SP Conference, Part Three

Saturday morning started off with worship (all the sessions did), after which came Dan Stolebarger who is the executive director of KI. He blessed us with the Aaronic blessing, delving into the deeper and much sweeter meaning behind each phrase. Did you know "Shalom" means more than just "peace?" It means "wishing you the peace experienced by Adam in the garden, walking with God, before the fall." Doesn't that just knock your socks off?

Then came John Loeffler- we ended up purchasing several of his CDs to listen to from his radio broadcast "Steel on Steel" because we so enjoyed his "no bull" speaking style! He really delved into some problems we face as Christians: clashing worldviews, and how our schools and colleges were so smoothly taken over by secular humanists earlier in the 20th century, and how we (Gen's X,Y, and Millenial) have been taught to think dialectically instead of didactically. This rang throughout my conscience like a bell, as I have been wondering for years why I was a 4.0 student in high school and college, yet in the real world I struggle with thinking clearly in an argument, trying to explain truth (because truth is RELATIVE, right?!!) or to think critically and solve a problem on my own. I do best in regurgitating what I've been told- and that drives me nuts. It's like my classic experience in Humanism 101- when I was asked "why do I believe that it's ok to defend my family when the Bible clearly teaches not to murder?" And I couldn't come up with a single thing to say. Ask me to fix anything around the house, and if I haven't done it before I get completely lost before I even begin.

Walking away from John Loeffler's session, Gabe and I felt challenged to do several things. First, we need to learn more about and teach worldviews- it's paramount to individuals being able to stand up for our Christian morals and truths in a world where nearly everything is subjective. Second, we want to find something to help us in making sure that we teach our kids in the right way (since that's why we knew we wanted to homeschool in the first place! we just didn't know exactly why), and I believe this is difficult because if that's all I've ever known, how will I know how to do it differently?

Here's a quote from the Steel on Steel website doing a better explanation of what I am trying to say. "This (dialectically vs didactically) means they are taught there are no absolute facts or morals and a thought process based on feeling and collective thinking has been substituted for individuality and logical, rational thought. History has been revised to match politically-correct guidelines and the basis for belief in one's culture destroyed."

Now, please note this is regarding how our public education system has been compromised, and is not regarding the teachers who give their all to be the best educators they can be. There are fabulous teachers- I know! I had some! But as great as those great teachers were, they could neither individually nor corporately change the outcome of my education. That outcome is where we saw the dramatic difference between ourselves (Gabe and I) compared to our friends who were homeschooled (and could argue the socks off of us!) :-), and where we want to make the difference in our kids' education.

Oh yeah, and something else he said that just had us rolling with laughter. He was commenting on how folks are flocking to the Republican party like crazy, but unfortunately the picture is them running from the blood dripping fangs of Lucifer into the extended ruby red smile of Beelzebub. Hilarious!-loved it!