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What have you inherited?

And will you pass it on?

Find out why legacy is 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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For many centuries, the English occupied Ireland. Eliminating opposition, the English sought to destroy Irish history. So, teaching Irish tradition or culture was forbidden. The story is told of Irish parents who employed hedgemasters to instruct their children. These instructors taught in out-of-the-way spots—hedgerows, caves, or isolated fields. Avoiding English authority, the hedgemasters continued their instruction despite threats of imprisonment, even death. They taught with passion because their heritage depended on it.

Our heritage, whatever it may be, is our inheritance. We must decide if what we have inherited is important enough to keep. Whether or not we keep what we inherit is up to us. I believe that what has been given by others should be cared for by us. Our inheritance, our heritage, may come in the form of possessions, home, position, ideas, or beliefs. We believe, for instance, that passing on biblical principles of living life is imperative. Teaching the next generation how to think Christianly is our obligation. Passing on Scriptural interpretation about great literature, art, education, statecraft or any other thing is our responsibility. Caring for our culture, seeking peace and wholeness for our neighborhoods, is our custodial priority.

But our primary heritage is people. Ideas and beliefs reside in textbooks but are delivered by text-people. We believe ideas first change people and then people change culture. At Comenius we always talk about passing on our Hebraic-Christian heritage. The Psalmist said it best, “Until I am old and gray I will declare God’s mighty works to the next generation.”

Our heritage of culture, language, history, and tradition is important. We are Irish hedgemasters, passionate caretakers of what has been given to us that we might, in turn, give our inheritance to those who follow. But ultimately our heritage, our legacy, is not what, but who we leave behind.

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

 

 

Images help us remember.

Memory helps mark importance.

Why do we keep pictures, mementoes, holidays, and monuments?

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, Snappy Goat, EBay

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The word “imagination” comes from the word for “image”— creating a mental picture. Mental pictures have a way of sticking in our memory to remind us what is good or bad, right or wrong. Creating a mental picture of right and wrong is the basic message of Lois Lowry’s book Number the Stars. The story takes place during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. In one scene, a young Christian woman wants to protect her Jewish friend. The Christian girl rips a gold chain from around her neck which bears the Star of David; an emblem marking one as a Jew. The girl clenches the star in her fist moments before Nazi soldiers arrive to search for her Jewish friend.  She clenches it so tightly that, by the time the soldiers have left, an impression of the Star of David is imprinted in her palm.

A teacher who had read the book to her class passed on the following story to the author.  On the day the teacher read that particular chapter, she had brought to class a chain and Star of David like the one described in Lowry’s book. As she read the chapter students passed the chain around the class. While the teacher read the story she noticed that one student after another pressed the star into his or her palm, making an image. The class’s imagination was motivated by an image.

Images keep memories alive. We observe holidays so that we never forget past ideas, people, and events. Hebraic-Christian memories are kept by feasting, singing, dancing, or erecting monuments. Jesus left Christians the image of His death, burial, and resurrection when He said, “Every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup you remember me until I return.” Images fire our imaginations making sure we never forget what and who is most important.

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

 

The secret of education . . .

. . . is cookies.

Let me explain why I think students want the sweet stuff.

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

“How sweet are your words to my taste” (Psalm 119:103).

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).

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The famed children’s show Sesame Street incorporated a lovable character called Cookie Monster. The title was given to me by my mom for the obvious reason that I loved cookies. And I still do.

My cookie craving coincides with my educational beliefs. I believe education can be reduced to one simple rule: put the cookies on the bottom shelf.

The belief is that everyone wants cookies. The sweet flavor makes our collective mouths water. And so, I think, that down deep there is a longing in every person to know more, to discover, to learn, to be able to reach the “cookies” of what I am teaching.

My job as a teacher is to make sure everyone has access to the cookies. If I make those round, sugary orbs hard to reach, students may give up. If I make the cookies too easy to reach, no one will try.

Education is like this. There is a shelf of knowledge just outside your reach. My job is to place a step-stool in the kitchen, make sure you see it and know how to use it.

I feel badly for students who must put up with teachers who make learning boring (the knowledge is too easy to access) or teachers who make learning difficult (the knowledge is to hard to access).

How do I, as a teacher, help my students get to the educational cookies? It’s not just about the curriculum. It is about the living curriculum. As my educational father, Dr. James Braley, once said, “The teacher is the living curriculum.” I lower myself so students can go higher to reach the cookies.

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

Read my Eulogy about my educational father, Dr. Jim Braley, here.

There are all kinds of privilege.

You probably don’t want the kind, I have.

Why? 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, Snappy Goat

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Do I believe in “privilege?” I do. But probably not in the way some may think. In our culture “privilege” is meant to suggest that I may have received more than someone else. The balance has been tipped in my favor. “Privilege” suggests that I had an advantage over others because of my ethnicity, gender, nationality, socio-economic status, the list goes on and on. It might surprise some to hear that I believe I have been privileged in this life. But it’s probably not the kind of “privilege” others would desire.

You see, to be a Christian is a privilege. The apostle Paul in Philippians 1:29 says I have been privileged to believe in Jesus but that I would suffer for His sake. Yes, I have been granted the gift, as Scripture says, to believe in Jesus as Lord. But Scripture is also clear that privilege means suffering is a gift bestowed to me. I was made for, privileged to, suffer on His behalf.

Public universities, for instance, warn that there is something called “Christian privilege.” What academic institutions mean by that statement is Christians somehow have more advantages than atheists, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, or Jews. But honestly, we live in a day when being a Christian has more detriments than benefits. Some want to silence Christian faith; others want to stamp it out altogether.

So, if you want cultural privilege you do not want Christian privilege. To be a Christian means our greatest privilege is to suffer for the sake of Jesus. Do I believe that people are “privileged?” Sure. But if you’re looking for cultural favors, don’t become a Christian. But if you want to named with The Name above all names, then, by all means, believe in Jesus and receive the privilege of suffering.

For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

“I don’t judge.” Really?!

Everyone does. We just don’t admit it.

Watch our Truth in Two to find out the real issue (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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Who am I to judge? You have heard the question many times. You have probably uttered the phrase yourself a time or two. But why do we say, “Who am I to judge?” We judge all the time! We judge people’s attitudes and actions. We judge political sentiments. We judge polls, approving or disapproving with everyone else. We judge good and bad outcomes of everything. Jesus even teaches that judging is important; being able to distinguish between good and bad fruit in Matthew 7.

So how can we say, “Who am I to judge?” A century ago, the term “nonjudgmentalism” came into play. Parental advice books encouraged giving children room for development. Supporting children’s growth then became a character trait; being “nonjudgmental” was sought by therapists. Social workers took twisted the act of judging to mean something dangerous to children. Then came Erich Fromm in his famous 1941 book Escape from Freedom. Fromm declared moral authority was outdated.

The word “judging” became “authoritarianism” where authority was oppressive. Philosopher Julian Huxley attacked authority further by suggesting authorities inflicted a burden of guilt. Huxley then condemned absolutes from the Bible; Christians were supposed not open to new knowledge. Then came Brock Chisholm from the World Health Organization in 1946 who believed people had to be “reeducated to reject their old-fashioned moral outlook.” It was not long before psychologists and social scientists questioned church leaders as having “fascist personalities.” Now we judge by simply labeling people as fascists without even knowing what the word means or where it came from.

Some of you may be judging my words right now. And I applaud you. You should judge my words and the words of anyone who has some authority. Don’t be fooled. We all judge. Judgment depends on whatever you are using as your source of authority.

For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

NOTE: the ideas in the middle section of this Truth in Two are derived in part from Frank Furedi in his essay “The Diseasing of Judgment,” First Things, January 2021, pp. 31-36.

What lasts?

Why does what lasts, matter?

At the Comenius Institute, we believe in preserving the great, lasting ideas and ideals passed down to us.

Why? Why do permanent things matter? Watch our Truth in Two to hear the answer (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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I almost dropped the bar bell on my head. My eye had caught the words on a sign hanging in a weight room. The sign read, “I do not fear failure as much as I fear that I will be successful at things which really do not matter.” Think about that. I have to ask myself, “What things really do not matter?” For me the list would include wealth, status, notoriety, position, or cultural praise. The opposite question is just as important. “What are the things that ultimately matter?”

What ultimately matters are permanent things. What are permanent things? I believe everyone, everywhere could agree to this list: (1) the health of our families, (2) institutions which bring order, justice, and freedom, (3) education which equips students with tools to own their beliefs, and (4) opportunities in life for independence, community, and prosperity.

Permanent things give stability to a nation. Permanent things ward off groups who want to usurp power. Permanent things create the potential for honor in the public square. Permanent things bring the possibility of fairness, equity, and care for all people.

Permanent things depend on the ancient idea of telos or “ends.” Just like us, Hebraic-Christian thinkers asked questions like, “What is something I can count on?” “In the end, what matters?” and “What lasts?” The Bible gives the answer again and again. “God is from everlasting to everlasting.” There is an eternal God who gives the basis for what matters most. The latest cultural fad is no match for permanent principles for how to live life.

If we want order, justice, freedom, honor, and care for all people it is best to trust the everlasting God for lasting things. Being successful at what matters most, what is permanent, will keep us from dropping the bar bell on our heads.

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

 

 

 

If we are limited . . .

. . . we should seek a belief that is limitless

Find out our limitations 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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History records that King Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, charged one of his slaves with a unique responsibility. The monarch instructed his vassal to awaken him each morning with these words, “Philip, remember, you must die.”

“Remember you must die” is wise advice. The brevity of life together with the longevity of death gives one cause to pause. Perhaps this idea was on the mind of George Bernard Shaw who famously uttered the line, “The statistics on death are quite impressive: one out of one people die.”

Death teaches us there is limitation to life. But there are also limitations in life. Some would suggest we can be anything we want to be. But limitations of culture, time, or place may dictate that our choices are limited. Some maintain that humans are basically good and can create a perfect world. But history records the basic limitation that all people with the best of intentions are corrupt.

If life is full of limitations then how should we live? If we are limited we should seek a belief which is limitless. The God of the Bible set limitless standards for a limited life when the Psalmist said, “I have seen a limit to all earthly perfection, but Your instruction is limitless.”

How does God’s instruction overcome our limitation? God’s goodness to us should be goodness we share with others. If there are benefits to following Heaven’s rules, we should seek to enact those benefits on earth. Our ideas of “here and now” should be based on “There and Then.” Knowing our limitations in this life is not so bad when we know God has established limitless principles for life.

Unlike King Philip, no one will be reminding us each day that we will die. But maybe we should remind ourselves.

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

 

 

Would I give up my last piece of bread to find it . . .

. . . or would I give up my last piece of bread because of it?

Why is discovering the meaning of life so important?

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

Meaning must have a source outside of me to complete the need for meaning I feel inside of me.

 

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, By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33459720

 

 

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As a Jew he lost his position as a doctor of psychiatry. He was stripped of human dignity and placed in Auschwitz, a Nazi death camp. He survived imprisonment, escaping the ovens designed to kill Jews. Liberated by the Allies at the end of World War II, Viktor Frankl returned to his chosen profession. As a psychiatrist he took his observations about human behavior from Auschwitz, writing the book everyone should read: Man’s Search for Meaning.

There is a passage that daily haunts me from Viktor Frankl’s book.  It seems that there were some in the concentration camp who gave their last piece of bread to another person.  Frankl responded to such displays of compassion with a statement I recite on a regular basis.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

Choosing my attitude is the key to Man’s Search for Meaning. Meaning gives us reason and purpose. Meaning is the answer to the question “Why?” Meaning addresses “Why should I get out of bed in the morning?” Meaning begins from a source outside me which changes the inside of me.

Christians believe meaning, reason, and purpose are given by something or someone separate from ourselves. The Hebraic-Christian view of meaning is found in God. The Bible’s book of Genesis opens with two chapters answering the question “Why?” Why does the world exist? Why did God make us? Why should I worship God? And why is the question “Why?” the most important question for all humans?

I agree with Viktor Frankl that all people search for meaning. I believe that all people have meaning and are therefore important. And, I believe that meaning for life, is given by The God of Life.

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

 

Do you have it?

A supernatural view of everyday life?

Find out why Isak Dinesen’s view should be ours by watching our Truth in Two (full text below).

Isak Dinesen’s friend was right.

 

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).

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Isak Dinesen’s book Out of Africa describes a supernatural view of everyday life. Awakened by her housekeeper to an on-rushing, all-consuming brush fire, the national explains, “I wanted to wake you up in case it was God coming.” Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “Glory be to God for dappled things” is a right Christian view of ordinary order. Who could ever forget, once seen, Rembrandt’s etching in “The Good Samaritan” of a dog defecating in the corner of the picture? All of life is a celebration, a reminder of the natural, God-given, God-ordered creation.

God’s creation is “ordinary” where we begin (the word “origin”), where we go to get our bearings (the word “orient”), or where find direction (the word “ordinance”). We arrange supplies, making lists (the word “ordnance”). We put first things first (the word “ordination”). And we organize and systematize our lives (the word “order”). Ordinary order has come to mean what is regular or usual. We can count on regular occurrences because of God’s regulated creation.

The English poet Alexander Pope stated, “Order is Heaven’s first concern.” The philosopher Duns Scotus referred to the distinctive nature of each individual thing as having “this-ness”—a marker of creation’s order.

Richard Weaver’s Visions of Order claims that the inner order of the soul sustains the outer order of society. Jane Jacob’s magnum opus, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, argues for “visual order” in every metropolis. All these creation examples reflect the origin, of ordered orientation ordained in Genesis 2:1, which says, “Heaven and earth were finished, down to the last detail.”

God has ordered His creation down to the last detail. So I love Dinesen’s description of her friend’s supernatural view of everyday life in Out of Africa. Every event in creation should cause us to say, “I wanted to wake you in case God was coming.”

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

 

 

 

 

 

Biologists, business people, builders, everyone depends on it.

Why we depend on ORDER.

Watch our 2 minute video (or read the text below).

Genesis gives us the basis for our ordered world

and the reason for how our world works best.

Our dependence upon an ordered world begins with The Orderer.

 

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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No one wants chaos. Except The Joker. In Christopher Nolan’s brilliant movie, The Dark Knight Batman meets his nemesis, the Joker. Joker’s view of life is well summarized by Bruce Wayne’s faithful steward, Alfred. He says, “Some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

Our only alternative to Joker’s chaos is order.

What do stop signs, maps, clocks, refrigerators, cars, schools, and space shuttles all have in common? Each could not exist without order. In fact, everything and everyone depends on order. Something as simple as sunup and sundown orders our lives. Why is order so important? Without a stable, ordered, structured universe we would live in chaos.

From a Christian standpoint, order derives from the one who orders, the God of the Bible. Because God has created and sustains all things, there is no separation between sacred and secular. In fact, Christian thinkers contend that everything is sacred, it belongs to and is ordered by God.

We find an ordered world in Genesis one. There is no chaos. The days of creation and all of creation is ordered. What does order make possible? The carpenter builds buildings mirroring the order, the structure of creation. The biologist can discover the mysteries of life because the Creator has ordered life. The businessperson can create ordered, financial success. The list is endless.

the biologist has observations to make,

the chemist has consequences to expect,

the physician has diagnoses to follow,

the geologist has patterns to pursue,

the meteorologist has models to predict.

We cheer when Batman overcomes the Joker’s chaos because we expect and enjoy order.

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

[This Truth in Two was reshot for green screen but was first published 5 June 2018 here: https://warpandwoof.org/order-v-chaos-2-min-video-text/ ]