Sunday, January 23, 2011
American Nebuchadnezzar
There's a strange piece at The Times and Democrat of Orangeburg, South Carolina. The author is Bill Connor, a lawyer and former senior U.S. adviser to Helmand Province, Afghanistan.Connor starts by telling the Biblical story of Nebuchadnezzar's attempt to assimilate the Israelites he had conquered:
[W]hen Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, he brought the young male Jews to his capital of Babylon "to enter the king's personal service." He forced the young men to take on new names and even attempted a forced change away from kosher traditional Jewish food. The primary means to remake the young men of Israel into Babylonians was through education. The king ordered Ashpenaz "to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans."
That was then, this is now: Enforced teaching of evolution and major court cases about whether or not "intelligent design" or "creation science" can even be offered as an alternative? ...
One manner of changing society in school is through historical curriculum. American children are generally shielded from learning of the importance of Christianity to American history. They are usually made to feel shame about traditional American heroes and events by focusing on sexism, racism or discrimination to the exclusion of the heroic selfless service. ...
Read what the late Theologian Harold O. Brown wrote in 2005 about the "remaking" of America through our schools. "Since the end of WWII, American society has been suffering decomposition and deconstruction. Consider what we have come to in seven decades: The distinctiveness of marriage has been abolished; prayer and Bible reading in schools has been stamped out; the mother's womb has become the most dangerous place for a baby; the rights of fathers and parents of minor girls have been voided; divorce has become easier than marrying; the Ten Commandments have been banned from public view. ... The structure of American society is being abolished brick by brick." ...
The economy is tied to our education system and the moral fiber of our citizens. We, as a nation, will have to make Herculean efforts to bring public education back under control. The future is with the children and we owe them the society we were given.
I suspect he didn't. Connor wants only to force everyone else to assimilate into his own idea of an ideal society.
In short, Conner aspires to be Nebuchadnezzar!
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: 12:00 PM Their devotion to God gives them the power to understand what the Babylonians had to teach.
Only the anti-knowledge fundamentalists could turn this story of faithfulness leading to knowledge into something that is opposed to learning.
Glen Davidson
: 6:12 PM << Home
