"Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name" (Matthew 24:9).
Taking the measure of how Wheaton's Department of Education will implement their Teacher Education Program Conceptual Framework and what kind of Christian witness it would allow Wheaton students to have and still be certified requires seeing the increasingly narrow constraints applied through these three "goals/outcomes related to social justice" spelled out on page four.
The first outcome required of the students is that they "work effectively with all children and their families regardless of race, creed, religion, national origin, sexual preference, disabling condition, or capabilities." As Professor Rasmusen said under an earlier post, as long as "work effectively" is fairly defined and doesn't exclude the diversity of orthodox Christian thought and speech related, for instance, to sodomy and sodomites, we have no problem.
But anyone half alive in these United States today knows how "work effectively" is likely to be defined. As I said to George Marsden years ago when he was busy arguing that Christians should also have a place at the table (of the modern university), if they give us our place and we open our mouths about the slaughter of the unborn children all around us; or if we utter a single word about Adam being created first, and then Eve; we'll be removed. In a heartbeat, our place will vanish. Poof! It's gone.
So we move on to the second "goal/outcome related to social justice" required of students. They are "to ensure that diversity is respected and that candidates have the opportunity to work in diverse environments and with diverse colleagues and teachers." Now we begin to see how "work effectively" is defined by Wheaton's profs as they evaluate their students. The above diversities must be "respected." Of course we respect different races and national origins and disabling conditions and capabilities. No problem.But would a student be "respecting" the diversity of sodomy or Islam if he presented a loving and graceful and merciful and cogent and truthful witness against it? If he taught the true history of expansion by Jihad...
at the heart of the heresy of Islam from the time of their Prophet Mohammad down to today? If he called a gay colleague to repentance in the teachers lounge? With great tact and kindness, of course. Would this orthodox Christian witness be tolerated?
No. It's immediately apparent the exclusivity at the heart of the Christian faith that caused our fathers to die under the Roman Empire is utterly incompatible with our modern pantheon of gods known as pluralism and diversity.Throughout his many comments on this blog, Darryl Hart's been absolutely right. If Christians are to get along, we must go along. Outside the church and home, the Christian's loving witness must be silenced or we'll all face persecution. If one guy's yelling, no one can hide.
The world's diversity police claim they only want us to be tolerant, but they define tolerance in such a way that only R2-K men will ever be acceptable.
Lewis saw it long ago: they'll tell us we can have our religion in private; then they'll make sure we're never alone. We're fools if we think hate crime legislation will stop outside our front doors and just off our church property and MP3 servers.
Then, in case the noose wasn't yet tight enough, we come to the third and final outcome required of Wheaton students: they must "understand current social justice issues in education and understand their obligation to work for positive change." The lynching of the godly Christian with true love for his Muslim or sodomite neighbor is now finished. Even if he were understood to be "respecting" sodomites when he called them to repentance, the second someone takes umbrage at his loving appeals, he's finished. "Working for positive change" is not defined by the one working, but the one being worked on.
Speak up against the slaughter of the unborn and they'll hang you, even if you're Mother Theresa. Speak up against the solicitation to fornication and adultery and sodomy by students and teachers in the local public high school and they'll hang you, even if you're C. S. Lewis. Speak up against the greed and moral decadence of your new host country at the AFL-CIO or Harvard's commencement exercises and they'll hang you, even if your Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Speak up for Jesus Christ and His Cross of justice and mercy; suggest to one of your depressed and HIV positive grad students that he repent and believe during a Christmas part at your home; and they'll hang you, even if you're Nathan Hatch, David Lindberg, or George Marsden.
It's clear. The man who lives by by diversity, pluralism, and tolerance will die by diversity, pluralism, and tolerance. Which is another way of saying tolerance has always been a figment of go along to get along men. The tolerance of the Roman Empire's pantheon of gods stopped at the bold witness of hearts set on fire by Jesus Christ saying in the Areopagus:
"Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:29-31).
Areopagus, prayer breakfast, Harvard commencement, faculty senate, or teachers lounge; this message is the model for all time. And, like the Early Church, those faithful to preach and teach as the Apostle Paul and Polycarp preached and taught will die as the Apostle Paul and Polycarp died.
Wheaton College's Department of Education knows quite well the hypocrisy of tolerance, and the point of this document is to wear the zealous edges off their students before they enter the public school systems of our nation so future grads will not be blacklisted because former grads have made Apostle Pauls and Polycarps of themselves.
