#4: “Only the Informed Can Act” Really? What if…

Amazing. I am overwhelmed at all the ideas and information I encounter daily. You know I spend a fair amount of time reading. And I listen to some podcasts. I also listen to some news on various outlets. But reading is my main avenue of information.

Here are some of the books I’m in the middle of reading:

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Yesterday, I was reading The Origins of Sectarian Protestantism, subtitled ” A Study of the Anabaptist View of the Church.” My religious heritage is the Brethren, originating in 1708 in Schwarzenau, Germany. The Brethren were influenced by the Roman Catholic, Reformed (Lutheran and Presbyterian), Anabaptist, and Radical Pietist elements of the universal church. So, I pulled out my two volume Brethren Encyclopedia and spent hours in them reading.

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I inherited The Brethren Encyclopedia from my father, the author of that poem, “Suppose” (included in my post from May).  I was amazed at what I found inside these books. No, I should not have been surprised. What I found was just what I should have expected. My dad added lots of highlighting, commentary, photographs, and articles.

In his retirement years, besides writing sermons and poetry, my dad wrote letters to elected officials and submitted many “letters to the editor” of the local newspaper which were printed in the Findlay Courier (Findlay, Ohio). He wrote these letters for the editorial page for years, and we heard about them (mostly positive responses) from family and friends. I’ve often wished that we had paid more attention to this. We were busy living our own lives, and I don’t remember reading dad’s submissions. I found a number of them taped inside the encyclopedia volumes. I want to share one of them with you today that fits perfectly with my current JNC series. Dated March 30, 1984, it is entitled “Bible Reading Needed For Freedom.”

Found taped into the last page of volume one of The Brethren Encyclopedia.

You can probably read the article in the photo above, but I’ll type it out below and give a little commentary.

“The editorial page of the newspaper is by far the most informative and interesting and useable page, daily, of the newspaper. Americans value freedom and information to make freedom workable. Without local newspapers, freedom becomes unworkable and dead. Only the informed can act. To be able to read and to have no information to read makes an ability useless.

So the editorial page is challenging and absolutely excellent. We were startled when we read in this newspaper that fundamentalist humanists have sued against our schools to remove the last vestige of any religion[sic] activity from our school properties as they join the atheists, evolutionists, communists, liberals of this nation to take God out of the education process of our people. Now the Senators of our state have joined these both of them voted against God in our schools. Now we must remember this when voting time comes to us.

We must have freedom to have Bible reading and prayer in our schools or we do not have freedom. Madelin Murray O’Hare… had prayer removed from our schools by court order and no one can deny that, surely. All that we ask is that freedom be restored that we always had before. These arguments of who will pray are beside the point. Freedom to pray is the issue. Why must big people make such silly arguments out of simple facts?

I taught religious education in public schools for years …, and I have heard lots of school children say lovely prayers in the classroom and none of them were worrying about some church. They were just speaking to God in praise and in asking and it was sweet and good. It is the big folks who cloudy the waters with church arguments.

God is not Catholic or Methodist or something else. He is just God and children can just accept that sweet truth and talk to the Lord past all these other artificial arguments made up by dividers.

Prayer and faith in the God of Heaven are the best quieters and healers and strengtheners for any of those school kids who have just as many hurts and anxieties and fears as any of us do have. And the suicides of our youth surely reveal this. We commit spiritual suicide to our kids by saying no to them for Bible and prayer. It is key to education to have trust in others beside ourselves. Let us give our children a chance, please! … ”

Signed, Marion R. Thomas of Bluffton, Ohio.

I appreciate the tone of Dad’s article.  We may not agree with everything, would want some points clarified (but there’s no space for such), and might word things differently, but here I see a good letter to the editor for the general reading population. The editorial page of the local newspaper was a small version of today’s Twitter and such. It was the public space,  and it still is to a lesser degree.

So, I did a search: ” Law suit in 1984 against religious activities in public schools.” I found a New York Times article from March 16, 1984, that reported, “The House of Representatives today narrowly defeated legislation that would have made it possible for students in public high schools to meet voluntarily in free time in school for religious purposes.”

Much political and legal hubbub continued over this issue that became known as the Equal Access Act, so by August 11, 1984 (before November’s presidential election),  Reagan signed into law the newly passed Equal Access Act.

As Wikepedia explains, “The Equal Access Act is a United States federal law passed as Title VIII of the Education for Economic Security Act in 1984 to compel federally funded public secondary schools to provide equal access to extracurricular student clubs. Lobbied for by Christian groups who wanted to ensure students the right to conduct Bible study programs during lunch and after school, it is also essential in litigation regarding the right of students to form gay–straight alliances;^[1] and to form groups focused on any religion or on secularism.^[2] The Equal Access Act mandates public schools provide equal access to extracurricular school clubs.”

Interesting. So, this law secures open doors for such organizations as Bibles2School and LifeWise Academy, which I wrote about in my last post.

My dad’s article is sandwiched in the middle of this struggle to ensure a place for the Bible, prayer, and faith to be expressed in public schools, the public square for children. I love the way Dad described children’s prayers he heard when he taught religious education in public schools north of Findlay, Ohio.  “… I have heard lots of school children say lovely prayers in the classroom and none of them were worrying about some church. They were just speaking to God in praise and in asking and it was sweet and good.”

He explained, “Prayer and faith in the God of Heaven are the best quieters and healers and strengtheners for any of those school kids who have just as many hurts and anxieties and fears as any of us do have. And the suicides of our youth surely reveal this. We commit spiritual suicide to our kids by saying no to them for Bible and prayer.”

I believe that much of today’s mental illness and violence is a consequence of withholding spiritual food from children.

American children before the American Revolution and long after were fed on Scripture, prayer, and biblical concepts. Such nurture produced a people and culture that birthed liberty from their belief in the freedom of conscience, promoted personal responsibility from the supposition of individual accountability to God, insisted upon separation of powers from a deep awareness of human nature’s scope and limits, and envisioned social, political, and economic improvement (a more perfect union) based upon the personal character and the organic, religious expression of the people.

First published in 1690, the primer was used to teach reading to children in the 1700s and 1800s. The Geneva Bible brought with the Pilgrims and early settlers was  previously and also used to teach reading.

A page from this facsimile’s introduction explains the importance of this primer.

This catechism was included in the primer. What if such spiritual milk drawn from the breasts of the Old and New Testaments nourished the souls of most American babes?  All the babes whose parents long for such nutrition for their children….

What if American children heard that God had done something for them. What? He made them! Each of them. Ahh. Identity. “I am God’s own,” a child may conclude. “God made me, keeps me, and he can save me!”

Lots of what ifs can be asked here. What if the ten commandments were known and known as an expression of God’s love for us and protection over us?

My father wrote in his letter, “Only the informed can act.” In context, he meant that citizens need to be informed in order to make good and wise decisions, in order to know what action is needed. Taken as a stand alone axiom, “Only the informed can act,” it is not true. The misled, the misinformed, the propagandized, and those “sheltered” from God’s Word can and do act.

Humbly (so necessary), we constantly seek discernment, that we may be informed and not misled.

We are in this current era of secular and woke confusion because we cast off spiritual knowledge to the point of forming a vacuum in which evil has filled and is filling the void with destructive imaginings and delusions.

In such a time as this, it is the kind, cleared eyed, and strong love of people like my father (who is now with Jesus) who can offer hope, peace, and sanity — a way back from going astray. Pray for the “Whatevermikes.” Share your faith, prayer, and Scripture with neighbors. Include tangible acts of kindness and help — whenever you can, however you see possible.

“Only the informed can act.” That is, only the informed can act wisely and graciously. That is, acting wisely and graciously only if we accept Christ’s wisdom and love, and pass it on.  Really. What if….

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I hope to have more to share with you about Bible2School and LifeWise Academy as it develops here in my area.

If/when you can, check out the following video and also the website under the video. We need to be aware of the spiritual warfare that is always battling away behind the scenes and in the open in Christian Colleges and universities. School choice is undermined if we don’t maintain excellent and biblically sound school choices.

I was surprised at the wisdom I heard from the following man that is being interviewed.

Then, for some encouragement, Christian apologetic training or support, and action steps, check out the website:

https://crossexamined.org.  I am new to this site, but I have spent some time exploring it. Here is how the ministry, Crossexamined, describes itself:

“CrossExamined.org is a non-profit ministry started in 2006 that conducts dynamic I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist seminars on college campuses, churches, and high schools. Led by Frank Turek and other Christian apologists, CrossExamined.org exists to address the problem that 3-out-of-4 Christian youth leave the church while in college, many because they are intellectually skeptical. In addition to I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist, CrossExamined.org presenters address other topics faced by young people today.”

Love and prayers!