November 03, 2008
Uneducated By Choice
In describing American demographics one TV commentator observed that there are some folks who are ‘uneducated by choice’. I shrug my shoulders in agreement…it is their choice. However, when I see the same thing happening in the church I squirm. It’s hard for me to understand those who chose to be Biblically uneducated. Apparently some people are just satisfied with whatever level of Christian maturity they can get through osmosis. I suppose that rather than trying to understand them, maybe here too I should be shrugging my shoulders and saying, ‘It’s their choice’.
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Gail;
-----I agree with you. It is people’s choice to be educated or not, and in what. I have no problem whatsoever with totally uneducated people. But just like the choice to go West from Colorado leads to California, and the choice to go East leads to Pennsylvania, the choice to be uneducated leads to ignorance in whatever field the choice is made. I am uneducated in sports medicine. I am ignorant in sports medicine. And I am not allowed to practice it. I also am uneducated in aviation mechanics, structural engineering, and rocket science, all to the same effect. The free choice to be uneducated is not the problem. It is the ballot box’s treatment of uneducated people as educated with which I have a problem.
-----A lack of education should bear as concrete a consequence as does the choice to go West. The uneducated person’s condition should be limited to the effecting of only his own life and not the lives of others. I often hear talk amongst conservatives about some sort of testing that might be applied before one could vote. The question does not get very far, because testing can be an expansive endeavor. But a quick look into the long past gives a clue from a flawed requirement. At the beginning of our Republic, one must have been a land owner in order to vote. How wicked! But to own land generally meant you were well enough educated with social and economic issues to wisely vote. I hear smarter talk that the able bodied should be apportioned a number of votes according to how much tax they pay. However one may choose to administer some sort of measure as to a person’s ability to carry enough intelligence into a ballot box to not give weight to the destruction of everyone else’s Republic, it is as necessary to do as going East is to arriving in Pennsylvania.
-----And it is likewise with the church. Each of us is given our choice as to how educated we are. But there is an additional caveat. The Word tells us to study to show ourselves approved and to be able to give answer to those who ask about our faith. In this new life, our choice to be uneducated is not simply a matter of social condition. At least in a little way, it is disobedience to the Word. But as with the rest of the disobedience, God’s mercy rises to the challenge of covering all the sins of all His children. Paul said, “…the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honorable, we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body , giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.” (I Cor 12:22-25 RSV). Similarly, he wrote to the Romans, “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves; let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to edify him.” (Rom 15:1-2 RSV). It is obvious that the weak, including the weakly educated, in the church are to be cared for to a greater degree. Their education needs to be served to them more subtly. I think that is why the environment of the traditional church is so rich in symbolism regarding the Lord and the elements of our new life. And I think that is why it is such a giant mistake to remove those educational elements from the very surface of our church culture. But again, if some, even many, choose a lack of education, let’s just hope they stop rising to the leadership levels.
Love,
Steve Corey
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