Math is one of those things… one of those things that we tend to place quite quickly into the area of secular studies. But is that really where it should be?
I’m going to visit this issue looking at an article [pdf] written by Johan H de Klerk – School for Computer, Statistical and Mathematical Sciences – Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education – Potchefstroom, South Africa
Taking a look at the question, “Is there such a thing as Christian mathematics?” He answers:
No, there is no such a thing as Christian mathematics; and also no such a thing as unchristian mathematics. Yes, one can have a Christian perspective on mathematics. And yes, mathematics can be taught in a Christian way. As Christians, it is our calling to teach mathematics in a Christian way from a Christian perspective.
If I say there is no such a thing as Christian mathematics, I mean it in the same sense as saying there is no such a thing as Christian musical scales (or, for that matter, a Christian theory for the construction of musical scales). One system of musical scales may differ from another (for example Western and Eastern musical scales), but one cannot say that one is more “Christian” than the other. In the same sense one melody cannot be more “Christian” than another. Of course, if words were added to the music, one song might be more Christian than the other. In the same sense one can perhaps raise objections to the use of mathematics in designing an atomic bomb, but the calculus that is used to build the mathematical model or the numerical analysis that is used to solve the problem is neither “Christian” nor “unchristian”.
He then explains,
My first point of departure is that one’s whole life is religion and that there is no part of one’s life that can actually be called ‘secular’ ... [and] ... my second point of departure is the view of science in context. ... In contrast to the view of the logical positivists (that is, the so-called standard view of science), my view is: All aspects of one’s subject should be viewed in context with other, wider aspects, such as the history of mathematics, the laws of science, science in general (with its different viewpoints and paradigm shifts), nature and religion.
He then visualizes the science in context viewpoint as a point (the details of the subject) with some circles (the contexts), surrounding it, and also with some connection lines between the circles. “Some contexts,” he explains, “(such as the historical context for example), may even cut through the others.”
Then Klerk summarizes how he usually teaches his classes; he explains that he uses 5 points of context and enumerates them as follows.
a. Introductory: What is mathematics? Is it possible to study this particular mathematical course from a Christian point of view? Man’s life always in God’s service. Science in context and the viewpoint of science in context as basis for a class discussion.
b. The historical context: Some historical aspects regarding the subject. Some foundational matters from history. Some paradigm shifts, if any, from history.
c. The context of mathematical theories and models: What is a theory? Induction and deduction in science and mathematics. Mathematical induction. Scientific models; models not equal to reality.
d. The context of science and society: Different scientific views: positivism, logical positivism, modernism, post-modernism, etc (if applicable). The “power” of science. The idealization of science and mathematics. The ethics of mathematics (if applicable).
e. The context of creation: Different world views (also concerning mathematics). The beauty of our world.
f. The religious context: The science/theology debate. The beauty of God’s creation. Can mathematics become one’s idol/religion? Psalms 8 and 19. God as sustainer of His creation.
And then he concludes,
Typically, the details of any subject in the exact sciences—such as mathematics—as lectured by a Christian and by a non-Christian, would not differ. The difference, however, would rather be in the different contexts which are related to the subject under discussion. That is exactly what I have tried to illustrate. I believe that in this way I can fulfill my calling of teaching my scientific work in the light of God’s Word, in the words of Psalm 36:9 (which is also the motto of my university): In your light we see light
Is it not then reasonable to propose that even mathematics could be being taught from a humanist, secular point of perspective in the public schools? Is it so easy then to ridicule those that think it well to teach it from a Christian perspective? I fear some have forgotten that Satan will try to corrupt wherever at all possible. He may well influence the teaching of such neutral fixed-sciences as math.
Therefore I believe that a biblical worldview will influence every area of our life.
Ok, we need to take a look at what’s happening here since most of you are expecting Part 2 of “The Dumbest Attack on Homeschooling” to be coming up.
It is. It is. I’ve just reconstructed how it’s coming, so now it will be divided into 7 posts.
God or Evolution: This post will deal with evolution and its impact on personal Christianity.
Christian Math: This post will deal with how math can be taught as Christian. It will go on to talk about how other secular things can be taught or done from a Christian perspective.
Exodus: This post will deal with why parents should be taking their kids out of public school.
Vision Forum etc: This post will deal with Vision Forum and what they’re doing, what they stand for, etc.
Taking over the world: This post will deal with the myth that some homeschoolers are endeavouring to take over the world by having large families.
Separation of Church and State: This post will deal with what separation of church and state was all about and what it has become.
Chivalry and the Modern World: Just imagine what it will be about.
*All these posts will more than likely appear under different titles.
I hope to blog most of this over the next week. If any of you would like to contribute to one of these articles please email me at contact(at)onewaypurpose(dot)com. I may feature you.
I can’t say what order they’ll be in at the moment. So expect any one of them at any time.
These posts will not be addressing Wilkey’s article, I wouldn’t be spending any more of my time on that. Each post will simply stand for what it stands and serve as a rebuttal to the issues Wilkey attacked.
Prayer… This is one thing that we as youth can not place too much importance upon. Prayer is the line of communication between our Father in Heaven and us that cannot be broken without forfeiting our eternal wellbeing. It is very important that we keep this line open between our Father and us. We must not only keep the line in working condition but also keep the cables sizzling. So hot that they cannot be touched by the enemy, Satan. This is what Paul meant when he said, “Pray without ceasing.” Now, speaking in a practical sense, how is this possible? Hardly giving us time to be confounded by him, he says, “Quench not the Spirit.” There is the answer to our question; when the spirit of Christ is dwelling within us, we are constantly in communication with Him – whether it is consciously or unconsciously. While the flag is flying high from the castle of our heart to show that the king is in residence there, nothing can cool the circuit.
“As children of our heavenly Father, we have been given the immeasurable privilege of coming into His holy presence with our praises and petitions. Sadly many Christians do not value or understand what an amazing opportunity they have…” – HW Magazine
Yes, sadly many do not. Many people look at prayer as a sort of religious exercise; they do not realize what an opportunity they are missing. Prayer is an undevoidable privilege given freely to all… but unaccepted by many.
As youth we need to spend time with God, we need to have a time of strengthening and sharpening of our character. While we are building our life is when we need to seek God in prayer. He has much in store for us in His heavenly warehouses, and what is holding us back from receiving them? We only need to ask and we shall receive. God wants us to spend time with Him, to spend time seeking His face.
Christ said, “Pray lest ye enter into temptation.” He knew the importance that prayer has for our wellbeing. For Christ, prayer was an actual communication with His Father in Heaven. It wasn’t one of those mechanically memorized prayers that we spit out thoughtlessly so many times. He wanted to gain audience with His Father. This is the same thing that God wants of us; He wants us to speak with Him, to tell Him our problems, to unload our burdens at His feet, to praise Him in all circumstances, to build faith in Him, to daily lay ourselves down at His feet. God wants to work with us as a father beside his son. He wants to have a relationship with us, yes, one like He had with Abraham, Isaac, Moses, David. We have an eternity of learning ahead of us. We are only preparing for it in this short breath of life, but God wants to give us a foretaste of His wonderful plan for eternity!
Prayer is an undevoidable privilege given freely to all… but unaccepted by many.
The question is asked, “How can we maintain the balance between ‘praying in faith’ and asking, ‘not my will, but Thine be done’?” But really, there ought not to be a separation. Saying, “not my will, but Thine be done” is the only way we can pray in faith. Any other way is not trusting God, which is what faith is all about. Simply because our prayers are not answered the way we would have liked them to be does not mean that our prayer was not or is not going to be answered at all. When Christ said, “Not my will, but Thine be done,” He displayed the greatest faith known to mankind. He trusted His body and soul into the hands of God.
Many people view faith through rather fatalistically tinted glasses. “If only I had faith… I could… move mountains, I could…” but lets stop here for a moment and take a second look. We can have faith and we can move mountains, but moving the Rocky Mountains to the east coast would hardly be helpful to God! Instead, the mountains which we have to move today are not physical ones, but rather they are mountains in our lives, trials and difficulties, that can be moved by faith. All we must do is trust God, to say, “Not my will but Thine be done.” Yes, we can start moving mountains right now; or rather we can start trusting God to move the mountains for us.
When we face physical situations that are testing our faith we need to trust God’s will. We don’t need to try moving the mountains, or healing the sick, for we cannot. There has never been anybody who has, no, not even Christ! Christ Himself said, “I can of mine own self do nothing!” which was a result of His life purpose, “I came… not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” Our Father is the one who can and does according to His selfless will. When we ask of the Lord, we must keep in mind that He knows what is best and even if He does not answer us in the way we think, He has something better for us in mind. When Job—spotless before the Lord—was going through the testing and trying of his faith, he trusted God, and was willing to place his entire life into the hands of God, thus completely defeating Satan’s wicked plan. Yes, faith has conquered the world and the prince thereof—Satan—at the cross. (Please Note: I do not mean to bring Christ down by saying this. I mean to magnify Faith. Christ lived and breathed His Father, we need to do the same.)
Satan knows that once he destroys our line of communication with God, we are helpless. This is the first thing that he tries to destroy—our relationship with God. This is his entire goal for mankind; he wants us to misunderstand God. He wants us to get an unclear picture; in fact he doesn’t want us to get one at all. If he can break our spiritual relationship with God, he has gotten a strong foothold on our heart. There he can then instill fear, fear that cannot be there when we have a trusting relationship with our Father in Heaven. Is it possible to have trust or faith without prayer?
Through prayer faith has its beginning, without prayer we cannot have faith, without prayer it is absolutely impossible to have faith! Without faith we cannot have a trusting relationship with God. Unless we take the time to get to know God personally we will have trouble believing His words. For after all, why would you believe somebody that you don’t even know? I read somewhere about a bumper sticker which said, “God isn’t dead; I just talked to Him this morning!” That is the kind of relationship we need to maintain with God. We need to know Him personally.
You thought homeschooling was great. You thought that looking at everything from a biblical perspective was right. You thought Christian education was the way to go. You thought American government was on a slide from Biblical values.
In an article published at EthicsDaily.com on April 27th, Mr. Wilky sets out to answer the question “What’s being taught in Christian Schools?” Unfortunately he fails from the first sentence. In fact, he fails all the way through. In fact he doesn’t answer the question at all. But what he does do is even worse.
‘Prejudice by association’ is an infamous trick, but it’s a dumb one. I thought at first that Wilky had a bad experience with homeschoolers. After reading some of his other works I realized there was an even deeper problem. In an exclusive interview with Pastor Wilky, Oneway Purpose asked if he would have a problem with homeschooling if the material were satisfactory. He replied, “I am not against homeschooling and it is a good thing for many students since a secular society is snuffing out many Christians in public.”
But he didn’t take the time to say that while he tried to slam us all into the nail-box of extremism. The goal of his article wasn’t to promote homeschooling. The goal of his article wasn’t to tell us what’s being taught in Christian schools. The goal was to prejudice his readers against homeschooling.
From the start, you get a weird feeling about it. The first two paragraphs are made to sound antagonistic, but you don’t get the point. He starts off talking about a lady he met on a bus who was reading a book on the Christian version of math. He says, “I found the idea rather strange that there was a definite biblical view distinctly different from the secular view of math.” Strange or no strange, I’d think that a pastor would be greatly interested in that.
The next paragraph is just as dumb. It starts, “The creationism issue has rapidly gained momentum in the nation, in contrast to evolution taught in biology class.” I’m thinking, “Amen, amen, and amen, it’s about time.” He twists around and says, “...literature promoted in home-school and Christian-academy circles also has a different slant to social studies—some quite alarming.” I’m starting to notice a trend of state-then-prejudice. What’s coming is worse.
“Early Religious Right leader Billy Hargis, like his John Birch Society friends, believes that Joe McCarthy was a great American hero vindicated by secret Soviet documents. ... I have run into some Southern Baptist fundamentalist leaders who charge that Martin Luther King was a fraud.”
Now this is getting into the dirty stuff big time. I don’t know or care about Billy Hargis, John Birch Society, or Joe McCarthy. In fact Wilky, don’t be surprised if most homeschoolers don’t. But he’s not writing to us, he’d like to make everybody think that homeschoolers are extremists. And by the way, meeting some fundamentalist pastors with way-out views doesn’t have anything to do with homeschoolers or homeschooling.
And apparently, according to Wilky, “Such points of reference tend to give a decided slant to text books produced to please the crowd’s opinions.” Interesting! This spikes us into wondering what textbooks these are he’s talking about. We’re tuned, but he doesn’t tell us, instead he throws around a couple names such as “Abeka” or “Bob Jones” in the next paragraphs, leaving us to wonder the point of reference. Most readers aren’t being critical so they apply the first to the second. His ploy has worked, and neither Abeka or Bob Jones has anything to do with the fundamentalist he met.
What’s worse is next he starts griping about “Accelerated Christian Education”. He picked the wrong thing this time. That’s my school. I remember all his quotes. He says, “Baptist Sunday school teacher Jimmy Carter is described as someone who “claimed to be a believer.” The science book says there is only a choice between evolution and God.” Yuppers, I remember that well. Apparently Wilky thinks being a Sunday school teacher makes you a Christian. Apparently he thinks you can still believe in the Supreme Creator after discharging his creative power. He’s entitled to his opinions—I’ll crush them in Part II.
Now he culminates his whole point with, “Such slanted viewpoints are not the sort of things one would find in public schools.” And I’m giving a resounding “D’oh”. Of course not. That’s assuming that a scriptural view is slanted instead of straight and that a secular, humanist view is straight and not slanted. We’ll see how that stands up in Part II.
This is getting worse, but there’s more coming.Vision Forum is his worst enemy it appears, and of course, when you’re an “Extreme Left” Christian. So let’s attack them. We should all be prepared now to see through his technique.
“The list grows even more scary,” says Wilky, “Vision Forum publishes a catalogue for the crowd with a young man holding a sword in his hand under the publication’s title “A Line in the Sand.” Inside … are such gems as a book by Nancy Campbell telling young Christian women they must be fruitful and multiply as often as possible … to accomplish the Dominion theme of the author.”
It’s totally true, except the theme is not dominion. I wrote about this multiplying thing before here. I agree with Nancy, I have 5 siblings, I’ve got a small family. Big families are cool, you need to have a totally different worldview to have them though. Nancy has been contacted to answer a few questions, coming up in Part II.
He goes on to complain about southern slanted books, and reconstructionist authors, and claims that Vision Forum associates itself with authors who advocate slavery is a modern grand biblical idea. I’m contacting Vision Forum this morning to answer that. Check back for the answer in Part II.
“Other works advocate the idea that the nation is officially a Christian nation. Several Reconstructionist authors are promoted with the ideas expressed in the catalogue that young boys must be taught to grow up to take dominion of the state. Separation of church and state is a non-biblical idea, much like the view that democracy is for cowards.”
That paragraph was so prejudiced it made me laugh. If that made you laugh, keep reading.
“Military themes are common in the titles of books. Young boys are encouraged to defend the honor of their sisters. Women are taught that they are to submit unto their husband’s wishes…”
That made me frown. What on earth is he trying to do here? During our email interview he admitted that he doesn’t have any problems with boys defending their sister’s honor or wives submitting to their husbands. “Although,” he says, “The submissive woman thing can get complicated in some situations.” I appreciate that Wilky doesn’t see those things as bad, but it appears he still thinks they’re far out.”
“I have often heard people complain about what is being taught in public schools. To be honest, I haven’t yet heard of many items as far out as these examples.”
Anybody want to help me remedy that?
Note: Part II will be directed at answering individual things he mentioned in his article. Check back in a couple days.
‘Dumbest’ refers to the article—that it is weak and prejudiced. It does not in any way refer upon the intelligence of the author. It is not to say that he did not make some true points in his article but however, they had nothing to do with the original question, and as I said only served to prejudice.
A couple days ago, Deborah a reader of Oneway Purpose asked me:
I was wondering what your thoughts were on the border issue in the USA, and if and what you think would be the best course of action.
Thanks for asking Deborah, I’m going to introduce my brother, Isaac Boskovic of Principle Thing and together we’ll take a shot at your answer. Isaac is actively involved in commerce and trade, and is adeptly aware of the deeper things behind border-security.
Isaac, tell us, how much does border security really mean to a country?
Well, after that introduction, I’d better have something good to say. I’m assuming that the question was asked more specifically about Canada – U.S. border issues, and probably entails trade issues as well, but I’ll start by dealing with border security.
There are two things which will forever be at odds with each other in terms of domestic policy—freedom and security. Security will always come at a cost to some freedom, somewhere. The important issue—in Canada and the United States—is that we bear in mind that we are defending freedom, not security.
If at any time we begin to promote security as the principal issue for society, then the only thing that has happened is that we have become that which we are fighting against. We start out trying to protect our freedom against terrorist threats and attacks, and end up sacrificing freedom for the sake of security. This may not necessarily be a planned agenda, but it is simply a pitfall to beware of when considering where to apply security in defending freedom.
The borders of a country are the property lines, and every country has the right to secure its borders. If we are truly defending the freedom of citizens within the country, then the place to apply security checkpoints is at the borders, not on your street. The simple freedom of being able to cross the border incognito is what is being sacrificed for security, and freedom within those borders is to be maintained, and I believe that is an indication that the security priorities are—at least in this case—in the right place.
Passports are now requested/required to cross the Canada—U.S. border, both for Canadian and American citizens. It is a visible, noticeable measure of security, and a visible, noticeable removal of the level of freedom our border-crossing once was. If it becomes necessary to escalate security for the preservation of freedom, that is the appropriate place. And notice that I said ‘necessary’, because it is important that we establish security only to the degree appropriate, and sacrifice freedom only to the absolute necessities.
However, as I said before, the nasty draw of degradation requires a warning that too often we become that which we fight against. What we need to be doing, and not just think we are doing, is to simply preserve freedom, and be discerning as to what really are the threats to our freedom, rather than fight against every foreign threat to our security.
Far more insidious, and far more sinister than requiring passports at the border, would be a plan to create borderless borders. (As has been done in the European Union) Such an arrangement would remove the place and possibility of establishing security without sacrificing freedom. Indeed, the only way to have security would then be to remove citizen freedom. There would need to be security in the towns, cities, buildings, streets, and country backwoods in order to have ‘freedom’ at the border. Therefore, it is obvious that in order to maintain freedom and security in the country, the established border can not be diminished, but rather strengthened.
Thanks Isaac, you’ve captured the issue and frisked it better than I could have done. Tell me, what spiritual parallels are there here to take notice of and apply to the Christian Life?
Did you ever hear people say that having standards of what we wear, what we do, where we go, etc. is ‘keeping you in bondage’? I mean, how can you be free when you have all those rules!?
The truth is that those rules and borders, those standards and principles, are there for the preservation of our Christian freedom. Without them, there are only two things that will happen: The world will come in until all allegiance to our Lord is displaced, or, great security and scrutiny will be required on every street corner of our life, so removing either our Christianity or our Christian freedom. The borders! Those standards are our security for the preservation of our freedom, and for the preservation of our faith!
That is so true, setting principles and sticking to them and guarding them well will save us a lot of trouble. It’s so much easier to nab a criminal when he’s going through the gate than when we have to call in the FBI to track him down inside the walls.
And another important fact I’d like to add: Our borders will not get rusty, in fact we need to have them well guarded at all times. Satan constantly tries to penetrate those walls with every possible means, sometimes through individual agents who aim to sneak past the guards, sometimes through open assault. We however can withstand every one of these attacks, because, after all…
We have Air Support.
Isaac, thanks so much for joining me today on this critical issue. It’s been a pleasure to have you as a guest and I believe the readers of Oneway Purpose will be greatly benefited by your insight.
Thanks David, you’re welcome of course. Having touched upon border security issues this morning, I’ll have to leave the next part until later, which will be ‘cross-border trade’. See you then.
I was having a rough day at school and was feeling distraught.
As I came to the entrance of one of the buildings a guy was holding the door open for his friends, but as soon as I got there he let go. I must have looked quite forlorn because a fellow coming out the other doors quickly offered to hold it for me.
It was really just something silly, but he made my day brighter. Thanks all you chivalrous fellows for treating us girls like ladies!
Wow, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that in the newspaper.
After hearing the story of Shackleton and his crew afresh recently, and realizing but yet unable to understand the hardships they endured, the trust the crew had in Shackelton, the months of waiting, the pain of watching their ship get crushed into the ice, the winter spent in the bitter Antarctic weather, the herioc effort of escape, the failure, the penguin diet, the months of waiting in suspense while Shackleton and a few of his men sailed 800 miles over open seas to South Georgia Island, the hurricane experienced at sea, the final beaching—on the wrong side of the island, Shackelton and one of his men hiking around 35 miles over mountains and ice and deep snow in 36 hours, reaching the whaling station, the final rescue of those waiting on the other side of the Island and the 20 men on Elephant Island 22 months since they had seen any outside life, the loss of not one man… a story of courage… and patience.
It’s the refusal to give up, the courage and the will to live that we need to focus on. Even though the era of heroic exploration has concluded, there is something that we can draw and learn from this thrilling story. Something that can reflect into our lives and mean something to us personally. It is courage. Courage is needed as much when the sea is calm and the sails are slack and we are ashore on some deserted island as in the height of a storm. Courage and patience go hand in hand—if there is no patience then courage is weak. We must be willing to wait… willing to stand still… willing to have courage even when things all seem to go wrong. We have a captain to trust, we have a commander we can rely upon. Does it seem like the wind has stopped? Are the sails slack? Keep your ship waterworthy, friends. Keep the sails in repair.
“The wrong people are homeschooling!”—These were the words of a somewhat frustrated schoolteacher. “It seems that all the kids that are homeschooling are ‘good kids’. It’s the bad kids that should be at home homeschooling!”
Actually, she is not far off at all, but let’s take a look at the root of the problem. More often than not, these ‘really bad’ children are sent off to school and the parents are glad to get them out, because they can’t handle them—or maybe they’re not even there to start. And then, the teachers get frustrated and suspend these kids for bad behavior. And where do they go? Do they have a home to go back to? Do they have parents to take over? Do they have a functional family to take care of them?
Read this from the USA Today:
“I think there’s been an increasing understanding that suspending kids from school is a bit like giving them what they want,” says Kathy Christie of the Education Commission of the States, a non-partisan policy group. And with more parents working, she says, “many times the kids don’t have a safe place to go if they are suspended.”
Here we’re dealing with the bad kids, the ones that get suspended, and what are we seeing? They don’t really have a home to go to! Could we argue that if they did have a home to go to, they wouldn’t have been suspended in the first place? Possibly. But this provides a problem—if the suggestion is that the bad kids homeschool as a [perceived] ‘cure’, how can they if they don’t have a home?
We see the root of many of these problems lies deeper than at first appears. Statistics and news reports on homeschooling and homeschoolers often puts us in a light of smart, well behaved, etc. So to the bystander it appears that something we’re doing is right. And it’s very true. But it’s not a magic cloud of character quality that just lands on anybody who homeschools. It is the home that makes the difference.
“Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home, your house is on fire and your kids all alone.” Unfortunately, more mothers need to hear this nowadays than ladybugs. What can you expect of a child that leaves a ‘burning home’ every morning to go to school and comes back to a place where no mother is there to welcome her? Is it plausible then to say that such a child should homeschool?
If you’re reading this, and the Lord has blessed you with a good home and parents who cared, be glad. Stop right now and thank God for it. Many (and fast becoming more) children today never had the opportunity to experience it.
Behind every good homeschooler is a good home. Yes, I totally agree that these kids should be homeschooling, but what has to happen first is too great for any teacher, principle, or social worker to bring about. The entire worldview of the parents and home needs to change first, and a government program will never change that.
This will only change as more people begin to grasp the message that is being sent out so clearly by homeschoolers. But for now, homeschooling cannot be a prescription.
It’s an infection that must be caught.
David Boskovic -- eighteen, Canadian, Conservative, and sibling to 5 -- writes a practical
mix of journalism, commentary, theology, and inspiration from the perspective of a
Biblical worldview and a homeschooled education. Here at Oneway Purpose he tackles life,
culture, and purpose, taking to task many of the problems that this generation is facing
on the front lines in the battles of the Christian life.
The borders of a country are the property lines, and every country has the right to secure its borders. If we are truly defending the freedom of citizens within the country, then the place to apply security checkpoints is at the borders, not on your street. The simple freedom of being able to cross the border incognito is what is being sacrificed for security, and freedom within those borders is to be maintained, and I believe that is an indication that the security priorities are—at least in this case—in the right place.
