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Maverick

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Everyone should know about Thomas Sowell.

No one can properly respond to any idea until they have read Thomas Sowell.

Find out why this public intellectual is so important by watching 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, Snappy Goat, 

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Thomas Sowell’s ideas have taken root in the soil of the next generation. Sowell has written over thirty books, over forty years of weekly writings. Hundreds of Sowell’s interviews can be found everywhere on YouTube. Jason Riley, himself a prolific writer, has done the world a service by reviewing the lifetime impact of Thomas Sowell in Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell.

Maverick should be read by everyone everywhere. Everyone in the sciences or the humanities needs exposure to the intellectual history and ideas that Maverick provides. Not only does Riley give an exceptional review of Sowell’s life and thought, but he also shows how the Hoover Institute fellow establishes the basis for how to think. Every person on the planet asks enduring questions about philosophy, knowledge, interpretation, and justice. Sowell always approaches his subjects with our views of human nature in mind. Summarizing Sowell, you either believe in the tension between human depravity and human dignity or you believe that you can make humans perfectible by human rules.

As a matter of full disclosure, I have been reading Thomas Sowell’s books and columns and watching his videos for decades. Sowell’s thinking has been influential to my own intellectual processing for most of my teaching life. As Hebraic-Christian thinkers know, it is important to weave biblical, doctrinal thinking through an explanation of Sowell’s visions. Essential to biblical understanding is the origin of ideas, acknowledging that The Personal Eternal Triune Creator of all things has set the stage for human understanding of everything.

Sowell’s concern should be the concern for all citizens of all countries everywhere,

“The most basic question is not what is best but who shall decide what is best”

Answering the question, “Who says?” should be at the center of our concern as well.

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

Twenty

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Twenty years later.

I remember, like it happened yesterday.

9-11 was a hinge event in history. Find out why by watching 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, Snappy Goat, Photo by Aidan Bartos on Unsplash 

 

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I remember like it was yesterday. We all watched in horror as two planes destroyed the twin towers in New York City. I remember the walk to the train station – I was living and working in Chicago at the time – as a city was being emptied of its people. The sound of a sonic boom erupted above me as fighter jets flew over Chicago, another potential, terrorist target. Arriving home, I discovered all of America was glued to its television sets, wondering what had just happened. We learned of another plane, Flight 93, downed in the hinterland of Pennsylvania; only later did we learn of the valiant sacrifice of the first patriots to die in what we would call “the war on terror.” I was scheduled to speak in 25 cities that school year. My first trip was scheduled for later that month of September 2001. Chicago’s O’Hare airport was a ghost town. Being on planes in those days, I would overhear men tell the stewardesses ahead of takeoff, “If there is any trouble let me know.” President George W. Bush joined first responders in New York City days after the attack, uttering those famous words, “The people who knocked down these buildings will be hearing from all of us soon!” Cheers and tears overwhelmed many of us. We were no longer hyphenated-Americans. A new slogan was born, “United We Stand.” America was united in resolve against a common enemy. The world changed on September 11th, 2001. Historians call events such as these, “hinges of history.” The awfulness of that day will always be remembered by Americans like me. We will not forget the sacrifices of soldiers who were triumphant in the war on terrorism. On this twentieth anniversary of 9-11 we pause, praying that “United We Stand,” continues. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally remembering history, that we might learn from the past.

 

Labor

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How should Christians celebrate Labor Day?

The answer to the question is what we should do every day.

Watch our Truth in Two to find out (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, Javad Esmaeili on Unsplash and De’Andre Bush on Unsplash

 

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Learning a little Latin helps us understand the upcoming Labor Day holiday. The story unfolds in the life of St. Benedict. It is said that Benedict was a hermit, a man living alone, who helped others to live a simple lifestyle of peace, following biblical principles. Benedict created monastic practices where followers were to live simply, away from worldly enticements. “Monasticism,” the practice of living a disciplined lifestyle, resulted from Benedict the Christian monk. A classic writing was born called “The Rule of St. Benedict.” Among the many monastic practices, one summarized the rest: “pray and labor” or in Latin, ora et labora. Pray and labor simply meant that monastic followers honored God both with their meditations and work: ora et labora. I can think of no simpler way to say, we work hard on earth and give praise to Heaven.

Our culture seems to have lost prayer, but kept work. Working in our culture, unfortunately, has become all consuming. Working more than half a 24 day, without rest, without supplications to God, produces accumulation without satisfaction. So why should we consider “pray and work” on Labor Day? In a famous essay entitled, “History Belongs to the Intercessors,” Walter Wink says, “When we pray we are not sending a letter to a celestial White House, where it is sorted among piles of others.” Wink goes on to say we are participants through prayer with God in the world. The essay continues, [quote] “History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being. If this is so, then intercession, far from being an escape from action, is a means of focusing our action. Our intercessions cast fire upon the earth and trumpet the future into being.” [end quote]

Our intercession, our prayer, combined with our work, makes us participants in the activities of Heaven on earth. Ahead of the Labor Day holiday, it would be good to remember St. Benedict’s admonition in Latin, ora et labora, work and pray. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth, wherever it’s found.

 

Forgiveness

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There is NO forgiveness,

In a culture where there is no basis for forgiveness.

Watch our Truth in Two to find out why (full text and hyperlink 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, Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash 

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“I forgive you every day for what you did to me.” This is a statement I uttered to a man who had done me wrong. It was his responsibility to ask for my forgiveness, it was, and is, my responsibility to forgive, even if there is no repentance. Humanly speaking, “forgiveness” is not about “forgetting.” We are not God, who, Scripture says, “separates our sin as far as the east is from the west.” In case you’re wondering, “east” and “west” have no poles, no objective standard of measure. Scripture says, once repentance happens, the expanse of God’s forgiveness is infinite.

Our culture views forgiveness as infinite too; as in, you will never be forgiven. Hank Azaria apologized for being the voice of Apu on the long running cartoon comedy The Simpsons. You can be sure of two things: Mr. Azaria’s participation will never be forgiven, or forgotten, and The Simpsons will continue to run episodes with Apu, not out of defiance to the arbitrary cultural standard, but because of money. You see, true repentance and forgiveness necessitate two things: a turning away from wrongdoing and a perfect person to offer forgiveness. Our culture sets and then continually moves its standards.

The classic biblical passage that exactly explains God’s forgiveness is Matthew 18. A man owes a huge debt to a king. The king takes pity on the man, forgiving or canceling the bill. The forgiven man then turns around, forgetting his own cancelled debt, requiring payment from a man who owes him very little. The man who had been given mercy showed no mercy. Certain cultural sins will never be forgiven. The standard will always shift. But the Christian view of forgiveness does not move the standard of transgression. Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, wipes out our debt of sin. And, in turn, I continue to offer forgiveness to those who have sinned against me. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally relying on God’s forgiveness.

Hank Azaria Apologizes for Vocalizing Apu on the Simpsons

 

Redemption

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I’m no slave!

Yes you are. To something or someone.

Why? Watch our Truth in Two to find out (full text below, with link).

 

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

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Shawshank Redemption. Uttering those two words brings an immediate reaction among movie fans. In almost every single listing of best movies, Shawshank is ranked number one. I am in full agreement. I never tire of that exceptional film. Yet, I wonder how many folks know what “redemption” means.

“A story of redemption” is a line peddled to advertise movies and TV series. And for good reason. Everyone loves a redemption story even if they are unsure of where the word “redemption” originates. In the Bible, “redemption” means that I have been purchased off the slave market of sin. That is exactly the metaphor in Romans chapter six. You see, throughout human history, people have been placed on an auction block to be sold as slaves. Paul uses that picture for humans in sin, our separation from God. To be redeemed in the Bible means to be set free from the shackles of sin, free now to freely serve the one who has bought our release, namely, Jesus.

Being “slaves to sin” is not the starting point in our culture. No. “I’m a good person” is where most folks begin. I have lost count of the number of times I have heard that line 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 entitled, “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.” Again, humans set the standard and get to evaluate whether or not they measure up, by their own standard. There is no redemption, no release from sin, guilt, and shame; because if we are guilty, we cannot redeem ourselves. I love a good redemption story in movies. But there is no true redemption in this life apart from the saving grace of Jesus. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, whose redemption is found in the person and work of Jesus.

 

Grace

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Grace, Grace, God’s Grace

Grace that is greater than all our sin

The world tells us to bow to its dictates. God’s grace is free. Watch our Truth in Two to find out why (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, Snappy Goat

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In a comedy classic Seinfeld episode, Elaine is looking for a job. Her possible employer discusses with Elaine the elusive concept of “grace.” Elaine says, “I like to think I have a little grace,” to which her interviewer responds, “You can’t have a little grace. Either you have grace or you don’t.” Elaine, wanting the job, concedes she has no grace. But the woman behind the desk presses the issue. “And you can’t acquire grace. Grace is not something you pick up at the market.”

As a theologian, I couldn’t agree more: either you have grace or you don’t. But not in the same way the Seinfeld characters imagine. Grace is an undeserved gift given by God alone, rescuing us from sin. Grace is not something of our own doing, it is not a result of human work, as Paul explains In Ephesians 2. God’s gift of grace means can’t measure up, pay back, add to, or fall from, grace. Grace means I cannot do anything to achieve God’s favor or do good on my own.

Our culture, on the other hand, replaces grace with moralism – doing good on my own. Moralism means I achieve stature or standing in society. I depend on human works to show that I am accepted by those around me. And the culture will tell me what the moral order is. If my culture commands that sexual identity means I can claim to be anything or anyone I want to be, then I must measure up to that cultural standard: a moralism set by other human authorities that expect my obeisance. If I do not obey, I fall from grace, from the moral order of the day.

But I cannot fall from God’s grace. Why? Because grace is a God-given, undeserved gift. I will never be able to measure up to the moral code of my culture. Why? Because the standard, the line, will always be moved depending on who is in charge. No, I’m with Seinfeld. Either you have grace or you don’t. You can’t acquire grace. Moralism will always cost. God’s grace is free. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally grateful for God’s grace.

Elaine in Seinfeld on Grace

Regeneration

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Neither identity politics nor social structures can save.

My salvation is not constructed by humans.

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

#10 in our series on how culture appropriates Hebraic-Christian words.

 

 

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

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I was in trouble. Again. When you teach the Bible, no matter the setting, someone is bound to be upset. This time, folks were upset by my drawing on the board. I drew a coffin with a stick figure that had x’d out eyes, indicating death. Above the coffin I drew a cloud, my general representation of God. I was explaining regeneration, what Christians call a second birth, to be made alive again. My biblical text was familiar to many: Ephesians 2:1-10. God in His Word explains that we are dead in our sins and can only be made alive by the one-time gifts of faith and grace given by God for our salvation, our sin eradicated. Well, some pastors in the community took issue. They said we exercise faith to believe, God’s grace is then given. But my diagram indicated what the text explains. Two arrows came from the cloud, one labeled faith, the other, grace. Our ability to believe (faith) and the overcoming of our sin (grace) are both from God.

Now, in the third decade of the 21st century, I am in trouble again. My culture dictates that my regeneration, my new life, is dependent upon not grace, but works. I must confess to new orthodoxies, new teachings, new belief systems. My culture now wants me to bow before other altars. Some say, I must bow before the belief of identity politics. Others might want me to confess the sin of my ethnicity. Still more say I must accept communism as an acceptable system of government, ignoring communism’s historic failures. No identity, ethnicity, nor political structure can provide regeneration.

God’s regeneration is being made new, or as Jesus said in John 3, being born again. Only God through Jesus can make alive a person who is spiritually dead. Next to that coffin on the board, I drew a smiling person. And you are looking at him now. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, no longer dead in my sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Scapegoat

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“Scapegoat” has taken on a new meaning.

Is it separation from sin or separation from a person whose views we don’t like?

Watch our Truth in Two to find out how and why (full text plus stories links bel0w). #9 in our summer series on the cultural appropriation of Hebraic-Christian language.

 

 

 

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

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Imagine being a scapegoat. In Leviticus 16, a “scapegoat” was an animal upon whom the sins of the people were figuratively placed. The goat was then sent into the wilderness, carrying the nation’s sins with it. Removing sin from the Israelite camp was not simply an object lesson but a ceremony of belief. Sin is what separates God from His people; so, God wanted His people to separate themselves from sin. The scapegoat was a physical demonstration of belief.

Current cultural belief is much different. A “scapegoat” is one who gets blamed for something they did not do by a person who is responsible for the wrongdoing. Scapegoating can take different forms. A person who has little authority in an organization can be “thrown under the bus” as the popular metaphor is used today. Another person, again with little say in the matter, may be asked “to fall on their sword,” another way that the innocent person may take the blame they don’t deserve.

In some cases, a person resigns her position seeing no alternative to the hostile work environment she is in. Bari Weiss, a case in point, was so verbally accosted by her subordinates, that she resigned. The New York Times did not acknowledge the caustic work environment but accepted Weiss’ resignation without any recriminations against those who wronged her. In Weiss’ case she bore the sin of the newspaper without an acknowledgement of wrongdoing by those who wronged her. But Bari Weiss had done nothing wrong: she simply transgressed the accepted cultural standard of the day: she was not woke enough.

Our culture outs, cancels, ignores, suspends, or scapegoats people who go against what is accepted as cultural narrative. The biblical viewpoint is different. The scapegoat is not a sign that reads, “Let this be a lesson to the rest of you!” No. A Hebraic-Christian view of the scapegoat is that we have transgressed God’s laws, not what the culture declares is righteous. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally acknowledging his need of the most famous scapegoat: Jesus.

References to Bari Weiss of many comments from news media – this one from Politico – after Bari Weiss resigned from the New York Times last summer.

Read Weiss’s resignation letter here.

 

 

Sin

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“Not me! I didn’t do anything wrong!”

No one likes to admit it but everyone sins.

Why does “Sin” matter?

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

[#8 in our series on the cultural appropriation of Hebraic-Christian words.]

 

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

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A friend recently wrote me to say he had just finished reading the Gulag Archipelago by Alexandre Solzhenitsyn. The reading reminded him of me. I wrote back and said that it was my reading of Solzhenitsyn’s work when I was a teenager that helped form my religious and political positions today.

Alexandre Solzhenitsyn was a Russian dissident, a man who stood up to the dictatorial beliefs of the then powerful U.S.S.R. He was put in prison, a “gulag,” for his beliefs. His writings made it to The West, to free people who called for his release.

But it was Solzhenitsyn’s prison experience that led him to belief in God. “Bless you prison,” Solzhenitsyn wrote, “Thank you for being in my life.” It was behind bars that Solzhenitsyn found freedom in Christ. Receiving the Templeton Award for religion in 1983, Solzhenitsyn said that communism – where an elite group tells everyone else what to do – happened because people had forgotten God.

My spiritual life was affected by the Gulag Archipelago in another way, by another famous statement in the book. The problem of humanity cannot be overcome by some human solution, some governmental edict. Why? Solzhenitsyn said it best “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart.”

Now here is one word our culture is loathe to appropriate. At university, professors will refer to “the human condition.” As I have said on the public campus, “We theologians just call it ‘sin’.” You see, the word “sin” indicates that there is something wrong with people. And people don’t like to admit it.

You see, I don’t believe that human government, its leaders, or programs can save us from our troubles. I believe, as did Solzhenitsyn, that the problem is in me, in my refusal to believe in God and reject my own goodness. My friend was right. I believe what I do about politics and religion, in part, because of the writings of a Russian dissident. But the Bible says it best, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking Truth because I know truth is not in me.