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4 Reasons I Am Pro-Life

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Science and Scripture agree,

Life in the womb should be protected.

Discover the four reasons 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).

Pictures: Josh Collingwood, SnappyGoat

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I want to explain why we, at the Comenius Institute, have made a choice for a pro-life position.

(1) We choose science. Scientific evidence of human life beginning at conception in a woman’s womb is indisputable. Embryology declares that life begins at fertilization. Here are just two of many examples: the human person in the womb has distinctive DNA, separate from that of the parents; and the human heart begins beating after 22 days. Choice for life protects a beating heart.

(2) We choose life, not death. The American Association of Pediatricians gives at least seven criteria for life to exist: everything from cellular structure to stimuli response to the capacity for reproduction to unique genetic information for a lifetime of development. Simply, life in the womb is meant to live.

(3) We choose care. I once had students ask why pro-life people don’t care about the life of the child after birth. I immediately reached for my phone, and I identified six people that I know personally who care for children after birth. Some have fostered children whose biological parents are absent. Others have helped the adoption process for moms who know it is best for their baby to live with others. Still more offer physical and financial support for moms who need help raising their children, inside and outside of the uterus.

(4) We choose a God-centered response to human life. The Hebraic-Christian Scriptures are clearly pro-life. God’s procreation injunctions in Genesis 1 are obvious: human birth is God’s intention. Birth, not death, is celebrated in the lives of all Hebrew patriarchs, from Abram to Judah. In Jeremiah 1:5 the prophet acknowledges he was chosen in the womb for a purpose. Psalm 139 further declares our days were planned in the womb, human life being “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of The Comenius Institute, personally choosing life.

MLK Remembrance

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Honoring a memory should prompt us to

Do something about it.

Why remember Frederick Douglass to celebrate MLK? 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).

Pictures: Josh Collingwood, SnappyGoat

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Over the past dozen years I have been teaching at Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary as a visiting professor. One of the courses I have taught is a PhD course titled, “Biblical and Theological Foundations for Ministry.” One project that is assigned is based on the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Students are asked to address the question, “What present issue will my fellows or colleagues in the future identify, later saying to me, ‘Why didn’t you address _fill-in-the-blank_?’” By reading Douglass, students are pressed to consider the future, what I call anticipatory leadership.

In 2018 I took a course titled, “Civil War Literature and Culture” from the esteemed, brilliant, Dr. Jane Schultz. It was in her course that we read primary source literature from the Civil War era. At the end of the course, I wrote my final project on the theological foundations for the abolitionist movement. You can find the link to what became a peer-reviewed journal essay in this Truth in Two. Using Frederick Douglass as one of my sources I discovered that this former slave quoted the Bible as the basis for his desire to abolish slavery. Douglass looked to the future, to see ahead, to anticipate, the abolition of America’s sin of slavery.

And now, I ask students to consider their anticipatory leadership for future generations. You can find a three-part video series titled, “What Box? Leadership” linked in this Truth in Two which asks us all to consider our future, to peak around the corner, to anticipate future consequences of ideas we promote now. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally thankful for the truths from Scripture, outlined by Frederick Douglass, as we celebrate on this holiday, the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

PROSPECTIVE SOCIAL LEADERSHIP QUERY:

Theological Roots of the Abolitionist Movement in Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” and Angelina Grimké’s “Appeal to the Christian Women of the South”[1]

[1] © Mark D. Eckel. Intégrité: A Journal of Faith and Learning, Fall, 2018, pp. 15-24 www.mobap.edu/integrite a peer-reviewed academic publication. The origin of the work was the final assignment for the IUPUI class “Civil War Literature and Culture” taught by Dr. Jane Schultz, Spring, 2018.

“What Box?!” Leadership, a 3-part video series on anticipatory leadership.

 

Common Sense

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God made His world to work

for human benefit.

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).

Pictures: Josh Collingwood, SnappyGoat

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I have 169 mantras, statements my students have heard over and over from me in the classroom through my forty years of teaching. A mantra is just that – a repetitious statement. But a mantra is more than that. The word literally means “an instrument of thought.” Because I believe repetition is the mother of education, I use repetitive ideas because they stick in students’ minds.

But repetition by itself is not education. One also needs common sense. The phrase has come to mean the practice of right judgment in practical matters. But the phrase assumes two basic ideas. “Sense” is wisdom, a deep grounding in discernment; some might say a sensible person is quite perceptive or understanding. The individual then applies the accumulated insights from life to particular concerns. “Common” takes for granted that there is an assumed thinking for all people, places, times, and cultures. A universal ideal exists which is then applied in some local reality.

When we say a person has “common sense” we generally mean they are taking the best of what they have studied about humanity and human relations, then using it to make a decision. Hebraic-Christian thinking suggests that “common sense” is Wisdom embedded in world for the benefit of all humanity. According to Proverbs 8,

Wisdom “walks in the way of righteousness and the path of justice.”

We make sense of what is common from One who has our best interests at heart.

If you want to know more about my 169 educational mantras follow the link in this Truth in Two. And there are multiple links to teachings on biblical wisdom as well. It is common sense, the wisdom of God’s embedded truths in creation, that supplies the content for my communication, that allows ideas to stick in student’s minds. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

The Bible on Wisdom: 169 Teaching Mantras

 

Control Yourself

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Control yourself, or someone else will!

Why self-control is better than state-control

Watch our Truth in Two to find out why (full text included).

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).

Pictures: Josh Collingwood, SnappyGoat

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I have to admit a serious concern at the beginning of a new year: I have little control when it comes to sugar. There I’ve said it. I love cakes, cookies, and candy. You name it, Butterfingers, Skittles, caramels, vanilla frosting, sugar cookies, or white chocolate. I am addicted. Yes, I know that my obsession could have dire consequences (think diabetes). So, I try to control myself when it comes to consuming sweets, but you know how it is for an addict. One lick of the cake mixer beater or one taste of cookie dough and I can’t stop eating.

My addiction to sugar reminds me of what some folks call “New Year’s Resolutions.” We decide we must exercise more. So, we buy the equipment or sign on to a gym membership. But by the time Valentine’s Day candy comes out, any commitment to exercise stops after we unwrap the chocolates. Our problem, of course, is control. And here is a principle for all of life: control yourself or someone else will have to control you. If I can’t stop eating sugar by myself, the doctor might make me go on a diet to stop eating.

The Christian statesman, Edmund Burke spoke to our problem with control. He said,

“People are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.”

Did you get that? Control yourself or someone else will have to control you. You may be upset with government regulations; but perhaps those regulations exist because you can’t regulate yourself. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, trying to control himself (and his sugar intake).

 

Santa is Coming to Town

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Can we “be good, for goodness’ sake?”

Why even Christmas songs need critique.

Find out why we should evaluate what we sing 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).

 

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“You better watch out, you better not cry / You better not pout, I’m telling you why / Santa Claus is coming to town.”

One of the most popular Christmas songs has and will be sung repeatedly this Christmas season. Decades before Amazon or Spotify, Santa Claus is Coming to Town became an overnight sensation in 1934, selling 500,000 copies of sheet music and 30,000 records within 24 hours.

But as a biblical theologian, I have to critique the song, not because of Ol’ Saint Nick, but because of human nature. The song continues,

“He’s making a list and checking it twice / He’s gonna find out who’s naughty and nice / He knows if you’ve been bad or good / So be good for goodness’ sake.”

So, is it possible to “be good for goodness’ sake?” I have lost count of the number of times I have heard the line “I’m a good person” from neighbors, associates, acquaintances, or from characters in a movie. The statement, “I’m a good person,” does four things for me.

One, I get to say what is good.

Two, I will evaluate myself by my own standard.

Three, my goodness assumes that bad must exist, though I’m not bad.

And, four, others outside cannot judge me.

Take for example, a Psychology Today article “How to Know if You’re a Good Person.” The suggestion is made to “define what a good person is in 3-5 words and rate yourself on this continuum.” Really? So, humans set the standard and get to evaluate whether or not they measure up by their own standard?

If you believe that you can be good for Santa, you have missed the reason for the season: Jesus is The Good News, the only way we can be good in God’s sight. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally wishing everyone a Blessed Christmas.

 

1 Essential Educational Practice: Reflection

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Rethink. Reconsider. Ponder.

True education begins when one takes personal responsibility for it.

Find out why by reflecting on 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: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat

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“You make my brain hurt!” I wish I had a dollar bill for every time a student has said this about my teaching. The point is not that my classes are hard, it is the hard thinking I make my students do. Often, I will give students questions to reflect on. “Reflection” is not a small matter. Taken seriously, reflection is very difficult to do because it requires a person to dig deep in their own thinking, to actively pursue a process of evaluating their own thought processes.

You can’t see an attitude. You can’t touch an emotion. You can’t taste a mindset. But I can certainly experience attitude, emotion, and mindset in a person’s body language, tone of voice, or facial expression. In education we call this kind of learning “affective.” Learning that reaches to one’s thought process, that works to transform someone’s spirit, is “affective learning.” You can’t see someone’s spirit, but you can see someone’s spirit. Confused? Maybe a quote will help. 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 opportunity when you’re always thinking of opportunity. It is easy to spot reasons to be mad when you’re always thinking of being mad. You become what you constantly think about.”

Simply, if you’re only reading one way, if you only think one way, you will not consider other ways. I’m not suggesting you give up your baseline beliefs. I am suggesting your beliefs need to be carefully considered. Yes, I still make my student’s brains hurt. But it their reflection on ideas, answering questions for themselves, that will save them from a lifetime of real hurt.

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

3 Lessons from Aristotle

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Clear thinking and communication

necessitates three important stages.

Find out what they are 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: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat

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When I teach the college course “Argumentative Writing” I have students read Aristotle. The ancient philosopher outlines three key ingredients toward any discussion. “Pathos,” in the ancient sense, was about the emotion stirred in an audience by the speaker based on the argument made. “Ethos” is about the credibility or authority of the speaker. “Logos” maintains that arguments should be based on logic, an ordered approach to debate. If we jettison any of these components, or highlight one over the others, we cripple our discourse.

One of the reasons I love teaching on the public campus is the opportunity to be with others who may think differently than I do. I grow in my understanding of people who have varying points of view. Neither of us is necessarily giving up our beliefs; but because we are face-to-face, civility returns. We hear each other. Friendships are born. Camaraderie is built; even between people who disagree with each other’s point of view. Persuasion is based not on volume but on the value of an argument.

As a researcher and writer, I care deeply for factual transparency and honesty in reportage. I read across a wide spectrum of viewpoints. To obtain various points of view I read from The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, National Public Radio, and The Wall Street Journal. But I have not found anyone who reports facts with such transparency and honesty as Bari Weiss. I spend money on subscriptions because I care to be widely read in culture, politics, ethics, economics, and religion. Bari Weiss is not conservative or progressive, Democrat or Republican. She is, in the truest sense, in the classic sense, a reporter. And I believe Aristotle would appreciate how Bari maintains pathos, ethos, and logos in her argumentative writing. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

 

1 Word that Defines Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving is a time of confession.

Find out why by listening to (or reading!) this week’s Truth in Two.

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: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat

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Every law-and-order streaming show has one idea in common. The ultimate end for every episode, every story, is to convict the wrongdoer or get the criminal to confess to their crime. Confession is an acceptance of wrongdoing in American jurisprudence. But confession in the Bible means something altogether different.

Confession is the essence of the word thankfulness in Hebrew.  We tend to think of “going to confession” for the forgiveness of sin or giving a confession of guilt before a court of law. But in the First Testament the word “thankfulness” is a declaration of God’s greatness, to confess God’s supremacy. The Psalmists declare again and again that praise, exaltation, glorification, and remembering God’s works is a confession. Singing is the best way that God’s people, The Church, confesses God’s majesty. The Psalms also say that our confession of God’s greatness should be made before the nations. Confessional praise, according to the Psalms, was to be made with a right mind, wholeheartedly, continually. But ultimately, most importantly, our confession, our thankfulness should be for the result of Judah’s line.

And here’s the kicker. In Hebrew, Judah’s name means “to confess.” So, Jesus came from the line of Judah which means to confess or give thanks. He, Jesus, is the one for whom we are most grateful. The apostle Paul may well have had this idea in mind when he wrote in Second Corinthians 9:15 “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift” namely, Jesus. So next time you watch a story about a prosecutor trying to get the criminal to confess, remember, our confession is our thankfulness that our wrongdoing has been forgiven, by Jesus. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally offering a confession, a thanksgiving, at Thanksgiving, for Jesus.

BONUS Thanksgiving Video! Gratitude – Warp and Woof

 

 

5 Steps to Take for Bias-less Education

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If education involves curiosity

all inquiry is necessary.

Find out why answering ONE QUESTION makes all the difference (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: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat

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In last week’s Truth in Two I suggested that I could summarize the two major takeaways from PhD study that apply to everyday life. Last week I identified the first major PhD lesson as this: As soon as you’ve asked a question, you’ve biased your research. What you care about will impact how you study about that thing. Every PhD researcher and frankly every person alive has to learn not to let your care of a subject bias or slant your viewpoints. The second major takeaway from PhD study that applies to everyone, in all of life, comes in the form of a question. When seeking information, ask, “What am I *not* hearing?” If all the news you ever hear, for instance, comes from one political point of view, you must ask, who disagrees and why?

In a recent class a student wanted to write about climate change. She observed, however, that she could not find any research from anyone who disagreed with the popular views on climate change. She asked me why. I walked to the white board and wrote two words:

“misinformation” and “disinformation.”

I began my explanation this way. “If those who control information do not allow other evidence to be presented with these two labels, your job is to ask, “What am I *not* hearing?”

When seeking information, pursue these five steps.

(1) Begin by asking questions.

(2) Compare and contrast the answers.

(3) See if there is room for common ground.

(4) Offer alternative solutions.

(5) Moderate your voice with words like “might,” “may,” or “perhaps.”

PhD study is rigorous. But the two major takeaways for me are simple. Remember what you care about will bias your thinking and always ask, “What am I *not* hearing? For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

5 Questions to Ask for Bias-less Communication

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Biased communication results from

Five unasked questions.

Watch our Truth in Two to find out why (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: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat

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In 2009 I earned my PhD degree. Earning a doctoral degree is a very long, very difficult process – as it should be. But to be honest, I can summarize the two major takeaways from PhD study that can apply to everyday life. In this week’s Truth in Two, the first major PhD lesson is this:

As soon as you’ve asked a question, you’ve biased your research.

What you care about will bias how you study about what you care about. That you care is not the problem. The problem is that you might neglect other arguments or perspectives simply because they do not match your own. Your care for a subject should include viewpoints different from your own. Every romantic relationship, for instance, deals with bias all the time. We have a tendency to only hear what we want to hear from our partner. And those of you with a significant other already know how that’s going to turn out!

During one of my classes I list my biases, how my views of life are slanted, how my thoughts are impacted by things like ethnicity, nationality, or religion. In part I say, “I am a Euro-American man who is a Christian.” I have a European heritage, I come from the nation of the United States, my gender is male, and my religious views are that of a Christ-follower. My biases, your biases, are not the problem. *Not* admitting our biases? That’s a problem.

Here are five questions to ask that could begin to eliminate the problem of biased communication

(1) Could I be wrong?

(2) Have I looked at all sides?

(3) Am I broadminded?

(4) Do my biases mislead?

(5) Are my sources correct?

Admitting we are biased is the first step toward building good communication and community. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.