Ideas

Getting Knocked Down

by

People want to hear about your failures.

They want to know if you are just like them.

Find out why by watching our Truth in Two (full text below).

 

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

 

FULL TEXT

If you’re knocked down 7 times, Get Up 8. I can hear myself uttering that line to students each semester. We are all quite familiar with failure; most of us have lived it. Failure is a part of life. Lessons learned from failure are so important to me, I teach them to college English classes.

For instance, Dr. Seuss’s first book And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street was rejected 27 times before it was published. J.K. Rowling, famed author of Harry Potter, tells of her experience, recounting to young writers the numerous rejection letters from publishers.

And I tell students about my own failures. The stories my students want to hear have little to do with writing or English, however. My students want to hear about my life. So, I tell them. I tell them from a human perspective, my move to Indianapolis was catastrophic for my career. The awful injustice of my job being taken from me just after I got here – through no fault of my own – began a string of vocational failures.

Most people do not want to hear about your successes. They want to hear about your failures. Degrees and titles mean little. Folks want to know if you hurt like they’ve been hurt. And if, by the way, you want to hear my stories, call me up. We’ll chat.

You see, people want to know I’ve been where they are. I have been in the lowest of lows. I have struggled. I have gotten knocked down. And I got back up. I got knocked down some more. And I got back up more and more and more. I say to everyone who is struggling, who has failed, if you’re knocked down 7 times, get up 8. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth even in failure.

 

1 Man Standing Against Communism

by

If you don’t stand for freedom

you will kneel in slavery.

Find out why standing against tyranny is essential; watch our Truth in Two (full text below).

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

 

FULL TEXT

In April, 1989 the Chinese Communist Party crushed the student uprising in Tiananmen Square. One of the most iconic pictures to come out of that revolt was the figure of a solitary man, briefcase in hand, standing in front of a military tank. If you would like to see that picture look up my friend Dr. Pingnan Shi on Facebook: it is his profile picture.

Dr. Ping, as he likes to be called, grew up in Communist China during the rule of Mao Zedong. Find his full story linked at the end of this Truth in Two. Dr. Ping recounts Chinese indoctrination during his formative years. It was not until he had access to outside information that his faith in Communism faltered. In his words, “I found out that most everything I had been taught was not true.” Graduating from college, Dr. Ping won a scholarship to study in Canada. He began to learn English, but the focus of his studies was science. Dr. Ping’s explanation of what happened next is eye opening.

In science, we use logic to prove a statement true or false. But to do so, we must assume that the natural world is orderly and logical. If it is, then why is it so? Who gave it such an order? As an engineer, I see designs everywhere. But who is the designer? To my surprise, I learned that many great scientists from the past were Christians who believed God created the world. Science needs theology as its foundation.

Dr. Ping declares the Hebraic-Christian view of the world is the basis for his vocation of engineering. And Dr. Ping’s testimony about the errors and horrors of communism is essential reading for our day. Dr. Ping’s social media profile picture is of that solitary student standing in front of a Chinese tank, just as Dr. Pingnan Shi stands against communism today. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of The Comenius Institute, personally thankful for those who against tyranny.

https://salvomag.com/article/salvo58/free-at-last

Picture Credits: Josh Collingwood, Dr. Pingnan Shi, By Published by The Associated Press, originally photographed by Jeff Widener, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70259861

Good Bones, HGTV & Memory

by

HGTV Teaches America: Refurbishing Good Bones Retains the Past in the Place we Live Today

HGTV has given the American public shows we can all enjoy. Viewing pleasure is found in renovation, refurbishment, giving an old house a facelift. Within the ethos of most HGTV home renovations is that the past is kept intact.

When a show’s rebuilders reference “good bones” they mean the foundation or framework of the house is solid, something to build from. Often when homes are remodeled, the celebrity renovators keep something of the past. Original wood from a porch, for example, might be reused to create a table top to recall what once was.

Remembrance coincides with restoration. “Tear downs,” the phrase given to eradicating the original house for something brand new, is not the optimum outcome. Crucial to most every HGTV show is a recombination of the past with the present. A memory is maintained.

Wilfred M. McClay sustains “The Claims of Memory” arguing for the need of retention, keeping the past

As a central precondition for a mature, civilized way of life.

McClay wants something “durable.” Referencing George Santayana, McClay is set against the rewriting of history, not wanting to subvert the old for the new:

The flames of memory, kept alight in culture, embodied in custom, passed along in tradition, ruins, relics, rituals: These have their own reason for being, their own insights, their own right to our respect.

My mom is the pictorial archivist of our family; gifts given are often photo albums. Sometimes mom writes notes about who someone is in the grainy black and white mid-twentieth century photo. For me, now in my sixties, mom reminds me of folks I never met or was too young to know. In her own way, mom is a memoirist, similar to McClay who says in words not pictures

We see the importance of memory by seeing what happens to us when it goes away.

Family history is close to cultural history. It is not necessary to worry about dementia when one has historical amnesia. Here McClay warns, “A culture without memory will be barbarous.” He worries for America that

if we fail to pass on that knowledge to the rising generation, we will be responsible for our own decline . . . we fail to grasp the overarching meaning of our history, a meaning that would impart coherence to the way we live together.

Yes, “together.” When HGTV shows refurbish a house, it is done on the same property, in the same neighborhood. The house remains. The land remains. The resuscitation of a house’s history is kept where it was. I remember tales of “urban renewal” from my childhood which meant buildings were torn down and replaced; history wiped out. HGTV takes a different tack. Plumbing, electrical, and structural codes may have been altered over a century, but the beauty of the residence is renewed.

Visiting my grandmother’s house in Syracuse, New York, I remember the beautiful brick façade, accented by a front porch that overlooked the neighborhood street. In my mind’s eye I can see that street, the sidewalks, and all the other houses with architecturally beautiful porches. Now when I see refurbished homes with that same architecture, I know that the past can be remembered properly in the present, the present giving us hope for a future.

McClay ends his article by noting

The power of memorization lies in the fact that the poem, or prayer, or speech that is committed to memory becomes one’s own, alive in one’s mind and spirit.

McClay and I both are cognizant of memory’s limitations. We can remember what we want, forget what we don’t like, only cite those who agree with us, and twist the insights of others into a historical pretzel. But McClay’s article, my mom’s pictures, and HGTV remind me that we must not forget our history. We should build on the good bones of our ancestors and the idea of America that enlivened our predecessors. Our history is not a “tear down” but a “build up,” committed to retention of a history that can enliven the beauty of our national neighborhood, where we all live together.

 

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, Snappy Goat

Freedom or Fundamentalism

by

Over Spring Break I read Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz. Among the many great insights found in the book is a talk Churchill gave which included these words:

“We seek no treasure, we seek no territorial gains, we seek only the right of man to be free; we seek his right to worship his God, to lead his life in his own way, secure from persecution. As the humble laborer returns from his work when the day is done, and sees the smoke curling upwards from his cottage home in the serene evening sky, we wish him to know no knocking of the secret police upon his door will disturb his leisure or interrupt his rest.” Churchill concluded his talk by assuring “Britain sought only government by popular consent, freedom to say whatever one wished, and the equality of all people in the eyes of the law.”
Churchill’s words are imperative in times like these when freedoms are being eroded. Yale law school students who heckled and ruined a planned talk between an atheist and Christian who were seeking common ground is one such example. Working on the public university campus I am constantly trying to help students see the benefits of freedom and the detriments of tyranny. And in my mind, this tyranny arises out of fundamentalism.
I remember growing up in fundamentalism. Degrees of separation always followed. One couldn’t associate with anyone who did X (2nd degree), those who associated with those who associated with those who did X were separated from (3rd degree), and so on. There are all kinds of fundamentalism; degrees of separation follow. At Yale we have an example of current cultural fundamentalism. [And I shudder to think about the future of our court rooms if law students cannot practice courtroom decorum in a university environment.] The specific event here had nothing to do with LGBTQ+ folks (which was the supposed rationalization for the riotous interruption). It had everything to do with freedom of speech.
An atheist and a Christian finding common ground in an open dialogue. I believe in the importance of free speech and open dialogue. My crying concern for this or any culture is freedom. Silencing voices – in whatever community context – is the death knell of free speech. Erik Larson’s “The Splendid and the Vile” comes to mind again. In 1940 the German propagandist Goebbels began a punishment campaign against Germans who listened to the BBC.
He ordered heavy sentences for radio offenders and told his propaganda lieutenants that every German must be clear in his mind that listening in to these broadcasts represents an act of serious sabotage.
Goebbels did, and Yale law school students do, adhere to their own forms of fundamentalism. The dividing line of separation is freedom. My responsibility in the public sphere is to accept all people, no matter their belief. I personally refuse any sort of fundamentalism. And I will always stand for freedom of speech.
If speech is not free for everyone, speech will not be free for anyone.
I will continue to speak out for freedom and freedom of speech. If free speech is lost, America freedoms are lost.
Picture credits: Luke Renoe
Goebbels – By Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-17049 / Georg Pahl / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5415572
Sir Winston Churchill – By digitized by: BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives – Flickr: Sir Winston Churchill, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41991931
Erik Larson book – https://eriklarsonbooks.com/book/the-splendid-and-the-vile/

7 Biblical Reasons to Temper Expectations

by

What we think is bad . . .

. . . may not be so bad.

Find out why by watching our Truth in Two (full text below).

 

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, Snappy Goat

FULL TEXT

Every day students come to my class, they know we will be investigating the etymology of a word. An etymology means the development of a word’s history.

A word’s meaning grows over time. Consider the word “temper.” Now if someone is angry, we might say, “Cool your jets!” and by that we mean “Control your temper!” But if we say “bring the heat to temper the metal” that would be closer to the original meaning. The word “temper” originally meant to bring metal to a suitable, useable state. Picture a blacksmith heating a horseshoe to make it pliable so he can fashion it for a horse’s hoof.

Sometimes in life we must work with what we have been given, “Tempering our expectations.” What we mean is, “Things may not always go our way” or “We may not get everything we want.” Another phrase we use is, “Make do with what you’ve got.” We may be frustrated by our situation. A poker player might say, “I’ve got to go with the hand I’ve have been dealt.”

Solomon teaches temperance by his proverbial wisdom. For instance, Ecclesiastes 7:8 says, “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning.” So, I can say, do not be too quick to label something “good” or “bad.” The end of something may matter more than its beginning.

Here is how we practice Solomon’s wisdom of temperance.

Do not believe that one event is the best or the worst.

Be wary not to put all your eggs in one basket.

Wisdom suggests that our best plans may not work out.

Having a Plan B, is better than just having Plan A.

Preparation is good, expectation, not so much.

Things are not always as they seem.

What you see, isn’t always what you get.

These proverbial statements underline Solomon’s point: temper your expectations.

For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally trying to temper his expectations with biblical wisdom.

 

Hospitality of Ideas

by

“Open-minded” does not exist.

Everyone is “closed-minded” to something.

“Broadminded,” however, means one entertains others and their ideas.

We may disagree with each other but being hospitable, means we listen.

Watch how we welcome people and their beliefs, without giving up our own (full text below).

We should be hospitable to all, caring about them and why they believe what they do.

Find out more about becoming a Christian APOLOGIST. I would be glad to talk with you about the work of RATIO CHRISTI (here). Subscribe to “Truth in Two” videos from Comenius (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), hosts a weekly radio program with diverse groups of guests (1 minute video), and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, Snappy Goat

FULL TEXT:

Often when people say someone is “closed-minded” they mean “You don’t agree with me.” The same folks don’t see they may be the ones “closed” to the ideas others may hold.

Being broad-minded as a Christian means I listen to others, showing a hospitality of ideas. The distinctiveness of the Bible’s message begins with “holy,” meaning set apart or other than. The First Testament is very clear that Yahweh is distinctive from all other gods. When the prophets say “There is no other God” they mean other “gods” exist; but comparatively, there is no comparison. As Moses summarized in Deuteronomy 32:31, “Their rock is not like our Rock”.

Our responsibility as Christians is to be generous, welcoming of people with perspectives other than our own: and when given the opportunity, to explain the unique nature of Jesus’ gospel message in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me”.

As a Christian thinker, I am broad-minded, listening to others, secure in my answers for certain questions about the origins, ends, and ethics of life. If we can understand that all of us are in some way “closed” in our thinking, but “open” to people, no matter their beliefs, we might be better able to understand and respect others even while we hold to our own philosophies.

At the Comenius Institute we are secure in our core beliefs. We are secure in the fact that The Eternal, Personal, Triune God exists. We are secure in the fact that the natural world came about by a supernatural process. We are secure in the fact that God Providentially sustains His world.

But we are very “open” to the opportunities of broadmindedness, displaying a hospitality of ideas.

For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

 

 

Progressive-Conservative

by

Is it possible to disagree agreeably?

Watch our Truth in Two to find out if it is possible (full text below).

 

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, RIT

FULL TEXT

Denzel Washington is famous for saying,

“It is easy to spot a red car when you’re always thinking of a red car. It is easy to spot reasons to be mad when you’re always thinking of being mad. You become what you constantly think about.”

If you’re always looking for it, you’ll find it. If you think the worst of some person or group, that’s all you’ll see. I am constantly concerned about the one-sidedness of viewpoints.

To my conservative friends I say, go conserve something. If you care to be a true conservator of the great ideas and ideals given us, then be proactive, participate, do good, above all – be kind to those who disagree with you. And to my progressive friends I say, remember the “progress” in progressive. If you care to be a true progressor of future possibilities available to us, then celebrate goodness, growth, improvement, above all – be kind to those who disagree with you.

And let me be very clear. I care deeply for all my friends, no matter your social or political positions. I need my progressive friends to remind me that human concerns still need immediate attention. I need my conservative friends to remind me that human concerns are still rooted in perennial truths.

I encourage everyone hearing my voice to go make a friend with someone who has a very different view of the world than you do. Find out why they hold that view. Read a book together, one from each of your perspectives. Organize a symposium together about a hot-topic and then kindly discuss your differences before the crowd. Practice what I call “the hospitality of ideas” so that people can see an example of civility. Defend the other person in the presence of those with those who agree with you.

And, to Denzel’s point, think about the color blue, so you’re not always seeing red.

For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally pleased to have many friends who disagree with me.

The pictures herein are of Cornel West and Robert P George. They are progressive-conservative friends.

Phillis Wheatley

by
“In every human Breast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call Love of Freedom.” – Phillis Wheatley
Phillis Wheatley contributed the first publication by an African American in 1773; a book of “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.” What attracted me this past week to Wheatley and her writing was a letter she penned to Reverend Samson Occum, a Mohegan Indian and an ordained Presbyterian minister. Occum had written an indictment of slave-holding Christian ministers. The contradiction between colonists who wanted freedom from England but were determined to uphold slavery was obvious. Take a few moments to read Wheatley’s words as she points out “the Absurdity of their Conduct.” Her “Cry for Liberty” reverberates to our own day.
Letter to Reverend Samson Occum
Rev’d and honor’d Sir,
I have this Day received your obliging kind Epistle, and am greatly satisfied with your Reasons respecting the Negroes, and think highly reasonable what you offer in Vindication of their natural Rights: Those that invade them cannot be insensible that the divine Light is chasing away the thick Darkness which broods over the Land of Africa; and the Chaos which has reign’d so long, is converting into beautiful Order, and reveals more and more clearly, the glorious Dispensation of civil and religious Liberty, which are so inseparably Limited, that there is little or no Enjoyment of one Without the other: Otherwise, perhaps, the Israelites had been less solicitous for their Freedom from Egyptian slavery; I do not say they would have been contented without it, by no means, for in every human Breast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call Love of Freedom; it is impatient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance; and by the Leave of our modern Egyptians I will assert, that the same Principle lives in us. God grant Deliverance in his own Way and Time, and get him honour upon all those whose Avarice impels them to countenance and help forward tile Calamities of their fellow Creatures. This I desire not for their Hurt, but to convince them of the strange Absurdity of their Conduct whose Words and Actions are so diametrically, opposite. How well the Cry for Liberty, and the reverse Disposition for the exercise of oppressive Power over others agree, — I humbly think it does not require the Penetration of a Philosopher to determine.
– March 11, 1774

The Right Side of History

by

So you can see the future, huh?!

Watch our Truth in Two to find out why we say, “Not so fast!” (full text and afterword below).

 

Subscribe to MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, Snappy Goat

“Don’t You Want to be on The Right Side of History!” Such a warning is given to anyone who would dare stand in the way of current cultural narratives. The story being told could be political, sexual, racial, or social. But be assured, whatever the objective, some group thinks they know what is best now, for the future. It would seem that the people who make the claim, have some crystal ball, an ability to see the future based on their own self-designed storyline. The problem is this: the story told now may not be the right side of history later.

Augustine, the famed African theologian, addressed the historic events of his day and saw the future. The great city of Rome was overthrown by Visigoth armies in A. D. 410. People in Augustine’s day thought they knew what was the so-called “right side of history.” Pagan people had placed their future on the human power of Rome. But they were decidedly on the “wrong side of history.” Augustine reacted to the fall of Rome by writing a masterpiece entitled, The City of God. Augustine responded to history’s meaning in his day. The African theologian made it clear that the fall of Rome was but one battle in the long war that humanity waged against God. The human city, according to Augustine, was a place that hated God and loved its own story, even if their story was wrong.

You want to be on the right side of history? Then understand that being on “the right side of history” is to recognize God’s direction of history; because history is “His Story.” For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, personally sure that the right side of history is to be on the right side of God’s Story.

AFTERWORD When people claim “You must be on the right side of history” they are thinking about the fourth idea of history: what is history’s meaning, what importance or significance can be attached to the story we wish to tell about the past?

The word “history” needs some explanation. “History” can be one of four ideas: (1) remembrance of events (2) the writing about those events (3) the actual researching of those events or (4) asking the question “What meaning do those events have?”

 

Calling Someone “Phobic” Cancels and Alienates People

by

Labeling people by what you think they fear . . .

. . . is nothing more than labeling people.

Saying someone is “-phobic” is an attempt to stifle conversation: watch our Truth in Two(full text below).

 

Subscribe to MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, hassan-pasha-7SjEuEF06Zw-unsplash, etienne-girardet-NJ7_RKmfsXw-unsplash

FULL TEXT

We are told not to live in fear. But we implant the suffix phobic to implant fear that is not there. Let me explain.

Sometimes a person in our culture is labeled transphobic, homophobic, or Islamophobic. Words such as these label the person not the person’s belief. Saying that I “fear” people whose identity, sexuality, ethnicity, or nationality differs from mine is absurd. To call someone phobic is as bad as name calling on an elementary school playground. The intention is to label someone as fearful so that they can be excluded and then dismissed from conversation. Worse, those who are told they are phobic lose their reputations and economic stability. See the link in this Truth in Two to see what has happened to “cancelled” people. Disagreement or even questioning is cause for immediate censure. Words like racist, sexist, classicist, or elitist are thrown about so as to discredit, to bring a person into disrepute.

Labeling someone as phobic does nothing more than separate people into adversaries. Labeling someone as phobic suggests the one doing the labeling is in need of an enemy, someone to be against. As long as you agree with the non-phobic group you are accepted and referred to as an ally.

One of the ways you create phobic people is to portray them as vile in movies and TV series. If you are told again and again that men, fathers, America, U.S. soldiers, priests, and pastors are bad, you begin to see them as a villain. Take that a step further, and the institutions of family, country, and religion are brought into question. Calling people phobic does nothing more than alienate people from each other.

And I will say it again. I am not transphobic, homophobic, or Islamophobic. I am not afraid of anyone whose sex, identity or ethnicity differs from mine. So if you continue to use phobic to describe people who differ in their beliefs from yours, I’m going to wonder if you aren’t the one who is fearful.

For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally following Jesus’ command to love God’s teachings, which includes loving, not fearing, people.

Canceledpeople.org