What is worse that being ignorant? Ronald Reagan | The White House put it this way.
Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.
A Time for Choosing Speech, October 27, 1964 | Ronald Reagan (reaganlibrary.gov)
Because we are all human, we are all somewhat ignorant. In addition, to some extent we are all miseducated. Most human beings are not very wise. Like sheep, most human beings are not courageous either. Am I an exception? No. I just believe what the Bible says about us. Sheep. Sheep depend upon their shepherd.
What does a shepherd do? A shepherd cares for his sheep (Psalm 23 NASB – The LORD, the Psalmist’s Shepherd. – Bible Gateway). Because we are born so ignorant and helpless, human beings require a comprehensive education. We can die of ignorance and miseducation. Unfortunately, our education system is a mess. It often leaves out any attempt to appropriately answer fundamental questions.
- Who made us?
- What is the difference between right and wrong?
- What is the purpose for our existence?
- What happens to us when we die?
Do we know the answer to those questions? Some say we do. Some say we don’t. Since the people who run the public schools and most of the mass media either provide secular “answers” or don’t address these questions, most Americans know little about what the Bible says. Hence, we are in what seems to be a desperate mess right now. Desperate mess? Yes. Unless we know the Bible, we don’t know how the people who founded the United States expected our country to work.
Undoubtedly, some will not agree. Many will point to different problems. Still, those who see different problems will agree about miseducation. Only they will say Conservatives know so much that isn’t so.
Is there a quick solution for miseducation? No. Just as it took decades to reach this point, it will most likely take decades to fix it. Consider the ramifications. Whereas George Washington | The White House was once regarded by almost everyone as an admirable hero, generations have been increasingly miseducated to regard Washington as an evil white supremacist, a slave owner. Now, over 200 years after his death, silly people want to tear down his statues. Instead of measuring the man against his contemporaries, silly people want to measure George Washington against themselves. They cannot see the arrogance of thinking themselves better than George Washington just because they have never owned slaves.
Does such seeming arrogance result from miseducation? Yes. When we don’t know enough history to empathize with George Washington, to understand we would have found it difficult to do any better than he did, that’s a big problem.
Why the miseducation? Is it all some great, evil plot? It may be something Satan had in mind, but human beings? Is Satan real? Is that another one of those fundamental questions our secularized education system has neglected?
Why are so many Americans are ignorant of how their government is supposed to work? Why do so many think their government is supposed to work in ways the framers of the Constitution never wanted it to work? We can speculate, but that’s why Reagan included that funny line in his speech, A Time for Choosing Speech, October 27, 1964 | Ronald Reagan (reaganlibrary.gov. Unfortunately, that line was good for a laugh, but the fact it is true is not funny. It is far more difficult to disabuse people of untruths than it is to educate them from scratch.
Consider the view of a people we have no doubt were miseducated.
When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his “proper place” and will stay in it.
The Mis-Education of the Negro Quotes by Carter G. Woodson (goodreads.com)
Before the Civil War and during the Jim Crow era, those leading the South spent enormous resources to convince blacks of so much that isn’t so. With the end of slavery and Jim Crow, those who would miseducate — propagandize and brutalize — others did not suddenly fade away. So, one more quote.
Someone will say: Yes, Socrates, but cannot you hold your tongue, and then you may go into a foreign city, and no one will interfere with you? Now I have great difficulty in making you understand my answer to this. For if I tell you that this would be a disobedience to a divine command, and therefore that I cannot hold my tongue, you will not believe that I am serious; and if I say that the greatest good of a man is daily to converse about virtue, and all that concerning which you hear me examining myself and others, and that the life which is unexamined is not worth living — that you are still less likely to believe.
Socrates – Wikiquote
The unexamined life is not worth living? What does that mean to us sheep? It means we must be careful who we follow and believe.
John 10:11-18 New American Standard Bible
11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters the flock. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me, 15 just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
We each need to examine the assumptions that provide the foundation for what we believe. We each need to ask ourselves who is our shepherd. Are we following the Good Shepherd or a hired hand, perhaps a servant of Satan?
Consider this list. Are you guilty of these bad assumptions?
- Most Americans think they know what is in the Bible, but they have never read, much less studied, the Bible. Are you one of those people?
- We have a moral code that is still largely shared by most Americans that differs significantly from the moral code that people in other parts of the world practice and what people 2000 years ago would have upheld. Are you one the people who think there is an American moral code? Is it possible that America’s moral code is actually a Christian moral code? Consider “Why You’re Christian” | See, there’s this thing called biology… (wordpress.com).
- Are you one of those people who think The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription | National Archives is our nation’s founding document? We celebrate the 4th of July. Why? Is it possible that the Declaration of Independence: A Transcription | National Archives is our nation’s founding document? What is the important difference between the two documents? What is the difference between the rules and the principles use to construct those rules?
- Are you one of those people who has never considered the morality of taxation? Consider how we punish people who refuse to pay their taxes. What makes it moral to use the government to tax our neighbors to support the government even when some of them vehemently protest? Also consider when using the force of government to punish people becomes wrong. From what source do you derive your arguments? Your self? Or God? Is the difference important?
- Are you one of those people who thinks the Bible has nothing to say about government? Why did Jesus refer to much of the Old Testament as the Law?
Do I have all the answers? No. None of us do. Perhaps that is one reason the founders of this country sought to limit the power of government as much as possible. Do sheep really have the wisdom to rule other sheep?
Prince William-Manassas Family Alliance 
Sometimes, Tom, I flat out don’t know where you get this stuff. So.. as best as I can gather from all this… if one doesn’t follow the Bible as you do.. then that’s something “bad”?
“Consider this list. Are you guilty of these bad assumptions?”
There’s the “guilt” thing again. If someone isn’t aligned to you ideals then they are guilty of something?
But let’s continue on here and see if we can expose my “bad” assumptions so that I can know my guilt.
* “Most Americans think they know what is in the Bible, but they have never read, much less studied, the Bible. Are you one of those people?”
A- I confess (and that’s the whole idea here, right?) I do not know chapter and verse of the Bible. Do I walk around thinking I know all there is in the Bible and making “assumptions”? Can’t say that I do… Although, since I was a “graduate” of my Sunday School, and made it through confirmation class with the many Baby Boomers in my neighborhood, I guess I have a reasonable “Cliff Notes” idea what the theme is all about. Is this supposed to mark me as a bad person?
* “We have a moral code that is still largely shared by most Americans that differs significantly from the moral code that people in other parts of the world practice and what people 2000 years ago would have upheld. Are you one the people who think there is an American moral code? Is it possible that America’s moral code is actually a Christian moral code? ”
A- I think you are asking here if I am making an “assumption” that I perceive American Exceptionalism extends into Christian beliefs. Never gave it any thought actually. Silly me probably “assumed” that other cultures/societies around the world had their own versions of the Golden Rule. Was that a “bad” thing?
* “Are you one of those people who think The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription | National Archives is our nation’s founding document? We celebrate the 4th of July. Why? Is it possible that the Declaration of Independence: A Transcription | National Archives is our nation’s founding document? What is the important difference between the two documents? What is the difference between the rules and the principles use to construct those rules?”
A – Hehe.. “Are you one of those people…” Not too subtle. Those who fail your “assumption test” here will be cast aside as “one of those people”? Ok… so you are asking why we celebrate the 4th of July. Last I heard, it was the day we assign to celebrate the signing of the Declaration. Is it possible the Declaration is our nation’s founding document? It’s the document that declared ourselves independent from English rule… declaring the colonies, being united in the effort of declaring independence, as free and independent states. The Treaty of Paris, 1783, could be construed with a level of historical accuracy as being our nation’s founding document, as it formerly ended the War for Independence with the country dominating us. The difference between the Declaration and the Constitution? The one was “divorce papers”.. the other “The Rules Of The Road”. What is the difference between the rules and the principles used to construct those rules? Hope followed by ratification. I am guessing all this makes me one of “those” people.
* Are you one of those people who has never considered the morality of taxation? Consider how we punish people who refuse to pay their taxes. What makes it moral to use the government to tax our neighbors to support the government even when some of them vehemently protest? Also consider when using the force of government to punish people becomes wrong. From what source do you derive your arguments? Your self? Or God? Is the difference important?
A – Huh? There’s a morality to taxation? Does not the Constitution provide taxation as a vehicle by which Congress can provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare of the nation as a whole? Would not levying a judgment against people choosing to not pay taxes promote fairness in taxation? More to your point of “unfair” taxation.. as an American citizen who pledges allegiance are you not pledging such allegiance to the Republic formed in and by the Constitution? That being said… are not the rules contained in the Constitution for trying to change the Constitution itself? Or is everything I stated here falling into the “bad assumption” of “those people”?
• “Are you one of those people who thinks the Bible has nothing to say about government? Why did Jesus refer to much of the Old Testament as the Law?”
A- I actually never gave this any thought, largely because our country is not a theocracy. Silly me I suppose for making that assumption. So.. I guess I am “one of those.”
I dunno, I guess I simply do not understand where you are coming from… much less where you are heading.
@Doug
Thanks the comment. So long as it is polite and focuses on the issues, I don’t mind a comment that disagrees with my post.
Guilt is a funny word. How can anyone being guilty of being miseducated? Well, we can feel guilty, I suppose. Since none of us is good, we are all guilty of something, but being miseducated is the least of our crimes.
Have you read the Bible? No. You just admitted it. I received the Catholic equivalent Sunday School instruction and confirmation. Think! If that instruction doesn’t include actually reading the whole Bible, how serious can it be? By the time we finished high school, we should have read and even studied the Bible. Why didn’t that happen?
Bible as source of America’s moral code.Because the Bible is the bedrock document of Western philosophy, any American who has not read the Bible has not completed a serious education. All religious beliefs are not the same. Thanks to the Bible, for example, the United Kingdom and the United States led the way in the abolition of slavery and the protection of human rights to life, liberty, and property.
In the public schools, I have no doubt you learned that religion causes wars. Teachers point to the crusades and the wars that were fought in Europe when the Catholic Church lost its monopoly. What you were not taught is that when people started reading the Bible, they realized that it was wrong to force their beliefs upon each other. That is why Christians stopped fighting each other, but Islamists, Communists, Nazis, and so many others have never accepted such truths. Communists and Nazis don’t even believe in God, but the horror the genocides they have perpetuated is unbelievable. They murdered their “enemies” by the tens of millions.
Is the Declaration of Independence our founding document?And you bring up the Treaty of Paris? What you are illustrating is why some prefer to instruct the ignorant instead of the miseducated. It can be far more difficult to uproot a bad idea than it is to plant a new one.
Before the American Revolution could even begin, the colonists had to convince themselves that God would approve of their decision to rebel. Not easy. Read Romans 13:1-7. In 1776, the pastors of the churches in the colonies were quite influential, and they were not necessarily adverse to expressing their political opinions. Had those pastors opposed the revolution, it would not have happened. As it is, most supported it, and their moral concerns about government made it into the Declaration.
Huh? There’s a morality to taxation? That is a possibility. Sigh! What makes taxation different from stealing? Read the Declaration of Independence. Look again at Romans 13:1-7. What is the reason for having a government? What happens when we don’t have a government that protects us FROM EACH OTHER? What happens when our leaders abuse the power of the government?
The theocracy straw man.Typical. No one said anything about turning America into a theocracy. Jesus never called for a theocracy. Even Israel did not have have much of a government until the people insisted that the Prophet Samuel appoint a king. God punished them by giving them one (1 Samuel 8).
Any government — EVERY GOVERNMENT — rest upon a moral foundation. Our laws are a reflection of what we think right and what we think wrong. That is why our government looks so different from one based upon Islam, Hinduism, Communism, Buddhism, and so forth.
And so we dialogue.
I just now realized (from your reply) that I posted my reply on your Manassas blog. I got mixed up with your re-blog from the other one. Sorry.
@Doug
No big deal. If I did not want comments, I would not accept any. I just don’t support candidates here, and I try to avoid taking a position that other members of PWMFA would find disagreeable. .
Reblogged this on boudica.us.
Tom,
Your ending question: ‘Do sheep really have the wisdom to rule other sheep?” will never be answered if we do not understand what is truly “good.”
The word good is used today to describe something which brings pleasure such as a good movie, a good time, a good etc. etc.
“The Good Shephard guides his sheep.” However, if we are never taught to discern what is good in the eyes of our Creator, we are not only miseducated, we are lacking the wisdom to discern who is a truly a good shepherd, to rule other sheep.
I am not too sure of the choice of word “miseducated’ to describe what is now lacking in secular education of children in public schools. Perhaps a better way to describe not teaching what is “truly good” and worthy to lay down our lives to defend.
Regards and good will blogging.
If Interested
Philosophers have come up with various words to confuse even more what should be a simple understanding of what is truly good.
Click to access comparison_edu_philo.pdf
Tom,
I linked your post to my post today titled: Truly Good School
https://rudymartinka.com/2021/05/04/truly-good-school-king-solomon-blog/
Regards and goodwill blogging.
Thanks!
Will check it out tomorrow. Thanks.