Free Videos

Real combat . . .

. . . is not always a physical battle.

The question is “What will you fight for, and why?”

Watch our Truth in Two video, to find out our answer (full text with afterword, below).

The old adage is true, “Fight for something or fall for anything.”

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

Al Pacino’s speech in the movie City Hall still sends shivers up my spine. A little Black boy is unintentionally killed by the errant gunfire from a White police officer. Al Pacino plays the White mayor of New York. He goes to the little boy’s funeral at a large Black church, against the advice of his staff.

The mayor begins in low, quiet tones and ends in a battle cry, “I choose to fight back!” The mayor’s speech both honors the death of a child and seeks to protect the citizens of his city. I love that line, “I choose to fight back!”

Sometimes you pick a FIGHT just by showing up. You have no intention of fighting. You don’t want to fight. You might not even *like* to fight. But you are already in a fight. Just by being who you are. By what you believe. By what you have said. By what you haven’t said.

Just because you believe something different, you are questioned, then excluded, then belittled, then attacked. You are in a fight just by showing up. So, here is where I draw my line in the sand. I will not back down from three fights.

One, I will continue to proclaim, without apology, true Truth found in God’s creation and God’s Word. Two, I will continue to stand with others who stand for freedom, against tyranny. And, three, I will stand with my Lord Jesus against the principalities and powers of this world.

I encourage you to find Al Pacino’s City Hall speech on YouTube. I hope it sends shivers up your spine as well. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

Afterword: [A brief, incomplete reflection as I read Jesus’ words this morning, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51, ESV).]

Some of the groups who are most upset by your presence are people who propose peace. The cost of peace, however, is believing what that group believes. “Tolerance” and “acceptance” are watchwords at the heart of this group. But those words are set aside when you stand in disagreement.

Your sources of news, explain your views.

All news sources are biased.

How do news sources polarize our political viewpoints?

Why is it imperative to question the point of view of what you hear, what you watch?

Watch our Truth in Two to find out (full text and hyperlink below)

The MEDIA you consume, may consume you.

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

“The Sound of Silence” was a song written by Simon and Garfunkel in 1964. The song’s lyrics include these haunting lines, “Left its seeds while I was sleeping, the vision planted in my brain, the sound of silence.” The songwriters were concerned that voices being raised against the Vietnam War were not being spoken.

Some of my many questions to students when I teach media interpretation are, “What am I not hearing? Why does silence dominate one agenda, and noise, another? What am I not seeing? What’s missing in a news report? Why does the movie vilify one point of view, approving another?” As a teacher I press students to hear another voice other than the one constantly in their ear, in front of their eyegate, prominently app’d on their phone or emblazoned on t-shirts.

What is most distressing in news coverage, Hollywood pulpiteering, Twitter-mongering, or Facebook-shaming is the idea that someone other might have a different view, another explanation. But we are left with no countervailing weight, no opposing measure on the scale against the pundits on the screen.

“Silencing” opposition takes place by downplaying, defaming, diminishing, or disparaging others. To silence opposing views – no matter the idea, person or event – is the arrogance-arc: I know what you need to know and I will tell you so.

In May an article appeared highlighting the biases that influence politics. You can find the article hyperlink in this Truth in Two. The three major biases include

1. Confirmation bias: seeking information that affirms what you already believe

2. Coverage bias: what is reported or unreported in the news

3. Concision bias: focusing only on selected information

We should be wary of what Proverbs says, “Scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge.” At the Comenius Institute we echo Proverbs and the songwriter’s warning about the sound of silence, wary of those who want to silence opposing viewpoints.

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

[This coming semester, thanks to Heterodox Academy, I will be using this “Cognitive Bias” article with students https://bit.ly/2Z3GIjE ]

Do you know who influences you?

Someone wants to give you a piece of your mind.

Do you know who has the most power over your thinking?

What should I be doing to guard against undo influence?

Watch our Truth in Two to find out (full text and hyperlink below).

If I give up independent thinking, I have no one to blame but myself.

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

In the January 2020 issue of The Atlantic Ismail Muhammad investigates big-tech thinking in Silicon Valley. The article entitled, “Inside Tech’s Fever Dream” is a review of Anna Wiener’s book Uncanny Valley. Wiener’s account of the mentality of those creating our technology should send shivers up our spines. She writes about the enthralling culture, the “dizzying momentum” of consumer creations. Wiener admits that she had been “Self-deluded in embracing an ethos of efficiency, hyperproductivity, and seamless connectivity at any cost.” She references arrogant software designers, impulsive investors, and excessively paid employees. As Weiner says in her book

“They had inexorable faith in their own ideas and their own potential.”

Anna Weiner is concerned about the influence of big-tech: and so should we. But at the Comenius Institute our concerns about who influences us goes further. I would like to suggest the five major influencers in our world:

1. Big Tech, including all digital devices, any device linked to the world wide web

2. Federal Bureaucracy, all the agencies which create American law

3. Universities, all the professors who influence students

4. Hollywood, all the movies made by the film-making elite

5. Social Media, all the voices we hear from National Public Radio to FB, IG & Twitter

We should be wary of the five biggest influencers by asking these five questions every day:

1. Who or what influences my thinking?

2. What sources of information do I hear/read/watch?

3. Why do I believe as I do about anything?

4. Can I construct a reason for my point of view?

5. How do the answers to these questions make a difference in how I think about anything?

The Atlantic article ends recounting a tech industry event. Anna Wiener describes a fellow big-tech employee who boasts of big-tech influence, “We’re the government now.” Proverbs is right. Only God’s wisdom will enable us to discern the devious ways of cultural influencers.

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

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/01/review-anna-wiener-uncanny-valley/603058/

 

It’s unfair to judge yesterday . . .

. . . only by what we know today.

The study of history is essential for understanding how to live in the present.

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

The study of history is the study of ourselves.

 

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), teaches 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

Our study of history faces two problems: the present and the future. First, it is hard to assess our own time because we are too close to it. Second, it is hard to assess someone else’s time because we are too far from it.

Our first problem in the study of history is being too close.  When Ronald Reagan was governor of California there was great upheaval on college campuses.  Shouting insults, a student told Reagan that it was impossible for people of Reagan’s generation to understand young people.

“You grew up in a different world,” the protester said.  “Today we have televisions, jet planes, space travel, nuclear energy, and computers.”  Without missing a beat Reagan replied, “You’re right.  It’s true that we didn’t have those things in my generation. My generation invented them.”  Sometimes we can’t evaluate our own time because we are living too close to it.

Our second problem in the study of history is being too far away.  Barbara Tuchman, the brilliant American historian, wrote, “To understand the choices open to people of another time, one must limit oneself to what they knew; see the past for what it was then, not what it is now.”[1] It is unfair, then, to impose our present views on America’s founders, for instance, with 250 years of history under our belts.  It’s unfair to judge yesterday only by what we know today.

Being too close to our own time, we think, what we believe, is right.  Being too far away from another time, we think we know better than those who went before.  Perhaps it would be better to consider that remembering the past helps us know how to live in the present.  For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

[1] Barbara Tuchman, “Problems in Writing the Biography of General Stilwell,” in Practicing History, 75.

Obsessed with today and tomorrow we humans tend to forget yesterday.

“If my people” is not about America.“If my people” is about The Church.

Harvard didn’t like it. The media didn’t like it. But Alexandre Solzhenitsyn was right.

Find out why in this week’s Truth in Two (full text and link below).

On this Thanksgiving, remember God.

 

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), teaches 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

“Men have forgotten God.” The stark words of Russian dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn did not sit well with people in The West. Solzhenitsyn was sent to the Russian gulag for his crime of speaking out against Communism in The Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn said the beginning of Communism in his country began because men had forgotten God. It is important to read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s 1983 Templeton Award speech after his release from communism. We must ask ourselves a question. “Has America forgotten God?” History is instructive, its principles, repetitive.

But lest we think that the problems we face in our own country begin with atheism and communism, Scripture has a different view. Often Christian folk like to quote 2 Chronicles 7:14 as if it were about America. The famous “If my people who are called by my name” is not about America. It is about God’s people. In the First Testament, the focus was about God’s people Israel. In the Second Testament, continuing into our day, the focus is on God’s people, The Church. The call to humility, turning away from sin, seeking God’s face is not for America. It is for Christians.

Whose responsibility is it, to make sure, men have not forgotten God? It is The Church, everyday Christians’ responsibility. Do we desire what the verse promises at the end, that God would forgive our sin and heal our land? Remembering God in our lives is the first step. Solzhenitsyn was right. The reason why a nation would turn to Communism is because men have forgotten God. During this Thanksgiving season, let the remembering begin with The Church.

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

LINK to 1983 Templeton Award Speech: https://www.templetonprize.org/laureate-sub/solzhenitsyn-acceptance-speech/

Is it better to talk about politics . . .

. . . or live your public policy?

In case you don’t know the answer . . .

Watch our Truth in Two (full text below).

Christians involved in public policy? Sure!

 

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), teaches 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

The Church should be involved in public policy. Here’s what I mean.

The Church bears a responsibility to be positive in our approach, persuasive in our speech, passionate about our intellect, peaceful in our tone, powerful in our conviction, and patient in our vision.

The Church should follow Scripture’s clear statements about The Church’s general role in culture: being salt (Matt 5:13), convincing speech (Col 4:5-6), spreading light (Matt 5:14; Phil 2:15), maintaining reputations (1 Thess 4:11-12), and doing good (Gal 6.10; Titus 3:8, 14).

The Church should be accountable for promoting the good including justice, equality, respect Rom 13; 1 Tim 2; 1 Pet 2-4), being wise in speech and action by promoting righteousness in leadership (Proverbs 28, 29).

The Church has multiple examples throughout Scripture of believers doing good within a public environment: Joseph, Moses, David, Esther, Mordecai, Daniel, Nehemiah and numerous references to public workers throughout Paul’s greeting passages at the end of his epistles.

The Church limits criticism against Her by living uprightly (1 Peter 4:12-19), standing against injustice (Isa 58-59), speaking in measured language (Acts 22), without pompous propaganda nor embarrassing misinformation, comparing Diotrephes with Demetrius in third John.

The Church should be heard loudest in quiet action—1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 says that the public listens to others who live quietly, mind their own affairs, and work with their hands. Good living sidesteps evil and ill attention (1 Peter 2:11-12; 3:16-17; 4:14-17).  Doing good allows all people in the public to thrive.

Should The Church have a role in public policy? Of course. God’s goodness brought to public places by Christians is the first step toward positive public policy. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

We stand with those who stand for FREEDOM.

Cries for justice know no boundary lines.

Freedom loving people want what we in America have: to think and speak without restraint.

But how do we practice freedom as American CHRISTIANS?

Watch our Truth in Two to find out (full text and AFTERWORDS below).

American Christians should show gratitude for our country and give thanks to God for it.

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:

This is the toughest question for me as an American Christian.

How do I facilitate the tension between two biblical responsibilities: preserving the titanic freedoms I have been afforded by living in the United States and speaking for or against poor American policy?

We live in the most peaceful, prosperous nation in all of human history: the United States of America. Yes, I know we have our problems and no, I am not sidestepping true justice issues. But there is a reason why people from other countries are clamoring to get into this country. Americans enjoy a wide range of freedoms and opportunities unheard of elsewhere. People want what Americans have.

So I celebrate the freedoms of a free country. Genesis 1:28 tells me, I bear responsibility to conserve and manage what has been given to me, for the sake of my children, grandchildren, and neighbors. But what if I see breaches of ethics, freedoms, or care in my country? Then, I must speak out as a citizen for or against policies harmful to a person’s present or a nation’s future.

So here are my two watchwords for everyone. For my conservative friends I say this: do not baptize your American citizenship with Christianity. Christians have been given a charge to care for the immigrant, the stranger. Welcome and hospitality is The Church’s responsibility no matter another’s national origin. For my progressive friends I say this: do not baptize verses in Scripture meant for believers, thinking these truths should be automatically applied to American public policy. The responsibilities of The Church and a nation state are quite different.*

At the Comenius Institute we say: rejoice in the tension of being an American Christian. Preserve what has been given in America while we speak for or against American public policy.

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

*Compare clear statements in Matthew 22, Romans 13, 1 Timothy 2, Titus 3, 1 Peter 2-4, and elsewhere about Christian responsibility toward human authority structures, including those of government.

AFTERWORDS

Read my post on “Politics” (here) – grateful for my country, a warning against despotic rule.

Thankful for Vaclav Havel (here) whose stand with the Dali Lama cried out for freedom.

Christian Persecution around the world: my nine-point response (here).

From April, 2009 “Call of Duty” (here)

I love my country.  My voice cracks when I sing the national anthem.  Tears come to my eyes when an Air Force jet passes over a football stadium before kick off.  Seeing uniformed service personnel in airports, I walk over to shake their hand, thankful for their service.  A smile lights up my face when I think of my students who serve in our military.  And I loathe anti-Americanism.  Bowing before potentates, exchanging pleasantries with leaders who want our national destruction, or giving backhanded apologies for actions taken in just wars does not represent dependable gratitude for The United States of America.  No place is perfect.  But for years I’ve watched as people risk their lives to get from Havana to Miami for the privilege of our freedom.  And I’m still waiting for those who have decried our nation in the past to emigrate elsewhere.  To my mind, living in this country is a privilege, bearing the weight of responsibility.