Summit Ministries

A secular mentality has a stranglehold on the academy. This comes to light in a major motion picture being released Friday, April 18th. It’s called "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed."
The film chronicles Ben Stein’s quest to find out why there is no academic freedom when it comes to discussing certain issues of science. He interviews several members of the science community and professors who have been censored, called names, shunned, and even denied tenure because they dared to question the Darwinian answer to the question of life’s origins.
Stein finds the prevailing attitude of the university today is narrowly dogmatic. The only view admitted into the area of science is that of naturalism. This, of course, precludes any suggestion of an “intelligence” at work behind the natural order. But this exclusivity of naturalism begs the question of whether life, or the cosmos, displays signs of such an intelligence. This theme is clearly brought out in the film.
So why should we cut off the discussion over origins? One answer seems to be that many professors are convinced that naturalism is the only way to do science and, more to the point, is the only viable worldview. At least, this is the case made by Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion. But isn’t this viewpoint discrimination? If so, does this mean that what is taking place in the classroom has more to do with indoctrination into a particular worldview rather than education?
So, what should it be? Keep science to a thinly veiled naturalism and thereby exclude God from the discussion, or allow the freedom to express a wider range of possibilities? To answer that question, I recommend you see the film, Expelled. I’ve written a fuller account here. The film’s website is www.expelledthemovie.com.

While the public/media conversation regarding Barack Obama and his relationship to Rev. Jeremiah Wright has perhaps moved on for now, there are still some interesting aspects to that topic that are worth considering. As the media played (over and over again) clips of Rev. Wright in the pulpit, the term Black Liberation Theology was mentioned a number of times. That term and all that it entails probably was not familiar to most people, including many in the media, such as talk show host,Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck interviewed Anthony Bradley on CNN Headline News to get his quick perspective on Black Liberation Theology. Anthony Bradley is a research fellow at the Acton Institute and an assistant professor of theology at Covenant Theological Seminary. It is worth watching the video below and then doing some more research on your own to learn more about it.

After you watch this video and do some research on your own, let me know what you learned and what your thoughts are on it. I'm also going to post a question or two in the Just A Thought forum that will expand further on Black Liberation Theology.

On February 29th, George Weigel (author of Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism: A Call to Action) and Philip Jenkins (author of God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis) engaged in a discussion regarding their slightly different visions of the future fate of Europe. The audio (mp3) is available for download at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Their respective concerns and comments are well worth pondering . . . prayerfully pondering.

I find that the hardest part about writing a blog entry, or any other written work, is just getting started. I have a lot of thoughts rumbling around in my head, but getting them down on paper is a challenge that often brings me to my knees (sometimes in prayer...sometimes in defeat). If I was sitting across from you at a coffee shop I would have no problem talking your ear off about whatever is the topic at hand. Fortunately for you, I'm not sitting across from you at a coffee shop talking your ear off. Unfortunately for me I'm not sitting across from you, but rather am sitting here at the computer trying to type this out, editing and re-editing as I go. But somehow I am managing to get this out, and yes, there is a point to this.

One way that we would love for you to get involved here at Summit.org is to join the discussion in our new forum: Just A Thought. You all have great questions that you are probably thinking, and you all have great answers that are just waiting to be put out there. Just A Thought is a forum that provides you the opportunity to ask your questions and provide your thoughts/answers in response to others.

But if you are like me, getting those questions/answers formulated in your mind and typed out can be a daunting task. You would rather be at that coffee shop talking it out. The best way to deal with this is to head on over to the forum, read some questions (there's only 1 at the moment), and start typing your thoughts in response to the questions. You may have to just get it out there and then edit it before you post it. But that is how you begin, just getting your thoughts out there. Others will come along and post their responses, which will in turn help you and everyone else to refine your/their own thoughts on the issue. That is how a great online discussion gets started.

To kick things off, Jason asked a great question (as an extension of a question from Dr. Michael Bauman): "What is your (specifically your) purpose in life?". Whether writing out your thoughts comes easily or not, head on over to the forum and join the discussion. Everyone would love to know your thoughts on this question.

It took us a while, but we have finally arrived to the world of blogging (applause, cheers, boos). We here at Summit have been working hard over the past year to plan and implement the new Summit website (let us know what you think), and one of our top priorities was to begin figuring out ways to better connect everyone associated with Summit Ministries. There are a lot of you out there: Summit conferences alumni, students using Summit curriculum, students at Summit Semester and Summit Oxford, and readers of Truth & Consequences, the Journal and other Summit resources. It would be a crying shame for us not to provide ways for you to get to know each other.

So this blog is one way to accomplish this. My name is Shun-Luoi Fong, and I will be partnering with Jason Graham (over in the Curriculum department) to regularly provide you with some worldview-related thoughts, ideas and resources that we think may be of some value to you. However, we don't want to simply be voices screaming into the void. We would love for you to get involved and let us know your responses/thoughts/criticisms to the various topics we write about. That's where the true value of this blog will be: your involvement. So read the blog, check out the resources we throw at you, and then respond in the comments section. Our hope is that through your responses to our blog entries and others comments, we will all grow in community and in the Lord.

Let's get started!