Progressive Education, a Prophecy

The other day, in a TV news discussion addressing the radicalization of so many students in our colleges and universities, a member of the US House complained that, over the past two or three decades, our nation’s educational system has been infiltrated and co-opted by the ideological left. At one level he is correct, but at another, he is historically ignorant. The left’s takeover of education, especially our public educational system, has been a long, intentional process that began well over 100 years ago. Let me introduce you to a prophet who addressed the specifics of this highly successful movement 70 years ago, certainly more than a “two or three decades.” 

The prophet, Richard M. Weaver, died far too early in 1963 at the age of 53. A professor of English at the University of Chicago, he was far better known as a political philosopher and historian of intellectual movements. Weaver ultimately became one of the pioneers of modern conservative thought. He left behind many writings, but he is best known for three remarkable books: 

Ideas Have Consequences (1948)

The Ethics of Rhetoric (1953)

 

Visions of Order (1964)

If you hope to understand the ideas that have formed the basis of today’s conservative thought in America, these three brief books, along with Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind, are a great starting point. 

Years ago, when I first read Weaver’s Visions of Order, I was captivated by his chapter on education, entitled, “Gnostics of Education.” He described how the process of educational radicalization really began in the nineteenth century when, in his words: 

“…there occurred a sinister change. This came about when state bureaucracies were created to set the terms and supervise the workings of the expanding public school system. State legislatures felt that they had to turn the actual administration of affairs over to a body of ‘experts’…these state departments of education became virtually autonomous in their power to define the goals, methods, and materials of public instruction. The final step came when they were able to require all prospective public school teachers through the high school level to take a set number of courses in a subject called ‘Education’…This is where the doctrinal revolution…really took place…The new education, for which the name ‘progressive’ has been pre-empted by its advocates, is in marked conflict with our basic traditions and culture.” [Visions of Order, p. 114-115]

Following this, Weaver lists “some of the chief assumptions and tenets of progressive education. The conflict between them and the principal teachings of the Judea-Christian classical heritage of the west will be immediately apparent.” 

I realize his list is neither brief nor couched in today’s politically-correct language, but believe it’s worth reading. As you read, keep in mind that, although the book was published in 1964, a year after Weaver’s death, most of it was written in the mid-1950s, almost 70 years ago. These eight assumptions could easily be the manifesto of one of today’s radicalized teachers' unions. I include them here just as they were published [See Visions of Order, p. 115-117].

1. There is no such thing as a body of knowledge which reflects the structure of reality and which everyone therefore needs to learn. Knowledge is viewed as an instrumentality which is true or false according to the way it is applied to concrete situations or the way it serves the needs of the individual. Since these educators have embraced the notion that the essence of the world is change, there is no final knowledge about anything. The truths of yesterday are the falsehoods of today and the truths of today will be the falsehoods of tomorrow.
2. This being so, the object of education is not to teach knowledge, but to “teach students.” As they translate this into practice, it means that everyone should be adapted to the child as child, to the youth as youth, and to the particular group according to its limitations. There are no ideals or standards of performance which these are bound to measure themselves by or to respect.
3. As a corollary of the above principal, the child should be encouraged to follow his own desires in deciding what he should study, and what aspects of what subjects, and at what times.
4. The teacher must not think of himself as being in authority, because authority is evil. The teacher is there as a “leader,” but the duty of the leader is only to synchronize and cooperate with the work of the group.
5. The student should never be made afraid of anything connected with the school. Marks and competitions are bad because they instill feelings of superiority and inferiority, which are undemocratic. 
6. The mind is not to be exalted over the senses: democracy requires that sensory and “activist” learning be valued on a par with intellectual learning. The mentally slow or retarded are not to be made to feel that they are lacking; it is better to impugn the whole tradition of intellectual education than to injure the feelings of the less bright and the lazy.
7. Consequently, there should be less education through symbols like language and figures and more through using the hands-on concrete objects. It is more important to make maps than to learn them, said John Dewey, the grand pundit of the revolutionary movement.
8. The general aim is to train the student so that he will adjust himself not simply to the existing society, as is sometimes inferred from their words, but to society conceived as social democracy.

Here’s an abbreviated view of Weaver’s conclusions regarding these aims of progressive education:

• Absolute truth does not exist. No knowledge is binding.
• The mind is a tyrant which denies the rights of the body and must be democratized, forced into equity.
• The student’s aim is not to save his soul, inherit past wisdom, or advance himself or human knowledge, but to become a member of a future, ill-defined utopia.

How sad that Weaver recognized, understood, and warned us about this back in the 1950s and yet as a nation we didn’t listen…a prophet in his own land. One can only hope that the American people will come to realize the importance of local elections, particularly school board elections.

Of course, this radicalization has affected more than just education, but every aspect of society. Can we overcome this societal radicalization? I'm not sure. Back in 1949 -- when I was just a little kid -- another modern prophet, T. S. Eliot, wrote:

"Our own period is one of decline; that the standards of culture are lower than they were fifty years ago; and that the evidences of this decline are visible in every department of human activity" [Notes Toward the Definition of Culture, p. 17].

A Look To the Past

A parishioner sent me a link to one of my own posts, written 13 years ago, telling me how prophetic it was. I disagreed strongly. It was not at all prophetic, but merely a statement of the reality we faced at the time. I also chided him for spending any time reading stuff I wrote years ago. I’m sure he had far better things to do.

Anyway, the post was written on September 28, 2008, just weeks before the election of Barack Obama as president. I did not support Obama for many reasons, but primarily because he denied the right to life and the sanctity of marriage. I firmly believe that anyone who supports abortion cannot honestly claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Such people are morally and spiritually dysfunctional. We must pray for their conversion.

All the issues I addressed in that post remain with us today. They differ only in their degree of acceptance by the American people. We are still aborting millions of unborn children and a large percentage of American Catholics and other Christians continue to support and elect pro-abortion politicians. Despite the scandal surrounding former Cardinal McCarrick, too many bishops still tolerate active homosexual priests. Sadly, the scandals of the past will likely continue into the future. As for our society, greed has penetrated every level, and has especially driven our largest corporations. In particular, the huge social media multinationals have become so big and so supportive of big government that our nation is beginning to mirror the traditional fascist state in which complete control of the population becomes the overriding goal. 

That these evils remain among us today is not at all prophetic, but merely a reflection of what happens when a society, when our nation, turns its back on the God who loved us into being. God asks for a response. He asks for our repentance, our faith, and our obedience. Did not Our Lord Jesus begin His public ministry with the words, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the Gospel” [Mk 1:15]?

Here’s a link to that earlier post: Elections and Disintegration

Take some time to pray today and thank God for creating you, for giving you the wondrous gift of life.

Homily: Monday, 7th Week of Easter (Year 1)

Readings: Acts 19:1-8; Ps 68; Jn 16:29-33

---------------------

Did you happen to catch those words proclaimed in our first reading?

“…the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied” [Acts 19:6].

The Holy Spirit really likes to surprise us, doesn’t He? He takes our so very human, super-rational view of the world and overwhelms it with the supernatural. He wants us to realize that there’s far more to creation than the material world that surrounds us.

In the Talmud, the rabbis tell us it’s well we can’t see the spiritual world, for we would be overwhelmed by the presence of countless angels and demons, surrounding us, fighting for our souls. Interestingly, St. Thomas Aquinas seems to agree with them.

Yes, indeed, there’s far more to God’s creation than what we see with our eyes. And the Holy Spirit occasionally gives us glimpses into that reality. 

But He always gives us a choice, the same choice Jesus gave those who witnessed the miraculous “signs” of His divinity. We can either assume it’s all an illusion, perhaps some clever trick and just walk away…or we can realize we have witnessed and been blessed by the Presence of God Himself.

Just as Jesus performed the miraculous, all those signs, to give people a reason to listen to His Word, so too, did the Spirit give these new Corinthian Christians the supernatural gifts of tongues and prophecy. The people, having witnessed these manifestations of God’s presence, would then listen to Paul as he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the city’s synagogues.

Do you think all that speaking in tongues and prophesying are hard to accept? If so, you’re in good company. Many early Chirstians felt the same. 

Indeed, a few chapters earlier, back in Acts 10 some Gentiles began to speak in tongues and glorify God, and Peter decided that was reason enough to baptize them. But when some of his fellow Chirstians questioned thuis, Peter said:

“Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit even as we have?” [Acts 10:47]

Today, perhaps more than any other gift, we need the gift of prophecy in the midst of the Church, the Word of God proclaimed in truth. Of course, the question is: would we listen? Sadly, in our weakness too often we ignore or even distort that truth.

In our Gospel passage the apostles laid it on kind of thick, didn’t they? 

Oh, yes, Jesus, “we believe that you came from God” [Jn 16:30]. They acted as if they finally understood all that Jesus had told them. But, of course, they didn’t, and so, Jesus questioned the depth of their faith. How did He put it?

“…the hour…has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone” [Jn 16:32].

Oh, yes, these men, chosen by Jesus, had such deep faith and understanding that on that very night they deserted Him. The only one Jesus could count on was the Father:

“But I am not alone,” He told them, “because the Father is with me” [Jn 16:32].

For this is the core truth of the Trinity: where Jesus is, so is the Father, and so too is the Holy Spirit.

Because of the disciples’ human weakness, Jesus knew He couldn’t count on them until they’d received the Spirit.

Utlimately, it took our loving God’s greatest gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit, to bring the twelve back to Jesus, and to strengthen them, for they had been sent out “to make disciples of all nations…” [Mt 28:19] and they certainly couldn’t do that on their own.

How about you and me? As we prepare to celebrate the Spirit’s live-giving work at Pentecost, work that brought the Church to life through the minds and hearts of Mary and the disciples…How about us? Do we accept the Spirit and His gifts?

It’s through the work of the Spirit that the Church – and that’s not just the pope and the bishops, that’s you and me… It’s only through the Spirit  that we can accomplish God’s work in the world.

Pray to the Spirit, brothers and sisters. Pray to Him daily. He wants to do wondrous things in your lives. He will surprise you just as He surprised those new Christians in Corinth.

He is the Lord and the giver of life, and at every Mass the celebrant invokes Him to give us new life through the Body and Blood of the Lord. Through that new life we can join Him, helping Him as He does His saving work in the world.

Today Jesus offers us hope, a glimpse of light to overpower the darkness of our world:

We are not alone, He reminds us. God is with us, Jesus is with us, the Spirit is with us…now and forever.

St. Paul on His World and Our World

A lot of people today have been writing a lot of words telling us what’s wrong with our world. Some of them have got it right, some only half-right, and others are completely wrong. Of course, assigning a writer to one of these three categories is based entirely on how closely his thought and beliefs mesh with my own...OK, and with the teachings of the Church. But I read them all, whether or not I agree with them. 

This evening, as I was mulling over some of the things I had read recently, I suddenly remembered St. Paul and his remarkable letter to the Romans. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read Romans, but I turn to it frequently because it’s so rich in spiritual truths. But it’s also rich in truths about our world and it’s problems. When you read Romans you discover that human nature hasn’t really changed in 2,000 years. The problems of today’s world, although they are packaged differently, are also remarkable similar to those faced by St. Paul and his contemporaries.  

I suggest you read the the following passage from the first chapter of Romans. With these words Paul describes with remarkable clarity the world of the Roman Empire in the first century, while prophetically describing the world we face today, along with its many evils. Perhaps I’ll delve into these verses at some point, but I’m pretty sure you will see the connections between Paul’s words and our world.

The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from heaven against every impiety and wickedness of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness. For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them. Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse; for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened. While claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for likenesses of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes. Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.

Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper. They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite. They are gossips and scandalmongers and they hate God. They are insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wickedness, and rebellious toward their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know the just decree of God that all who practice such things deserve death, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them [Rom 1:18-32].

That's quite a collection of evils, isn't it? These, and many others, are the sins that nailed our Lord Jesus to the Cross on that first Good Friday -- sins of the past, the present, and the future.

Many people today, sadly, even many Christians, don't like to hear St. Paul's words because they have succumbed to the spirit of the age, which, by the way, is a spirit of evil. Others recognize the truth in what St. Paul tells us, but to openly proclaim and live a life that contradicts the world's evils demands more courage than they can muster up. So they keep quiet and ignore it all. Paul, however. is not calling us to fight evil with another evil. He's telling us to despise the sin, all the while loving and encouraging and praying for the sinner. Believe me, it isn't easy, but we don't do it alone.

 

Homily: Monday 3rd Week of Advent

I have embedded bellow the video of this homily for Monday of the 3rd Week of Advent, preached at St. Vincent de Paul Parish, Wildwood, FL, on 16 December 2019. The complete text of the homily follows the video.

Readings:  Nm 24:2-7,15-17; Ps 25; Mt 21:23-27
__________________

__________________

Balaam Blessing the Israelites

As we continue into this third week of Advent, we're invited to be watchful, for "the Lord is near." What a great reminder, even though the Lord is always near, dwelling within us thanks to His gift of the Eucharist. But during this time of year, the message becomes all the more real to us. 

In our Old Testament reading from the Book of Numbers, we encounter Balaam, a Gentile soothsayer or magician from Mesopotamia. Balaam had been summoned by Balak, the King of Moab, who feared that this huge horde of Israelites coming out of the wilderness would overwhelm his kingdom. He therefore tells Balaam to curse the Israelites. But God also speaks to Balaam, commanding that he bless and not curse the Israelites. 

Now Balaam was a complex character, a man motivated largely by selfishness and greed. And yet Balaam fears the God of the Israelites, this God who is near, who speaks to him and commands him. Fearing God more than the Moabite king, Balaam does as God commands. And embedded in his blessing is a Messianic prophecy:

"I see him, though not now; I observe him, though not near: A star shall advance from Jacob, and a scepter shall rise from Israel” [Nm 24:17].

Notice that God chooses whomever He wills. Even Balaam, whose motives are far less than pure, when he submits to God’s will, becomes a prophet, a messenger from God. 

Balaam's prophecy of a "rising star of Jacob, and a scepter…from Israel" is seen as one of the earliest Messianic prophecies. 

Interestingly, the ancients believed strongly in the power of blessings. Balaam certainly did and so did the Israelites. But what about you and me? How do we respond to the blessings we receive from the hand of God? Have you ever considered that every talent and ability you have was given to you by God?

But that’s not all. God doesn’t’ simply distribute blessings and talents. No, He wants you to use them to fulfill the mission for which He created you. In other words, every blessing is meant to be shared in the service of God. I suppose that’s the question we must ask ourselves: do we imitate the selfish Balaam who ultimately turned away from God’s direction, or do we submit to God’s will?

In our Gospel passage from Matthew we find the Pharisees resisting Jesus’ teachings, God’s will, out of fear. They feared Jesus because He threatened their authority.

I can sympathize with them because it’s not easy to let go of the comfortable way of life we’ve created for ourselves. Yes, indeed, it’s hard to turn away from what we think we know, and embrace the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It’s hard to leave our predictable world behind and open ourselves to the mystery of God working in ways we could never imagine.

Pharisees Fearful of Jesus

In truth, we must become like children, open to the Holy Spirit’s movement in our lives, allowing Him to lead us on the path to holiness. This was something the Pharisees could not do. Unable and unwilling to listen to Jesus, they could only test Him, measuring Him against their human understanding.

Perhaps this is why Jesus didn’t answer their question. Addressing this in a homily, the early Church father, St. John Chrysostom, said: 

“Even if He had told them, it would have profited nothing, because the darkened will cannot perceive the things that are of the light.”

Yes, brothers and sisters, God alone can save us from the darkness of the world and from our own internal darkness. Only God can save us from emptiness and poverty of spirit, from confusion and error, and from hopelessness and the fear of death. 

The gospel of salvation was the Good News when Jesus preached it 2,000 years ago, and it’s still the Good News for us today. This Advent, then, let’s use our time wisely and come to know the joy and freedom of the gospel.

Father, You have blessed us, creating each of us for a purpose. 

Jesus, You died for us, and called us to complete Your work.

Holy Spirit, through You we carry out the work for which we were created.

Father, Son, and Spirit – teach us to accept your blessings and to use them always for your glory.

A Few Modern Prophecies

Here are just a few prophetic comments I've come across in my reading recently...

G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) on 13 November 1926

"All centralized systems mean the rule of the few; and industrial machinery is the most centralized of all systems. If the modern American really wants to know what his fathers meant by democracy, he will never learn it from a Ford car. He must make the supreme and awful sacrifice. He must get out and walk."

Christopher Dawson (1889-1970) in 1933:

"The family is steadily losing its form and its social significance, and the state absorbs more and more of the life of its members. The home is no longer a centre of social activity; it has become merely a sleeping place for a number of independent wage-earners.

"If we accept the principles of the new morality this last safeguard [marriage's social prestige] will be destroyed and the forces of dissolution will be allowed to operate unchecked.

"Marriage will lose all attractions for the young and the pleasure-loving and the poor and the ambitious. The energy of youth will be devoted to contraceptive love and only when men and women have become prosperous and middle-aged will they think seriously of settling down to rear a strictly limited family."

And another by Christopher Dawson, also in 1933 from Enquiries into Religion and Culture):

"The central conviction which has dominated my mind ever since I began to write is the conviction that the society or culture which has lost its spiritual roots is a dying culture, however prosperous it may appear externally. Consequently the problem of social survival is not only a political or economic one; it is above all things religious, since it is in religion that the ultimate spiritual roots both of society and the individual are to be found.”

Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) in 1954 from her Introductory Papers on Dante:

"That the Inferno is a picture of human society in a state of sin and corruption, everybody will readily agree. And since we are today fairly well convinced that society is in a bad way and not necessarily evolving in the direction of perfectibility, we find it easy enough to recognize the various stages by which the deep of corruption is reached. Futility; lack of living faith; the drift into loose morality, greedy consumption, financial irresponsibility, and uncontrolled bad temper; a self-opinionated and obstinate individualism; violence, sterility, and lack of reverence for life and property including one's own; the exploitation of sex, the debasing of language by advertisement and propaganda, the commercializing of religion, the pandering to superstition and the conditioning of people's minds by mass-hysteria and "spell-binding" of all kinds, venality and string-pulling in public affairs, hypocrisy, dishonesty in material things, intellectual dishonesty, the fomenting of discord (class against class, nation against nation) for what one can get out of it, the falsification and destruction of all the means of communication; the exploitation of the lowest and stupidest mass emotions; treachery even to the fundamentals of kinship, country, the chosen friend, and the sworn allegiance: these are the all-too-recognizable stages that lead to the cold death of society and the extinguishing of all civilized relations."

 Richard Weaver (1910-1963) in 1948 from Ideas Have Consequences:

"It may be that we are awaiting a great change, that the sins of the fathers are going to be visited upon the generations until the reality of evil is again brought home and there comes some passionate reaction, like that which flowered in the chivalry and spirituality of the Middle Ages. If such is the most we can hope for, something toward that revival may be prepared by acts of thought and volition in this waning day of the West."