Bishop Sandy Greene is an Anglican Bishop and a  very wise man who I am blessed to be able to call friend. Some years back I got to  spend an afternoon in a motel coffee shop chatting with him. In the course of our conversation Sandy made one of the most profound statements I have ever heard. He said, “When that which unites us is that which we are against, we are doomed to failure.”

The recent successes of LGBT proponents is an object lesson in what happens when a  group coalesces around “what they are for”. For about 40 years they have been executing a unified plan in pursuit of a well defined goal. Like them or not they are an object lesson of what happens when people have unity of purpose.

Yesterday I was a volunteer at an event with speakers that included Tim Tebow and Dinesh D’Sousa along with my boss David Fowler. In the course of the afternoon I got an opportunity to talk with a lot of folks. I was deeply  saddened that many of the people I spoke to were much more concerned and vocal about what they were against. The truth is until we can UNITE around what we are for, our effectiveness in society will be severely hampered.

Strangers in a Strange Land

Jonathan Rauch recently opined in the New York Daily News that unless Christians conform to the spirit of the times, we will find ourselves “cultural strangers in our own land,” 

Newsflash to the world, Christians are "strangers in this world". We have been “predestined to be conformed to the image of (God’s) Son,” Jesus Christ, not a world system or social trends at enmity with God (Romans 8:29, Romans 12:2, James 4:4). 

We have lived for a long while in a culture where Christian beliefs were valued. Those who held and lived by these beliefs were respected. This no longer the case. Athletes like Tim Tebow or Russell Wilson have been publicly ridiculed for their beliefs. Politicians are daily pilloried because their Biblical values place them at odds with society at large. Disdain for Christians is in vogue and nearly universal.

When we get discouraged in this world run amok it is well to remember Jesus words, 

"If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. (John 15:18-19)".

True haters will hate. True lovers will love. As for me and my house we choose to serve the lover of our very souls and his name is Jesus.

What's Integrity Got to Do With It

When our boys were teenagers, like all parents Carol and I would occasionally found ourselves in conflict with them. At these times, they would often ask,”Well why don’t you just give me a list of what you want me to do and I’ll do it?”  The problem was that the boys were looking for a list of “things” that constituted acceptable behavior. We were looking for them to have a “heart change” such that they would choose to make acceptable choices.

Potential presidential candidates are daily engaged in discussions of the issues facing our world and our nation. They are all trying to come up with a list of “things” that will make them acceptable choices for our next president. The truth is that for any solution they might propose to any given issue, 40% to 50% percent of the people in America will agree and roughly that same percentage will disagree. This dichotomy has led to the gridlock we have experienced I recent years. So the question arises, is there a better way to select our government officials.

There was a time in the not too distant past when integrity was considered to be a very important discriminator in voting decisions. In recent years, integrity has taken a back seat to policy positions and perceived effectiveness. What has been the result of this shift?  A variety of polls indicate that around 80% of Americans distrust our government. Another way of saying this is that 80% of Americans feel our government lacks integrity. The disgust of Americans with our current government would seem to indicate that the importance of integrity needs to be revisited. In my opinion the perceived integrity of a candidate is as important as their policy positions.

What might happen if a candidate ran on a platform of restoring integrity to government? I believe if the people actually believed him or her, that candidate would win by a landslide. 

Don't Spend Time Next to the Cheese

Some years back a fine preacher named Chuck Comella gave a fine analogy of how we stay fresh and life giving. Seems his sister had brought him some very good, albeit smelly cheese. Now Chuck tends to put things in his refrigerator uncovered and he put his fine cheese next to an open pitcher of orange juice. Imagine his surprise when he drank his orange juice only to discover it tasted like cheese.

The point was that when we spend time in prayer and reading our Bibles, we can expect to "smell" more like Christ. The concept holds true in much of life, I.e if we run with the dogs, we'll likely get smelly and have fleas.

Perhaps it's my impending 68th birthday or watching the daily left-right hate fest, but I am totally frustrated with the utter lack of 'communication' in today's political climate.

A while back the Director of The Family Action Council of TN posted an op-ed in the Nashville newspaper, The Tennessean, questioning same sex marriage and laying out a rational case for traditional marriage as he saw it. The furor that it generated was unbelievable. The first 38 comments in response were dripping with vile insinuations and ad hominem attacks that left me shaking my head.

Fast forward to last week when Pope Francis' encyclical "Laudato Si" was released. I read it and was immediately impressed by his loving and reasoned thesis that the ills of the world are traceable to our failure to acknowledge God's plan for mankind, nature, and the earth. While I disagreed with a lot of his conclusions, I do feel the document could certainly form the basis for the start of a meaningful dialogue. Hence I was deeply disturbed by many comments in response that attacked the pope as a pedophile, the institution of the church, liberation theology, socialism, communism, etc.... missing his major point entirely.

My boss often says that the left and the right both have it wrong. The left believes that if we have programs and policies that help the less fortunate all will be well. The right believes that if we implement the right economic policies and tax structures all will be well. Both see government as the answer. During the 2008 campaign, Shane Claiborne was asked by a young lady in the audience whether he favored John McCain or Barack Obama. His response was priceless, "It doesn't matter who gets elected, we'll still be engaged in damage control... As long as we put our faith in man and not in Jesus we will still have a problem.."

Resurrection Sunday

Each year the highlight of Resurrection Sunday for me is our sunrise service. Our church is highly favored in that we have a beautiful campus that borders the Harpeth River and the sunrise service is held in field just a few feet from the river. I like to wake up very early to get there as the band sets up. This year was no exception except that I woke up very, very early… 4am… for  a service that doesn’t start until 6:30!! So I did what any man does when he has unplanned time on his hands, I turned on the television! I was just in time to catch the Easter Mass from St. Peter’s  Square. As I listened to the Pope recite the Mass with tens of thousands there, it occurred to me that the basic form of the Mass was described by Justin nearly 2000 years ago.  The majesty of that  ancient service in that ancient place with thousands of people, my brothers and sisters, overwhelmed me and brought tears to my eyes.

But then it was time for me to go “down by the riverside” to worship. As I backed out of the driveway, I marveled at the beautiful full moon lighting the country landscape behind our home. It took me back to a time several years ago when I was in a Ugandan village that was literally at the end of a cow path. There were no lights, no tv’s, no radios, just the sound of a thousand East African Christians who for two days, night and day, sang songs worshipping the same God that was praised in St. Peter’s. These Africans, most first generation Christians, praised with a fervor and a passion that was overwhelming. The memory of that night and the next morning still moves me years later.

So after a moonlit drive I finally got “down by the riverside” where I watched the mist rising on the Harpeth River and the sun coming over the horizon. Slowly around 800 or 900 of my closest friends came down and waited with me for it all to begin. I would think that the tradition of a service like we experienced is only a couple of hundred years old. The “liturgy of the service was to sing good  old Southern songs like “When the roll is called up Yonder”, “I’ll Fly Away” and other songs best sung to the accompaniment of banjo’s and guitars. All this was followed by a fine sermon culminating in an altar call to which about 10 or 15 people responded and changed their eternal destiny. It was  a great start to the Sunday celebrating Christ’s resurrection.

So what’s the point here. These separate experiences are a reminder that today 2 billion people celebrated the resurrection of the same Jesus in a variety of equally valid ways and despite their differences they are all our brothers and sisters. In a time when Christians are under attack all,over the planet it is even more important to celebrate our unity in Christ!

Thoughts on Common Core

Common Core is a hot topic and generates a lot of hoopla. However, when folks on both sides of the issue are pressed, they tend to provide simplistic explanations that do little to illuminate the debate.  

Supporters of Common Core argue that if you are against it then you must be for our children living in the “intellectual darkness” of inferior standards. Those in the opposite camp argue that Common Core is a “Big Brother” top down initiative from politicians in Washington and a gross over reach by the Federal government. Both these explanations are simplistic and ignore the reality of the situation.

The truth of how Common Core came to be is quite complex and is thoroughly documented in many well researched papers on the Internet. If you are really interested, I’ll be happy to provide links to thoughtful and generally non-hyperbolic discussions of the topic.

That said, I offer the following points:

1)      The historic education standards used in Tennessee and other states are content standards, i.e. the standards define the information or content that we want students to master.  Common Core differs markedly in that it is a “process standard” designed to teach children to “think” and “solve” problems critically.

2)      Anyone who has tried to solve a 3^rd grade Common Core math problem knows  that assessing Common Core is much more complex that just grading a multiple choice test. Since we now want to assess “how” the student thinks, we must use artificial intelligence algorithms that have not been properly researched or tested for this purpose. The Common Core tests are being developed by a consortium called the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). A full review of this group is beyond the scope of this brief narrative. However, representatives from the testing companies are prominent among the members. These tests are expected to raise the cost of student testing significantly (along with profits to the testing companies). The increased costs for this testing have been largely hidden from the public and legislatures. These increased test costs are highly significant in a time when most states are faced with budgetary limitations.

3)      In order to be eligible for the administration’s “Race to the Top” initiative, states had to agree to implement Common Core. In the quest to secure “Race to the Top” funding, Tennessee signed on for Common Core very quickly. So quickly in fact that the adoption was rushed and not well thought out. Many teachers feel they were inadequately prepared for the implementation. Despite the fact that it is implemented in Tennessee classrooms, we are still utilizing the previous TCAP exams. Although the test data from last year has been very slow to emerge, it appears that these tests results suffered during the last class year. Our legislature has wisely held off implementation of the PARCC testing. However, this puts our children in a very precarious position of once again being tested to the new Common Core standard with tests designed for the old state content standards.

4)      During my interface with classroom teachers in the 2013-2014 school year, I was told that Common Core “shoe horns” all the students into a prescribed “proper ways of thinking”. Most of the brightest students already develop unique problem solving paths and several teachers I have spoken to feel that the Common Core rubric adversely affects them by forcing them into “appropriate” ways of thinking that do not make sense to them. Having tried to follow the Common Core “appropriate ways of thinking” to solve problems, I can totally relate.

In summary:

·         The people pushing Common Core the hardest may be more motivated by profit or the promise of Federal funding than our children's well being.

·         Rather than blindly pushing Common Core, our state administrators might want to look at the evidence where it has been attempted. Most of the evidence I have found is either inconclusive or negative.

·         The legislature needs to take a close look at the cost impact of PARCC testing and its impact on our students and education budgets with an eye to scrapping the Common Core all together. 

·         As parents and concerned citizens we need to get the facts and be prepared to counter the loud (and well funded) forces who are pushing Common Core.

As a very respected national educator put it at the 2013 American Education Research Association (AERA) conference, “When the world's largest software company (Microsoft) and the world's largest testing company (Pearson) are the biggest proponents of Common Core, it should give one pause to wonder why.”

The Tennessee Legislature will again address the Common Core during the next session. As concerned parents, grandparents, and community leaders we need to make sure we understand the issues and share our concerns with our legislators in a respectful, informed manner.

Lastly, According to the Heritage Foundation, the federal government provides just

9%-10% of the funding for public education in the states, yet it is the source of 41% of the administrative

compliance burden for the states. Perhaps the time has come to do a cost benefit assessment on the impact of accepting Federal funding.