"Most elite graduates can't speak eloquently about virtue and vice because they were never taught to."

Long before Christianity, the Greeks taught the virtues and they expected their "elites" to always practice these vitues. And, as you say, Christian upbringing does not translate into moral literacy. Studying the humanities is superior to the Bible in this respect: violence, killing, theft and chicanery that were rewarded in the Bible, are not the role models we should be upholding to young minds. In the absence of role models of high integrity so lacking today, there have been numerous ones in the past which are worthy of copying.

Probably the Devil himself could write a classic monograph on
moral literacy. Edgar Guest had it right: "I'd rather see a sermon that hear one any day!"

I think Matt. 25 has it just about right. Tom

Elaine: The role model presented to me during four years at PUC was Jesus. I've not come a cross a better replacement. Which are the "numerous ones in the past" that you find superior?
Thank you.

For starters: The founders of the U.S. constitution which we who live under it appreciate greatly, was not modeled on Jesus, but influenced by John Locke, Monetesquieu, John Mills and many others, including Cicero and back to Aristotle.

No one is calling for a replacement for Jesus who lived as a Jew, under rules which we reject for ourselves today. But neither did he live in a republic but a Roman monarchy that condoned slavery, persecution of "others" and so did not speak against the tyranny under which he lived, but called for an ideal, even utopian state that has not, nor will be found on this earth.

Great reply Elaine. Tom

Gerhard, I'm with you. I find the Sermon on the Mount and the Great Commandment to be compelling, because they speak eloquently and simply to how one lives as an individual. To my mind, the founders of the US Constitution were primarily concerned with matters of state. Please don't misunderstand Elaine, I am not saying that Aristotle and Cicero were not eloquent or that the humanities are not important. They are. What is significant about Adventist higher education is that students are given the opportunity to learn from the humanities and the Bible. Both have valuable lessons.

It goes without saying that a Christian's role model is Jesus Christ. Gandhi is quoted to have said: "I'll become a Christian just as soon as I see one Christian living like Christ!"

The issue is not Christ as the perfect role model but the mind set of the founders of the U.S. constitution. Here the enlightenment was dominated the thinking. The issue is important because of the evangelical movement to declare this country a Christian nation and to revise the Constitution accordingly.

If any organized Church body would be sensitive to that issue it should be the Seventh-day Adventist Church---The Seal of God is so central to its eschatology.

The Sermon on the Mount is a once the most beautiful and most chilling sermons ever given. Without context, it become an impossible exhortation. I have made an attempt at context below:

Early in the Common Era, Jesus left his carpenter bench, walked East to the river Jordan where John the Baptist was preaching and baptizing repentant sinners. Jesus asked to be baptized. John, recognizing his cousin, remonstrated saying: “It is I that should be baptized by you!” Jesus replied, “Permit it be so.” John complied.
(What a marvelous act of mercy, Jesus not only lived and died for me but he was baptized for me. Those who fret over the baptism, can rest assured that they have a prefect baptism registered to their account.)

Jesus came up out of the water, as a voice from heaven introduced Jesus saying: “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descended and landed on Jesus’ head. What an inauguration! But the installation ritual had only begun.

Jesus is led away, by the Spirit, into the wilderness for 40 days, rehearsing Israel’s 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. At the end of the 40 days, Jesus withstood the temptations and blandishments of Satan. With the approval of heaven and the victory in the wilderness, Jesus as ready for His Gospel Ministry: first recruitment, then His Mission Statement, His acts of mercy, His words of grace and guidance, His patience during cunning debate, His steadfastness under physical and mental torture, His endurance of a cruel death, His startling resurrection, His reassuring presence, His triumphal return to Heaven.

Jesus returns to the river and begins recruiting His disciples. He attends a wedding feast at Cana, where his mother preempts His mission by requesting a miracle in turning water into wine. He returns home to Nazareth, and reads from Isaiah 61 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” Thus, announcing His Messiahship and mission.
Matthew picks up the story in Matt. 5. Jesus addresses the multitude on the side of a mountain. As the quarterly points out, many see this Sermon as Jesus’ inaugural address. It was indeed a classic and definitive re-interpretation of the Law that He had written on tables of stone. We know that presentation in the Gospel of Matthews as The Sermon on the Mount.

To fully understand the Sermon on the Mount it must be given at least four readings. If one reads it “cold” it becomes a nightmare of legalistic terror. “He that hateth his brother is a murderer”; “He that lusteth in his heart is an adulterer”; Be ye therefore, perfect, even as your father which art in heaven is perfect”. Ghastly unvarnished perfectionism!

However, if one reads the Sermon on the Mount first as 1. The Action Plan of Christ’s Ministry, one comes away with a sense of awe and thanksgiving. In that Action Plan one becomes acquainted with 2. The Ethics and Ethos of the Kingdom of Heaven. “He that hath seen me has seen the Father.” Beyond that sermon, Jesus reinforced the ethics and ethos of the Kingdom of God with parables and analogies recorded throughout the four Gospels. Another pivotal Scripture to the understanding of that Sermon are the final words of Jesus on the Cross. “If is finished” or it has been accomplished or it has been fulfilled—every jot and tittle!” Rejoice, Jesus Christ has fulfilled every jot and tittle of His Action Plan. The “Law” as he expands it, is the very transcript of His character—His life style. 3. The Blueprint for the Life Style of the Forgiven. (discipleship) which is more it becomes collectively 4. The Mission Statement of the Church. (Apostleship)

1. As the Action Plan of Christ’s Ministry.
On the cross Jesus cries out: “It is Fnished”: (It has been fulfilled, It is Accomplished) Every jot and every tittle was fulfilled, a clear reference to Matt. 5: 17,18
What couldn’t be done by fallen man has been done by that one “new man Christ Jesus. God once again has an uncontested federal man, a New Adam. All heaven rejoices. Paul retells the story so reassuringly in Romans 5: 19 “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”

2. As the Constitution of the Kingdom of Heaven.
(All of the Kingdom of Heaven Parables reflect the idiom of that Sermon) “All Hail the Power of His Name!”

3. As the Blueprint of the Life Style of the Forgiven (Discipleship)
“Follow thou Me!” Church men through the ages have attempted to replicate the Christ event to no avail. The believers task is not to rehearse the Christ event it is to tell it as unimpeachable sources. Our life style is not to gain heaven but to gain converts to Jesus Christ.

Following Jesus means to “do justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.” To do justly, one’s transactions will be fair and generous. To love mercy is to give mercy not demand it. To walk humbly with God is to remain teachable, using what is learned not only in self improvement but in gracious and generous leadership. “Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more!” Is the mantra of the forgiven.

4. As the Mission Statement of the Church (Apostleship)

The Gospel Commission is to tell the story of Jesus. How He lived, Why He died, and the personal and eternal consequences of the Christ event.

There is no better place to begin than with the great hymns of the Church. “I Love to Tell the Story”: “How Can I Keep from Singing”; “Amazing Grace”. Just think of how the Gospel opened the pen of Charles Wesley.

Now in the after glow of Christmas and in the approach of Easter, the words and music of the Oratorio, the Messiah, thrills our souls. It makes a David of us all.

“We would see Jesus.” Let us show Him to the World!” Amen.

Tom

It seems that clarification of what the author means by moral literacy is in need--not to call anyone out or anything. :) However, we are each debating what it is from our own perspective with only a flimsy understanding of the very general concerns that the author intended to raise.

Naturally, we can argue that it is different than the author proposes; but, without a clearer idea of what was intended, it seems that the suppositions behind his argument are veiled. Therefore, it would seem from my vantage point that our arguments with it remain largely circular.

Tom
Aren't you really a SDA? You walk, talk, chalk an balk like one. I've heard that once a SDA always a SDA. Is that true?

Tom
Maybe not everybody knows what chalk means. Putting white on everything. SDAs like you are really good at it. But I stick with the black.

Everly,

I was born into a SDA family. I was a local elder, A denominatinal worker, A member of several Academic Boards of Trustees, I have many friends who are currently SDA/s. I have had several of my articles published in SDA journals. Including the current Ministry and in the March-April Liberty. I've even had several letters to the Editor of the Review published. I also have been published in the CommonWealth, Life and Health, and Newsweek. Not to mention the number written as a Ghost Writer for senior officers of the University System of Georgia.

I resigned my membership and all offices within the SDA church
after the purge at Southern Missionary College. I have taught Sunday School classes in local Methodist and Presbyterian churches. I am currently a member of Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church.

I am a Christian. The SDA church embraces many sound Christian doctrines--mostly out of Methodism. I have a strong
disagreement with the Investigative Judgment, The Final Generation, the SDA understanding of the Three Angels Messages, and the Spirit of Prophecy. (Not that E.G. White didn't endorse some sound Christian practices--The special direct link with God is at issue.)

Of course, the Presbyterian fixation on TULIP is doctrinally as unsound as many of the SDA propositions. That is why I call myself a Christian plus nothing. (In an aside, when I was voted into membership of Reid Memorial, the Pastor generally asked three questions. 1. Are you a sinner Answer Yes. 2. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is your redeemer and coming Lord and Master, Answer Yes. 3. Will you be obedient to the elders of Reid Memorial Church? Answer Not necessarily!

I told the pastor ahead of time what my answer to the three questions would he. He said no problem. So when the time came he turned the task over to his understudy who only asked the first two questions. As far as the congregation knew the young man just forgot the final question. Anyway that was
more than 14 years ago. I have a good relationship with the pastors and elders of Reid, several of whom attend my Sunday School Class.

I do believe that SDA members are my Christian brothers and sisters. The problem is since, I have strong reservations about some SDA assertive doctrines--I am not welcome in the SDA community without some indication that I am a potential
convert= or redeemable "back slider".

I find that several of the contributors to Spectrum on line
tend to challenge SDA ethos in areas of insignificance. In these cases I have spoken out--which may make be a "chalker".

I think it you really got to know men you would find I am a strand up guy who calls em as he sees em.

Basically, I find contemporary SDA evangelism an ego-centric mess of nonsense.

Everly, one final observation: "Immediate classification prejudices all subsequent thinking." I am neither white nor black. I am a witness to the saving power of Jesus Christ"

Thus, I am an enemy of all isms. Tom

In the winter of 1979, a number of us AU graduate students drove to Mishawaka one Saturday evening to dine on deep dish pizza. This house specialty took longer than 45 minutes to prepare. So, we phoned in our order ahead of time. After we’d arrived and the pizza was served we were shocked to see pepperoni atop it. The order taker had abbreviated peppers as “pep.” The pizza cook thought it meant “pepperoni.” Realizing this was an honest mistake of translation, three of us (two were PUC graduates) hastily removed the offending meat, lightly daubed the crust for residue and then heartily savored the pizza. However the remainder of our group remained horrified at what had just transpired. Taking a moral stand, they declined to eat any part of the pizzas, protested our “heathen” accommodations and then ordered small side salads to tide them over for the evening.

Two summers ago, a couple of Mormon missionaries were on my front porch. They were trying to convince me of the efficacies of being LDS as they sought to try to convert me. These nineteen year olds were adamant that they were correct in their belief system. I was moved. Back in the summer of 1975, I essentially played the same part in a Potomac Conference project in Salem, Virginia, as equally convinced with my embrace of the Advent message as were these Mormon representatives. Long ago I gave up trying to convert people to my religion, realizing that my egocentric, exclusivist point of view dissuaded me in learning from and freely interacting with others of different persuasions. My SDA collegiate experience reinforced how to distance myself from the world rather than showed me how to live in it.

In February 1979 I came across a disturbing file in the Ellen G. White Estate research center at Andrews. It included White Estate correspondence expressing that they could engineer the conclusions of a forthcoming study on Ellen White’s use of a work by Hanna to their own wishes. I filled out the log to check out the material, photocopied it and promptly returned it to the research center files. Then, I made arrangements to alert the seminary faculty professor who was doing the study of White Estate intentions. Unbeknownst to me at the time, that professor picked up the phone to call the White Estate and advise them this material had been leaked. The dean of the seminary and White Estate leaders accused me of stealing the documents, which played out in several intimidating inquisitions spread out over the spring semester. So much for being a whistle blower in seminary!

My SDA collegiate experience taught me many things about morals. Searching for truth was one of them. However, it could not support how to integrate findings that tend to call into question or upend traditional interpretations. Intellectual honesty within this system had a short leash. I chose to embrace integrity. I learned to do that on my own.

Bruce