Friends: Politics, education, and God. We have nearly educated ourselves out of unity in Christ and into political ignorance. See the column below ...

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Spirituality Column #989

October 28, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Long Division   

By Bob Walters

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” Psalms 133:1 ESV

Let’s discuss politics, education, and God – the 30,000-foot view – in the context of humans getting along with each other. You may have noticed that lately, we aren’t.

Next week, all indications are that the good citizens of New York City will elect a Muslim Democratic Socialist as their mayor. At issue – truly – are neither religion nor party affiliation; at issue is bad American civics education laced with the dual despair of ever-rising prices and ever-falling hope. New Yorkers crave free stuff to face a fracturing future.

“Free stuff” is always an illusion, mind you, yet an attractive mirage for the poorly educated – college degrees and accreditations notwithstanding – in our current misguided though abating DEI cultural era. Illuminating human experience and philosophical wisdom have been beaten down in recent decades by entrenched socialist trends away from aspiration and merit, and toward equal outcomes for all. “Fairness” is a canard of a rallying cry, and a lie that destroys human flourishing. Division replaces unity.

It's not fair.

Lately, I’ve read two mind-focusing books of recent vintage on American public education. One is titled, The Marxification of Education by James Lindsay. The other is Hide Your Children: Exposing the Marxists Behind the Attack on America’s Kids by Liz Wheeler. Where education has led our nation astray is in our overall ignorance of what Marxism, socialism, and communism actually are: vicious, freedom-wrecking wolves in the sheep’s clothing of “fairness.” College education departments bit the apple long ago.

Socialism has been the overriding template of education training in America’s universities for the past century.  While history departments should be teaching about how America won its precious freedom and how to value freedom as a gift from God, bards of American education theory like Horace Mann, John Dewey, Paolo Freire, and others preached lock-step, socialist obedience in stultifying, one-size-fits-all curricula designed to defeat free-thinking. Once upon a time, to produce employees. Now, to foment activism.

There is truly no mystery why it is often the C students and dropouts who are the entrepreneurs. What we notice about socialism is a distinct lack of entrepreneurship.

Anyway, as I read these books full of anti-socialist scare quotes, what the books didn’t offer was a concise answer to the obvious question, “So, what’s wrong with socialism?” Despite our educational institutions based so heavily in clandestine socialist theory, free Americans still retain a visceral distaste for actually being called socialist.

I think the answer goes something like this: Americans value freedom, and freedom requires – above all else – personal responsibility. Christians are called to love God and love others, and to do unto others as we would have others do unto us.  This requires accountability and an objective, ultimate belief in the reality of truth, good, evil, and God.

What socialism deletes, first, is God, because socialism cannot abide any truth greater than itself. Next goes personal responsibility and with it, freedom. Socialism is people controlling other people; God gets in the way, as does one’s faith in God.

While Marxist/socialist/communist philosophy insists that workers are oppressed and everyone is owed fairness, its “leaders” replace God as arbiters of truth. That’s the lie: socialism calls itself a march out of oppression, yet replaces freedom with slavery.

Sadly, much of America falls for that lie because that’s what we’ve been taught.

There is no unifying force between the divisive, controlling diktat of Marx  and the flourishing of human freedom under the divine and unifying love of the Creator God.

How pleasant it is when humans are united, and how ugly is life when we aren’t.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) believes God unites us through Jesus; Satan hates it.

Spirituality Column #465
October 13, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist
 
Modernizing the Eternal?
By Bob Walters

Last week in this space we commented on the thunderous applause Pope Francis received in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

The thought here was that in that moment, the Pope appeared at best wistful if not a tad embarrassed about the divine tenor of that applause directed at him which he knew properly should be directed at Jesus Christ.

The Pope smiled politely; he didn’t take a bow or pump his fist.

One thing I believe about the Pope is that he is no hypocrite.  In general I think that helps explain the breadth of especially the secular fascination with any Pope.      What’s the number one complaint against Christians?  “They’re hypocrites.”  Folks may not understand Christianity, scripture, Jesus, Trinitarian relationship or what the Pope stands for, but they appreciate his commitment.

Three cheers for not being a hypocrite.

Catholics of course cheer the head of their Church.  They see the successor of St. Peter, the Vicar of Christ, and the Holy embodiment of Rome’s long Christian tradition.  Whether or not one is in theological, salvational, doctrinal big-picture agreement with the Catholic Church, all of us recognize the Pope, globally, as a religious leader.  Maybe he’s not “my” or “your” particular leader, but a leader nonetheless, and a leader by non-fraudulent personal example.

What seems to be particularly endearing to the masses about this Pope is that observers of his papacy have interpreted in his various political comments a tendency toward the modern.  Critics will call him too much of a socialist, or too much of a dabbler in science, or out of his proper depth in commenting on global political pressures, cultural trends and economic disparities, but I see no cracks in the Pope’s key Christian commitments of loving others, spreading the Gospel, and helping the poor.

Folks should not imagine that their personal political and cultural agendas will imprint this Pope’s mission.  He is not in the office of “modernization” of anything.  He is in the office of relaying the eternal message of Jesus Christ.  It is a message of God’s truth, love, hope and faithfulness.  It is a mysterious message that will never change.  It is a comforting message in which we can rest.

It is a message this Pope thoroughly “gets.”

It is a message, sadly, many people completely miss.

So, about that thunderous applause.  From the sincerely faithful?  Praise God!   But from the politically and culturally agenda-driven modernizers who hope this “new” Pope will declare it “OK” and somehow righteous to “conform to the world” today in pursuit of earthly happiness and morally vacant personal desires?

Better get with God’s eternal message in Christ.  Today will soon be over.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) cites “everlasting to everlasting.”