Dear Dr. E: I have heard you say that education is about facts, not feelings, and that you really don’t care about your students’ opinions. This seems a bit cold and heartless. As a Christian, how can you justify this cavalier dismissal of other people’s perspectives? — Softhearted From the Heartland
Dear Softhearted: Sometimes, absurdity is the best teacher. Like the alarm on your nightstand, it can break the power of nightmares and call us back to reality. The ridiculous juxtaposed with the rational is often the most effective tool in showing the clear difference between the two.
Let me illustrate.
Suppose you are a college freshman. You have just enrolled in your first semester. You have selected an academic major. You are excited about your classes. You have met all your professors, purchased all your textbooks, reviewed all your syllabuses, and taken note of all your assignments. Your goal of a university degree is within your grasp. You are finally in college, and you are ready to learn.
Now imagine that it’s four years later. You’ve made it. You have taken all your tests, passed all your quizzes, and written innumerable papers. You have completed your final exams, and it is commencement day. You’re ready to graduate.
As your college president, I’ve just finished delivering your commencement address, and now, your time has finally come. You stand along with your classmates and approach the stage. You wait until your name is called. The academic dean gives you your honors cord. Your family is in the audience cheering.
You proudly walk toward me, and we join in a vigorous handshake as I give you your long-awaited diploma and whisper in your ear: “Congratulations! You now have a degree in opinions.”
This is truly ridiculous. After four long years of study and after you’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars, I dare to hand you a diploma and say: “None of it really matters. It’s all been a big joke. Here is your degree in opinions!”
The absurdity of this scenario is obvious because we both know that you didn’t go to college to major in “whatever.” On the contrary, you went to school to learn something.
On graduation day, your opinion doesn’t matter, nor does mine. What matters is, did you learn what was required of you? Do you know more about the sciences than you did when you started?
Have you learned the difference between credits and debits? Can you balance a ledger? Have you learned to communicate well?
Can you get into medical school? Do you understand statistical analysis? Can you read, write and count?
I am being blatantly rhetorical here for obvious reasons. You can’t pretend to be educated if all you have is an opinion on these things. There are indisputable truths that serve as the foundation of any decent education. Getting a degree requires learning such truths, not simply celebrating your opinions. To claim otherwise is absurd.
Martin Luther King Jr. was once asked why he believed it was right to break the law of the land in his effort to promote racial justice. In his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” he said: “One may well ask; how can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?”
The answer, he said, “is found in the fact that there are two kinds of laws: just laws … and unjust laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws, but conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
And what is a just law? King responded by quoting Augustine: “A just law squares with the moral law of the law of God.”
King understood something that we’d all do well to remember. Opinions can be dangerous. In fact, opinions are used to justify all kinds of unjust things.
Pol Pot had an opinion, Mao had an opinion, Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini all had opinions, and it didn’t end well for millions of people. King knew this, and therefore, he anchored his march for civil rights in the truth of God’s law, not his own opinions.
Why do I say I don’t care what your opinion is? Because history has taught us over and over again that opinions are always laden with sin and lead to slavery, whereas Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”
Higher Ground is there for you if you’re seeking guidance in today’s changing world. Everett Piper, a Ph.D. and a former university president and radio host, is writing an advice column for The Times, and he wants to hear from you. If you have any moral or ethical questions for which you’d like an answer, please email askeverett@washingtontimes.com, and he may include it in the column.
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