the ceremony of conferring degrees or granting diplomas at the end of the academic year.
commencement
It’s Tuesday again, and you know what that means… today is Truth Be Told Tuesday. Thanks for checking in.
As we enter the end of another school year many of us will have the privilege, or complete misfortune, to listen to someone speak at a high school or college graduation ceremony. Commencement season is upon us, and if we listen carefully we can gain great insight into the speakers beliefs and thought process. “Poets, priest and politicians can thank words for their position,” were the words of Sting, and that statement is no more evident than now as many speakers wax poetic on everything from life lessons to life challenges over the next few weeks on high school and college campuses.
In past commencement ceremonies information, instigation and inspiration have been shared. In 1947 the “Marshall Plan” was introduced to the country during secretary of State, Gen. George Marshall’s commencement address at Harvard. In 1953 President Eisenhower took a shot at McCarthyism at Dartmouth’s graduation, and Steve Jobs stated in 2005 at Stanford; “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”
Good advice.
If I were ever to have the honor of being a commencement speaker I would most likely quote the famous words of Robert Frost; “In three words I can sum up everything about life: it goes on.” And as I believe Frost and his assertion, I wonder, as “life goes on”, where are we going as a society? As I watch the news, and how it is reported, I notice, with great effort and little interference, that we are changing as a society.
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by…”
President Obama ran on the platform of change in 2008, outlining an agenda that supported change in areas such as education, healthcare, and taxation. We all can agree to disagree on how we can go about accomplishing those changes, but no one can argue that change needs to take place in these segments of our society. But the “real change” that is taking place in our country is occurring in the name of being a more “progressive” society, an agenda that has long been championed by the academic and cultural elite, Hollywood, and the pro liberal media.
I think most Americans would agree that as we’ve become more “progressive” as a nation we’ve become more secularized as a society.
A secular society as Os Guinness defines is a society where religious ideas, institutions and interpretations lose their social significance. In another words, if you {have} to claim to be a religious person, with strong religious convictions and values, you are to do so within a secular society quietly, and keep those beliefs out any discussions surrounding our social institutions, and public policy and debate.
This fact is supported by the outward double standard that is displayed everyday in the news, on the silver screen and TV, and on college campus’ across our country.
Two weeks ago a NBA player named Jason Collins deiced to share with the general public that he is gay. Collins was met with praise, adulation and applause from the media, the sports world and Hollywood.
I think that is great.
I applaud Collins for being honest about who he is, and we as society should support anyone that is exercising their God-given “free will” as long as it doesn’t present harm to another, or denies someone their civil rights. But ask yourself this: how would the media view Tim Tebow if he was pro-choice and he happened to be gay? I believe the narrative surrounding that young man from a media standpoint would be completely different.
He would be a cultural hero then.
As I mentioned before, I have nothing against Jason Collins, I like and admire him very much. But why the difference in how him and Tebow are covered by the media? At the end of the day, I think it’s important to encourage honesty, truth and courage, but I think it is equally important to be careful what we celebrate as a society. Whether it was the landmark Supreme Court case in 1973: Roe vs Wade., or the debate surrounding gay marriage we see today, both highlight an ongoing agenda, in growing numbers, within our country to play {god}.
What we have chosen to do as a society is to celebrate the one and only {god} we care about: our-self.
We have relegated unto our self the authority to redefine marriage and to decide if another human being should live or die. Our beliefs have become centered on what is truth to the individual. Many times that truth enables us to justify our unjust behavior. We’ve went to great lengths as a society to desacralize the sacred institutions of marriage, sex and human life; institutions that were created by God for good, not for selfish pursuit and vulgarity.
God’s plan was to celebrate the sacredness of those institutions within the framework of his commandments that we’re placed there to protect us, not to harm us. But what we as a society have chosen to do is to do what we think is best, all the while, doing so with the agenda of putting to death accountability and eliminating any absolute truths.
The only absolute truth that stands today is that there are {no} absolute truths at all.
Just look at Grammy award winning singer Lauryn Hill’s decision not to pay her taxes on income of $1.8 million from over six years ago. One of her reasons was that she needed to “detox” from a difficult situation with record label. She thought the government would work out an alternative solution for paying her back taxes. Really? Well, I need to “detox” from completely narcissistic and self entitled behavior. Now I know why her Grammy award album was entitled: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
Wow.
I love her as an artist, but where is the accountability? I’ll tell you where it is, not with her.
What we have to remember is when a secular society begins to eliminate the “absolute” truths of God, and begins to become gods unto themselves the end result is a country that places it’s foundation on the elimination of accountability, shame and guilt. Just observe how teens, and adults alike, share very private information {and images} online without any concern or shame.
Scary. To many it is not.
The reason this behavior is so tragic, and has such troubling consequences, is because God placed those legitimate qualities of shame, guilt and accountability within us to protect us from ourselves. I believe He knew what He was doing in doing so.
“For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.”
-Psalm 33:4
Think for a minute if we chose to drive our cars in the same fashion society has decided to redefine truth, and that truth is only what is truth to the individual. Imagine drivers deciding to no longer abide by the traffic lights, traffic signs, and painted lines on the road. The picture I have in my mind is chaos. And that is exactly what we have in our country today, chaos. The reason we don’t allow drunk driving in our society is because drunk drivers are impaired drivers that present danger to everyone around them. They’re also a danger to themselves.
As a country we’re driving drunk, and the drink of choice is a combination self-importance, selfish desire, and Godless thinking.
What has been created from this regretful behavior is an unsafe environment for everyone involved to live within, an environment that is littered with media supported cultural wars, the eradication of accountability, shame and guilt, and an eye pointed towards a Godless country.
What we truly have is chaos.
President Obama stated earlier this month during Ohio State University’s Commencement that; “we are not a collection of strangers… We are bound to one another by a {set} of ideals and laws and commitments.” I agree with our President’s words, but I can’t help but to wonder what ideas, laws and commitments our country believes we are together bound? Are they centered on us as {god} or are they firmly planted upon the shoulders of God and his word? At the end of the day, we all have to ask ourselves to whom are we listening? Who are we serving?
That is my “Truth Be Told” for Tuesday May 14, 2013. (tbtt . #5)
sbb . 1051
.
Adult Education . Hall & Oates
by 