Summit Ministries

As editor of The Birth Control Review, Sanger regularly published the sort of hard racists we normally associate with Goebbels or Himmler. Indeed, after she resigned as editor, The Birth Control Review ran articles by people who worked for Goebbels and Himmler. For example, when the Nazi eugenics program was first getting wide attention, The Birth Control Review was quick to cast the Nazis in a positive light, giving over its pages for an article titled "Eugenic Sterilization: An Urgent Need," by Ernst Rüdin, Hitler's director of sterilization and a founder of the Nazi Society for Racial Hygiene.  

The project's racist intent is beyond doubt. "The mass of significant Negroes," read the project's report, "still breed carelessly and disastrously, with the result that the increase among Negroes...is [in] that portion of the population least intelligent and fit."

In 1992 Nicholas Von Hoffman argued in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Free cheap abortion is a policy of social defense. To save ourselves from being murdered in our beds and raped on the streets, we should do everything possible to encourage pregnant women who don't want the baby and will not take care of it to get rid of the thing before it turns into a monster... 

Later that same year, the White House received a letter from the Roe v. Wade co-counsel Ron Weddington, urging the new president-elect to rush RU-486 -- the morning-after pill -- to the market as quickly as possible. Weddington's argument was refreshingly honest:

[Y]ou can start immediately to eliminate the barely educated, unhealthy and poor segment of our country. No, I'm not advocating some sort of mass extinction of these unfortunate people. Crime, drugs and disease are already doing that. The problem is that their numbers are not only replaced but increased by the birth of millions of babies to people who can't afford to have babies. There, I've said it. It's what we all know is true, but we only whisper it, because as liberals who believe in individual rights, we view any program which might treat the disadvantaged as discriminatory, mean-spirited and... well... so Republican. 

[G]overnment is also going to have to provide vasectomies, tubal ligations and abortions. . , . There have been about 30 million abortions in this country since Roe v. Wade. Think of all the poverty, crime and misery . . . and then add 30 million unwanted babies to the scenario. We lost a lot of ground during the Reagan-Bush religious orgy. We don't have a lot of time left.

How, exactly, is this substantively different from Margaret Sanger's self-described "religion of birth control," which would, she wrote, "ease the financial load of caring for with public funds . . . children destined to become a burden to themselves, to their family, and ultimately to the nation"? 

So, how successful has Sanger's vision been in curbing the African American population?

Abortion ends more black lives than heart disease, cancer, accidents, AIDS, and violent crime combined. African Americans constitute little more than 12 percent of the population but have more than a third (37 percent) of abortions. That rate has held relatively constant, though in some regions the numbers are much starker; in Mississippi, black women receive some 72 percent of all abortions, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Nationwide, 512 out of every 1,000 black pregnancies end in an abortion. Revealingly enough, roughly 80 percent of Planned Parenthood's abortion centers are in or near minority communities.

The sometimes caustic, but always insightful Ann Coulter hit a home run today in her column.  You can read it here:

Two brilliant examples today of why silly phrases such as "Everyone can choose their own morality/religion/worldview, as long as it doesn't hurt someone else" fail what I called in my book "The Test of the Real World."  Some ideas sound great when you hear them, or look fine on paper, until they meet the real world of the human predicament. 

Some people ask what harm there is in gay marriage. After all, they claim, the homosexuals are hurting anyone (but perhaps themselves). This naive perspective fails to see the political and legal strategy of homosexuals, and it fails to appreciate the ramifications of acknowledgement and affirmation. 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91486340&sc=emaf

This is something you must read or listen to. There is a coming storm -- indeed, it is here -- and homosexuals are winning many court cases that force acknowledgement, affirmation and virtual promotion of their deviation. We know this already, of course, but this program caught my attention. The audio is about 8 minutes long. The article is a transcript. 

The reality is that worldviews collide. Contrary moral beliefs collide. Ideas aren't merely esoteric wrestlings of the intelligentsia. They matter. They matter deeply.  They matter deeply for real people, cultures, and nations.

Two sessions have been completed in Colorado, and I am just returning from my second trip to Ohio to speak to the Summit Student Conference there.  What great students we have had so far!  

A few weeks ago, Saturday Night Live did a parody of how the media swoons over Barak Obama.  It was really, really funny. Basically, the skit was a debate between Obama and Hillary.  After the reporter asked Hillary Clinton a very tough policy question, the question for Obama was "Can I get you a glass of water."  When Obama replies, "No," then the follow up question is "Are you sure?"

Atheist Sam Harris' book, Letter to a Christian Nation, is a silly rant using baseless claims.  A terrific response to this book was posted today by Townhall.com columnist and UNC-Wilmington professor Mike Adams.  Mike will be joining the Summt faculty in Colorado for a session this summer. 

This is a terrific idea - translating the worldview concepts for the average Christian in the areas of their everyday lives and responsibilities. The "God's Pleasure at Work" seminar, developed by my friends Chris and Kathy Overman (of Worldview Matters) is touching an area of worldview application that often gets left behind by those of us who live in the world of worldview ideas.
Really, the goal of the Christian worldview is, as Dr. Noebel says, 24/7 Christianity. And, of course, we talk about this sort of Christian life all the time, but there is rarely any sort of discipleship in what it means to apply a Christian worldview to business, recreation, leisure, hair dressing, or the stock market. "Worldview" is all too often code word for "here's everything I hate about the world and the church today."
I am thankful that the Overmans have undertaken this overlooked area of discipleship. You can find out more about their ministry here.

Summit Ministries was honored today by a visit from Hugh Hewitt, nationally syndicated radio show host and well-known conservative commentator. From his website:
<blockquote></blockquote>Professor Hugh Hewitt is a law professor and broadcast journalist whose nationally syndicated radio show is heard in more than 120 cities across the United States every weekday afternoon.  Professor Hewitt is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, and has been teaching Constitutional Law at Chapman University Law School since it opened in 1995.  Professor Hewitt is a frequent guest on CNN, Fox News Network, and MSNBC, and has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times.  He has received three Emmys for his work as co-host of the ground-breaking Life & Times program, a nightly news and public affairs program that aired on the Los Angeles PBS affiliate, KCET, from 1992 until 2007.  Professor Hewitt also conceived and hosted the 1996 PBS series, Searching for God in America.  He is the author of eight books, including two New York Times best-sellers.  His most recent books are Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That is Changing Your World and A Mormon in the White House?

Hewitt addressed the students first on the topic of Jihad, what he referred to as the key struggle that defines the world in which we live. In his second talk, he spoke from his excellent book, <em>A Guide to Christian Ambition</em>, a clear and concise manual for obtaining and exerting Godly influence in our culture.
This afternoon from 4pm to 7pm MST, Dr. Noebel will be a guest on his radio show. Find out where you can listen <a href="http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/RadioSchedule/Default.aspx">here</a>.

For the last several months, I have been working on revising the book I learned worldview from: Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview. Here is an excerpt from the preface, which I wrote:

My worldview "teeth" were cut on this book. I transferred to Bryan College as a second year student in the fall of 1994. My decision to transfer was based on sports, and I had little knowledge about the school itself or its emerging emphasis on Biblical worldview. What I discovered was an institution committed to a worldview approach to education and to training Christian leaders in all areas of life. This commitment was due in large part to the vision and leadership of its president, Dr. William E. Brown.

Bill is one of those rare college presidents whom students love to hear speak in chapel; in fact, his were rarely skipped. I learned from Bill the importance of understanding and engaging culture, that I could not withdraw from the world that I was trying to reach with the Gospel, and that people were never my enemy. Bill's invitation a year after I graduated from Bryan to return and lead the "Worldview Team" ministry that he had started essentially put my life on its current trajectory.

Dr. W. Gary Phillips was the first professor I encountered at Bryan- the class was called "Biblical Worldview." At the time, I had no idea what the word "worldview" even meant, but the class was life-changing for me. I learned that Christianity was to be applied to every area of life and culture, and that thinking was a Christian thing to do.
I went on to take several more classes from Gary, and I left each one changed. In most of his classes, I kept two sets of notes: one for what I needed to know for the test, and another for what I knew I never wanted to forget. His classes awakened my mind and forged the basis of my worldview.

It would be hard for me to quantify the extent to which these men have shaped my thinking. Now, I teach on Biblical worldview at Bryan College, at Summit Ministries programs, and in other contexts whenever I can. More than once over the last several years, I have supposed myself to have stumbled onto some new revolutionary truth, only to remember later that I had actually heard it first from Gary or Bill.

This is why I did not hesitate when Gary asked me about being involved in an update of this book. There is an extensive, and growing, body of evangelical literature on worldview, but in my view, this book remains unique. There are excellent books that compare worldviews (i.e. Jim Sire's The Universe Next Door), there are excellent books that contrast the Biblical worldview with other worldviews (i.e. David Noebel's Understanding the Times), and there are a few excellent books that help one construct a Biblical Worldview (i.e. Nancy Pearcey's Total Truth).

What Making Sense of Your World offers is a basic, accessible introduction to Biblical Worldview that covers all of these aspects of worldview thinking. Part One compares the basic worldviews, Part Two contrasts (and seeks to defend) the Biblical Worldview with the others, and Part Three constructs a biblical worldview in four key areas. This book is an overview; the Christian thinker is invited to continue his or her study through the recommended readings at the end of each chapter--an ongoing task Paul labels the "renewing" of our minds (Romans 12:2).

I am happy to announce the release of the revised edition. You can purchase it through the Summit webstore.

Frank Turek, Summit speaker and co-author of I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, has taken the content of his book onto college campuses this past year. Hundreds of students have turned out at schools like UNC-Wilmington, IUPUI, Appalachian State University, and NC State to hear why the case for Christianity is compelling.

Now, Frank is looking for others, who would like to be trained to teach this apologetics material. This August, Frank will be holding the CrossExamined Instructor Academy. This training conference will be held at Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, NC and will feature instructors like Frank, Greg Koukl and Brent Kunkle of Stand to Reason, and other top apologists who will teach and coach you in compelling apologetics.

More information can be found here.