan is currently Vice President at a truly remarkable institution, Grand Canyon University in Phoenix Arizona - the largest Christian university in the world, serving 14 544 full time students on their campus and 61 290 part-timers (most of whom are taking online courses).

The University’s President wants to actively recruit the majority of their students from Christian high schools. Consequently, the university is offering some exceptional benefits to Christian school grads in the U.S. and in Canada through their Canyon Christian Schools Consortium. (Contact our office for details)

Our office is a partner in this programme so that means our member high school grads have access to all the benefits GCU offers. There is no obligation for member schools to participate in this programme and no costs involved. So, there’s really no ‘downside.’ It’s just one more advantage for our grade 12 students seeking good options for university.TOP


n

Building a Stronger Board: Knowledge, Acknowledge, and Avoid!

WHAT ARE THE BOARD’S ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES? Leadership hire, evaluate and retain or dismiss the head of school Stewards oversee property and finances Trustees hold the mission and fiduciary assets of the school in trust Leaders support in prayer / advocate / endorse / support financially / set policies Volunteers serve the needs of the professionals, especially the head-of-school as CEO

Do your board members know and fulfill these roles and responsibilities?

ACKNOWLEDGING THE HEAD-OF-SCHOOL AS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Head-of-School is the board’s one and only employee Board hires, equips, encourages, evaluates the head-of-school based on performance Board sets policies and makes plans, which the head-of-school implements Board funds those policies and plans by tuition/fees, annual giving, capital, endowment Board retains head-of-school by judging effectiveness in decision-making and leadership

How well is your head-of-school regarded as the CEO? Does the board treat the CEO with respect?

WHAT ARE THE COMMON PROBLEMS HINDERING BOARD EFFECTIVENESS? Lack of required board training Inaccurate assumption of prior knowledge Inexperience No prior service on a not-for-profit governing board Self-absorption Prestige of membership on the board Too many current parents on the board “Me and my child!” Direct involvement in operations “We know we shouldn’t, but we do anyway!” Too remote from realities “The Lord will provide, so we’ll just pray” Attends meetings—and that’s all No action to support school between meetings Too many meetings too often Why does any board meet more than quarterly? Committee-of-the-whole Lack of responsibility and delegation of duties Inability to prioritize on policies Why is the board debating decor for the school banquet? Endless terms Weary in well-doing Too much rotation Brief terms/excessive turn-over of board members Too frequent change of chairman Third chair often means dismissed head of school Inability to retain head of school Why is the average tenure only 4 +/- years? “Represent” vs. The Best Covering constituents instead of most qualified Absence of confidentiality Car pool moms know what the board decided last night Absence of a strategic plan Where are we going and how do we get there? Wealth aversion “Rich people want control” Lack of 100% financial support If board won’t donate support, why should anyone else? Fail to cultivate sphere of influence How does philanthropy work in Canada?How best will you improve your effectiveness as individual and corporate board

members?

ACSI will come to your school and give a full day of board training for free. All you have to do is ask.

TOP


Questions That Must Not Be Spoken in Religiously Correct Circles

The derisive term “politically correct” has been around for quite a while now. Just about every evangelical understands its meaning and many abhor what it stands for. That’s because it implies arbitrary anti-scriptural social values that are forced upon society by

governments and by much of popular media. There’s a censorious, but more discrete reality in Christian circles too that could be called ‘religiously correctness.’ And it keeps people from seriously considering some very important questions like:

Why do poor children often appear to be happy when they have so little? Why do North American kids often seem unhappy even though they have so much?

Why is suicide the number one killer of American teens (number 2 in Canada) while in troubled nations like Haiti, it’s quite rare?

Why do so many parents in the poorest parts of the poorest countries of the world make astonishing sacrifices to send their children to private (usually Christian) schools while so many Canadian and American parents say they can’t afford it?

Why is the Christian school movement growing by leaps and bounds in Asia, Africa and South America – often in the poorest parts of those continents - while it’s shrinking in much of North America?

Why do most North American Christian leaders refuse to consider that our spiritual and moral collapse may be, at least in part, the product of an educational system where the God of the Bible is not welcome and where children are indoctrinated in a completely secular perspectives about life?

Why do so many Christian parents think that a weekly hour or two of church-based activities can have a greater influence on their children’s lives than 30 hours or more every week in schools where the principles of the Old and New Testament are ignored, contradicted or mocked?

Why won’t more Christian magazines and newspapers publish articles favouring Christian schooling?

Why are so many secularly educated teens leaving North American evangelical churches every year, never to return according to the EFC Survey “Hemorrhaging Faith,” while according to the continent-wide Cardus Educational Surveys of 2014 and 2018, most Christian school grads stay with the church and generously support it?

In a popular 1960s folksong “Blowin’ in The Wind,” Bob Dylan asked something that encapsulates all the questions above: “How many times can a man turn his head, pretending he just doesn’t see?”

But the answers to those religiously incorrect questions aren’t like the ones in Dylan’s song. They’re not just “blowin’ in the wind.” Could it be that the answers would

threaten some falsely sanctified preconceived notions and convictions? Maybe they would offend church goers whose misguided and sometimes virulent support of secular education can intimidate pastors. But those answers might also reveal truths that could spur us on to transform the future for our children, our community and our nation. Jesus


said that the truth will set us free. Sometimes we need to have the courage to get past our ‘religiously correct’ inhibitions to find the truth.

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The Scourge of Wrongful Termination and Its Detrimental Effects

on Christian SchoolingBy D. Bruce Lockerbie, President Paideia Inc

Anyone who cares about Christian schooling knows that the reputation for job insecurity grows increasingly familiar as some schools create a merry-go-round effect in the office of the head of school. Leadership can sometimes change so often and so mysteriously; a school becomes better known as an executive employment “graveyard” than as a place of academic and spiritual nurture. Spread across the full scope of Christian schools, such institutional disrepute is a scourge upon the name of Christian schooling.

Perhaps according to the semantics of legalism, my reference to “wrongful termination” may fairly be criticized as a misstatement or mere hyperbole. “After all, our state (New York- and Ontario too) has an at-will law,” a board chair may say. “We don’t have to give a reason for our decision to replace an employee.” But upon closer examination of its definition, I’m willing to stand by that usage. The phrase “wrongful termination” is as old as I am, originating in the language of the National Labor Relations Act (U.S.) of 1935. But the National Labor Relations Act was primarily invoked to protect public employees. Private, non-public, or religious institutions such as schools, colleges/universities, and seminaries and their employees come under different provisions which allow for “at will” termination with no stated cause.

Throughout this period of serious reflection, I have attempted to find balance between the necessary mechanisms of employee-and-employer relations. There are, of course, instances of solid grounds for just removal of an employee; such instances are far from “wrongful” by any interpretation. A responsible school board must hold its chief executive officer accountable to policies and practices established by that board and to uphold biblical standards of morality. If a leader doesn’t comply, an orderly dismissal is warranted. And boards must exercise their fiduciary obligations to protect the assets of the school by retaining strong leaders and eliminating weak ones. But, to be fair, every board should provide its head with periodic performance reviews that result in addressing perceived areas needing improvement. All these are just, necessary and unquestionably right!

But “wrongful” has a meaning beyond its narrow legal definition and pertains to those differences between what is morally right and immorally wrong. It seems to me that it is morally wrong to sabotage a pretended friend or an admired professional, offering commendation and a standing ovation one month and a shocking dismissal the next. It


is wrong to conduct a sneak attack on a Friday afternoon, arriving without warning at the head’s office and dropping the “your services will no longer be required, we’re moving in a different direction,” bomb. It is wrong to conduct a forced exit from a physical office by demanding that the surprised and confused school head fill a box with personal belongings and leave the keys on the desk. It is wrong—indeed, inhumane—to treat the dismissed employee as if he or she were a common criminal to be escorted from the premises as if under arrest. It is wrong to deceive the broader school community with platitudes and equivocation and downright false representations concerning the board’s decision and its chosen manner of action. It is morally wrong—although still legal—to deprive an employee of any rational explanation for the board’s decision and even more so to demand that the dismissed employee be denied any right to offer an account of the incident upon pain of forfeiture of whatever financial pay-off the board intends. It is wrong, it is therefore immoral, and it is un-Christian! Consequently, every such incident is detrimental to Christian schooling, both in the specific instance and in general.

My essay has been sent by name to leaders in every major Christian school federation or association. Would you care to know their response? With only one exception, those leaders offered no opinion and certainly no organizational plan for redress of grievances among their membership. Here is what the one exceptional leader wrote:

“I wish you were overstating the case, but my forty years’ experience in Canadian Christian school leadership affirms all your points. Until Christian school organizations stop trying to be the religious equivalent of Walmart, providing a lot of services while requiring next to no ethical operating standards for members, the ‘movement’ in North America will not be going anywhere.” Mark Kennedy, Director of ACSI Eastern Canada

By contrast, I received an outpouring from individual correspondents—some of them current or former heads of schools who themselves had been so treated, others current or former board members. All expressed themselves directly and some with deep personal sorrow. Here are a few examples:

“Well written and on the mark!”

“Reading this brings tears to my eyes. I would like to work to be a part of the solution.”

“Thank you, Bruce. It was painful to read but needed to be said. Boards are often capricious and more ‘in the world’ than they should be. I think some of us who are heads of schools are also at fault thinking ‘That won’t happen to me.’ We are self-deluded. We live in a bent world. I think the best approach is to remember and believe that we serve the Lord alone since we certainly cannot control the actions of others. And God’s purposes sometimes can be painful, as we all know. But I have learned valuable lessons through the pain.”

SO, HAVING RAISED THIS ISSUE, I ASK . . . BOARD CHAIRS: What do you intend to do within the confines of your own board

room and under the bylaws of your corporation to prevent any similar form of coup d'état or Mafiosi rub-out? What policies will you enact to eliminate the possibility of some influential board member’s seizing power and demanding the head’s dismissal without due process and a performance review report?

BOARD MEMBERS: How often are board members yourselves subject to an evaluation of your effective service? Are you tolerant of current board members


who are not current financial supporters of your school but do not hesitate to critique and vote on board decisions? Is each of you in compliance with the fiduciary obligations of your board membership? Have you removed the plank in your own eye before becoming agitated over the obstruction in the head’s eye?

PASTORS OF CHURCH-SPONSORED SCHOOLS: What restraints are in place to prevent church leaders, members of the congregation, or you yourself from acting precipitously and without recourse against your school head in order to appease some faction within the church?

EXECUTIVES AND BOARD MEMBERS OF CHRISTIAN SCHOOL ORGANIZATONS: For how much longer will you permit member-schools to embarrass and stain the reputation of your organization by their practice of secular brass knuckles tactics and ungodly cruelty in their employee relations? When will your group find the backbone to set standards for membership that require fair and advance warning to a head of school with whom the board is no longer satisfied, accompanied by conciliation and mentoring before any act of unwarranted dismissal? In short, when will your association expect of its members what you hope might be true in your own executive position with your organizational board?

CURRENT CHRISTIAN SCHOOL HEADS: Have you recently read the contract in effect with your board? How well are you fulfilling the terms that apply to you? How well is the board meeting their contractual terms? Do you have a clause that sets a date for each of you to notify the other of intentions to continue or discontinue your services? Are you operating on goodwill or some vague “evergreen” renewal policy? Have you requested a performance review? If so, were you a participant in setting its scope and limits? If not, …?

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Ontario Auditor General Report: Concerns with the Current State of Technology in Education

The December 2018 Ontario Auditor General’s 2018 Annual Report contained 15 value-for-money audits. The audits were conducted at four of the 72 school boards in Ontario, but the report included surveys of all the others. 69 of them responded.

One audit addressed the use of information technology systems and technology in Ontario’s public school classroom, assessing if the MOET’s schools and school boards have adequate systems

and processes in place to ensure that: (i) essential IT assets and infrastructure are economically and effectively procured,

managed and protected; (ii) legally protected personal information is safeguarded against cyber threats and

privacy breaches; (iii) efficient and timely IT support and services are provided; and (iv) relevant student information is efficiently and accurately reported in compliance

with the relevant legislation.

Concerns Cited in The Audit: Students’ access to information technology and, consequently, students’ learning

experiences, is inconsistent across the province.ACSI Eastern Canada March 2019 Newsletter

The age of IT equipment in classrooms varies significantly throughout the province. School boards aren’t taking enough protective steps to prevent inappropriate access

to student information. Some school boards do not provide formal security awareness training or have

cybersecurity policies. School boards are not managing cyberbullying effectively. School boards are inconsistent in keeping track of IT assets, like laptops. The majority of school boards don’t have a formal IT business disaster recovery plan. The Ministry and school boards don’t always get ‘value for money’ on their IT

purchases. There is no common centralized student information system for provincial schools.

Such a system could provide cost savings. The Ministry’s system that boards and schools use to submit student data to the

Ministry is inefficient.

Recommendations (Mark has highlighted the ones that are especially applicable to ACSI schools): The MOET and its school boards, should develop a provincial strategic plan

about minimum expectations for the use of IT in the classroom. (That would be helpful for ACSI schools too.)

School boards should assess student technology needs and develop and implement classroom IT policy.

School board should evaluate the benefits of private-sector donations of lightly-used IT equipment.

School boards must periodically review lists of users who have access to students’ personal information, mandate ongoing privacy training for staff and do risk assessments about non-approved websites and software.

School boards should develop policy concerning roles and responsibilities in cybersecurity at the board and school levels, and provide formal information security training, including cybersecurity awareness, to teachers and staff.

The Ministry and school boards must track, report and review cyberbullying incidents at schools.

School boards should develop and implement an IT asset management system, including formal asset tracking and reporting procedures.

School boards must ensure teachers and staff receive training necessary for the use of available technology.

The Ministry and school boards do regular cost-benefit analyses of the need for and use of equipment and software before purchase.

The Ministry, in collaboration with school boards, investigate implementing a shared centrally managed student information system. (Here again this should be accessible for Ontario private schools.)

Ministry and School Boards’ ResponsesBoth the Ministry and the boards were receptive to these recommendations. The Ministry noted that the recommendations complemented the feedback they’d received


from parents, students, educators, and other stakeholders via Ontario’s recent consultation on education.

*All the above information provided by the Miller Thomson law firm newsletter.TOP

Attempt to “Expose Christian Schools” Backfires—Hashtag Boomerang

By D. Bruce LockerbieChristopher Stroop, current teacher at the Honors College at the University of South Florida, recently created a Twitter account #ExposeChristianSchools. On web sites and Twitter, he highlights his academic achievements, especially his Ph. D. from Stanford University. Yet somehow, he attained these intellectual heights in spite of perceived deprivation forced upon him by godly parents who enrolled him at “authoritarian” Christian schools in Colorado Springs and Indianapolis (Heritage Christian School, where a classmate became the brilliant, world-renowned Ebola doctor Kent Brantly). But Chris Stroop rejected much of what he experienced as a youthful evangelical Christian, especially the authority and integrity of the Bible. Instead, he reinterprets what the Bible teaches in order to fit the political ends of social progressivism, specifically the agenda of the LGBTQ+ movement. For Stroop and others who have joined him in “Escape from Jesus Land” (chrisstroop.com, June 14, 2018), the “Scriptures” now consist of their own musings and cyber-posts in the place of “Thus says the Lord.”

That brings us to the hashtag devised by Stroop to expose (meaning to reveal negatively) the tyrannizing faults within Christian schooling. His stated purpose was to encourage former students to “tell how traumatizing those bastions of bigotry are,” citing Immanuel Christian School and its teacher Karen Pence (wife of the American Vice President), as cases-in-point. To make certain the scheme found traction, he shared his endeavor with Dan Levin National Youth Correspondent for The New York Times. The edition of January 30, 2019, offered more than half of page A15, headlined “Some Praise, Some Criticism in Stories of Christian Educations,” where Levin described how the Twitter post “went viral”— but not simply in adverse opinion of Christian schools, as Stroop

seemingly had hoped:

“While many wrote about their struggles in Christian schools, voicing tales of bullying and homophobia, others joined the Twitter conversation to defend their beliefs, condemning the criticism and sharing heartfelt testimonials of how their teachers fostered human compassion and an unimpeachable moral foundation.”

Then Levin cited nine posts with name, age, and location of each correspondent, grouping their comments under three headings: “Bullying and Depression,” “Lasting Pain and Confusion,” and “Love and Acceptance of Others.” Of course, there were stories of abuse, brutalizing corporal punishment, and teaching so poor it could be called academic fraud. But even within the negative comments is praise for a teacher who “was a true friend,” for


a college where “my experiences helped my faith flourish,” for teachers who “saw my depths and loved me for it,” as well as reports such as “Everyone was taught to be accepting and to be a friend to the friendless.” NOT QUITE THE MESSAGE CHRIS STROOP HAD ANTICIPATED! RATHER, HIS BROAD-BRUSH OPINION WAS REPUDIATED. Here’s what I mean by HASHTAG BOOMERANG! As WORLD magazine points out (January 30, 2019), Stroop’s Twitter feed backfired! Certainly, reporter Laura Edghill notes that some of the negative tweets “serve as a sobering reminder that all human nature falls short and temptations lurk everywhere.” Nonetheless, “After his original post [inviting participation in “an effort to show the worst side of religious education”] Levin’s Twitter page swelled with respectful comment after comment describing how valuable each user’s Christian education had proven.” There is no hiding the fact that a few Christian institutions need to change radically or cease to exist, especially if they claim to represent the Gospel of Jesus Christ by acts contrary to that Good News. Ask Brian Hugh Warner (aka Marilyn Manson) about his “Christian schooling” through 10th grade in Canton, OH; ask the actor Russell Crowe what he learned from his teenage experience in youth ministry; or ask some of my own former students who have demitted their teenage profession of faith. Ask even Chris Stroop how he would improve the schools he attended and now disparages. All of us stand guilty before the bar of God’s judgment, and most of us can learn something useful from each other.

To be an evangelical means adhering to the Good News proclaimed by Isaiah the prophet and read aloud in the synagogue at Nazareth by the carpenter’s son some 700 years later. At our church last Sunday, the Gospel text was from Luke 4, beginning at verse 21, picking up the narrative as Jesus ends his reading of the scroll (Isaiah 61:1-2). The Lord subjects himself, first, to the congregation’s approval for “his gracious words,” then to their fury when they learn that the man claiming the identity of Isaiah’s Anointed One intends to share his Good News with many others—not just them! To their dismay, he names the very sort of ‘others’ his audience would gladly exclude from their version of righteousness, the poor and disenfranchised. In fact, they are ready to shove him over a precipice. How strange! But even stranger to me was my pastor’s sermon reference to the rest of the Isaiah text that Jesus did not read. I had never considered that Jesus ended his reading abruptly, returned the scroll to the attendant without completing Isaiah 61, verse 2: He reads as far as “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,” but he does not read anything about “the day of vengeance of our God.” Why not? Obviously, any mention of “the day of vengeance” hardly suits the message of Good News, although judgment is surely part of God’s divine justice. But it is not the same as “good news to the poor,” and quite other than promises of binding up broken hearts or freeing captives or releasing prisoners. Celebrating a jubilee year also calls for a far different understanding of Good News! The story is related to us in considerable detail, and so I take seriously the evidence that Jesus chose to read only so far for a reason. I think that reason was to emphasize the beneficent grace of the Good News and limit the effect of the Bad News until God decides to announce its consequences. Perhaps the evangelicals among whom I grew up (they were called Fundamentalists in those days) also missed realizing that Jesus had chosen to edit


Isaiah in his first public pronouncement. The Gospel I learned offered no such rhetorical choices; it was full of warnings and divine vindication. “The oil of gladness” predicted by Isaiah was often in short supply. Not so with the Lord’s Anointed. As both the Messenger and the Message, the Good News he proclaimed concentrated on those aspects of blessing and left the bane of divine retribution to God the Father. In commending the Good News to his converts (Romans 12:19-20), St. Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 32:35, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay” (NIV). What, then, does it mean to be an ex-evangelical like Christopher Stroop? What else can it mean but to ignore, neglect, revise, or distort the euangelion (Good News) predicted by the Prophet and attributed to himself by the young Nazarene? AND IF NOT THE GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL, WHAT ELSE DOES AN EX-EVANGELICAL HAVE TO OFFER? The God we find revealed in Holy Scripture both laughs and weeps over our vain attempts at creating our own version of the Gospel. Such errors begin by marginalizing or dismissing the wisdom of the Creator and His chosen design to order human life - made in the image of God, depending on a male and female union in love and responsibility to be fruitful and multiply and care for each succeeding generation of offspring as God’s own progeny. To all who are worried about, disturbed by, or offended by some other 21st century interpretation of the Gospel— whether political, cultural, social, sexual, economic, geographic, literary, or any category affecting their theology—I offer this solution: Let’s set aside our sophisticated hermeneutics and return to the three-word statement of faith that identified Early Christians: JESUS IS LORD! TOP


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Contact Us - acsiec.org eNLs/March 2019/March 2019 E… · Web viewAsk even Chris Stroop how he would improve the schools he attended and now disparages. All of us stand guilty