'Soul-Killing Collectivism'
I like to think of J. Gresham Machen as the American Presbyterian Chesterton -- though he is sometimes more explicit in his societal commentary than his British Catholic counterpart. In my Sunday reading, I keep coming across interesting lines from his selected shorter writings (edited by D.G. Hart) that call to mind current campaign rhetoric, especially from senators Obama and Clinton, about the need for expanded or universal preschool and state-subsidized education in general. Here are a few quotes from Machen’s 1933 address titled, “The Necessity of the Christian School”:
...The tyranny of the scientific expert is the most crushing tyranny of all. That tyranny is being exercised most effectively in the field of education. A monopolistic system of education controlled by the state is far more efficient in crushing our liberty than the cruder weapons of fire and sword. Against this monooply of education by the state the Christian school brings a salutary protest; it contends for the right of parents to bring up their children in accordance with the dictates of their conscience and not in the manner prescribed by the state.
Every lover of human freedom ought to oppose with all his might the giving of federal aid to the schools of this country; for federal aid in the long run inevitably means federal control, and federal control means control by a centralized and irresponsible bureaucracy, and control by such a bureaucracy means the death of everything that might make this country great.
Against this soul-killing collectivism in education, the Christian school, like the private school, stands as an emphatic protest....The only way in which a state-controlled school can be kept even relatively healthy is through the absolutely free possibility of competition by private schools and church schools; if it once becomes monopolistic, it is the most effective engine of tyranny and intellectual stagnation that has yet been devised.
A Christian boy or girl can learn mathematics, for example, from a teacher who is not a Christian; and truth is truth however learned. But...the bearing of truth, the meaning of truth, the purpose of truth, even in the sphere of mathematics, seem entirely different to the Christian from that which they seem to the non-Christian....True learning and true piety go hand in hand, and Christianity embraces the whole of life -- those are great central convictions that underlie the Christian school.













Comments
#1 2007-07-24 18:14 (Reply)
Excellent post, Brooke. Thanks for this. I especially love the last paragraph - so true...
#2 2007-07-26 12:54 (Reply)
Carl V. “Sam” Lamb and I served side-by-side as rifle-squad leaders; Fox Company, ‘Chesty’ Puller’s 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division. He wrote a book about our experiences in the Korean conflict, 1950-1951. He included my remarks about an incident in which one of our people threatened to punch-out a fellow squad-leader-guideon who had black skin.
The page follows:
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THE LAST PARADE
by Carl V. “Sam” Lamb Page 296 (ref: 1951)
James Fletcher Baxter
“Sam” and I had a lot in common. We both resisted evil. After I
got out of the hospital, Big Jim Causey told of driving along
in his police cruiser and hitting a black man in his head
with his pistol. He thought it was funny how the guy sprawled
into the street. When he made this comment we were in a card
game. I didn’t say anything, but then he said he was going to
kick the __ out of Joe Goggins and I had heard enough.
I said, "If you’re going to try that, you’ll have to go through
me to get to him. I’m willing to give my life for a country
that values each individual. If that isn’t true, I don’t want
to fight for that country - but, it is true, so I’m not going
to let you rob me of the very good reason I may lose my life
tomorrow or next week. If you attack him, you attack me. I
may lose, but I guarantee I will make it very expensive for
you to get to him. Let me know what you decide."
He got up from our card game and said, "I’ll have to think
about it."
I said, “Let me know. I’ll be here.”
He came back a little later and said, "You’re right. I was
wrong." I thanked him for his manliness.
Joe Goggins came to me later and thanked me. He had wet eyes.
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5/10/07 JFB
Shortly after the above event, Jim Causey was called home for family
member medical problems. On his way back to the States, he passed
through a Naval medical facility. While there, he ran into my brother,
Sgt. Howard “Barney” Baxter, 5th Marines, who had just been sent
stateside for his Chosen Reservoir frost-bitten feet.
Causey told my brother what had happened and said "how much it
had changed his life." He said Joe and I had forgiven him and he
would “never go back to the old collective point of view.” He was
really joyful because he was honestly able to forgive himself! He
became a more manly man - a good Marine - with honor.
I’m pleased the Rutgers women accepted Imus’ apology. They, and
others, need to forgive. We all need to grow. Good examples are
always in short supply. God bless my Country and its Individuals.
vincit veritas
Jim Baxter
Sgt. USMC
WWII and Korean War
5th Grade Teacher - 30 wonderful years! ‘57- ‘87
semper fidelis
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INDIVIDUAL VALUE - Gift of Y’shua JESUS
by James Fletcher Baxter
The Old World method of measuring human value was,
and still is, by the group. Whether tribe, clan,
city-state, color, ethnic, or gender, the Old
World, ancient and modern, measures by the plural
unit. Individuals had and have no value of them-
selves but only as they were and are part of a
collective.
When Y’shua Jesus died on the cross, the veil of
the Temple at the Holy of Holies parted from the
top down. The individual believer in the congrega-
tion had, for the first time, a face-to-face, one-
on-one relation with his Creator. The Creator,
Himself, had validated each individual for the
first time.Thus, the Individual became the corner-
stone for later human value measuring systems:
socio-political, philosophical, religious, educa-
tional, economic, etc., henceforth and forever.
Western Civilization, America, English Law, civil
Rights, the ‘democratic’ process, etc., all sprang
from that single event. (Greco-Roman ‘democracies’
were 95% slave throughout their entire histories.)
Biblical principles are still today the foundation
under Western Civilization and the American way of
life.
Many social systems attempt to borrow ideas of
“democracy” without the basic premise in The Indi-
vidual. Such a system is only superficially and
temporarily ‘democratic.’ The cornerstone of the
democratic process is The Individual and the
cornerstone of the value of The Individual is
Y’shua Jesus! It is not possible to have one with-
out the other. There is only One Source - there is
no other.
It is additionally interesting to note that all
value measuring systems are based on the single
definitive unit of the system. Ex: Number, Time,
Distance, Weight, Heat, Money, Angle, Volume, etc.
Only humanism makes the abusive error of measuring
human value by the plural unit and attempts to
build social structures, relations, and institu-
tions thereon. Such man-made systems can only be
abusive and oppressive because in reality there
are only individual persons. Groups or collectives
are merely convenient verbalizations about indi-
viduals. They are not reality.
I have yet to see a ‘group.’ All I have ever seen
are individuals.Have you ever seen a group - or is
it a verbal convenience? Reality is only in the
individual person. And, such a validation never
derived from a human source without the initiative
of the Creator. (The French Rationalists of the
18th Century favored the fruit - but rejected the
branch, tree, and root.)
Today, wherever Y’shua Jesus is rejected, the
group or collective is still the basic way of
measuring human value - or human non-value.
We thank the Lord God for revealing His validation
of each individual person. We thank Him for creat-
ing each person uniquely, in His image, and call-
ing each one to a courageous ascension by Y’shua
Jesus, who said, “I AM the Way...”
Praise the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
His Son of Man, Y’shua Jesus.
Reference: Exodus 25:30,40 Hebrews 9 Matthew 27:51
Mark 15:38 Luke 23:45 KJV
vincit veritas
Jim Baxter
Q: ? "How many more Columbines and VA Techs
before we ‘get it?’ " jfb
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Santa Maria SUN January 11 - January 18, 2002
LETTERS
Opening Santa Maria’s Eyes
I am sure your readers are as pleased as my wife and I are
that Andrew Petty and the Sun have recently published
the article, “Manhood paid with women’s tears.” [Sun,
Dec. 28, 2001] Such cowardly, abusive, and oppressive
behavior by men in the Latino community will never buy
them manhood, but does purchase contempt from their
women and children and rejection and earned and deserv-
ed contempt and rdicule from civilized members of our
society.
The problem, however, is larger than one ethnic group
and will not be resolved until the basic cause is recogniz-
ed and dealt with appropriately. It can be observed through-
out our city, state, and nation, from the immature over-
compensating, self-doubting male, exhibiting feelings of
inadequacy, low self-esteem, and a rampant inferiority
complex, who seeks a false outlet by way of crimes against
women and innocent children and their slavish submission
to his “muscle-mind.”
Gang membership and activity, trendy road-rage, and youth
violence are all evidence of male feelings of inferiority and
will not disappear from our society from resulting police
action alone -- unless and until we successfully educate to
the prime solution: individual value and individual character.
Measuring human value by a group is not the American Way.
Until our males recognize and choose to live lives of unique
and individual value, we will all be burdened by those whose
inaccurate, mediocre, and sloppy definitions of manhood
will require one or more kind of patty-cake baby sitter. Can
he take the challenge?
The young ladies of Santa Maria need not focus so much on
boyfriend’s hip-hop “personality,” as his self-definition,
principled intelligence, spirit, and manly virtue. Can she take
the challenge?
Jim Baxter
Santa Maria
vincit veritas
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Individual Value or Collective non-value ????