GroshLink

You might remember my mentioning of Care of Creation a few months ago. Some of you might be interested that their blog is on-line again, exploring the 2006 Global Climate Debate. Here's an excerpt,

We do not have to choose between plants and people. We don’t have to choose between good stewardship and prosperity. And we don’t have to choose between reducing global emissions and reducing poverty. In fact, we can make a strong case that in improving the environment for plants, we make it better for people. In pursuing stewardship, we lay the groundwork for ongoing prosperity. And we can reduce poverty and reduce emissions at the same time and with some of the same policies.

Beisner and friends are really arguing about Kyoto, and that’s fine. Could be it’s bad policy. The issue is not Kyoto. The issue is a changing climate and our response to that as stewards of God’s creation.

I'd encourage you to link over to read the quotes from from the IFSA's (InterFaith Stewardship Alliance) Bibilical Principles. I don't see a need to reproduce them one more time and they speak for themselves. Tough read after having been a Biology major at a Grove City College. Good to see Care of Creation in action.

This morning I'm heading out to a Graduate and Faculty Ministry Staff Conference at University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary. Over the years, many refreshing conversations have occurred during this gathering at this restful place. Pray for me to receive greater clarity on my work among graduate students and faculty, particularly the development of workshops which shape vocational understading from the framework of being in Christ, a member of the Body of Christ on campus living here and now on our particular campuses (as some of my graduate students recently asked to explore as they prepare their CV).

FYI: International Graduate & Faculty Scholars on the Rise . . . for the first time in U.S. higher education, there are more international graduate and faculty scholars than international undergraduates. For the first time in U.S. higher education, there are now more international graduate and faculty scholars than international undergraduates on American campuses. According to Open Doors, the publication of the Institute for International Education:

A total of 89,634 international scholars are teaching or conducting research on U.S. campuses -- an 8.1% increase from the previous year. The leading countries of origin are China (17,035), Republic of Korea (8,301), India (7,755), Japan (5,623), and Germany (4,846). Of these, 75.8 % are in research, 13.4% are in teaching, and 5.9% are in combined research and teaching. The major fields of specialization are health sciences, life and biological sciences, physical sciences, engineering, social sciences, and history.

Note: Taken from a piece written by Priscilla Kelso, who works with internationals in the Boston area. Pray for how we might engage with this trend at CMU, in particular as members of our fellowship participate in a learning about Muhammed seminar on Monday sponsored by the MSA (Muslim Student Association).

Been awhile since I've read Francis Fukuyama. But his recent NY Times piece After Neoconservatism was of interest, particularly the following comments on the book which had been recently released when I heard him speak as an impressionable Grove City College student nearly a decade ago ;-) Note: his Grove City College lecture was an opportunity for a former college president to give further voice to his misguided Hegelian views. For an introduction to the ideas expressed by Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man (1992) click here.

Many people have also interpreted my book The End of History and the Last Man (1992) as a neoconservative tract, one that argued in favor of the view that there is a universal hunger for liberty in all people that will inevitably lead them to liberal democracy, and that we are living in the midst of an accelerating, transnational movement in favor of that liberal democracy. This is a misreading of the argument. "The End of History" is in the end an argument about modernization. What is initially universal is not the desire for liberal democracy but rather the desire to live in a modern — that is, technologically advanced and prosperous — society, which, if satisfied, tends to drive demands for political participation. Liberal democracy is one of the byproducts of this modernization process, something that becomes a universal aspiration only in the course of historical time.

"The End of History," in other words, presented a kind of Marxist argument for the existence of a long-term process of social evolution, but one that terminates in liberal democracy rather than communism. In the formulation of the scholar Ken Jowitt, the neoconservative position articulated by people like Kristol and Kagan was, by contrast, Leninist; they believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will. Leninism was a tragedy in its Bolshevik version, and it has returned as farce when practiced by the United States. Neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought, has evolved into something I can no longer support.

The university is worth fighting for. No other institution can carry the burden of educating our young people. That's why we must redouble our efforts to restore integrity, civility, and rigorous standards in American higher education--particularly in the area of civic education.

I'll be the first to admit that the situation is dire. I sympathize when critics throw up their hands in despair. I sometimes feel that way myself. Darkness often prevails in places where the light of learning should shine. I often trade horror stories with my friend Hadley Arkes, a distinguished scholar of jurisprudence and political theory at Amherst. On one occasion, I explained that the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton was sponsoring a viciously anti-Catholic art exhibit--one that it would never even permit were some favored faith or cause, such as Islam or gay rights, its target. Every year, some outrage along these lines seems to prove that anti-Catholicism really is the anti-Semitism of the intellectuals, though anyone familiar with academic life today knows that anti-Semitism itself is making a run at being the anti-Semitism of the intellectuals . . .

A friend passed along What Colleges Forget to Teach: Higher education could heal itself by teaching civics -- not race, class, and gender (follow the link for the rest of the piece and a more optimistic conclusion). Such pieces remind me what a different educational path, Theresa and I chose by attending Grove City, a place which in contrast to Princeton reconnected w/its Presbyterian roots. As we approach our 10 year reunion, October 13-15, I am reminded that the Biblical framework, teaching, and community which we received at Grove City (and continue to live in relationship to) has been a vital part of our time with InterVarsity as undergrads and our current work with Graduate and Faculty Ministry.

So today, an alum of one beacon of nuanced Christian higher education speaks into the context many other visions, particularly those found at the secular, industrialist stalwart of Carnegie Mellon University and the former Presbyterian log cabin college of the University of Pittsburgh.

Pray to the Father that His Son might work through us today by the power of the Holy Spirit in order that we might see Students and faculty transformed. Campuses renewed. World changers developed.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to hear and meet Ryan Shaw, the visionary leader of SVM2 (Student Volunteer Movement 2). Having been part of an IVMF Chapter (InterVarsity Missions Fellowship, formerly an SFMF, Student Foreign Mission Fellowship) and part of mission mobilization conversations while at Grove City College (and the Urbana Student Missions Convention) . . . it is a great blessing to come across a movement seeking to span Christian and secular campus ministry subcultures in order to establish

a cross denominational, cross organizational student mission movement calling a new generation of message bearers to a life of abandoned devotion to Jesus Christ and the urgent global proclamation of His Gospel.

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With a a biography hitting the racks Chuck Colson is once again receiving wide attention. Couldn't be better timing as Deep Throat brings Watergate back to our attention. As a NY Times editorial/review notes regarding Colson's work/biography:

Prison reform has been a liberal cause since the Quakers founded the first penitentiary, Philadelphia's Walnut Street Jail, in 1790. Political conservatives have traditionally been more focused on punishing criminals than on reforming them, and religious conservatives have generally felt the same way. "The evangelical church has some great strengths," Mr. Colson said in an interview, but historically, "concern for the poor and the marginal was not one of them."

If you haven't already, check out his Prison Fellowship Ministry . . .

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The Baylor Showdown has reminded me how a college's return to faith is only accomplished by the grace of God. Reflecting on the transformation of Grove City College, the alma mater of both Theresa and myself, reminds me what a blessing it has been to know followers of Christ w/the passion, determination, and the sacrifical lifestyle necessary for being part of such a Kingdom endeavor. I was surprised by the omission of Grove City College in the recent article on the Renaissance of Christian Colleges, but maybe that has to do w/not being a member of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and finding itself outside the typical orbit of evangelicalism . . . which is not all a bad thing.

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Having graduated from a 're-Christianized' college (Grove City College) w/a worldview emphasis I found Christianity Today's A Higher Education of interest w/regard to the wider scene, including Waynesburg's continued mov't in that direction and Nathan Hatch's appointment as President of Wake Forest.

As a member of InterVarsity's Graduate and Faculty Ministry, observations such as the one below is applicable in the daily life and conversation of Christian members of the CMU and Pitt academic communities:

"The question of just how Christian learning is, and is not, to be different from secular learning has sometimes been the tar baby of the whole discussion—no matter how you approach it, you always get stuck. That's why Wolterstorff's approach needs a broader hearing. He argues that Christian learning's primary obligation is to be faithful to the Christian vision, which he sums up in the Hebrew word shalom. First and foremost, Christian scholars and educators are called to faithfulness. Sometimes faithful scholarship looks like secular scholarship, and sometimes it does not, but the question of difference is secondary.

But one aspect of Wolterstorff's view will be troubling to most evangelicals, and I suspect this is why at this point even he pulls his punch. Every Christian scholar agrees that Christian truth may demand that we adjust our scholarly beliefs. But Wolterstorff argues that—sometimes—the discovery of truth through scholarship will demand we adjust beliefs that we think are Christian. This is implicit in the work of Arthur Holmes (all truth is God's truth), and it's demonstrably true in historical perspective."

For all of you heading off to college or bouncing back, here's a practical one for you. Any other concerns, tips, or memories :-( to throw into the mix?