Gordon Clark: Education (The Southern Presbyterian Journal)

1957. Education. The Southern Presbyterian Journal. 8–9. Feb 27

Education

If the churches are to minister properly to their constituents, they should know something about the conditions which these people experience in their usual occupations. Therefore, when a congregation contains college students, or high school students preparing for college, or college graduates, the minister, the elders, the Sunday School teachers ought to be aware of the factors that influence their thinking.

In American education today, both college and high school education, there are factors that are inimical to Christianity. That is to say, aside from the usual moral temptations that beset all young people whatever occupation they may have entered upon, there are in particular educational factors that are inimical to Christianity. For this reason students are often predisposed to consider the Gospel as foolishness. The Apostle, of course, knew that this would be true in general; but the church worker today does well to become acquainted with the specific prejudices of the American student.

These prejudices are formed by a continual distortion of Christian truth in the classes and textbooks of the colleges. Sometimes the attack against Christianity is subtle, and the students do not realize what is happening to them. At other times it is not subtle at all. One young Christian wrote to me that a professor singled him out for sharp ridicule on account of his Christian stand. He did not complain so much about the ridicule as he complained that the professor would not permit him to defend his position in class against the ridicule.

It is impossible, however, to bring into printed columns the witnesses of such events. A reader must simply believe that the writer is correctly reporting his young friend's letter. But it is possible to refer to published textbooks, and these may be examined with relative ease. Take for an example Castell's An Introduction to Modern Philosophy, published by Macmillan. This book is a good example because it is a good textbook. It is also a good example because it is more subtle than harsh ridicule. And it is also a good example because it is not too subtle for an ordinary student to see what is going on, if it is pointed out to him. Ordinarily it is not pointed out to him, and the result is that the student is prejudiced against the Gospel.

The chapter on Ethics in this textbook gives accounts of Paley, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, and James. It is instructive to note how the author comments on these five. By and large he criticizes Paley's theological ethics severely and pro

poses few difficulties with respect to the others. To be sure, he pokes a little fun at Nietzsche, but there is virtually no criticism of the others. The impression that this treatment would ordinarily make in the mind of a student is that any theory of ethics is fairly respectable except a Christian theory.

It is also instructive to notice concretely what he says about theological ethics. Near the beginning (p. 288) he quotes Sir Leslie Stephen with approval: "Theology, so long as it was a vital belief in the world, afforded a complete and satisfactory answer to these questions." One can note that the use of the past tense helps to persuade the student that theology is no longer acceptable.

Later (p.296) he asks whether an act is right because God commands it or does God command it because it is right. He seems to leave this as an unanswerable question with the expressed suggestion that because it is unanswerable Christian ethics is untenable. He also raises the question as to whether the Bible or the Koran is the word of God, and suggests that the Bible is self-contradictory. Then finally he wonders whether it would not be better to base our theology (if any) on the more certain foundation of ethics than to base our ethics on the less sure foundation of theology. Without any indication that these questions can be answered, the student is left to surmise that Christianity is indefensible.

Castell's book is not a vicious book in comparison with some others. Antagonism to Christianity is not a hobby that the author rides. There is nothing violent in the treatment. But for this very reason it is a significant example of the constant and pervasive attack on Christian principles that characterizes so much of American education.

To counteract these forces the faithful church worker should try to point out these facts to the high school students, to the college students, and, if it is not too late, to the graduates also.

— G.H.C.