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Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #271 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
I spent 35 years of my career in education, except for five years, all of it in higher education. And I loved every minute of it.
It started when I was in college. I was a good student and liked learning. I admired my professors’ work and lifestyle. So, it was an easy jump to begin thinking I should try to earn a doctorate so I could teach in a college or university. After graduation, that started an eight-year grad school odyssey in which my new bride supported me all the way. Then, wink-wink, and 35 years go by.
Now, though, when I read or think about American higher education, I am often saddened because, frankly, it’s a mess.
While American higher education has long been admired for its research, innovation, and commitment to intellectual inquiry, in recent decades, critics from across the political spectrum have argued that many colleges and universities have experienced a decline in their commitment to open debate and viewpoint diversity. Some institutions have increasingly embraced ideological frameworks often described as “woke,” emphasizing concepts such as systemic oppression, identity politics, and equity in ways that overshadow traditional liberal education.
Classrooms and campus culture have, in some cases, become less welcoming to dissenting opinions. Speakers have occasionally been protested or disinvited, faculty members have reported pressure to conform to prevailing viewpoints, and some students say they self-censor rather than risk social or academic consequences. From this perspective, universities have shifted from encouraging vigorous debate to reinforcing a narrower range of acceptable opinions.
Surveys of faculty political affiliations consistently show that professors in many disciplines lean more politically left than the general public. This imbalance influences curriculum, hiring, and classroom discussions, potentially limiting exposure to conservative, libertarian, or traditional perspectives, certainly to religious perspectives.
The broader concern expressed by many observers is not simply that universities lean left, but that higher education may be drifting away from its historic mission of pursuing truth through reasoned inquiry, civil disagreement, and intellectual humility. The debate has prompted renewed calls for protecting free expression, emphasizing rigorous academic standards, and ensuring that universities remain places where competing ideas can be examined openly and respectfully.
At the same time, sadly and astoundingly, antisemitism has become a significant concern on some American college and university campuses, prompting widespread debate among educators, policymakers, Jewish organizations, and civil liberties advocates. Numerous incidents in recent years have raised alarms about the climate experienced by many Jewish students.
Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, reports of antisemitic incidents on campuses increased substantially. Jewish students at some institutions reported harassment, intimidation, exclusion from campus activities, and, in some cases, fear of expressing their religious or cultural identity. Protest encampments and demonstrations, while often organized to criticize Israeli government policies, also included rhetoric or actions that crossed the line from legitimate political expression into antisemitism by targeting Jews as a group or denying their equal participation in campus life.
Congressional hearings and investigations brought national attention to the issue, questioning whether universities had adequately enforced their own policies against harassment and discrimination. Several university presidents faced intense scrutiny over their largely lame responses, rightly leading to resignations at some ostensibly “prestigious” institutions.
It is important to distinguish between criticism of the Israeli government—which is protected political speech—and antisemitism, which is hostility, discrimination, or prejudice directed against Jewish people because they are Jewish. Maintaining that distinction is essential to protecting both free expression and the safety and dignity of Jewish students and scholars.
The increase in antisemitism in the United States has become a matter of serious concern for government officials, religious leaders, educators, and civil society organizations. Political and social polarization has intensified hostility. Left leaning extremist groups used this period of national tension to promote antisemitic rhetoric.
Many observers also cite declining civic trust, reduced historical knowledge about the Holocaust, and growing acceptance of inflammatory rhetoric as contributing factors. Addressing antisemitism requires consistent enforcement of laws against hate crimes, education about Jewish history and the Holocaust, promotion of respectful dialogue, and a clear distinction between legitimate criticism of governments and prejudice directed against people because of their religion or ethnicity. It also and most importantly demands the teaching and understanding of a moral code based upon Judeo-Christian values that respect all human beings as created in the image of God.
The treatment of conservative speakers on some American college campuses has also become a subject of sustained national debate. Institutions dedicated to the free exchange of ideas have become less hospitable to viewpoints that depart from prevailing campus opinion, particularly those associated with political conservatism.
A number of high-profile incidents have involved invited speakers facing protests, disruptions, or demands that their appearances be canceled. In some instances, demonstrations have remained peaceful, reflecting students’ rights to express disagreement. In other cases, however, events have been interrupted, speakers shouted down, or security concerns have led universities to cancel appearances.
Conservative student organizations have also reported difficulties hosting controversial guests due to heightened security costs, administrative restrictions, or fears of disruption. These barriers can have a chilling effect, discouraging students from inviting speakers who represent differing viewpoints on campus. The broader concern extends beyond individual events. Surveys have suggested that some students and faculty, from both conservative and progressive perspectives, choose to self-censor because they fear social or professional consequences for expressing unpopular opinions. This climate diminishes the robust intellectual engagement that universities are intended to foster.
The ongoing debate highlights a fundamental challenge for higher education: balancing freedom of expression, campus safety, and mutual respect while preserving the university’s historic mission as a place where competing, even ugly, ideas can be examined critically, openly, and without intimidation.
American higher education faces a series of significant challenges. Affordability is one. Rising tuition, student debt, and the increasing cost of operating colleges have led many families to question the value of a four-year degree. At the same time, demographic changes and declining enrollment have placed financial pressure on many institutions, particularly small private colleges and regional public universities.
A second challenge is restoring public confidence. Surveys indicate that Americans have become more divided over whether colleges effectively prepare students for careers, promote critical thinking, and encourage open intellectual inquiry. Concerns about ideological polarization, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity have intensified debates over the mission of higher education.
Preparing graduates for a rapidly changing economy is another priority. Advances in artificial intelligence, automation, and emerging technologies require universities to equip students with adaptable skills, technical competence, ethical judgment, and lifelong learning habits.
Mental health has also become a major concern. Colleges are experiencing growing demand for counseling services as students face increased anxiety, loneliness, and stress – and remember, the audience we’re talking about here is 18 to 22 years of age. Colleges may be able to help, but the real issue is spiritual and rooted in students’ lives and families.
So, the old image of a college where a professor sits on one end of a log and a student sits on the other, well, that seems long gone. But this personal engagement, hopefully from a mature and trustworthy scholar, is what students still need. So, here’s some hope: there are still some wonderful professors out there in academia. Find them.
For parents, it’s a boatload of money to pay for four years of higher education. Be sure you know what your favorite college or university is really teaching and whether it’s worth your child’s time and your money. A great football team says nothing about what’s being taught in the classroom.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best.
If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. For more Christian commentary, see my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2026
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/ or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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On social media, have you been hearing on about the revivals taking place at public universities, many via football teams?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #226 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
In those earlier podcasts, I noted that to discern wisely, we needed to ask questions:
- Is this revival consistent with the Word of God?
- Is Jesus Christ exalted?
- Does this revival involve confession and repentance, obedience, salvation by faith in Christ, open confession of love for Christ?
- Will God move this revival to public universities?
Asking these questions is not a masquerade for doubting God or being skeptical for the sake of skepticism but a careful stewardship of what we are hearing, determining what is true and trustworthy. In those earlier reviews of college revivals, I concluded God indeed seemed to be working and that I hoped the movement would continue.
I also noted that students coming of age in America have been sold a bill of goods. Our culture has taught youth to reject God, absolute truth, morality, even biological science. Instead, they’ve been taught cynicism, that nothing deserves their faith, that nothing and no one is worthy of their trust.
Youth are taught in school, in their music, in their celebrity worship, in their sexual confusion that nothing matters, that there is no purpose, just uncertainty, angst, disquietude.
And nothing has been put in place of this deconstruction of timeless verities. All young people have is nihilism – the idea life is absurd and meaningless. Is it any wonder that there is an epidemic of mental health issues among America’s young people?
Think about this. If you truly believed life was hollow, inconsequential, that your own life was pointless, that it had no purpose, you have no value or worth, why wouldn’t you seek escape in hedonism, lust or substance abuse? Who cares?
And if your life has no value or worth, certainly other human beings have no value or worth. If we believe this hopelessness, what’s left?
It is in this academic context that I prayed the Lord would send his Spirit upon the land beginning perhaps with the most spiritually bereft of places in America, the college and university campus. Now it appears God is doing exactly that.
While there’s no official count, a number of organizations, student ministries, media, and Christian commentators have documented dozens of events, across both public and private schools, where students gather for extended worship, prayer, confession, baptisms, and renewed commitment to faith.
Over 1,000 college students reputedly accepted Jesus this week at West Virginia University. Carson-Newman University experienced public professions of faith and baptisms of football players.
Ohio State University football players led “An Invitation to Jesus” night of praise inviting students to Christ with many coming forward to profess faith. Over 2,000 people gathered. About 50 students were baptized.
“Against the backdrop of anti-Israel protests, violence, and death chants at college and university campuses recently, some GenZers are choosing instead to uplift Jesus Christ. (Some) 8,000 students gathered on the campus of the University of Tennessee to praise His Name alone.”
Auburn University: A revival event there drew 5,000 students, resulting in over 200 baptisms. Florida State University: Another Christian service saw 4,500 students attend, with around 350 baptisms. Nebraska University and University of Cincinnati football players united in prayer after the game. The University of Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson recently shared his faith in Christ with media. Pennsylvania State University players prayed in endzone before the game. A UniteUS event at the University of Oklahoma drew nearly 9,000 students in early September 2025 to worship, pray, and hear evangelistic preaching.
Many universities experiencing revivals. Arizona State Georgia Bulldogs, Auburn Tigers, Miami Hurricanes, Boise State, and others have been doing this for years but not to this extent.
Earlier in 2025, at University of Kentucky, UniteUS held a large revival: ~8,000 students in attendance, ~2,000 responded to the gospel message. At Ohio State in spring, ~6,500 students gathered, nearly 2,000 made first‑time commitments, many baptisms were conducted even in severe cold. Purdue University had a revival‐style event; about 4,500 attended and hundreds responded. Baylor University also hosted a “72‑hour prayer tent” event, continuous prayer and worship, part of the UniteUS / campus ministries outreach.
The UniteUS movement is a major organizer behind many of these events. These revivals often combine: worship music, evangelistic preaching, altar calls/decision points for Christ, baptisms (sometimes spontaneous, even outdoors or in unconventional setups like tubs or trucks). Student‐athletes are increasingly visible participants. There seems to be momentum early in the fall semester with “kickoff” events, likely because new students and returning students are gathering, and events are timed to the start of term. OSU’s “Fall Kickoff” is a case in point.
Before college football kickoff, Tim Tebow led a stadium of 100,000 in prayer, sharing the Gospel plainly and pointedly, praying people would respond. His prayer elicited an ovation and cheers.
UniteUS began, September 12, 2023, when “thousands of college students gathered at Auburn University’s Neville Arena with one singular focus–to lift the name of Jesus. What began in Auburn, Alabama has continued to grow into a movement reaching college campuses across the nation. Unite exists to see college students gathered to lift the name of Jesus. Every Unite gathering has three main objectives:
SALVATION
For non-believers to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel in a welcoming environment. Acts 16:31; Romans 10:9
FREEDOM
For believers to know and experience true freedom from sin and burdens on their hearts. Galatians 5:1
COMMUNITY
For students to find community and discipleship through connection to local ministries and the local church. Ephesians 4:1-6.”
UniteUs is itself a phenomenon, founded by Tonya Prewett, in a little more than two years it has become a national force in the Christian evangelism of Gen Z. To assure fidelity to the Word and avoidance of faddish religion or easy-believism, the questions we asked of earlier of Christian college revivals should continue to be asked of UniteUs revivals: Are these revivals consistent with the Word of God?
Is Jesus Christ exalted? Do these revivals involve confession and repentance, obedience, salvation by faith in Christ alone, and open confession of love for Christ? At this point, early and continuing testimonials are consistently affirmative.
“Despite the fact the events are held on secular college campuses, every place UniteUS goes they're finding thousands of students desperate to know Jesus and eagerly jumping into fountains, lakes, and the backs of pickup trucks in order to be baptized. One of the keys to the UniteUS events is their partnership with local churches that help disciple the students who come to the events and dedicate their lives to Jesus.” One pastoral supporter of UniteUS said, “Universities are pregnant with revival.”
Several public universities experienced revival sessions during 2024, and when I say “several” I mean a lot, and it appears this is continuing in 2025. Some are saying, “Aside from what we have been seeing take place on social media, there is undeniable evidence that the Holy Spirit is moving in this place. Gen Z is hungry for truth, seeking an anchor to put their hope in, and ready to give their lives to the one person who can set them free.”
Clearly, Christian revivals on American university campuses are being reported with increasing frequency, and many if not most of these events are cited on social media. They are driven by a mix of spiritual craving, societal stresses, desire for meaning, and, I believe, the Lord’s Spirit choosing to work in the lives of young people.
If you want something positive to pray about, pray for more genuine Christian spiritual revivals or awakenings specifically on American university campuses.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. For more Christian commentary, see my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2025
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/ or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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Is the U.S. Department of Education critical to the success of American education?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #192 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
I remember when the federal Department of Education was created by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. Now President Donald Trump is considering dismantling the department.
“The heads of the education departments in multiple GOP-led states describe the move as a potential opportunity to get rid of red tape around funding and burdensome reporting requirements on their schools.”
“The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) recently showed students are still behind in reading and math, and that the gap between high-performing and low-performing students is widening.”
“Betsy DeVos, Trump’s secretary of Education in his first term…wrote in an op-ed for The Free Press that the department should be scrapped entirely.” She said, “Since its creation in 1979, the Department of Education has sent well more than $1 trillion to schools with the express purpose of closing the gaps between the highest and lowest performers. Today, those gaps are as wide as they have ever been, and by many measures, even wider.”
“Seven in 10 American fourth graders are not proficient readers, meaning they struggle with reading grade-level literature and comprehending informational texts. Forty percent graded out at “below basic,” meaning they struggle with basic comprehension. In math, the picture is similar: six in 10 fourth graders are behind in math. The gap between the highest and lowest performers has grown by 10 percent since 2019.”
She further noted, “The Department of Education does not run a single school. It does not employ any teachers in a single classroom. It doesn’t set academic standards or curriculum. It isn’t even the primary funder of education—quite the opposite. In most states, the federal government represents less than 10 percent of K–12 public education funding.”
So, we’re back to President Trump’s suggestion: why maintain a federal Department of Education?
Before we return to the Department, allow me to share some flashback biographical information.
I didn’t know it then, but I know now that I was enormously blessed to attend Ohio public schools, 1958-1970, graduate from small but high academic standards Cedarville College in 1974 and finally earn a doctorate in political science from the University of Cincinnati in 1982. I say “blessed” because throughout my educational experience, except for no more than five poor teachers, I attended school when teachers taught the subject matter, I was incentivized and expected to work and to achieve, and I was told by involved parents that if I got in trouble at school I’d be in trouble at home. I learned reading, arithmetic, spelling, and science. I learned problem solving critical thinking skills. I learned to express myself, writing and speaking, in a manner that was logical and cogent.
Today, there are still dedicated, hard-working, high-standards public school teachers and professors in university. I do not blame teachers for all our educational problems. But these good faculty members and academic staff are working within a massive system now governed by corrupted values and motives misaligned with what it means to be well-educated in a free and pluralistic society.
The educational landscape in which they work today is like Earth-to-Mars different from what I experienced growing up.
As I said, I experienced only a handful of teachers who should have worked somewhere else. The rest of my teachers and professors were outstanding: Mrs. Holmes in 1st Grade and Mrs. Sigmon in 2nd who taught me to read, the Mackley brothers, Ray and Ivan, in 4th and 5th Grade, one who taught me geography and one who taught me fractions. And by the way, most of my elementary school experience included starting the day with the Pledge of Allegiance and a Bible verse read to us all.
In 8th Grade, favorite of many of my class cohort, Mr. Chuck Chippi, who taught me how to diagram sentences and speak the King’s English. He later went on to be a beloved high school administrator. Mrs. Crevey, who was short, and round as she was tall, but a tough-love taskmaster who taught me Algebra, Mrs. Burns who called me “Rexie” throughout my high school experience and taught me Latin, Mr. Farley who was a masterful lecturer and taught me to take notes as I learned American history and government. I was similarly blessed in college and university with professors dedicated to academic excellence and wanting to see it flower in me. Here and now, I thank and salute them all. I am forever grateful.
My point is that I was given a gift that has kept on giving throughout my life. I was well educated. I was taught to think.
But sadly, while I was yet in school, and certainly soon thereafter, education began focusing more on social engineering than on education.
And also – don’t miss this – the idea of getting in trouble at home if I caused problems in school, well, forget that. Now, many parents look upon teachers with suspicion, as adversaries, as someone to sue and who dare not discipline their child because, of course, he or she is angelic. Guess how the students game that system?
With this shift, teachers and administrators lost the authority to hold students accountable and thus to instill a proper work ethic and demand academic attainment.
Beginning in the 1960s, public schools became the nation’s Petri dish, the place where we experimented with our myriad, intractable social problems. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll, yes, but way more than this. Segregation/desegregation, school shootings and safety, debates about standardized testing, overcrowding, bullying, broken families and absentee fathers, technology pros and cons, self-absorbed teacher unions, jettisoning prayer and religion in general. And more recently, add woke or progressive, leftist ideological initiatives that have taken control of education from kindergarten to university: LGBTQ+ pride, gender fluidity and trans activism, pronoun mania, political correctness, critical race theory pushing DEI or diversity, equity, and inclusion, “anti-racism,” ironically, to the exclusion of many worthy educational programs.
This morass of social pathologies is rooted in something other than education as such. Schools and teachers can’t propagate values parents and society have rejected. Our school social pathologies are rooted in American society’s rejection of God and truth, the importance of two-parent families, recognition of moral parameters, work ethic, accountability, and a vision of a well-educated citizenry.
I was fortunate to be a student before these social problems dominated the school and classroom.
Today, millions of students are being ill-served by an educational bureaucracy more interested in social justice ideology than critical thinking, more interested in the politics of the adults than in the pedagogy of the students.
Just since I was a grade schooler, tens of millions of dollars have been dumped into public education, yet schools are now failing their students at all levels.
“The cost of the Department of Education is phenomenal. Since its creation, the Department of Education in the United States has spent over $1.4 trillion.
This funding, which primarily comes from taxpayer dollars, has had zero impact on test scores…Over the past 40 years, results have stayed flat or declined in most categories, which shows just how wasteful this system happens to be.”
Why should we keep pouring money into a bottomless pit and see little to no positive in return? Why should American tax dollars be earmarked to support values and philosophies, like so-called “anti-racism” or “gender inclusivity” that undermine the body politic and e Pluribus Unum? Why, if our students are falling behind other developed nations, and our national debt is now $36 trillion, should we spend $80 billion per year on educational bureaucrats and unproductive programs? If we care about our children and the nation’s future, why should we put up with the Department of Education’s left-leaning initiatives that turn out graduates who cannot read or think well, do not know American civics, are ill-prepared for college or the workplace, and who have been inundated with extensive pessimism about their own country and their future?
The bottom line is this: a) How do we create an educational system that better educates our children for the future? b) How do we disband governmental activities, even a department, no longer serving a needed function, and save the federal government billions of dollars?
The U.S. Department of Education is not a sacred entity. It is a bureaucracy that has seen its day and deserves a death with dignity. Abolishing the Department of Education will, it is my hope, increase the chances that my grandchildren attending public schools gain an education as good as the one I received. This is only possible if education is the actual focus of the activities in the schools.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. Or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2025
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/ or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://x.com/RexMRogers.
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Is the Spirit of God bringing revival to the believer and a spiritual awakening to the seeker on the American college and university campus?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #168 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
Revivals, or spiritual awakenings if you prefer, broke out on Christian college, private college, and public university campuses in 2023.
Now in 2024, perhaps we’re seeing the continuation of these experiences with the Lord.
Recently, “a revival event was held on the Ohio State University campus…where a few Buckeye football players gave testimonies and dozens of students were baptized. The event was held…outside OSU’s Curl Market and organized by numerous on-campus Christian student groups, featuring multiple members of the university’s football team leading the worship. Approximately 60 attendees were baptized that evening, reported the OSU student newspaper, The Lantern.
Another report said, Ohio State University’s campus witnessed a bunch of different churches joined together in a public place to worship. Ohio State football “players joined the crowd in worship. (which one attending faculty member estimated at 2,000). “It was all Jesus-based, all focused on Him,” the faculty member said. “Very vulnerable and very moving.”
Soon, ice bathtubs were brought and filled, and Gee Scott Jr. began preaching and baptizing his teammates…This comes just two weeks after over 25 players showed up to fall camp wearing custom OSU shirts that simply said, “Jesus Won.” (Someone at the event said) God is doing amazing things within this team, and it deserves to be publicized and praised.”
In 2023, Auburn University, Florida State University, University of Georgia to name a few, witnessed tens of thousands of students gathering, sometimes spontaneously, sometimes in sponsored events, to worship, praise God, hear sermons on various sins – yes, not just feel-good peptalks but sermons about darkness of the soul, slavery to sin and the freedom from that sin available to all through saving, forgiving, transformative faith in Jesus Christ. Such sermons were often followed by large-scale baptisms of hundreds of students in nearby bodies of water, even available campus fountains.
Impromptu nonstop prayer meetings, Scripture reading, public prayers, confessions, arms raised, worship singing, some students being saved by making professions of faith in Christ. Personal testimonies went viral on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, racking up millions of views and inspiring carloads of visitors to descend on Wilmore, population 6,000.
The movement then spread to other Christian institutions of higher learning: “Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee; Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio; Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky.” Also, revival was reported at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama and Campbellsville University in Campbellsville, Kentucky.
At Asbury, students arrived from other universities: the University of Kentucky, Purdue University, Texas A&M University and Indiana Wesleyan University, Ohio Christian University, Transylvania University, Midway University, Georgetown College, Mt. Vernon Nazarene University, and many others.
Christian author Jennie “Allen, who was a speaker at three…college campus outreaches, in which thousands of students gathered and publicly accepted Christ, and hundreds were baptized, told Think Eternity News via text: “People keep asking us what is happening? How does this keep happening? They want a formula. I get it. I keep thinking the same thing. But we know in our bones, this is a move of God. We [pastors, ministry leaders] all have done the things we are doing now in rooms, and this hasn’t happened. I believe we are watching the beginnings of the next great awakening. At least that is what we are all praying for.”
Adult ministry leaders at these events observed, students “aren't interested in just going to church on Sunday but following Jesus Sunday through Saturday. They are up late into the night worshiping and up early the next morning praying. They are walking their campuses sidewalks and sharing the gospel with classmates.”
A Texas pastor who spoke at the University of Georgia last spring, said he was asked “to talk about finding freedom from sexual sin.” After doing so, he said, “It's not really a “crowd pleaser” message, but I gave it and Jennie Allen went up afterwards, talking about the importance of living in Christian community. The arena was full of over 6,000 students! Jennie wrapped up with an altar call and someone in the crowd wanted to get baptized. Someone else shouted there was a pond by The Red Barn, a notable landmark on campus. Thousands of students went out to the pond, and over two hundred students lined up to get baptized. We were in the water for hours. This was not a “dunk and next” situation. This was two hundred different Gospel-centered conversations. We went slow to confirm that they were believers and baptized past midnight!”
So, based upon what we have in limited media coverage, it appears the Lord did something special on these university campuses last year, and perhaps he will do so again this academic term.
Given what we have seen on college and university campuses in the past few months, it would be easy to write them off as spiritual wastelands: destructive protests, and not simply pro-Palestinian demonstrations calling for care and consideration toward the innocents among the Palestinian population, like children or women, but rather pro-Hamas rages demanding universities divest themselves of all involvement with the state of Israel, along with antisemitic chants aimed both at Israelis abroad and Jews here at home, including on the very campuses where such ethnic hate is being propagated. So, yes, it would be easy to walk away from this, to dismiss them all as unworthy, spoiled, hopeless brats.
But of course, that is not what Jesus would do. God commands Christian believers to love our neighbors, pray for our enemies, speak the truth in love, and act as ambassadors of reconciliation in a sin-drenched world. Surely this includes our youth.
But why are so many American kids so susceptible to hatemongering?
Well, American postmodern, post-Christian culture, writ large on the academic campus, makes no bones about rejecting God, absolute truth, morality, even biological science. In place of moral conscience and critical thinking, students are taught skepticism and cynicism, that nothing deserves their faith, that nothing and no one is worthy of their trust, certainly not the USA.
For a few decades now, throughout academia, students have been systematically taught the rubrics of Marxist ideology, that everything boils down to oppressor vs oppressed, class conflict seen in rich vs poor or as race or gender conflict,
victor vs victim, and the one who has power—not necessarily righteousness—is the victor. Radical professors, and so their students, reject the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights because they believe freedom from law is preferrable to liberty in law.
Students are taught something called nihilism: the idea life is meaningless. Think about this. If you truly believed life was hollow, inconsequential, that your own life was pointless, that it had no purpose, you have no value or worth, why wouldn’t you seek escape in hedonism, lust or substance abuse? Who cares?
And if your life has no value or worth, certainly other human beings have no value or worth. If we believe this hopelessness, then what’s left?
It is in this academic context that I pray the Lord will send his Spirit upon the land beginning perhaps with the most spiritually bereft of places in America, the college and university campus.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. Or check //www.youtube.com/@DrRexRogers">my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2024
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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What conclusions have you drawn about the pro-terrorist social contagion sweeping the nation’s university campuses?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #148 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
Why do “protesters”– generously named for sure – believe performative outrage, annoying disruption of others’ lives, outright threats or harassment of other American citizens, hunger strikes, or vandalism will persuade others to their point of view?
None of this, certainly not vandalism, validates any point of view, other than lawlessness. Boorish, immature, threatening language or behavior wins no social advancement to any cause celébre.
What kind of mass psychosis has gripped so many people in America, including public university faculty and administrative leaders, and misnamed so-called “progressive” politicians that they have no moral conscience, no common sense, no respect for law or order, no evident patriotism—-and worse, openly support Hamas?
Demonstrations now occurring on more than 80 public university campuses nationwide are not the same as demonstrations in the 1960s.
1) the demonstrations in the 60s focused upon the Viet Nam War in which Americans were directly involved. Not so today.
2), 60s demonstrations, including those focused upon gaining civil rights for Black Americans were based upon US Constitutional law and other American founding documents. Today’s demonstrators specifically reject these documents and their values.
The right to express oneself, to disagree, even to protest is indeed an American civil liberty defined by Free Speech in the First Amendment. As far as that goes, I’m all in. But an extensive body of law developed largely in the 1960s clearly states that protests qualify as free speech as long as they remain peaceful, do not impede others as in highways, tunnels, streets, and walkways, do not incite violence or endanger others, do not commandeer, or destroy property, and do not turn violent. Today’s demonstrations have repeatedly crossed these lines in multiple locations.
Politicians and celebrities are rushing to assert the protesters are just courageous students speaking up on behalf of Palestinian human rights. But this gaslighting has now been debunked in several cities, including prominently at Columbia University in New York. “Outside agitators,” professionals, some paid, are involved. They are “fifth-column anarchists,” some from elsewhere in the world.
Actually, “America's ‘leading’ university campuses have been completely overrun by an infestation of riotous, anarchic Hamas sympathizers. Jewish students and faculty on campus are suffering the worst antisemitism in the history of the American republic.”
Predictably, numbers of students do not know why they are there or what they are protesting.
Student protesters and agitators are yelling, chanting, singing, and signing not simply pro-Palestinian messages, something that is at least worthy of discussion, but antisemitic, anti-Israel, and “Death to America” slogans. For example, “The Final Solution,” or “Long live the Intifada,” meaning kill all the Jews, “We’re all Hamas,” “Go back to Poland,” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied.”
American university students don’t seem to realize or care that calling for the genocide of Jews includes fellow students and faculty members, the US Vice President’s husband, Doug Emhoff, former President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, movie mogul Stephen Spielberg, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen Bernie Sanders, and thousands more. Do they really want to kill all these people too?
What we are seeing is, yes, a minority of students in public universities, but still, these are our kids. What we’re seeing is evidence of that “collapsing standards, and increasingly politicized and mediocre faculty reflect a collapse of the university system.”
“Faculty hiring had become increasingly non-meritocratic based on diversity/equity/inclusion criteria. New faculty hires have sought to institutionalize self-serving DEI and recalibrate higher education to prepare a new generation for self-perpetuating radical ideologies. Entire generations are now suffering from prolonged adolescence as they drag out college to consume their early and mid-twenties.”
My 35 years in higher education makes me ache when I watch all this. I loved academia, debate and critical thinking, and the campus atmosphere. But today, “one of the great ironies in contemporary college systems is how rampantly anti-intellectual they have become over the course of the last generation or so. Cerebral rigor, open-mindedness, and challenging information have long been underpinning aspects of university life. These days, those same elements are regarded as threats on too many campuses.”
“Advocacy has increasingly displaced academics in higher education. Activism now permeates higher education as social justice becomes the touchstone for many departments.”
“The emphasis on advocacy at the expense of education has also contributed to the increasing hostility toward opposing views on campus. These professors and students often show little tolerance for others’ views and “advocate” by canceling or silencing other views as ‘harmful.’”
“As usual with the radicals, "objectivity" or "bothsidesism" is painted as evil, and anyone speaking in support of Israel is automatically a maniacal Zionist who must be deplatformed.”
Students believe only in “their truth,” and once brainwashed, in solipsistic moral superiority, they believe no other view should be considered. And virtually anything is legitimate in the pursuit of their performance outrage, including tossing paint or powders on centuries-old sculptures or artworks, anything for a good TikTok video.
If American democracy is at risk, as we often hear these days, it is not from conservatives or Christians. It is at risk from those on the Left – not Liberals – but Leftist, so-called “Progressive,” socialists—American extremists—who hate their own country, promote class warfare, chaos and disruption like campus mob rule, and reject traditional American values like freedom of speech, free enterprise capitalism, law and order, and patriotism. Why? Well, the US is one of the great “Oppressors,” “colonizers,” inherently racist.
Leftists know they cannot win on the merits of their arguments, so they fall back on power. They prompt street chaos, social debauchery, and lawlessness to create a need for stronger central government led by the new philosopher-kings, the Left.
But Leftists are not nice or happy people. “The Left has devolved into intolerant, inflexible, illogical, hateful, misguided, ill-informed, un-American, hypocritical, menacing, callous, ignorant, narrow-minded and, at times, blatantly fascistic behavior and rhetoric.” The Left is illiberal. Even late-night liberal comedian Bill Maher knows this.
This is what we are seeing on public university quads, the product of a public education that is not values neutral.
“As absurd as this may seem, not only is this the insane world in which we now appear to be living, but even more absurd than this, it is a world based upon an insane system of beliefs that we ourselves have created. Put succinctly, with our culture’s abandonment of our Judeo-Christian principles and beliefs, we have now trapped ourselves into being required to operate within the warped logic of a man-made amoral system of beliefs that now prevents us from opposing even that which is evil.”
What do we need to do to adjust, or some would say reclaim, America’s universities, and America itself?
These steps would go a long way:
- Significantly reduce federal funding for illiberal universities, which receive tens of millions, even billions, of federal tax dollars every year.
- Fire “Woke,” Pro-Hamas administrative leaders and faculty and staff. I’m not naïve. I know this would be an enormous, litigation-fueled task, but it’s what should be done.
- Suspend further funding and promotion of DEI or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. These programs talk a good anti-racist game even as the promote racism, destroy incentive while promoting mediocrity, and are anything but fair or equitable. And as to diversity, on most public university campuses today there is very little if any intellectual diversity allowed, meaning conservatives need not apply.
- Expel, not just suspend, students who commit violence, destroy property, harass nearby Jews, or otherwise threaten public safety.
It feels like America is committing suicide, but for most Americans this is not true. But this is exactly what the Left is seeking by generating chaos in pursuit of power. We must protect our own ideals.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2024
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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- Written by: Rex M. Rogers
Does what a child learns stay with him or her for life?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #139 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
I confess that all my life, I thought the verse, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it,” found in Prov. 22:6, provided a principle directly referencing Christian education and behavior – until last week.
And of course it does. The verse is used by countless churches, Sunday Schools, Daily Vacation Bible Schools, pastors, church camps, Christian universities, Christian schools, and Christian families as a reminder that God will bless children who are taught moral truth, who are encouraged and expected to live righteously, and who seek to live out their faith as a testimony to God’s purposes in the world. Yes, this verse means all that, and it is a wonderful promise – “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
But what hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks last week is that this verse does not specifically reference any of those good, Christian behavioral practices. What it says is that what a kid learns when he or she is young is going to stick with him or her for the rest of their lives and in all probability will define their character. That idea, train up a child and he will not depart from it, works for good and for bad, for righteousness and unrighteousness, for blessedness and evil. That’s what hit me.
I was thinking about the hundreds of American students and others who poured into the streets in the past few weeks, shouting antisemitic slurs, spouting diatribes against Jews, Israel, and often America too, and even siding with terrorist Hamas.
Where did these people come from? Where did they learn this hatred?
The short answer is they learned it, or at least the value basis for it, in public schools, or maybe online from internet influencers, or maybe from their often-fragmented families.
So, train up a child and when he is old, he won’t depart from it is a principle at work every day with millions of children and youth. The problem is the trainer and the trainer’s values are not always what they ought to be. And bad influences yield bad results.
All these shouting, virtue signaling, immature but loud voices letting rip chants, slogans, animosity toward Jews – me hearing things I never thought I’d hear in the U.S. – where did these people come from?
Short answer: they came from public schools that are far more anti-Christian, anti-learning or anti-critical thinking, and anti-patriotic than we thought. They came from families where right values were not modeled and right behavior was not demonstrated, or effectively demanded.
Now someone said recently, public education is not neutral.
“This surge of antisemitism in schools stems from a decade-long politicization of the education system, infiltrating every aspect from educational philosophy to curriculum and classroom discussions…We must understand its driving force: the new leftist dogma. At its core is “critical pedagogy,” an educational philosophy that fuels resentment, victimhood, and collectivism, while promoting hatred towards certain groups. It indoctrinates students to view the world through a lens of power dynamics and oppression. Cloaked in euphemisms such as "inclusivity" and "social justice," this ideology – like all aspects of woke education – contains a destructive mind virus.”
Yet for all this, “many young people believe all of this and conduct themselves accordingly, yet they’re not very happy. This decades-long bombardment of young people with anti-family, anti-religion and anti-personal responsibility messages is working, and the primary casualties are the people at whom it is directed. This is not happening by accident. Authoritarians (and this is not a conspiracy theory) have known for more than a century that it’s easier to subjugate a population when they are removed from allegiances higher than the government. That includes the family, the church, even their innate nature to strive. Americans under the age of 35 have been inundated by cultural and political messaging that paves the road to serfdom and the net is that many more of them are not very happy.”
Does this mean every teacher or professor in public education buys into leftist or radical or socially progressive philosophies contrary to a Christian worldview?
No, of course not. Many public school and university educators are dedicated to their task of teaching, appreciate and love students and learning, and work diligently to share not only subject content but character values that help young people mature.
While their numbers are dwindling, those conservative teachers and professors who remain active are a minority who themselves can experience harassment, professional peer pressure, silencing, threats of losing their jobs, and in some cases, actually being fired for refusing to embrace ideas like preferred pronouns, trans names, anti-America philosophies and attitudes, hostility towards free speech, or suppression of freedom of religion, specifically Christianity. Meanwhile, some of these same teachers and professors committed to teaching fall under immense social and professional pressure to embrace gender fluidity, America as a colonialist-settler nation that exists today solely because white supremacists took land from Indians, reaped bounty from the backs of Black slaves, is comprised of greedy capitalists and the materialistic middle class, and is an oppressor of one victim group after another.
Students are taught not to love their country and the freedom ideals upon which it was established but to distrust or despise their country as a place unworthy of its place in the world, and certainly not a country that has afforded them anything positive or good.
Students don’t know who Americans fought in order to win their freedoms or why, or what any of this means to them today. They think that capitalism is a synonym for raping the wilderness and stealing from the poor. They believe Abraham Lincoln was a racist. They don’t know what Americans and the Allies bequeathed to them via their ultimate sacrifice during WWII.
They’ve been given inflated grades, have been removed from any experience of competitiveness or earned accomplishment, have been led to believe they deserve more, more than whatever they have now, all of which has been handed to them, and they’ve consequently not learned a work ethic, to value punctuality, to honor authority, or to assume responsibility.
They’ve been led to believe various versions of pacifism is somehow higher order moral thinking that works in the real world and makes them feel superior for proclaiming it. They’ve been brainwashed to believe social activism, “by any means necessary,” including vandalism of property or assault upon innocent bystanders is somehow laudatory. Train up a child and when he or she is old they will not depart from it.
In 2018, Christian social analyst, George Barna, said his research on Gen Z (that’s people born mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years to early 2010s as ending birth years) shows that they are the first truly post-Christian generation. And Gen Z is twice as likely to be atheist as any previous generation.
In other words, they are not given the truth of the Gospel or a Christian worldview and are allowed if not encouraged to grow up thinking, paradoxically, moral relativism is an absolute. There’s no better than, no right and wrong, other than what they prefer, a might makes right proposition. There’s no accountability to God, so there is nothing they won’t do. There’s no truth, so they get to decide what is “their truth,” and there’s no objective standard to which they compare anything, so anything goes.
This generation is sometimes called the “Connected Generation” because they are online as no cohort ever before, even more than Gen X and Millennials. Yet while they are connected to thousands, they also express feelings of loneliness, detachment, worry, disassociation with the family and an inclination not to have children in a world where climate change is going to kill us all, and depression and suicide.
These feelings of angst and anomie are being reinforced in public schools and in families. Train up a child.
How we train or what we train the child in has consequences. We’ve possibly lost a generation. In our post-Christian culture, we seem to believe that what kids learn doesn’t matter – a dangerous mistake.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2024
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://twitter.com/RexMRogers.