isis drives out 1 million: will iraq survive?
September 6, 2014
Special issue
Online public schools Lowering higher education costs Christian schools in China Common Core Plus more MS_HCReformAd1_2014.indd 1 4/28/14 11:37:54 AM 18 COVER.indd 2 8/11/14 11:50 AM 18 COVER.indd 1 8/11/14 11:51 AM Wherever God calls you, We Will equip you.
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18 CONTENTS.indd 2 8/15/14 10:20 AM ContentsSe ptember 6, 2014 / VOLUME 29, NUMBER 18
feature 38 Risking genocide As the Islamic State rages from Syria to Iraq, it threatens to wipe out Christians and other religious groups with singular roots in ancient Mesopotamia
SPECIAL SECTION 42 Groundhog reform day Bca k to school 2014 finds American education in the midst of yet another expensive revolution 44 Uncommon pushback With a rebellion growing, Common Core no longer looks inevitable 46 Public school @ home Online charter schools are growing, with growing pains 49 Lone Star laboratory T exas is likely the next school choice frontier dispatches 50 Portland public 9 News 20 Quotables Seeking the peace of a very liberal city by helping to rejuvenate a deteriorating school 22 Quick Takes
52 Risks and rewards reviews Amid limited resources and a hostile government, a Chinese 27 Movies & TV Christian school movement is growing 30 Books 55 Homeschool debate 32 Q&A Hwo to keep a few bad apples from spoiling the bushel 9 34 Music 58 Good credit Competency-based programs offer college credentials notebook without the debilitating cost 65 Lifestyle 68 Technology COVER illustration by krieg barrie. inset: Yazidi refugees in Zakho, Iraq; photo by Gail Orenstein/NurPhoto/Sipa USA/ap 70 Science 71 Houses of God 72 Sports
voices 27 6 Joel Belz 24 Janie B. Cheaney 36 Mindy Belz 75 Mailbag 79 Andrée Seu Peterson 80 Marvin Olasky
world (ISSN 0888-157X) (USPS 763-010) is published biweekly (26 issues) for $59.95 per year by God’s World Publications, (no mail) 12 All Souls Crescent, Asheville, NC 28803; (828) 232-5260. Periodical postage paid at Asheville, NC, and additional mailing o ffices. P rinted in the USA. Reproduction in whole or in part without 38 65 written permission is prohibited. © 2014 WORLD News Group. All rights reserved. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to world, PO Box visit our website—wng.org—for breaking news and more! 20002, Asheville, NC 28802-9998.
SeptemBer 6, 2014 • WORLD 3
18 CONTENTS.indd 3 8/19/14 4:39 PM “The earth is the L’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein.” —Psalm :
Marvin Olasky David K. Freeland Mindy Belz Robert L. Patete Timothy Lamer Rachel Beatty Jamie Dean Krieg Barrie Janie B. Cheaney, Arla J. Eicher Susan Olasky, Andrée Seu Peterson, John Piper, Edward E. Plowman, Cal omas, Lynn Vincent Emily Belz, J.C. Derrick, Dawn Wilson Daniel James Devine, Sophia Lee, Angela Lu, Edward Lee Pitts Arla Eicher, Al Saiz, Alan Wood Megan Basham, Anthony .. Bradley, Andrew Branch, Tim Challies, John Dawson, Amy Henry, Mary Jackson, Michael Leaser, Jill Nelson, Arsenio Orteza, Tiff any Jim Chisolm Owens, Stephanie Perrault, Emily Whitten .. Les Sillars June McGraw Kristin Chapman, Mary Ruth Murdoch
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18 CONTENTS.indd 5 8/11/14 12:00 PM Joel Belz
children taught us that even grown-ups like color, photos, maps, charts—and a little bit of fun here and there. You fi lled my And yes, we’re still doing business with tens of thou- sands of those kids, with their parents, and with their schools. Candor (and honest journalism) compel me to mailbox report that our circulation is down signifi cantly from our best years in the early s, when we went every week Now I’d like to fi ll yours as well! to at least a quarter-million children. e internet and the whole digital enterprise have taken their toll with our I’ couple . I asked children’s ministry, just as they have with the whole you in this space on June if perhaps you had a secular world of publishing. few good ideas about using the media to reach out So can God still use the internet and similar digital >> to the next generation—claiming the allegiance of eff orts with our kids and grandkids? We are confi dent our children, and our children’s children, to this dynamic that He can—and will. With that optimism, we are ready we call “biblical worldview thinking.” to greet the new school year in a few days with new—and You fi lled my mailbox. I wasn’t ready for the moun- signifi cantly enhanced—products for your kids and teens. tainous stack of ideas you sent along. I’m still studying at lineup starts with a bimonthly magazine at each of my way through them, trying to sort out and prioritize three grade levels: God’s Big WORLD for beginners, some common threads and fresh perspectives. WORLDkids for those in the middle, and WORLDteen for Along the way, though, as I’ve read your letters, I’ve adolescents. Beyond the refreshed physical magazines, been forced to realize that among the many thousands of we have also now added a lively and interactive website WORLD’s readers, a huge number are quite unaware of for each of the three levels. e websites guarantee that the media link WORLD already enjoys with young chil- our content is lively and engaging. e physical paper- dren. If that includes you, let me catch you up to date! and-ink magazines will provide broader and deeper Starting years ago, in , the company that now background, while the web version will off er more inter- produces WORLD launched a small newsprint magazine action and timeliness. Students, with guidance and for children called It’s God’s World. Aimed at fourth- and permission from their parents, will fi nd themselves fi fth-grade elementary students, the eight-page weekly going back again and again to both sources. reported on current events. It also made a point of trying Am I excited about this version of what I fi rst to help its young readers interpret those world events envisioned years ago? You’d better believe it! Do I from a God-centered perspective. think it is faithful to that original vision? Yes—and To say that It’s God’s World was popular is an under- almost certainly does it better than we did it in the early statement. Exploring God’s World followed in for years. Is this the fi nal word in communicating with and second- and third-graders, and God’s Big World in persuading the boys and girls who are otherwise bom- for kindergartners and fi rst-graders. Suddenly we found barded with secularism and godless explanations? Not at ourselves publishing six diff erent graded editions every all—and for that I am thankful as well. Some of the ideas week of the school year. some of you have sent our way need to be incorporated But, we discovered, that still wasn’t in the new lineup I’ve described above. If enough. More and more, parents of our you wrote me about that, please be young readers got in touch with us to say: patient. I’ll be responding soon. “We like this. We read it with our kids. In the meantime, I think you’ll want to When are you going to do one for our age make sure all the kids and grandkids in level?” your extended family make these new And that, my friends, is the story of the WORLD-related magazines and websites a birth of WORLD magazine itself. Our regular part of their weekly schedules. You magazines for children were, quite liter- can do that best, perhaps, by going to our ally, the parents of the parents’ magazine. user-friendly website at gwnews.com. Nor was that a small and inci- Or you can use regular mail at PO dental matter. If WORLD had Box , Asheville, NC . been launched apart from such Or you can even pick up your a background, I think it would phone and call us at - -- have been dry, academic, KIDS or ---. tedious, and destined to Whichever way you do it, die after its fi rst few we’ll be looking for your issues. Publishing for response. A
WORLD • SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 Email: [email protected]
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18 NEWS OPENER.indd 8 8/11/14 12:21 PM DispatchesNews > Quotables > Quick Takes
A community i n fl a m e d Violent nighttime riots but also peaceful daytime marches mark crisis in Ferguson, Mo. BY ANGELA LU
Protesters march in Ferguson on Aug.
CHARLIE RIEDEL/AP
SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 • WORLD
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CREDIT Dispatches > News
Thursday, Aug. More missing emails Another administration offi cial’s emails OBAMACARE: CHARLIE RIEDEL/AP • TAVENNER: MARK WILSON/GETTY IMAGES • GM: GENERAL MOTORS CO/AP • WALSH: CHARLES DHARAPAK/AP • BARNEY: JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT/LANDOV have disappeared, and the person again happens to be at the center of a con- gressional investigation. e Department of Health and Human Services informed Centers for House lawmakers it couldn’t turn over sub- Medicare and poenaed documents related to the botched Medicaid rollout of Healthcare.gov. e Internal Services Revenue Service previously informed Administrator Marilyn investigators email records for more than Tavenner a dozen offi cials were unrecoverable due to computer crashes. Explosive recall General Motors faced more embarrassing safety questions when federal safety regulators revealed faulty power window switches could cause and GM model SUVs to catch fi re. GM told owners to park the vehicles outside until the part could be replaced. e recall covers , vehicles—one of more than total GM recalls covering almost million vehicles Wednesday, Aug. this year. Penalty Walsh resigns Republicans moved closer to a Senate takeover as Sen. John Walsh, D-Mont., announced his withdrawal from the November election in the wake of a plagiarism scandal. kicked Walsh, an Iraq War e Congressional Budget Offi ce and the Joint Committee on veteran, was Taxation reported that nine out of uninsured Americans appointed to the won’t pay the Obamacare penalty for not having health position earlier this insurance this year, due to numerous hardship exemptions year when Sen. Max the administration has carved out for various groups. e Baucus resigned to joint fi nding, which showed as few as million nonelderly become the U.S. people paying billion in fi nes, stoked fears that younger Ambassador to Americans do not have enough incentive to obtain health China. Democrats insurance—a scenario that would drive up premiums and on Aug. chose could result in a “death spiral” for the unpopular law. state Sen. Amanda Curtis to run in
Walsh’s place. GARCIA/AP MARCO ABERCROMBIE: • IMAGES HAMED/AFP/GETTY SAFIN MAKHMOUR: • IMAGES OLSON/GETTY SCOTT MISSOURI: • HILL CHURCH MARS RISCOLL: • JAMALI HASAN IRAQ:
Battled James Barney Jr., a -year-old Floridian, made international news after he wrestled a -pound alligator—and won. Barney was riding his bicycle when he decided to take a quick swim in a restricted area of a lake in central Florida. Barney, recounting what happened from his hospital bed, said he was startled when he reached down and felt the -foot-long gator’s jaw and teeth. e boy sustained about teeth marks and claw scratches and said he will fi nd a new place to swim.
WORLD • SEPTEMBER 6, 2014
18 NEWS 1.indd 12 8/20/14 8:42 AM Saturday & Sunday, Aug. - Bleeding
OBAMACARE: CHARLIE RIEDEL/AP • TAVENNER: MARK WILSON/GETTY IMAGES • GM: GENERAL MOTORS CO/AP • WALSH: CHARLES DHARAPAK/AP • BARNEY: JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT/LANDOV Missouri A police offi cer in Ferguson, Mo., shot and killed an unarmed -year-old black man during an altercation, sparking protests, looting, and vandalism in the St. Louis suburb. Authorities initially declined to release the name of the offi cer who shot Michael Brown but Friday, Aug. days later identifi ed him as Darren Wilson. Two witnesses say the offi cer shot Brown while he was trying to surrender, but the incident was not captured on video footage. Missouri’s Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon eventually deployed Back in Iraq the Missouri National Guard in response to the subsequent e U.S. military began carrying out air attacks on Islamic rioting and violence. (See p. ) State targets in Iraq, less than hours after President Obama announced he was authorizing limited action to protect U.S. personnel in the country (see p. ). As Obama left for a two-week vacation, Iraq’s new president, Fouad Towns retaken Massoum, named Haider Al-Abadi to replace Prime Minister Kurdish military forces retook two towns in northern Nouri al-Maliki, who on Aug. agreed to step down. On Iraq, one of the fi rst instances of setback for the radical Aug. , Islamic State terrorists beheaded American freelance Islamic State group. Offi cials said Kurdish troops journalist James Foley in what they said was retaliation for repelled extremists from Makhmour and al-Gweir, while the U.S. air strikes and threatened to kill kidnapped U.S. forces carried out a fourth round of air attacks in American journalist Steven Sotloff if the strikes didn’t stop. nearby Irbil. Most countries limited involvement to humanitarian aid, and U.S. Secretary of State John Acts action Kerry reiterated U.S. resolve not to send ground troops. Acts removed Seattle pastor Mark Driscoll’s church, Mars Hill, and its satellite campuses from membership in the church-planting network he helped found in . Acts , led by Texas megachurch pastor Matt Chandler, asked Driscoll to “step down from ministry for an extended time and seek help” for “ungodly and disqualify- ing behavior.” Recent charges against Driscoll include accusations of plagia- rism, infl ating book sales, and posting profane comments online. e Southern Baptist Convention’s LifeWay Christian Resources announced it will pull Driscoll’s books
IRAQ: HASAN JAMALI • RISCOLL: MARS HILL CHURCH • MISSOURI: SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES • MAKHMOUR: SAFIN HAMED/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • ABERCROMBIE: MARCO GARCIA/AP MARCO ABERCROMBIE: • IMAGES HAMED/AFP/GETTY SAFIN MAKHMOUR: • IMAGES OLSON/GETTY SCOTT MISSOURI: • HILL CHURCH MARS RISCOLL: • JAMALI HASAN IRAQ: from its stores.
Lost The same week Hawaii endured two rare hurricanes, it experienced a political earthquake: Gov. Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat, became the state’s first incumbent governor to suffer defeat in a primary. State Sen. David Ige soundly defeated Abercrombie, percent to percent, even though Abercrombie outspent him -to-one and picked up an endorsement from President Barack Obama. An unpopular proposal to increase taxes last year played a key role in alienating Abercrombie from his base.
Download WORLD’s iPad app today; details at wng.org/iPad SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 • WORLD
18 NEWS 1.indd 13 8/20/14 9:40 AM Dispatches > News
Tuesday, Aug. 12 Aid war Ukrainian authorities said they would not allow 280 Russian humanitarian trucks to cross its border, claiming the convoy was a covert attempt to smuggle arms to pro-Russian separatists. Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security and Defense same-sex divorce: M i ncemeat/shutterstock • ceasefire:
Monday, Aug. 11 Against the grain R O
After a string of losses over 14 months, a state gay marriage ban finally withstood a B E court challenge. Tennessee Judge Russell Simmons ruled that neither the federal Council, said his country would RTO
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government nor other states are allowed to dictate marriage laws to another state, accept humanitarian aid, but only if CHMIDT a decision affecting gay couples who want a divorce in a state that doesn’t recognize the items were unloaded off the trucks / A
same-sex unions. Simmons rejected the argument that the Constitution’s Full at the border or approved by the Red F P Faith and Credit Clause forces one state to recognize marriages from another state Cross. Russia eventually allowed /Getty and said the Supreme Court’s 2013 U.S. v. Windsor decision does not topple state border officials to inspect the trucks. I m a
sovereignty on the issue. g e s • R u
O-verify ssian aid: Pavel Golovkin/a Cease-fire sequence The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Israel and the terrorist group Hamas Services (CMS) began mailing notices began a three-day cease-fire to more than 300,000 Obamacare agreement while indirect peace enrollees who have questionable talks unfolded in Cairo. The two immigration statuses. The letters sides made little progress on the require recipients to respond with p
long-term disagreements they have verification of U.S. citizenship or legal • Ward: with each other, but the parties status by Sept. 5, or risk losing cover- E later agreed to extend the cease-fire age. Originally almost 1 million m p i an additional five days. Hamas then Obamacare enrollees had immigration re S u p
broke the cease-fire on Aug. 19 by questions, but CMS resolved 660,000 e r S
firing rockets at Israel, and Israel of the cases. Texas and Florida p r launched air strikes against Hamas residents account for 146,000 of the ints, I in retaliation. remaining 310,000. n c./a p
• S t e w a
Killed NASCAR racing champion Tony Stewart, 43, struck and killed a 20-year-old driver at Canandaigua rt:
Motorsports Park on Aug. 9. Stewart, who has more than 60 career wins on multiple racing circuits, caused Kevin D e Ward Jr. to spin out into the wall, prompting Ward to confront Stewart the next time he came around the track. rik H a
Although other drivers went around Ward, Stewart clipped him, sending him flying 50 feet. Stewart, whose temper milton/a is legendary, had just returned to dirt track racing after triggering an accident at the same track last year. Ward Stewart p
14 WORLD • September 6, 2014 Visit our website—wng.org—for breaking news and more
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18 NEWS 1.indd 15 8/18/14 4:24 PM Dispatches > News
Friday, Aug. Power plays A Texas grand jury indicted Gov. Rick Perry on charges that he abused his power when he vetoed a budget item—authority he has under Texas law. e Republican governor called for Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg to resign last year after a well- Lehmberg publicized arrest and drunken driving conviction, but she refused. Perry then pledged to cut .
million in funding for Lehmberg’s EBOLA: CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • MANFRED: RICARDO ARDUENGO/AP • LEHMBERG: TRAVIS COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE/AP • BACALL: ENGSTEAD/ALBUM/NEWSCOM JOHN Thursday, Aug. public integrity unit, which was at the Ebola’s toll time investigating a Perry-backed A day after another leading physician died from Ebola in Sierra Leone, three American missionaries who returned to the United States from Liberia on Aug. remained in a -day quarantine to ensure they aren’t infected. Modupeh Cole, the physician who died on Aug. , was an American-trained doctor who had tested positive for the disease only a week before his death. Ebola has this year infected more than , persons and killed more than ,. e World Health Organization predicted the situation will worsen, saying the scope of the outbreak may be vastly underestimated.
Power transfer Going to jail Major League Baseball team owners A Maryland judge sentenced voted to approve Rob Manfred to replace Nathaniel Morales, a former youth retiring Commissioner Bud Selig. Manfred, leader at Covenant Life Church in who bested Boston Red Sox chairman Gaithersburg, Md., to years in Tom Werner for the position, is MLB’s prison for sexually abusing teenage chief operating offi cer and boys in the s. Judge Terrence was the lead negotiator McGann during sentencing called Perry for the last three collec- Morales, , a “pathetic human tive bargaining agree- being” and a “cowardly pervert.” project. He is the third potential GOP ments. Selig spent two Covenant Life, which was at the time presidential candidate to face legal decades leading the the fl agship church of Sovereign Grace attacks from opponents, joining New league, avoiding another Ministries, maintains that it knew Jersey Gov. Chris labor stoppage after the nothing of the abuses when they Christie and disastrous strike but occurred, but testimony at Morales’ Wisconsin also presiding over base- May trial revealed three teens came G ov. S c o t t ball’s steroid era. forward in the early s. Walker.
Died Legendary actress Lauren Bacall, , died from a stroke on Aug. . Bacall’s fi rst leading role came at age in the fi lm To Have and Have Not, starring opposite -year-old Humphrey Bogart, and on-camera love developed into real love: e two married in and remained together until Bogart’s death in . Bacall won Tony Awards for leading roles in two musicals adapted from classic movies, Applause () and Woman of the Year (). She won an honorary Oscar in for lifetime achievement.
WORLD • SEPTEMBER 6, 2014
18 NEWS 2.indd 16 8/20/14 8:49 AM Patrick Henry college
Restoring the original American collegiate ideal: Education for truth, Truth for leadership, All for Christ…
At Patrick Henry College we’re helping our students grow into the leaders of tomorrow by offering the same classical liberal arts curriculum that shaped many of our country’s Founding Fathers. With an emphasis on timeless academic disciplines and a campus environment that fosters spiritual growth, Patrick Henry College is equipping future leaders to shape the culture and serve the nation.
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CREDIT 888.338.1776 • www.phc.edu To find out more, visit us at about.phc.edu Patrick Henry College is certified by the State Council of Higher Education for irginiaV and accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools.
18 NEWS 2.indd 17 8/18/14 4:25 PM Dispatches > News
Monday, Aug. Hospital hacking A network of more than hospitals in states announced hackers breached its computers and stole SEMINOLES: HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES • MEDICAL RECORDS: JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • FLOODING: NIRANJAN SHRESTHA • BABY: NIKUWKA/ISTOCK • TOMB: SAKIS MITROLIDIS/AP more than . million patient records. Community Health Systems said the
theft included names, Social Security numbers, home addresses, birthdays, and telephone numbers for patients Saturday & Sunday, Aug. - who received treatment in the last fi ve years. e company is working closely with the FBI to apprehend the Gridiron greats perpetrators, whom investigators determined are in China. e Associated Press released its long-awaited ranking of the top teams in college football, naming the defending national champion Florida State Seminoles the best team in the country. Florida State starts the season No. for the sixth time—but the How much to spend? fi rst since —after winning last year’s national title game, -, over Auburn A Department of Agriculture annual University. e University of Alabama, the only other school to receive fi rst-place report found the average middle- votes, begins at No. , leading a record-tying eight teams from the Southeastern class cost of raising a child born in Conference in the top . e college football season opens Aug. . would top ,—not including college costs. Housing continued to Killer fl oods account for the largest Nepal and India reported expense, about more than deaths percent, followed by after several days of tor- education and child rential rains led to massive care. e report in fl ooding. e inundation estimated a mid- displaced thousands and dle-income family would governments dispatched mil- spend ,, equal to , itary personnel in hundreds today, to raise a child to age . But it of boats to rescue those who doesn’t have to cost that much: e were stranded. Earlier in the average includes those on shoestring month, a mudslide buried an budgets and parents who fork over Indian village, killing more ,. for
than . a stroller. PLOWMAN/AP B. WILLIAM TODD: • IMAGES TILTON/GETTY C. JARED ALS: • RISBERG/AP ERIC COOK: • ARBOGAST/AP REX CHARLES JETER: • IMAGES DIAMOND/GETTY RICK RUCKER: • IMAGES PASATIERI/GETTY CHRISTOPHER ROSE:
Found Archaeologists exploring terrain almost miles north of Athens, Greece, have found what could be the lost tomb of Alexander the Great (- ..). At the very least, it’s a massive, ,-foot tomb of a very impor- tant Greek leader, including a -step entrance with ornate sphinx statues on either side. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras visited the site and called the fi nding “extremely important.” e tomb dates to between and B.C., and archaeologists hope to have a defi nitive answer about its occupants by the end of August.
WORLD • SEPTEMBER 6, 2014
18 NEWS 3.indd 18 8/20/14 9:21 AM Sept. 2 Pete Rose, disgraced former major leaguer, will make a return of sorts to baseball today. Rose, banned from major league events since following a betting scandal, will coach fi rst base for Kentucky’s Florence Freedom of the independent Frontier League. Before the game that night, Rose will charge for autographs.
SEMINOLES: HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES • MEDICAL RECORDS: JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • FLOODING: NIRANJAN SHRESTHA • BABY: NIKUWKA/ISTOCK • TOMB: SAKIS MITROLIDIS/AP Sept. 3 Darius Rucker, who became prominent with s rock group Hootie and the Blowfi sh before transitioning to country music LOOKING superstardom, will appear on Brian Vickers Good Morning America to AHEAD announce the Tuesday, Aug. nominees for this year’s CMA More than a drop Sept. 7 Awards. e CMAs, country music’s premier e N e w in the bucket awards, will be handed out in a Nov. event. York Yankees e ALS Association released fund- will honor raising numbers for the Ice Bucket Derek Jeter Challenge, an internet sensation tonight in a Apple CEO supporting Lou Gehrig’s Disease retirement cere- Tim Cook research. e association said it mony as the end of raised . million in a three- the season approaches. week period, compared to . Jeter, , has spent seasons in the big leagues, million in the same time span last every one of them with the year, including , new Yankees. e tribute will donors. e challenge featured honor the man who has more people, including many celebri- hits, stolen bases, and ties, posting videos of themselves games played as a Yankee dumping a bucket of ice water on than any other player. their heads and challenging Jeter’s last home game wwillill come Sept. others to do the same—or make a against the Orioles. donation. Many people elected to douse themselves and still donate. Sept. 8 Former New Orleans mayor Sept. 9 Insiders report that Ray Nagin will report tech giant Apple has planned a today to a federal media event today to release prison in Oakdale, La., Jeter waves the much-anticipated iPhone . to the crowd after Find more news about the Ebola to fulfi ll his -year Chicago Cubs . e upcoming months outbreak, tensions in Ferguson, sentence stemming shortstop Starlin could be big for the Mo., and the fi ghting in Iraq, and from a guilty verdict Castro gave Jeter California-based company. on counts of a Wrigley Field Apple is also close to read more commentary by live scoreboard Marvin Olasky, Janie B. Cheaney, corruption. Nagin has plate with Jeter’s releasing an iWatch device Andrée Seu Peterson, Mindy appealed his jersey number on to be worn on wrists to Belz, and others. conviction. it on May . provide users with
ROSE: CHRISTOPHER PASATIERI/GETTY IMAGES • RUCKER: RICK DIAMOND/GETTY IMAGES • JETER: CHARLES REX ARBOGAST/AP • COOK: ERIC RISBERG/AP • ALS: JARED C. TILTON/GETTY IMAGES • TODD: WILLIAM B. PLOWMAN/AP PLOWMAN/AP B. WILLIAM TODD: • IMAGES TILTON/GETTY C. JARED ALS: • RISBERG/AP ERIC COOK: • ARBOGAST/AP REX CHARLES JETER: • IMAGES DIAMOND/GETTY RICK RUCKER: • IMAGES PASATIERI/GETTY CHRISTOPHER ROSE: health and fi tness data.
Replaced NBC on Aug. announced its political director, Chuck Todd, will replace David Gregory as host of the Sunday talk show Meet the Press. Gregory, , took over Meet the Press when host Tim Russert died in , and the show suff ered a steady ratings decline after a decade of dominance. NBC, which reportedly paid Gregory million to leave quietly, did not allow him a farewell show. Gregory rose to stardom as NBC’s chief White House correspondent, the same post Todd will now vacate.
Listen to WORLD on the radio at worldandeverything.com SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 • WORLD
18 NEWS 3.indd 19 8/20/14 9:21 AM 18 QUOTABLES.indd 20 Dispatches
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18 QUOTABLES.indd 21 CREDIT 8/20/14 9:13AM Dispatches > Quick Takes
Nicholas Cunliff e of Stratford, Conn., managed to When fraud investigators post bail and leave the police station after he was saw Shawna Lynn Palmer arrested for stealing a taxicab on Aug. , but he of Riverside, Calif., wearing didn’t get far. Apparently overcome by drowsi- high heels, her game was ness—and more bad decision making—Cunliff e up. Palmer, a supermarket allegedly broke into a nearby car to take a nap. e clerk, had claimed that a car happened to be a police cruiser. Shortly after, March accident had left offi cers discovered Cunliff e sleeping in the front her with a broken toe and seat of the police vehicle, placed him under arrest again, and charged him with breaking and entering a motor vehicle.
e KFC restaurant in North Platte, Neb., received an unusual letter in August. e letter, hand- written in blue cursive script,
details how its anonymous ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • PALMER: THOMAS R. CORDOVA/DAILY BREEZE/PRESS-TELEGRAM/AP • DIAMOND: HANDOUT • NOTE: OMAHA WORLD-HERALD sender felt bad for taking pieces of chicken home with her from the all-you-can-eat buff et. “I unable to wear a shoe or took more on my plate than I put weight on her left foot. could eat,” the woman explained. Palmer fi led a workers’ “So I put it in my purse and took compensation claim it home. I do love your chicken!” because the injury occurred Included in the letter was to at her job. But Palmer then repay the restaurant for what entered the Long Beach she stole. “God has forgiven me, Grand Prix beauty contest and I hope you will too. I will not later in March and posted be so quick to take so much next videos of the competition time.” Restaurant owner Rocky on social media, where Rasmussen told the Omaha investigators found them. World-Herald he forgives the Police arrested Palmer on anonymous woman. “I really Aug. . Her charges could wish I knew who it was,” he said. Somewhere in the tiny hamlet of Lea in Lincolnshire, a bring her one year behind “I would buy them a few meals.” , diamond is up for grabs. e stone belongs to bars and a fi ne up to Diamonds, a London jeweler, but if you fi nd it, you ,. can keep it. As part of a marketing stunt, on Aug. the jeweler attached a .-carat custom-cut diamond to a weather balloon, which reached , feet above the small English town before falling back to earth. e company then took to its Twitter account, creat- ing the hashtag “Diamonds in the Sky,” to announce that whoever found the stone could keep it. e diamond drop ginned up considerable interest, with hunters taking time from work to search the area for the precious stone or the balloon apparatus. “So tempted to go look for [the diamond] instead of going to work tomorrow,” Becky Wild mused on her e off ending shoes Twitter account. “Could be much more lucrative.” LEMONS: CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL • TIGER: JENNIFER SZYMASZEK/AP • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • KITTEN: LENORLUX/ISTOCK • HIGH BEAMS: SHOJI FUJITA/TAXI/GETTY IMAGES FUJITA/TAXI/GETTY SHOJI HIGH• BEAMS: LENORLUX/ISTOCK KITTEN: • BARRIE KRIEG ILLUSTRATION: • JENNIFER SZYMASZEK/AP TIGER: • PATROL HIGHWAY CALIFORNIA LEMONS:
WORLD • SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 Download WORLD’s iPad app today; details at wng.org/iPad
18 QUICK TAKES.indd 22 8/20/14 8:58 AM ere are only a few months left to buy tiger selfi es legally in New York state. On Aug. , New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that would make it illegal to charge money for having a picture taken with a tiger in the Empire State. e law, the brainchild of Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal of Manhattan, seeks to shut down the burgeoning business Motorists in the San Diego area were soured to their morning of roadside zoos and county fairs in commute on Aug. . e problem began when a pair of cargo the state that off er selfi e-style trucks collided north of San Diego on Interstate . One of the pictures with big cats. e law, which trucks’ cargo, a shipment of unripe lemons, spilled onto the road- goes into eff ect beginning in , way. e citrusy mess blocked all but one lane on the northbound will provide for a fi ne for side of the freeway, jamming traffi c for more than three hours. fi rst-time off enders.
ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • PALMER: THOMAS R. CORDOVA/DAILY BREEZE/PRESS-TELEGRAM/AP • DIAMOND: HANDOUT • NOTE: OMAHA WORLD-HERALD One Indian schoolteacher won’t be winning any awards for perfect attendance any time soon. According to an investigation by school authorities, biology teacher Sangeeta Kashyap has missed of her years as an employee of the nation’s public schools. Offi cials believe the -year-run of missing work marks the nation’s high-water mark for absenteeism. According to records, Kashyap began working in as a biology teacher at a school in central India. en, according to records, she took maternity leave, was transferred to another school, and never came in for work after that. She occupied an offi cial teaching position until August. Government offi cials say they aren’t certain whether she had been paid during her two-decade hiatus.
If they could think it or say it, the stray cats of Nashville would be thanking James Talbot. e -year-old Nashville resident Bad drivers in Shenzhen, China, who blast oncoming motorists who died earlier this year left a , cash inheritance for with high beam headlights will now face in-kind punishment from the care and provision of the homeless cats of the city. Offi cially police. Police offi cials in the Chinese city said drivers who abuse the money will go to Nashville’s Metro Animal the use of high beams will be stopped by police, ticketed for Care and Control. But according to a provision roughly , pulled from their car, and forced to stare into police in Talbot’s will, the animal adoption clinic cruiser headlights for fi ve minutes. According to an offi cial post may only use the money to care for cats— on Chinese social networking site Weibo, a department spokes- not dogs—and to fi nd loving man called the punishment an “appropriate experience.” homes for them. LEMONS: CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL • TIGER: JENNIFER SZYMASZEK/AP • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • KITTEN: LENORLUX/ISTOCK • HIGH BEAMS: SHOJI FUJITA/TAXI/GETTY IMAGES FUJITA/TAXI/GETTY SHOJI HIGH• BEAMS: LENORLUX/ISTOCK KITTEN: • BARRIE KRIEG ILLUSTRATION: • JENNIFER SZYMASZEK/AP TIGER: • PATROL HIGHWAY CALIFORNIA LEMONS:
SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 • WORLD
18 QUICK TAKES.indd 23 8/20/14 8:58 AM KRIEG BARRIE
8/20/14 9:01 AM
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KRIEG BARRIE 18 MOVIES &TV.indd 26 W divine love throughforeknowledge, operating justi of Scott Brown theGospel’s power atwork inrepentance,worship, faith, the LOCATION: Asheville, at Carolina Lifeway’s North RidgecrestChristianConferenceCenter foundation of conference inachurchhat happens andafamilywhen The willfocus onthespiritual theGospeliscentral? Drawing Water theWells from of Geo DanHorn, JasonDohm, speakers Hart, include:Don Other Carlton Mcleod power church andfamilylife—the transforming of Joel Beeke NCFIC.ORG/GOSPEL R.C. Sproul, Jr. cation, sancti John Snyder lling of cation, perseverance, sovereignty andglori Je
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CREDIT MoviesReviews TV > Books > QA > Music Losses and gains MOVIE: When the Game Stands Tall rises above its competitors in the sports genre BY MEGAN BASHAM
“I that if I could fi nd a production that would help inspire young boys to become men I would do it, and this was that fi lm.” is >> was what Jim Caviezel recently told me of his starring role in the new sports drama, When the Game Stands Tall (rated PG for mature themes and a scene of violence). At fi rst glance, Caviezel (perhaps best known to Christian audiences as Jesus in e Passion of the Christ and to television fans as John Reese on CBS’ hit drama Person of Interest) may seem like an unusual choice to play a high-school football coach. To say that the -year-old actor is soft-spoken might be an understatement—I had to strain to catch some of his answers to my questions. But then I watched a video of the legendary Bob Ladouceur, and it became immedi- ately clear that Caviezel was perfectly cast. e two men share not only a devotion to their Catholic faith and a penchant for obscure theological references, but also a strikingly unassuming demeanor. As sports journalist Neil Hayes noted in the book the fi lm is based on, Coach Ladouceur stands out in his industry for rarely raising his voice and avoiding the customary locker room speeches. Perhaps that’s why the fi lm about California’s De La Salle High School football team doesn’t focus on the bulk of Hayes’ original book—how Ladouceur led his program to achieve a staggering -game winning streak—but rather on the events that made up the epilogue. at is, how he handled losing it. e movie begins, as many sports movies do, on the
PICTURES night of the big game. Only our protagonists aren’t the underdogs—far from it. With consecutive undefeated
TRISTAR seasons under its belt, De La Salle is the winningest
Email: [email protected] SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 • WORLD
18 MOVIESDownload & TV.indd WORLD’s 27 iPad app today; details at wng.org/iPad 8/20/14 11:30 AM Visit our website—wng.org—for breaking news and more Listen to WORLD on the radio at worldandeverything.com 18 MOVIES &TV.indd 28 Reviews 28 p dubbed “perhaps the most iconic speech of [Williams’] career.” monologue measured by Twitter mentions, seemed to be the carpe best-loved films. sites and news outlets were afire with quotes from the brilliant actor’s In the days following Robin Williams’ death by suicide, social media enjoyable Beverly Ladouceur, are so spot-on, it’s an performances, including Laura Dern as the expected sports arc, film but the ery ward of aveteran’s hospital. losses that don’t until afew sink in more team to live.” vidual egos must die order in for the describes another love. in Or, Caviezel as defeat and what it means to serve one players Ladouceur goes about teaching his film’s e tragedies and ageneral attitude of to speak, though thanks to apair of history. history, but of all in American sports team not only high-school in football d the After ntitlement, that will change the in restigious prep school, shows his students aphoto of acentury-old
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Ragamuffin: color green films • What If: Entertainment One MOVIE What If WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL: TRISTAR PICTURES • WILLIAMS: EVERETT COLLECTION/REX FEATURES/AP
C the independent >> romantic comedy What If (rated PG- for crude talk, partial nudity, and sexual innuendo) as the modern When Harry Met Sally. e movie is modern in the sense that it doesn’t ask the question, “Can men and women be friends?” but rather “Is romance possible without sex?” For most - and -somethings who are out of college and thinking about settling down, romance has become the same thing as sex, the two inextricable. DVD Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe) meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan) at a party where he learns that she has a live-in boyfriend. He R a g a m u ffi n reluctantly agrees to be her friend, and they go on to spend time getting to know each other. Wallace’s friend Allan, one of a panoply of immature characters, regularly pesters him B “A G” and “Sing Your about whether he secretly wants to sleep with Chantry. >> Praise to the Lord,” Rich Mullins burst onto the “You can’t interact with a woman without sex screwing it Christian music scene in the late s and early s up,” Wallace retorts. and delivered a number of memorable songs that were Wallace is no preacher of abstinence; he admits his both theologically rich and experientially compelling. His thoughts about Chantry aren’t pure, but he wants to believe success paved the way for singer/songwriters like Chris that love is not an “all-purpose excuse for selfi sh behavior.” Rice, Andrew Peterson, and the band Caedmon’s Call. Wallace is in the cultural downstream of both ubiquitous R a g a m u ffi n , recently released on DVD and Blu-ray, is hook-ups and old fashioned Hollywood romances. He goes an independent fi lm that chronicles Mullins’ rise in the to see e Princess Bride by himself. He’s still torn apart Christian music industry and the personal and spiritual about his parents’ unfaithfulness to each other that led to struggles he faced until a car accident claimed his life in their divorce. . Director and actor David Leo Schultz makes roughout the movie, Wallace and Chantry Mullins’ complicated relationship with a disapproving wearily listen to friends and co-workers father the centerpiece of the fi lm. e need for fatherly discuss their latest sexual aff ection, both human and heavenly, carries the story of exploits—a familiar experience Rich’s life along, with his most popular songs providing to many -somethings in the soundtrack of his journey. the workplace. At one point, Like all believers in Jesus, Mullins was a sinner and a Wallace and Chantry’s saint, and R a g a m u ffi n (rated PG-) shows both aspects friends abandon them on of his life. Here we see a chain-smoking man with salty a beach without their language and a propensity toward alcohol abuse, who clothes in the hopes nevertheless gives away almost all of the money he that they will hook earns, ministers to the broken residents of a Native up; the setup American reservation, and consistently points people backfi res and the away from himself and toward the church for spiritual two are so embar- nourishment. roughout the fi lm, it’s the rawness of rassed they can hardly Mullins’ admission of sin and his provocative words speak to each other after. about grace that disarm the viewer, just as his lyrics e fi lm’s tone is uneven, startle the listeners of his music. the comedy is mostly R a g a m u ffi n meanders at times (it clocks in at hours unfunny, and the excessive and minutes), but its fl aws are overcome by spirited sarcastic banter almost performances and the inclusion of several close friends drowns the romance. But and family members playing diff erent roles. Mullins’ life Radcliff e’s magnetic perfor- isn’t a paragon of virtue or a sterling example of “the mance redeems some of the victorious Christian life.” But this movie gets at the heart fl aws. e ending, without of his story and music: grace—unmerited favor from an revealing too much, unobligated Giver—good news for the sinner, the “beggar sides with an idea of at the door of God’s mercy.” —Trevin Wax is managing editor romance that goes
RAGAMUFFIN: COLOR GREEN FILMS • WHAT IF: ENTERTAINMENT ONE IF: ENTERTAINMENT WHAT • FILMS GREEN COLOR RAGAMUFFIN: of The Gospel Project, and an author against the current trends.
See all our movie reviews at wng.org/movies SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 • WORLD
18 MOVIES & TV.indd 29 8/20/14 12:00 PM Reviews > Books
A novel recommendation A dark, but not hopeless, book for students BY MARVIN OLASKY
O A. , “Hello, dark- seniors: Daniel Silva’s e ness,” reported that some high- Heist (HarperCollins, ). school students face harm when It’s real: starts with the >> reading dark-themed books in murder of a fallen British which characters commit suicide. A spy involved in the theft of classmate of one high-school senior great paintings. It’s a page- who killed himself said, “Every book turner: continues with the Silva we read told us that life was meaning- eff orts of Silva’s great hero, less and in the end nothing matters. … Israeli spy (and art restorer) Gabriel God (sigh) but one deserving support ese books all together made life seem Allon, and a brave young woman who because its citizens built and maintain hopeless.” survived a Syrian massacre. It’s a proven a tidy small house—although one with Some Christian schools will have no reader-pleaser: is is the th novel in broken windows—on a rough street of dark books on their required readings a series that repeatedly hits No. on big mansions with loaded howitzers lists, but that’s not the bestseller lists. And e H e i s t is / sat- and unchained pit bulls. solution: Many - to isfactory regarding the “bad stuff ”: no Beyond all that, Silva is an excellent -year-olds have bad language or sex. Some violence— writer who regularly crafts apt charac- learned that the world is remember, it has spies and Syrian bad terizations: “She had decorated the a tough place, so feeding guys—but nothing grossly graphic. rooms of the house as she had decorated them novels set in And did you twice read the word her husband: gray, sleek, modern.” He happy towns beset only “Syrian” in my last paragraph—a tipoff can turn on high-school seniors to by little tiff s will lead that e Heist will also teach students read more than text messages and some to rebel against some current events and recent his- tweets. He doesn’t duck evil: “Despite infantilization. e bet- tory? ey’ll learn about years of all the books, the documentaries, the ter way is to have them mass murder and mega-theft by the memorials, and the declarations read books that show upwardly mobile Assad family that has regarding universal human rights, a real evil but also the opportunity to fi ght ascended from peasantry to a billion dictator was once again killing his it, both through Christian means and fortune, according to some estimates. people with poison gas and turning through some necessary worldly ones. Students will learn about bank secrecy them into human skeletons in camps Here’s my unconventional reading in Austria. ey’ll gain sympathy for and prisons.” But he implores us to recommendation for high-school Israel, a nation still largely aloof from fi ght and never give up.
FORGOTTEN AMERICANS We’ve run in previous years interviews with Amity Shlaes, author of e Forgotten Man, a great history of the Depression that’s relevant to our own economic stagnation of the past seven years. (See “ e hallowed New Deal,” March , , and “Slumps that go on and on,” Nov. , .) But what to JOHNNY do about kids in high-school history or social studies classes who won’t read big books? Assign them e Forgotten Man LOUIS/JL/SIPA Graphic Edition (Harper, ). Shlaes’ colorful cast of characters—among them, businessman Wendell Wilkie, radical Rex Tugwell, and African-American preacher Father Divine—lends itself well to comic book depiction. Students will learn that the real problem was not the stock market collapse in but that in April unemployment was still almost at percent—and millions of Americans had been jobless for an entire decade. (If we USA/NEWSCOM included in our current unemployment fi gures those who have given up, plus the semi-employed who would like full-time jobs but haven’t found them—our forgotten men and women—the current U.S. stat would look like that.) A major cause of continued unemployment then and
now: Washington’s war on business. —M.O. SERGIGN/SHUTTERSTOCK
WORLD • SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 Email: [email protected]
18 BOOKS.indd 30 8/15/14 4:51 PM NOTABLE BOOKS Four war-themed graphic novels > reviewed by .
e Lamb and the Führer Ravi Zacharias What happened to Adolf Hitler after he shot himself in his underground bunker? Zacharias imagines the Führer, bereft of his uniform and with a small hole in his right temple, meeting Jesus and demanding the right to explain himself. Hitler is on trial, and “the Lamb” calls witnesses including Dietrich Bonhoeff er to testify against him. e story serves to illustrate some of the author’s principal lecture themes, including the basis for morality and the problem of unity-in- diversity. An introduction featuring two present-day college students SPOTLIGHT establishes the background as well as its relevance for today. Some of the material is intense: best suited for ages and up. Since “gender variance” is getting Boxers & Saints Gene Luen Yang a lot of play this year, and since e Boxer Rebellion, a bloody th-century outbreak of Chinese cultural agendas fi nd their way into nationalists against Western infl uence and religion, is the setting children’s picture books, it’s no for these overlapping novels. ough the characters are fi ctional, surprise that two books this year, the events and background are not. Yang contrasts two world- Morris Micklewhite and the views in the characters of Little Bao, a young man empowered by Tangerine Dress and Jacob’s New traditional mythology to revenge missionary wrongs, and Four- Girl, a Catholic convert who takes her name from St. Vibiana and Dress, have joined , Dresses her inspiration from Joan of Arc. Both sides have their bad actors, () in depicting boys who but Christianity is seen to have resources traditional mythology include dolls, tiaras, and dresses in does not. Due to graphically depicted violence, these books are best their repertoire of playacting. suited to teens and up. Bailey, of , Dresses, calls himself a girl even though his anat- Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood Nathan Hale omy and his unsympathetic family “Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales,” of which this is the fourth, employ the author’s namesake (the heroic Revolutionary War spy) as say otherwise. Morris and Jacob narrator for some dark, dramatic chapters in history. Here Hale tack- don’t go that far, but these boys les “ e Great War” with the help of two sidekicks, the Hangman struggle with their own nature (and and the British Provost. In the style of Art Spiegelman’s classic other kids’ teasing) until under- Maus, the warring sides are shown as animals: British bulldogs, standing adults help them make a German eagles, Russian bears, and American bunnies (because breakthrough and feel comfortable eagles already were taken). ough it veers into silliness in places, with themselves. It’s also no sur- the narrative tells the overall history of the confl ict accurately and imaginatively, with a strong (and mostly serious) conclusion. prise that reviewers and educators Middle-graders and older kids can learn a lot. enthusiastically recommend these titles for any school library’s “diver- Dogs of War Sheila Keenan and Nathan Fox sity” shelf, but picture books can’t “Whenever people go to war, so do their best friends.” ese begin to address the complexity of three stories of the Great War, World War II, and Vietnam feature a cross-gender identity. —J.B.C. Border Collie (Boots), a Siberian Husky (Loki), and a German JOHNNY Shepherd (Sheba) serving their masters in trenches, tundra, and
LOUIS/JL/SIPA jungle, respectively. Dog lovers and war buff s alike will enjoy learning about the many critical functions dogs have supplied under fi re. e fi rst two stories are straightforward adventure, but
USA/NEWSCOM the third delves into human psychology through the eyes of a young boy who befriends a reclusive Vietnam vet struggling to fi t into society again. ough intended for middle-grade readers, the
SERGIGN/SHUTTERSTOCK dialogue includes two instances of mild profanity.
To see more book news and reviews, go to wng.org/books SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 • WORLD
18 BOOKS.indd 31 8/15/14 4:53 PM Reviews > Q A Philosophical inoculation e best defense for children against bad ideas, says JAY RICHARDS, is measured exposure BY MARVIN OLASKY
J R, a distin- then answering that question e human race is fallen and so guished fellow at the is probably the most impor- the best we can do is say, Institute of Faith, Work, tant economic and intellectual What are the economic sys- >> & Economics, and a discipline. tems that will fi t human senior fellow at the Discovery Consequences trump beings as we actually exist in Institute, has written numerous intentions? God cares both the world, prior toto the consum- books and articles since receiv- why we do something and mation in the kingdom of God? ing his Ph.D. from Princeton whatwhat we do. If I give my wife So we have to learn to eological Seminary, on sub- two dozen roses and it’s not our distinguish economic ide- jects ranging from theology to anniversary or her birthday, ology from empirical Intelligent Design to economics. that’s an intrinsically nice thing reality? at’s Richards and his wife Jenny to do. But what if I want to go have - and -year-old on my fourth golfi ng outing daughters whom they teach at weekend of the year, and I their home in Potomac Falls, Va. want to grease the skids? e I like your book Money, internal matters to the moral Greed, and God. Have you act. at’s not true in econom- given it to your -year-old? ics. e motives of the mem- I have just started her on it, bers of Congress who vote on although I’ll reserve their junior a bill do not matter. ey could and senior years for heavy have diff erent motives, economics. But it is books like but that policy is going to have that or Henry Hazlitt’s the same eff ect either way. Economics in One Lesson, As Adam Smith said, the more than standard college bread maker is not making macroeconomics classes, that the bread that day can teach students to think in because he feels nice or terms of costs and benefi ts or wants to be nice to us. He trade-off s. wants to make money. What’s the most impor- He wants to feed his own tant economic discovery family by helping us made in the th century feed our own families. that students don’t learn And Smith was not saying about? Probably the discon- what Ayn Rand said, that nect between intentions and selfi shness is a virtue. His consequences. Once you point is that in a market understand that, and you hear, economy with the rule of “Congress wants to raise the law, people’s actions—even federal minimum wage to if they’re self-interested— an hour,” you say, “ at will be directed toward CREDIT sounds nice, and then what will socially benefi cial outcomes. happen?” Ironically asking and It’s a hugely important insight.
WORLD • SEPTEMBER 6, 2014
18 Q&A.indd 32 8/14/14 3:22 PM Kids should learn especially diffi cult in econom- make use of stuff that to ask professors, exposure to a ics because a lot of people would otherwise be pathogen. We can don’t think you discover wasted are heroes. Tell us ‘What would be be inoculated things about economics. about Brad Morgan. against smallpox by People often just think eco- Morgan is a Michigan dairy the best argument getting an injection nomics is just ethics, so I can farmer who was paying of cowpox to which get my way to a conclusion , a year just to have I could go read your body reacts. It intuitively. I would maintain the manure hauled off his develops antibodies that part of reality is scarcity. farm. He fi gured out a way to against what and then protects ere is a known relationship turn manure into compost in itself from the more between supply and demand. a month, rather than the you’ve just harmful pathogens. We know what the function of many months it used to We need to think prices are in a market; and so take. Entrepreneurs inevita- told me?’ about ideas in the you can either know those or bly have intimate knowledge same way. You don’t not know those, accept them of things that other people want your kids to or ignore them, but you can’t might consider boring: get off to college legislate them away—and if Practical wisdom allows and just then hear you ignore them you’re likely them to use their skills and the best arguments to get into trouble. their creativity in a way that for Darwinism. Scarcity does not exist other people can’t, and now at’s the wrong outside of God’s sover- Morgan sells his stuff , called time to have that eignty? Exactly. Dairy Doo. happen. ey need So people He has about diff er- to have been taken who can ent varieties, right? through those Diff erent grades or diff erent things beforehand roasts. It’s the perfect meta- and not in a cranky, phor for entrepreneurship one-sided fashion. because he literally takes How should waste and creates wealth a temptation among some parents inoculate their chil- with it. It’s a prefect para- homeschoolers: Protect them dren against wrong ideas ble to explain the reality from the world. But if the virus without setting up straw that human beings are a is still out there in the world: men or caricatures? Always unique hybrid of the spiri- Unless you keep them locked look for the very best argu- tual and the material, able up, they are getting exposed ments on the other side. at to take the material world at some point, and they will also works in college: Kids that God has created and not have built up their resis- should learn to ask professors, transform it into wealth tance. I saw this in seminary. I “What would be the best argu- that wasn’t there before. went to a couple of liberal ment I could go read against And journalistically theological seminaries, and what you’ve just told me?” specifi c rather than ideo- kids would come from Bible ey never know the answer logically abstract. We colleges where they just to this question—but that’s need to ask: What are the hadn’t been exposed to the what intellectual honesty real discoveries about the arguments that are out there. requires. Imagine a jury in a economic realm that we ey lost their faith in a trial that only heard the prose- need to take on board, semester or two semesters. cution but didn’t hear the when we are thinking about So quarantining is a bad idea, I defense. these subjects? think, for preparing our kids. at’s often how we are When conservative What’s the other common intellectually. We might Christian parents are tendency? Overexposure. know the defense or the pros- concerned about what their at’s the other extreme ecution, but we don’t know kids are learning about where you cast them as sheep both. So we want to know the economics, what do they among wolves and hope they’ll best arguments on both sides, typically do? Parents try one toughen up. and then frame our own argu- CREDIT or two things. Some think, I’ll Can we fi nd a golden ments in light of the best quarantine my children. at is mean? Inoculation: measured objections on the other side. A
Email: [email protected] RICHARDS: MARK FINKENSTAEDT • STUDENTS: RALF HIRSCHBERGER/PICTURE-ALLIANCE/DPA/AP IMAGES SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 • WORLD
18 Q&A.indd 33 8/14/14 3:22 PM Reviews > Music
Livingston Seagull soundtrack is heavy metal by comparison. On Awakening: 21st Century Slovenian Flute Music, Nicole Molumby surrounds the flute with string bass, bassoon, clarinet, piano, and oboe. Rather than weigh- ing her down or clipping her wings, however, they feather her nest. Blaž Pucihar, three of whose pieces Molumby performs, is her pianist, so inter-ensemble sympathy abounds. “His compositions are fresh, innovative, and heart warming,” writes Molumby in the liner notes, and she’s right. She was also right to have Pucihar arrange Peter Kopač’s restlessly somber “Romanca” for flute, piano, and string bass. Chaucer’s “smale fowles” that “maken melody” and “slepen al the night with open ye” come to mind. The same goes for her rendition of Črt Sojar aring s Voglar’s exhilarating solo-flute “Prebujanje Narave”— So ounds that is, when it’s not evoking mating calls. The most challenging of MSR’s flute trilogy is the Three recent albums highlight the New York City flautist Andrew Bolotowsky’s The aesthetic and emotional range Praying Mantis and the Bluebird, mainly because it’s of the flute By arsenio orteza subtitled “The Flute Music of Beth Anderson,” and Beth Anderson is a most challenging composer. Consider “Preparation for the Dominant: Outrunning the Inevitable.” Despite lasting only five minutes and The oldest precursors of the Western concert flute being sandwiched by the comparatively simple flute-and- were fashioned from bone and ivory. “Aside from the piano “Lullaby for the Eighth Ancestor” and “Dr. Blood’s voice,” quoth Wikipedia, they’re “the earliest known Mermaid Lullaby,” it will test listeners’ patience. Anderson’s >> musical instruments.” And why not? The most musical liner explanation of the composition’s goals and nonhuman sound in ancient cultures was birdsong, and no the reasons behind them are illuminating, instruments sound as much like birds as flutes do. but the piece still feels like an experimental Nowadays, flutes are more likely to be made of silver or exercise in minimalism that only partly gold, but their uniquely avian expressiveness remains. Three justifies its grating repetition. recent releases on the MSR Classics label call attention to Anderson has her easy moments. The this very quality. They also demonstrate the instrument’s title piece, on which she accompanies aesthetic and emotional range. Arnone Bolotowsky on piano, evokes its subjects’ The most birdlike is Francesca Arnone’s Games of delicacy and beauty. And while many of Light: Discovering Treasure for Solo Flute. Arnone the selections reflect her fascination with begins with 15 selections—over half-an-hour’s John Cage-ian indeterminacy, they’re engagingly worth—from Charles Koechlin’s Les Chants de playful. The 20-minute “Skate Suite” (for baroque
Nectaire, Op. 198 (1944), and continues with flute, alto recorder, baroque cello, and harpsichord) flute:Alen works by Arthur Willner (Sonate für Flöte delights even at its strangest. Allein, Op. 34 [1926]) and the film composers For the less-ambitious flute fan, there’s the new a William Alwyn (Divertimento for Solo Flute Molumby release by the Alabama-born, church-reared, vl a
[1939]) and Miklos Rozsa (Sonata per Flauto Solo, smooth-jazz flautist Sherry Reeves. Simply titled d /shutterstockmusici • Op. 39 [1983]). Sherry Reeves (CD Baby), the album finds her So lyrical are the melodies and so sensitive does capably wafting throughout and atop gently Arnone render them that, although they span nearly six sparkling electronic accompaniment. decades and represent French (Koechlin), Czechoslovakian Her challenge: to disperse the dentist- (Willner), British (Alwyn), and Hungarian (Rozsa) sensibilities, office atmosphere that hovers above all a
they feel like birds of a feather. Oblivious to the terrestrial but her liveliest rhythms. The highlight: n s s: h s:
turmoil preoccupying their two-legged unfeathered the Latin-tinged, rhythmically lively a n Powi friends, they soar, dip, plunge, and glide with improvisa- Reeves “Aqua Verde,” which could qualify her dout
tional freedom and grace. Neil Diamond’s Jonathan as Tim Weisberg’s (musical) twin sister. A Simon
34 WORLD • September 6, 2014 Email: [email protected]
18 MUSIC.indd 34 8/20/14 11:32 AM NOTABLE CDs New or recent classical albums > reviewed by SPOTLIGHT
A ousand oughts Kronos Quartet Ten of the tracks on this “compilation” are previ- The Juilliard String Quartet’s Elliott ously unreleased, so even Kronos completists have Carter: e Five String Quartets surprises in store. Not the eclecticism—“eclectic” (Sony Classical) stands as the would be the quartet’s middle name if it had one. defi nitive recording of th- e jarring nature of the juxtapositions, however, is century American (and maybe another matter. e fi rst four tracks alone allege Western) music’s most rewardingly common ground among Swedish folk, American black diffi cult compositions. One reason gospel, Syrian folk-pop, and Vietnamese folk. Go is that the quartet worked inti- macro and the panorama will astound. Go micro and mately with Carter to prepare the the Don Walser-sung-yodeled “Danny Boy” will have most faithful reproductions of you grousing, “We get the point.” what he had imagined. Another is Barber’s Adagio for Strings that the staggering complexity of Paul Oakenfold what he had imagined is every bit a Does the fact that Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings match for the quartet’s brand-name is as over-recorded as Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” virtuosity. andand therefore ripe for deconstruction justify this Slashing, emotionally taut, techno DJ’s transformation of it into a rave-club driven as much by tempi as by fantasia, replete with woofer-rattling sonic devices at tonality and maybe more, the com- glaring odds with the original’s patient subtlety? Well, positions can be listened to for kind of. Given Walter/Wendy Carlos’ Switched-On years with delight by open-minded, Bach, one must remain open-minded. Still, battering- untrained listeners without provid- ram mixes feels over-subversive. If they turn ing or even suggesting vocabulary benighted ravers on to the original, fi ne. But nonravers with which those listeners can can take a rain check. explain their delight to colleagues Tickle the Minikin: 17th-Century at the water cooler. Similes might help—specifi cally, the plays of Lyra Viol Music Robert Smith Samuel Beckett, to which the liner is album’s complete subtitle, as revealed in the liner notes, is “Mysterious lyra-viol music from sev- notes instructively liken the pieces, enteeth-century Holland & England,” and the key and the Jean Cocteau fi lm Le Sang word is “mysterious.” Smith’s recounting (also in the d’un Poète, which got Carter’s notes) of his investigations into the Manuscript for wheels spinning on these pieces in the Lyra-Viol c., from which most of these the fi rst place. —A.O. brief pieces come, reads like a musical detective story. More importantly, Smith’s playing, besides emphasizing the richness that a viol with its seventh string removed can express, captures the haunting ineff ability of a long-forgotten past.
FLUTE:ALENAVLAD/SHUTTERSTOCK HANDOUT MUSICIANS: • Works for Horn, Piano and Violin Trio Quelque Chose e two “premiere” recordings, Johann Martin Friedrich Nisle’s Sonata in F Minor, Op. and Harry Bulow’s “Indiana Dunes,” couldn’t be more diff erent. e former, composed in the early th century by a relatively obscure German, ripples with early Romantic impulses. e latter, composed three years ago by an Iowan, evokes a striking piece of Midwestern geography with a shifting series of th- and st-century styles. What they share is the Trio POWIS Quelque Chose’s vigorous sensitivity of execution.
SIMON e Koechlin, Piazzolla, and Brahms pieces do too.
To see more music news and reviews, go to wng.org/music
18 MUSIC.indd 35 8/20/14 11:18 AM NABIL AL JURANI/AP
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later. I don’t hear hear I don’t later. hear I don’t later. fl icts a decade on. fl fl off th century’s th century’s worst armed con- th worst and nel nel to patrol the the patrol to nel so South person- military U.S. U.S. military person- military U.S. Americans com- Americans sending would what brass deployed deployed a half million million half a deployed and and better we we would not have in overruled matter case, the not were that If If that were not the case, case, the not were that If plaining about that number. number. that about plaining number. that about plaining attention—much commander, And it’s hard to argue how how argue to hard it’s And how argue to hard it’s And those over changed has War War has changed over those those over changed has War peace. keep to and wars win to to win wars and to keep peace. peace. keep to and wars win to much much better off Germany, Germany, much better off In Iraq. us to brings that And And that brings us to Iraq. In In Iraq. us to brings that And Japan, Japan, and South are for Korea the the attention—much less how less how the attention—much con- bloodiest world’s the ds of off better much much better off the United United the off better much postwar of decades is for States States is for decades of postwar postwar of decades is for States it when especially decades, decades, and so has technology, so and has technology, decades, U.S. to comes it when especially Pentagon mili- any ask But air superiority. air superiority. But ask any mili- any ask But air superiority. genocide, security tary security in what once were seed- were once insecurity what tary and commander, he or she atrocities. worst its of sites icts, Donald Defense of Secretary be fl beds of the world’s bloodiest con- bloodiest world’s the beds of atrocities. worst its of sites icts, fl Donald Defense of Secretary Rumsfeld manpower takes still it argue will Rumsfeld overruled the military military the overruled Rumsfeld will argue it still takes manpower manpower takes still it argue will commanders, commanders, sending a force of the the Pentagon brass said could lives, American cost has beginning the from in Iraq ort invasion a U.S. out carry to , , to carry out a U.S. invasion invasion a U.S. out carry to , 14 Iraqi 20 , 6 for R E B Day V-E after years Ten peace. the patrol to on stayed troops U.S. II , W W W in level deployment troop U.S. the in , after years Nearly ,. was Germany Belz M in , signed was armistice War e Korean E T P in stationed are troops American , that, are there Today in . , at stood duty on troops U.S. of number the Japan In today. Germany there. stationed personnel military U.S. , U.S. war. the ending technically if not combat ending the Today ,. later: years deployments troop in South stationed troops , has States United this just year. another adding Korea, Korea, adding another just this just year. another adding Korea, >> E eff U.S. the ng
S • conditions D
L
R in Iraq,
Mindy WO
A U.S. soldier Basra, in Understaffi Numbers created 18 MINDY.indd 36 Reformed Expository Commentary
ohn’s Gospel distinguishes itself Jamong the four Gospels by its thorough discussions of single topics and by embedding its teaching material in conversations. Its approach allows for detailed exposition of doctrines and concepts, and also for practical application to the reader’s life. Richard Phillips highlights the apostle’s chief focus on the deity of Christ, the gospel witness of the church, and salvation through faith in Jesus. He shows the person and work of Christ with biblical clarity and pastoral insight and demonstrates how evangelistic appeals should be modeled. His scholarly, sequential study of each passage is ideal help for preparing sermons, while the nontechnical language makes the book suitable for Bible teachers and devotional reading.
AUTHORS SERIES LISTING ABOUT THE SERIES
Bryan Chapell • Daniel • Acts Each volume in the series provides Daniel M. Doriani • Ecclesiastes • Ephesians exposition that gives careful Iain M. Duguid • Esther & Ruth • 1 Peter attention to the biblical text, is Dennis E. Johnson • 1 Kings • 1 Timothy doctrinally Reformed, focuses Douglas Sean O’Donnell • 1 Samuel • Galatians on Christ through the lens of Richard D. Phillips • Jonah & Micah • Hebrews redemptive history, and applies Philip Graham Ryken • Zechariah • The Incarnation the Bible to our contemporary Derek W. H. Thomas in the Gospels setting. • James “Well-researched and well- • John “Here is exposition modeled by reasoned, practical and “A rare combination of biblical pastors with scholarly gifts and pastoral, shrewd, solid, and • Luke insight, theological substance, CREDIT by scholars with pastors’ hearts.” searching.” • Matthew and pastoral application.” —SINCLAIR FERGUSON —J. I. PACKER • Philippians —AL MOHLER
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18 MINDY.indd 37 8/11/14 12:05 PM As the Islamic State rages from Syria to Iraq, it threatens to wipe out Christians and other religious groups with singular roots in ancient Mesopotamia B
S D in the hot sun relief from the heat, said Dagher: “Yes Aug. the UN declared Iraq a “Level for a truck delivering air coolers. It’s we are getting supplies, but our city is Emergency,” its highest category for p.m. in Erbil on Saturday, Aug. , and overwhelmed.” humanitarian crisis. the temperature hangs stubbornly at Much of Iraq’s Christian population— Despite more recent gains on the °F. He needs air coolers—evapo- halved and halved and halved again ground—made possible by U.S. air rative cooling units that use fans with since the U.S. invasion—now strikes in the area starting Aug. —ISIS water and consume less electricity than fi nds itself shoved into the Kurdish cor- retains a hold on one-third of Iraq. air conditioners. He can locate only ner of Iraq with nowhere else to go but Homeless Christians and others have but hopes to have a few hundred more cities like Erbil and Duhok, cities iso- no idea what will happen to them next, trucked in from Iran tomorrow. lated from the rest of the country and where they might go, or how to make a “Here in Ainkawa area of Erbil alone surrounded by mountains with limited home that’s secure again. we have , displaced—all transit routes. War in Syria, hostility in Aid coordinators like Dagher, who is Christians—and the heat is terrible,” Iran, and a closed border to Turkey all working with Samaritan’s Purse, said Dagher, pastor of a Christian and leave the Christians forced from Mosul emphasize the extreme level of relief Missionary Alliance Church in Beirut and Nineveh Plain this summer with needed: water, food, milk and diapers and a church planter who has helped next to no options—and so they have for babies, mattresses, pillows, and start churches across the Middle East. crowded into church courtyards, sleep- blankets. Most families who escaped e Alliance church in Erbil, the ing in streets and parks, living out of capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, is tents or on open ground. FEW OPTIONS: Displaced Iraqis from the working with aid groups to coordinate Over . million Iraqis have been Yazidi community (right) at a camp in Syria; relief to many made homeless by waves displaced in three waves of ISIS Dagher tends to displaced in Erbil (below). of onslaught across Iraq by ISIS (or onslaught starting ISIL), the Islamic militant group now in January in
calling itself the Islamic State. At least Anbar Province. DAGHER: MO SADJADPOUR • YAZIDIS: KHALID MOHAMMED/AP one church in Erbil has people Most brutal was sleeping in its halls. Once mattresses the third wave arrived, more spilled out to sleep on dirt Aug. - across or grass outside the church buildings. Nineveh Province: Along with air coolers, food, cloth- It forced out up to ing, diapers, mattresses, pillows, and , families, blankets—not to mention housing—are according to the all in short supply. Many of the dis- UN, and killed placed Christians in Erbil are living in thousands, lead- tents outdoors and in buildings under ing to genocide for construction. ey are surviving with Yazidis and other no bathrooms, no running water, no minority popula- fi nished windows or doorways, and no tions in Iraq. On
S WORLD • SEPTEMBER 6, 2014
18 IRAQ.indd 38 8/20/14 11:55 AM riskinggenocide dagher: mo sadjadpour • yazidis: Khalid M o hammed/ap
18 IRAQ.indd 39 8/20/14 11:56 AM running away and saving lives “We slept on the roof as ISIS had cut off the electricity, so it was too hot to sleep inside,” said a mother in her the ISIS grip in Mosul and surrounding “WE HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF THEM”: 30s from Mosul. “At 1:30 a.m. shell- ing started and bombs were flying areas lost everything, including their Displaced Iraqi Christians settle at St. Joseph Church in Erbil. near our house,” she said. homes and any money they had in the She and her family went down- bank. Reports have circled the internet stairs to get whatever they could of women whose wedding rings ISIS ing on the street, he told me by telephone: take from their house to leave Mosul. confiscated, babies whose gold earrings “There are babies without milk, boys and “It was dark, so we used some the militants removed. girls without food, and a whole family small lights. We just wanted to run “We have to take care of them or here with only one blanket among them.” away to save our lives.” they will not survive at all,” said Yousif Dagher said the hardest part of the At the ISIS checkpoint, militants Fahmi, a monk who oversees Mar unfolding crisis is the number of young took everything from them. The only Mattai, a Syriac Orthodox monastery in people affected. A third of those living thing the mother could hide was her Nineveh Province. outdoors, he estimates, are young chil- wedding ring. She put it in the diaper A fourth-century enclave set in dren. “You will see newborns, even 3 days of her 10-month-old baby. mountains 12 miles east of Mosul, Mar old, who have to be put on the ground. “We were all crying and upset, especially the girls and the baby,” Mattai is under protection of Kurdish They are crying in the heat, the ants will recalls the mother. “My daughter forces now, after for a time this sum- come and eat on them, and there is cried saying, ‘mom, we want our mer becoming a safe haven to dozens of really nothing we can do about it.” clothes.’” —Open Doors families from Mosul and the villages of Nineveh Plain fleeing the ISIS ultima- rutality against Christians tum to convert or be killed. heated up in June with the ISIS Old Testament prophets Jonah and Fahmi left the monastery in the care takeover of Mosul, forcing tens of Daniel.
B oha D Khal of Kurdish peshmerga to escort many of thousands to flee. June 15 marked the Already ISIS held Syria’s northern
the families to the city of Duhok further first worship day in 1,600 years when province of Raqqa. With gains south of i M north—where an additional 20,000- no Mass was said in Mosul, according Mosul near Baghdad, it declared an
30,000 Christians are estimated to have to Chaldean church leaders. ISIS turned Islamic caliphate stretching from north- m med
taken refuge. But necessities are in short churches into mosques, and on July 24 ern Syria to eastern Iraq, and declared / A supply and some of those families are liv- blew up the tombs long ascribed to the itself the Islamic State in late July. P
40 WORLD • SePteMbeR 6, 2014
18 IRAQ.indd 40 8/20/14 11:57 AM Attacks escalated as ISIS drove out , live in Iraq—and ISIS put to Nineveh the Assyrians and Chaldeans Christians and other minorities from fl ight perhaps ,. Yazidis also for the most part did not. Waves of most remaining towns of Nineveh, suff ered the worst terrorist attack of persecution followed. At the end of the including Qaraqosh, a city of ,, the Iraq War, when a triple suicide Ottoman Empire in World War I, on Aug. . e same day Islamic State bombing in killed of them hundreds of thousands of Assyrian fi ghters attacked Sinjar, an area of near the town of Shekhan. Christians in what’s now northern Iraq mostly Yazidis, but also home to With the latest terrorism, experts perished along with Armenians. Christians, Shabaks, and Turkmen. agree genocide is a real possibility. “We’re With the Iraq War, Sunni militants About , residents took refuge talking about a very real, immediate under al-Qaeda again targeted along the Sinjar Mountains, where they threat that an entire, ethno-national reli- Christians—and an exodus from became cut off from Kurdish protection. gious group is wiped off the face of the Baghdad, Mosul, and elsewhere sent Many perished there in the fi rst between , hours for lack of water. With genocide to , north of the Yazidis a threatening possibility, 3 Area controlled to Nineveh Plain, by ISIS Mosul Dam Dohuk President Barack Obama authorized air where they Cities controlled strikes (citing concern for U.S. citizens by ISIS Tal Afar Qaraqosh resettled ancient 3 in the area) and humanitarian aid Kurdistan regional Mosul Erbil Christian vil- government Sinjar drops Aug. , and they began the next lages. Around Area controlled Mountains Sulaymaniyah day. Since that time the United States by Kurdish forces Kirkuk the and the European Union reluctantly Kurdish regional have taken a larger role in trying to Baiji government hold together a tattered Iraq. Rawah Tikrit fi nanced the On Aug. Iraq’s president selected Qaim Anah rebuilding of Haider al-Abadi to take over as Iraqi Baqubah dozens of Euphrates prime minister from the long-embattled Ramadi churches (along Walid River Nouri al-Malaki, who resigned three Rutba Baghdad with schools and Fallujah days later—a move widely seen abroad Tigris houses) in those as crucial to bringing peace again in Tarbil River villages. Iraq and ending atrocities. On Aug. Now many of Kurdish ground forces assisted by U.S. SOURCES: WALL STREET JOURNAL AND CAPNI those resur- air strikes retook parts of Nineveh rected villages Province, including Mosul Dam, a key earth,” said David Romano, professor of are empty again. Even with U.S. air facility. Middle East politics at Missouri State power, ISIS believes it can hold the But atrocities continue. Dozens of University. “And we’ve already seen once-Christian heart of Iraq. Christian families remain unaccounted what’s happened to the Christians of “ is is a force that is ideologically for who lived in the mostly Yazidi area Mosul. ey’ve been there about , motivated, battle hardened and incred- of Sinjar. More than girls and years, since long before Iraq existed, and ibly well equipped,” said Douglas women from the area “were taken, since long before Islam came onto the Ollivant of the New America Foundation, raped, captured and sold,” reported the scene. And there’s none left in Mosul.” who served the Obama and Bush admin- Assyrian Aid Society. ISIS executed at istrations on Iraq. “It also runs the least , mostly Yazidi men who J C, exile equivalent of a state. It has all the refused to convert to Islam and and mass bloodletting on the hot, trappings of a state, just not an interna- abducted women, reportedly to Fbrittle plains of Nineveh are a tionally recognized one.” Mosul where they could be sold into common thread of history. Ancient Iraq’s Christians have a long history forced marriages or sex slavery. bas-reliefs depict the Assyrian conquest of learning what to do under an oppres- Although many Yazidis were escorted of Mesopotamia with men in skullcaps, sive state: ey continue to worship, to by Kurdish militias to safety in Kurdish long assumed by archaeologists to be help one another, and to pray. Many territory, ISIS militants executed men captive Jews. In the sculptures the Jews have told me they have new appreciation from the Yazidi village of Kocho Aug. carry their children with them, along for Kurdish protection, despite tensions and detained hundreds of women, with bowls and skins of water. e in managing the crisis. Dagher told me Kurdish peshmerga commander Ziad women are tearing their hair, throwing worship services are overfl owing in Sinjar told e Washington Post. dust on their heads, and wailing. Some Erbil, and he preached on Aug. for the Yazidis claim to have the world’s are bound with iron manacles. fi fth time since his arrival. “ e Holy
KHALID oldest religion, one that predates With the arrival of Arab Muslims in Spirit is doing wonderful work among Christianity and Islam. ey worship , pressure to convert to Islam began the people here,” he said. “Refugees are MOHAMMED/AP angels, believe in reincarnation, and (similar to Islamic State threat to con- standing in church and repenting of stick together: Yazidis only marry vert, pay tax under Muslim law, or their sins and confessing. Even when among themselves and are forbidden to “have nothing but the sword”). Many they have lost everything, they are convert others. Experts say about Arab Christian tribes did convert, but in joyful in fi nding and trusting Christ.” A
Email: [email protected] SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 • WORLD
18 IRAQ.indd 41 8/20/14 11:57 AM Back to school 2014 finds American education in the midst of yet another expensive revolution
by Marvin Olasky illustration by krieg barrie
42 WORLD • September 6, 2014
18 BTS PART 1.indd 42 8/18/14 3:35 PM
Nation at Risk. Goals 2000. No Child Left Behind. Common Core. Another decade, another trillion dAollars, another bold approach. Twenty-five years ago our cover story, “Straightening Out American Education,” graphically and graphite-ly showed the crooked path our nation’s schools were on, and little has changed since then but the nomenclature and the number of zeroes on budget lines. The last five years alone of back-to-school issues show the continuing decline. In 2009 we showed how Christian urban schools faced financial hard times. In 2010 we described failing schools and a moving documentary, The Lottery, that showed student and parent frustration. In 2011 a “Money for nothing” story pinched educational fat and a “Looking for integrity” article showed how educational administrators cheated on tests. The continuing stream of bad news got to us, so in 2012 and 2013 we looked harder for the good: Christians joining Teach for America, the continued growth of homeschooling, and the survival of Christian schools. We’ve also, of course, covered the continuing leftward tilt of the National Education Association, the new science curricula that promote Darwinism and diminish local control, and the movement at some colleges to ban Christian groups. This issue reflects the mixed bag of education news. We start with the latest “new and improved” public-school panaceas—Common Core, online classes—and then look at how Christians in one big city are trying to be a blessing to students in a poor public school. We report on hopes for school choice and Christian schools in Texas and China and com- pare new attacks on homeschooling with reality. We conclude with a story on new alternatives to massive student loans.
September 6, 2014 • WORLD 43
18 BTS PART 1.indd 43 8/18/14 3:35 PM 18 BTS PART1.indd 44 S abandoning Walker wants state his legislature to pull out. Education Superintendent John White. Wisconsin Gov. Scott national standards well, as provoking aconfl Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal wants to take state his out of the Common urged their legislatures to pull their states out of earlier Carolina), and Mary Fallin (Oklahoma) have successfully back. to Republican Uncommon the
Other states are for calling delays and second looks, or are Governors like Mike Pence (Indiana), Nikki Haley (South WO nationalization R coalition standards. Game, set, match? Not exactly. An odd national C C, a L Core D governors national • S commitments E With arebellion growing, Common Core education P of T no E opponents, M testing of and B E education longer R liberal 6 standard c , made 20 onsortiums. including 14 teachers through by designed state conservative Opponents unions, looks Common education ict with to replace is pushing
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Common critics the think state’s new standards are too close to riculum establishment, from the Obama administration down to cur- sensus for Common Core deeply is woven into the educational But the heat on one this unusual—especially is since the con- since every other one over the past several decades has failed. Common like their salaries tied to likely poor student performance on local Ohio Gov. John Kasich says, “I share the concern about loss of and promote the Common Core idea. Gates gave grants to liberal Gates)Bill was spending well more than million to Common pushback Many are skeptical about the latest educational “revolution,” Behind the scenes, state as after conservative control.” textbook Core, Core Core, Teachers tests.
despite the by education publishers. Gates RUSS
a unions, new Foundation groups, PULLIAM In name. for Indiana state was considering diff teachers (funded erent some reasons, unions, by Common
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8/18/14 9:23AM
LEFT: ASSOCIATED PRESS • RIGHT: KELLY WILKINSON/THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR/AP U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Then the Obama administration informational reading in place of classic literature. Other critics tied the standards to massive federal aid. The result has been think the standards emphasize an abstract approach to math an overwhelming financial push for Common Core. theory in early grades, when students need to be learning The Gates money also gave Common Core a smooth sail multiplication tables. Frustrated parents call it “fuzzy math.” through the checks and balances that usually apply to educa- Homeschoolers worry that Common Core ideas will creep into tional innovation. Sarah Reckhow, an education policy college entrance exams such as the SAT or ACT. Others express researcher at Michigan State, said, “Usually there’s a pilot concern about national and state databases of student records. test—something is tried on a small scale, outside researchers More controversy emerges once students actually take a see if it works, and then it’s promoted on a broader scale. That test. In New York last spring parents and teachers protested didn’t happen with Common Core.” new tests. “I’m not against tough standards,” said teacher The actual standards also are not written with the elo- Ralph Ratto, a union official. “I’m against these standards. quence or simplicity of the Declaration of Independence They have not been tested and have not been researched.” or Gettysburg Address. They are filled with educational New York had a grassroots revolt against an untested set of jargon, as in this elementary-school example: “They tests. Some critics wanted New York to pull out of Common must also be able to determine or clarify the meaning of Core; but instead the state legislature compromised, staying grade-appropriate words encountered through listening, in Common Core but not tying teacher salaries to test results. reading, and media use; come In other states, though, conservative governors are listening to to appreciate that words have activist opponents and pulling out even before students start skeptical: Stacey nonliteral meanings, shadings the tests. Jacobson-Francis works on math homework with of meaning, and relationships For parents seeking a way out of this controversy, classical her 6-year-old daughter to other words; and expand schools offer one alternative. These schools don’t worry about Luci (left). Stacey said their vocabulary in the new tests or new theories of teaching math or English. They her daughter’s course of studying content.” offer Latin in elementary school. They read classics such as The homework requires her to know four different The core standards also Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe in early elementary years, ways to add. “That is have provoked controversy and The Pilgrim’s Progress in junior high. way too much to ask of over whether they really raise “Classical education has worked well for thousands of a first-grader. She can’t the bar for students. Some years,” says Andrew Hart, who heads The Oaks Academy in remember them all, and I don’t know them all, so states like Indiana already Indianapolis. The school has a 50-50 black-white racial bal- we just do the best that had stronger standards. ance and a mix of wealthy and low-income families. Students we can,” she said. Below, Sandra Stotsky, a retired score well above average on state tests, but standardized tests signs are raised during a and respected University of don’t drive the curriculum or classroom instruction. rally against Common Core at the Indiana Arkansas professor, has One of the leading critics of Common Core has been Statehouse. objected to the emphasis on Terrence Moore, who starts classical schools and has taught history at Hillsdale College. Moore was pulled into the Common Core debate by Indiana opponents and wrote a 263- page book, The Story-Killers. “The Common Core and the textbook editors are replacing the classic stories with postmodern tales of cynicism and ennui,” he writes. “Both the human mind and soul long for greatness, for stories that are good and beautiful and true. If we allow our stories to die, our love of the good and the beautiful and the true will die with them.”
ar/ap For other parents homeschooling offers another way out of t S the Common Core confusion, and some homeschoolers adopt aspects of classical education. Some parents have another concern, that Common Core is not a neutral attempt to assess dianapolis dianapolis n I
e academic skills but will open the door to tests that demand h T conformity to a left-wing or politically correct political agenda.
nson/ A couple of years ago Common Core looked inevitable, like i k the sunrise. Now grassroots opponents are stopping it right and left. The small libertarian-leaning Pioneer Institute in Boston has offered a constant stream of opposition research. Other states are pulling out of testing consortiums. If states go their own way on testing, the common will drop out of any core. A practical result might be state-controlled education after all. Some states could still try Common Core and its tests, and other states may discover something better. The competition between the states should prove better than a Common Core
left: associated press • right: Kelly Wil Kelly right: • press associated left: monopoly on standards and testing. A
September 6, 2014 • WORLD 45
18 BTS PART 1.indd 45 8/18/14 9:26 AM Public school @ home Online charter schools are growing, with growing pains by DANIEL JAMES DEVINE /
Tristan and Grace twice a day, communicating with teachers and Benson live in Hobart, Ind., and are other online students through his headset or a both enrolled in public school. Grace chat window. He watches science experiments wakes by a.m., gets dressed, and by video or does them at home (he once made Brides with her mom to be dropped off at her a cardboard roller coaster for a physics lesson). elementary school, where she’s attending third Amy, currently laid off from a home health grade this year. Tristan, in th grade, wakes up job, supervises Tristan when he takes tests, an hour or so later, eats breakfast, and takes his marks lessons as completed, and follows laptop to his family’s basement rec room, where academic progress reports. he dons a headset and logs in to a virtual class- Students like Tristan take all their classes room. He sometimes gets to stay in pajamas. online, while other schools have begun off er- Tristan, , is one of more than approxi- ing “blended learning,” where students get mately , K- public-school students— instruction partially online and partially in less than percent of the U.S. total—enrolled traditional classrooms. Some states allow at a full-time cyberschool. ey study subjects “course choice,” where public-school students like math, biology, Spanish, and U.S. history, take online classes from outside providers. watch teachers on webcams, and interact with Florida, Alabama, and a few other states now fellow students, but all from home, using a require students to take at least one online computer. Since the fi rst online charter school class in order to graduate. opened in , the number of schools and During the last school year, states and students has grown steadily, with full-time the District of Columbia permitted fully online, cyberschool enrollees increasing around multidistrict public schools. In many cases, percent in the past fi ve years. for-profi t companies, often legally recognized But the speedy growth of online education as charter schools, provide the software and is meeting some resistance: Full-time public curriculum, contracting cyberschools, especially, face criticism for low their services to school @SKL: Amy scores and high turnover rates. Internet-based districts. Connections watches as Tristan learning is here to stay, but its ultimate role in Academy, which runs participates in a public education may depend on whether it Tristan’s Indiana cyber- cyberschool class. can overcome performance hurdles. school, is the second- Tristan’s parents pulled him out of a brick- largest such provider after K Inc., an online and-mortar public high school after his fi rst education company former education secretary freshman semester, when his grades were William Bennett co-founded in . struggling. “Going from middle school to high K Inc. has enjoyed rapid growth: Its school was just hard for him,” largely due to revenue expanded from million to distractions from other students, said Amy million between and . Last year it Benson, his mother. “He always asked to be operated schools and enrolled around homeschooled, but because I worked I thought , students (up from , in ), I’d never have the time.” according to a report from the National e Bensons found a solution in Indiana Education Policy Center in Boulder, Colo. Connections Academy, an accredited state- “I think we’ve only begun to see the poten- wide cyberschool based in Indianapolis. It’s tial of course choice and of online learning,” technically a public school, so tuition is free to said Michael Brickman, the national policy families—along with books and computer director at the omas B. Fordham Institute, headsets. State education funds reimburse which advocates for school choice. “You’ve Connections Academy for each student. On his seen technology transform almost every other laptop, Tristan joins a live virtual class once or industry except education.” Brickman wrote a
WORLD • SEPTEMBER 6, 2014
18 BTS PART 1.indd 46 8/18/14 9:35 AM report for Fordham suggesting states allow students at tradi- Huffman, recommended the school bar the enrollment of any tional brick-and-mortar schools to take online classes from a new students. The academy, operated by K12 and enrolling variety of outside providers, such as the National Geographic nearly 1,900 students through eighth grade this fall, launched Society and Microsoft, where students could learn how to three years ago. But the school’s students have made poor make maps and apps. academic marks, achieving a Level 1, the worst rank in the Some online public schools are in danger of suspension, state’s 1-5 rating scale to measure student progress. The Union though. At Tennessee Virtual Academy, a statewide cyber- County school board ultimately voted to let the 626 new school overseen by school district officials in Union County, enrollees stay, but Huffman said the cyberschool must shut Tenn., 626 students barely kept their virtual classroom seats down at the end of the school year unless the students this August after the state’s education commissioner, Kevin improve their scores dramatically, to a Level 3.
September 6, 2014 • WORLD 47
18 BTS PART 1.indd 47 8/18/14 9:30 AM 18 BTS PART1.indd 48 48 large number of students entering K12schools below grade performance percentages, which to is beexpected given the cally: “In most states, who enroll online in classes are already struggling academi- percent were proficient math. in performing at or above proficiency levels reading. in Just 47 grown size, in with only 69percent students of 2012/2013 dropped during the past three years the as company has report says state assessment scores for K12students have progress report on its website: The 2014 requests, but the company posts annual an the a spokesperson, even after WORLD extended sentative failed to arrange interview an with Connections returned e schools mance have been identified and addressed.” the reasons for their relatively poor perfor- schools and the size of their enrollment until “slow or stop growth the in number of virtual eye, felt unmotivated to log for in class). (perhaps involving students who, out from beneath ateacher’s rates at some cyberschools have reached 50percent or more nationwide average of 79 percent. Other reports note turnover public cyberschools graduate on time, compared with the able data) only 44percent of full-time high-school students at online public schools March in and reported (based on avail- ducation
K12 says the scores are misleading because many students K12 Inc. did not return interview The scrutiny seems to have made cyber- The for calling NEPC is policymakers to The National Education Policy Center published areview of deadline. Twinin Falls, Idaho. information WO with VIRAL: Academy media R Idaho phone L providers D A
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m or contacted K12schools are generally below state b where emails e of represent want to teach, for w homeschooling to join the publiccyberschool critics. TheHome School Legal Defense Association on its must do so on their own time—on top of mandatory cyberschool coursework. r ebsite “strongly cautions homeschoolers against enrolling virtual in charter schools,” and adds it will “not 6 the Therein lies the catch: As government schools, publiccyberschools use state-approved curriculum. If parents The , 2 a except five 0 specter media for 14 students online this
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self-learner have to bea everybody.’ in It’s notfor definitely full-time intrusion unless homeschoolers on its website as well. They must pay for subject courses received glossy, full-color mailings inviting them to join. K12advertises to K12-operated Idaho Virtual Academy opened, homeschoolers the in state tuition—an such services, however, making online publicschools—with their taxpayer-paid long Educational software and online private schools, like ThePotter’s School, have Homeschool the who either homeschooled previously or planned to do so have signed for up to doit. —Amy
Cyberschools like K12haven’t been shy about recruiting them. When the free
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popular Benson attractive enroll home-based v pr level,” the report said. The company notes its students’ pay close, close attention to their webcam teacher year. this Aug. 4. If they hope to log again in next August, they’d better students at Tennessee Virtual Academy began cyberschool e online public schooling for parents not seeking Christian last difficult classes, algebra semesters received grades failing four in classes. But during first his two them to high standards: “Whether you’re talking about a results, but said the solution was for policymakers to hold enrollment. school ducation seems here to stay. Well, for the most part: The 1,900 irtual school or atraditional school, some get the job done oficiency
as learning Whether Brickman admitted some cyberschools were seeing poor spring, public-school alternative.
programs.”
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and 10 gave their online school agrade of Aor B, Connections Among school, he said. unavailable access to quality courses that may be Amy ing to asurvey the company conducted. do it. It’s not for everybody.” “You definitely have to beaself-learner to satisfied” with Tristan’s online program: essentially about better than others.” Online education is brick-and-mortar typically students. —D.J.D. for passed has competition Connections Moms and dads, at least, seem happy. During freshman his semester at his homeschoolers. would Benson led and Spanish. In third his semester enrollment parents every evidence some improve recommend at Academy described their subject. advocates of Academy, p suggests students school, after or roviding students all Families brick-and-mortar individual schools, herself it three of to Tristan he some enrolled must traditional others, failed years as nine courses, families pay “pretty had
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Amy McCullough Lone Star laboratory Texas is likely the next school choice frontier by AMY McCULLOUGH
for percent in . One hundred percent of Horizon parents said students with specifi c learning disabilities or the program had “positively impacted the development of special needs, but the red state of Texas, oddly, their voucher-using children a lot”(emphasis added because has no laws that give poor parents and children if they were only mildly impressed they could have checked Moptions other than public schools. at seems likely to change off “a little”). In addition, the community gained economi- in , for three reasons. cally: People moved into the school district, property values First, the state’s lieutenant governor has a lot of power in went up, and new businesses opened. shaping legislation, and the next lieutenant governor likely Horizon also led to the opening of new schools, including will be Republican Dan Patrick, an outspoken school choice the voucher-using Christian Academy of San Antonio, which advocate who has chaired the state’s Senate Education opened in August . Reclaimed from an old grocery store Committee. e new governor likely will be Attorney General and strip mall, CASA still operates on the edge of Edgewood Greg Abbott, who advocates parental choice in educa- tion while avoiding using the word jumped on by the educational left, vouchers. (See “Wheeling onto the national stage,” May .) Second, budget-friendly proposals are now ready. e infl uential Texas Public Policy Foundation, for example, advocates “taxpayer savings grants” legisla- tion, essentially a voucher program by a diff erent name. In this program parents who opt in would receive up to , to spend at the public or private school of their choice. ( at’s percent of the annual state spending on operation and maintenance for each public-school pupil.) e estimated savings to the state: billion in the fi rst two years. ird, Texas for years had a large-scale, mil- lion school choice experiment, the Horizon program, in San Antonio’s poor Edgewood school district—and the program worked. e Children’s Educational Opportunity Foundation sponsored the program with money donated by the Walton Family and Covenant foundations. e Horizon experiment was and is nationally and is easily one of the nicest-looking facilities for blocks. signifi cant because it was the fi rst program to be “universal,” When Horizon ended, the Covenant Foundation stepped in to off ering vouchers to all public-school students residing within keep CASA alive, and about percent of its current student a particular school district. Edgewood district families were population receives scholarships: Cost is , per year for eligible for vouchers they could use at any secular or religious elementary and middle-school students and , per year private school, or at a public school outside the district. for high-school students. At the height of the program (that tapered in its last years Horizon showed that a voucher program could improve due to funding limitations) more than , students— educational achievement, save the state money, improve test JUSTIN percent of district enrollment—used vouchers, and almost all scores of the local public-school district, and have a positive
JACKSON/THE did so at private schools. e state spent , for each economic impact on the area. But those concerned with Edgewood public-school student, but Horizon elementary- maintaining the same amount of state funding at individual school participants received vouchers of , for private schools view Horizon negatively: Individual Edgewood public schools located within the district, and high-school students schools ended up with less money overall, because they expe- TIMES NEWS/AP received vouchers of ,. (Voucher amounts for out-of- rienced a net loss of students. district public schools were lower.) ose with a fi nancial interest in maintaining the status
McCULLOUGH e academic eff ects were notable: e college attendance quo typically fund opposition to school choice. A
AMY rate of Horizon graduates was percent in and —Amy McCullough is a Texas journalist
SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 • WORLD
18 BTS PART 1.indd 49 8/18/14 12:12 PM Portland public Seeking the peace of a very liberal city by helping to rejuvenate a deteriorating school by RACHEL LYNN ALDRICH in Portland, Ore. / /
H S of Portland, team’s homecoming game, a but the beautiful brick building, surrounded by trees renovation of the school’s and a well-maintained lawn, projects a safe and track, tutoring—worked. well-ordered atmosphere. at hasn’t always been Support in noneducational Rthe case. areas allow teachers and Seven years ago, a lawn overgrown by weeds and a derelict students to focus on studies. track suggested deeper struggles, and Roosevelt was on a list Seven years ago, it was of potential closures. It was the school where parents did not diffi cult to interest Roosevelt want their children. girls in the biggest city event Seven years ago SouthLake Church, located in West Linn, of the year, the Rose Festival. an affl uent Portland suburb, also had a problem. Many mem- ey saw Rose Festival prin- bers wanted to help the poor not in the abstract, not just by cesses as blond, blue-eyed, sending checks, but through personal commitment. Many and rich. But SouthLake were tired of seeing Christians depicted as the people who mentors talked with Roosevelt were always against something. girls about etiquette, true Luis Palau was already a well-known name in Portland: value, and self-esteem. ey His evangelism-oriented festivals, featuring speakers and helped the girls with their music, had been drawing large crowds to the city’s waterfront hair, makeup, and dresses. since . But Luis and his son Kevin, who is now president Today, Roosevelt is the place of the Luis Palau Association, wanted to serve too, and not to be to see the princess only preach. (See “Pioneering Palaus,” June , .) crowned. Roosevelt seemed a perfect place to start. For the past few summers, When SouthLake Pastor Kip Jacobs received Kevin Palau’s SouthLake has had barbecues call to help Roosevelt, he did more than say yes. He requested for the community on the Roosevelt lawn. e church provides that his church take over the project. Palau said that was fi ne, food, live music, and face painting for the community. is as long as the church could start by fi elding a few hundred summer, other local churches from Roosevelt’s neighborhood people for a cleanup day. When the day came, around , have stepped in to take turns hosting the barbecue. church members showed up to landscape, clean, and wash A new, smaller pilot mentorship program with the football windows. team is beginning this semester. e new mentorship program But that would have been just a gesture, apart from what divides the students into small groups, with about six students followed. Church member Kristine Sommers began working per mentor, to focus on the church’s strongpoint—building with the Roosevelt staff to see whether SouthLake could help relationships. While they hope to expand the program in the in other ways. Some were material: Clothing donations to future, focusing in on the football team allows the church to expand Roosevelt’s clothes closet. Restarting the school’s food focus on training and matching the mentors carefully. pantry. en came tutoring and mentoring. Sommers soon e results of the combined eff ort are evident. Between occupied full-time offi ce space at Roosevelt to help coordinate and reading scores went up by percent and math the infl ux of volunteers from the church. scores by . percent. Four-year graduation rates have Some programs have fl opped. ree years ago SouthLake jumped percent over the last three years. Enrollment is up planned to launch a mentorship program with the entire fresh- percent, setting the school up for sustained growth. man class. e church had plenty of enthusiastic volunteers, e success at Roosevelt has led to similar church-school but a lack of preparation, communication, and training sunk partnerships in other parts of the state: schools in the big idea. But other projects—a barbecue at the football school districts are now involved. Local governments are
WORLD • SEPTEMBER 6, 2014
18 BTS PART 1.indd 50 8/18/14 9:39 AM personal accepting help from churches in other Adams says he received pushback from the LGBT community commitment: ways as well. About 75 evangelical in Portland at first, but it died as people realized evangelicals SouthLake Church members churches in the Portland metropolitan were willing to serve alongside them, not just preach at them. gardening and area serve in the foster system through a Both men are quick to acknowledge the unlikely nature of cleaning at program called Embrace Oregon. their cooperation. They’ve had conversations about topics Roosevelt High Churches partner with the state where they strongly disagree, including homosexuality. Adams School in Portland. Department of Human Services to clean describes Palau’s views as “thoughtful and deeply held.” Palau up the often run-down offices where recognizes some evangelicals believe they should concentrate foster kids come, and to make welcome packets for them. only on strengthening Christian schools and homeschools, but Kevin Palau recalls how he went into a DHS office and with 90 percent of children in public schools, those are places explained that the churches were grateful for the work DHS to demonstrate the love of Christ. staffers are doing. He asked how church members could help He says, “With our city leaders in Portland we’ve always make the staffers’ jobs easier. The woman at the desk burst been clear: We genuinely ask, ‘How can we serve?’ No strings into tears: No one had ever expressed gratitude or asked that attached. At the same time we always say, ‘As evangelicals, question before. our joy is to share the Good News, and we’re looking for Palau says that if the evangelical community can work with chances to do that.’ In public schools during school hours it’s city leaders in one of America’s most liberal cities, they can do it not the time to hand out tracts and preach, but we build rela- anywhere. He’s worked with Sam Adams, the openly gay former tionships and open doors.” A mayor of Portland. Both were nervous at their first meeting, and —Rachel Lynn Aldrich is a WORLD intern
September 6, 2014 • WORLD 51
18 BTS PART 1.indd 51 8/18/14 9:39 AM Risks and rewards Amid limited resources and a hostile government, a Chinese Christian school movement is growing
by JUNE CHENG in China /
WORLD • SEPTEMBER 6, 2014
18 BTS PART 2.indd 52 8/20/14 8:35 AM fter service on Sunday at a large house church It’s this distrust of the government-controlled public-school in China, congregants gathered in the sanctuary to system, along with general critiques of Chinese education’s share their thoughts about the sermon they had grueling test-driven instruction and cut-throat competition, heard. One woman stood up and expressed her that has brought a quandary to the growing number of new gratitudeA to American missionaries John and Betty Stam, Christian parents: How can we obey God’s Word to raise up who were murdered by Communist Chinese soldiers in 1934 our children in the way of the Lord in an education system while bringing the gospel to the Chinese people. “We used to hostile to that message? see [Communist General] Fang Zhimin as a hero, but now I Unlike American Christians who may send their children realize that he killed so many people,” she said. “It makes to public school, Christian or other private school, or teach me wonder how much of what we learned in school was them at home, Chinese Christians have only one legal option: incorrect.” state-run public school. Classes often span six days a week, stretching from the early morning to 7 or 9 at night, then compounded with tutoring, homework, and studying. The pinnacle of education is to score well on the gaokao, an annual college entrance exam that dictates a student’s college pros- pects, thus his or her future career. As most Chinese parents only have one child, it becomes all the more important to ensure their children do well and get high-paying jobs, so they can one day take care of their aging parents. But a batch of brave souls are bucking the status quo by creating their own education options, in some cases home- schooling their children, opening Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) schools that use a self-paced English Christian curriculum, or starting Christian schools within their house church. The risks are high, as alternative schools could be shut down at any time, and the results are uncertain, as Christian schools lack accreditation. Yet for many Christian parents, it’s a risk worth taking. “We felt we had no other choice,” said Matthew Su, who started a classical Christian school at Early Rain Reformed Church in Chengdu. “We couldn’t bear to send our kids to any other type of school.” (The relatively few parents who defy China’s one-child policy also have little choice: Second and third children often don’t have household registration and aren’t allowed to attend public schools.) The exact number of unregistered Christian schools is unknown, although one person in China familiar with the issue said a conservative estimate puts the number in the 200 to 300 range. Some of these schools consist of a handful of students meeting in an apartment, while more established schools have more than 100 students gathering together. Yet the movement is in its infancy, with most schools open for less than 10 years, and it faces numerous roadblocks ahead. BIG CHALLENGES: Two big challenges arise even before A young girl learns to children step into the building: Finding read the Bible at a teachers and finding curriculum to registered church in the Zhejiang province. teach. As many in the Chinese church Unregistered Christian are first-generation believers, most schools did not allow have only experienced public-school photographs. education and few understand how to incorporate a Christian worldview into the classroom. Public-school teachers are often well-paid and must take a significant pay cut to join church schools, which often run on donations and meager tuition dollars. To combat the lack of experience, a couple of organizations have developed Christian teacher trainings, borrowing from the experience of veteran overseas educators. Trainings vary from weekend workshops to year-long programs, with one group providing instruction at a master’s degree level.
September 6, 2014 • WORLD 53
18 BTS PART 2.indd 53 8/20/14 8:35 AM Yet for Peter Johnson*, who works at one of these training During the bilingual school’s first year, neighbors reported centers, the bigger deficit is the lack of Chinese curriculum. the school to authorities, who sent over officers to threaten the Some schools translate material from English sources, such as school. But by the grace of God, co-founder Jerry Wolfe* said, Veritas Press, a producer of classical Christian curriculum. the school was able to stay open and eventually moved to a Others use public-school curriculum for subjects like math, new location where it continued unmolested. Other schools then create their own curriculum for other subjects. Many report similar stories: One school closed down, moved, and schools start with only kindergarten or first grade, and write reopened eight times in five years. curriculum as they add on new grades. “What’s needed,” Even as schools survive government harassment, an Johnson says, “is an indigenous curriculum in China, by the ominous question looms over parents and teachers alike: Chinese, for the Chinese.” What happens when students graduate? At Su’s school, teachers use material from Veritas Press in While graduates may have better language and critical the three grades they’ve started last year. The school follows thinking skills than their public-school peers, the schools are the classical Christian education model—based on grammar, not recognized by the government, so students are barred from logic, and rhetoric—because Su believes “if what the Bible says taking the gaokao or getting into college. Without a college is true, then the only way to change and grow and find truth degree, students are relegated to a life of low-paying jobs. is through Christ. Then Christian education is the real educa- Students from well-to-do families can take the SAT to test into tion.” From a young age, students learn not only Chinese and Christian colleges in America. But leaving the country has a English, but also biblical hefty price tag, and a growing Hebrew and Greek so they can number of students clamor for better understand the Bible spots at these Christian schools and one day become leaders in each fall. Su’s school is putting seminaries and house together its own college, and churches. the church already has a Yet there’s material Su seminary that students could wants to teach that just doesn’t attend. Another group of exist yet. “One thing that has Christian educators is working not yet been done is [a to start a Christian university, curriculum] looking at Chinese noting that this could also be a history through a Christian way to train the next batch of lens,” Su said. “This is some- Christian schoolteachers. thing that we hope to do down Some are touting vocational the line, to see Christianity’s schools that will help students influence on our culture.” He start their own businesses plans to write textbooks that when they graduate. can be used among schools Others hope and pray that around the country. the government will have a Teachers at Su’s school all have advanced degrees in their SU: “If what the change of heart and legitimize religious fields and spent time in the church’s seminary, an anomaly in Bible says is true, schools by the time their children grad- then the only way the burgeoning Christian school movement. Yet still they’ve uate, as Confucian and Buddhist schools to change and faced difficulties starting a brand-new school with few exist- grow and find truth are also gaining steam. And it’s not only ing resources. None of the founders have experience running is through Christ. Christians frustrated with the lack of a school, and once the school year started, the middle-school Then Christian school choice: A 2013 McKinsey report education is the found a “growing concern, among par- teachers found that their own education was lacking. Taking real education.” the issues in stride, they’ve had to teach themselves the ents, employers, and policymakers alike, material before turning to teach the students. Also parents that the emphasis on rote learning and unfamiliar with any type of Christian education constantly high-stakes exam taking does not foster the mental agility approach Su and the faculty with questions and concerns and innovative flair that the 21st century economy will need.” about their children. Yet until things change, Wolfe is preparing his students for One bilingual Christian school in eastern China ensures all their future options by partnering with Veritas’ accredited that its students receive an education academically on par online program to provide students with diplomas. It’ll be at least with local public schools by using the same curriculum to five years before the school graduates its first class, and he real- teach math and Chinese, as well as preparing their students to izes there’ll be plenty of other unexpected hurdles before then. pass tests like the gaokao, even if they aren’t allowed to take “One thing that is known is that God is going to work in it in the future. For other subjects, the school uses Veritas the lives of the parents who have stepped out in faith into that material, along with science and fine arts curricula written by [educational] void,” Wolfe said. “He’s equipping them to make a group of Christian educators in China. The school, which is more risky steps in terms of bringing faith into the public June not affiliated with any specific house church, started with square. … Those kids are going to have a huge role in what Cheng about a dozen students three years ago and has now grown to God does in China.” 120 students. *name changed to protect security
54 WORLD • September 6, 2014
18 BTS PART 2.indd 54 8/20/14 8:35 AM Homeschool debate How to keep a few bad apples from spoiling the bushel by DANIEL JAMES DEVINE
are speaking study from the U.S. Department of Education found about out against what they consider an abusive or neglect- percent of eighth- to th-grade public-school students claim- ful upbringing. Last year they began posting their ing a fellow student, teacher, or school employee had touched stories on a website called Homeschoolers or contacted them in a sexual manner, without their consent. SAnonymous, alleging mistreatment from parents ranging Yet only . percent of Home School Legal Defense Association from sexual molestation to what they describe as “spiritual (HSLDA) members called for help in dealing with child pro- abuse.” e stories vary widely, but echo a common charge: tective services investigations—sometimes for issues as trivial Homeschooling, they claim, gave their parents opportunity as a messy house or a missed paperwork fi ling deadline. at to abuse, “brainwash,” or neglect them. fi gure isn’t scientifi c, but it suggests abuse and neglect is far One of those former students, Heather Doney, , co-founded less common among homeschoolers. the Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE) to advo- Nevertheless, stories on the Homeschoolers Anonymous cate increased state regulation of homeschoolers. Doney worries website brim with pain, anger, and bitterness. Many posts are her home state of Louisiana, for example, allows homeschooling anonymous, making the accounts hard to verify, but organiza- households to operate with little accountability. “My parents tion co-founder Ryan Stollar told me by email, “We are creating registered as a private school, and no one ever checked on us a growing community of misfi ts, survivors, and allies.” One again,” she said. series of posts titled “Homeschoolers Are Out” spotlights She has reason for concern. She still counts on her fi ngers homeschool graduates who have declared themselves to be and double-checks the tip she leaves on restaurant tables. As gay or transsexual. He said his organization “enthusiastically the oldest of nine children, she remembers growing up home- supports” homeschooling as long as it is “used responsibly.” schooled and being the only child who could read: Her sister One of Homeschoolers Anonymous’ biggest targets is the next in age didn’t become profi cient until she turned . Virginia-based HSLDA—homeschooling’s top ally since . Doney had all she could stand at years old when a neighbor- Last year Homeschoolers Anonymous launched an online hood boy ridiculed her inability to multiply or divide. “Ha, campaign that claimed the organization’s defense of home- ha!” he laughed. “You’re going to spend your life fl ipping school parents had weakened child abuse investigations. It burgers!” She pleaded to her grandparents for help, and they called on HSLDA to tell its , member families how to began tutoring Doney. recognize and report abuse, and HSLDA did add a section to its Her mother, Sandra Doney, agrees their home environment website defi ning child abuse and outlining how to address it. was neglectful and abusive in some ways, and said Heather HSLDA has long seen less government regulation of home- “got the brunt of it, being the oldest one. … In trying to do the schoolers as best for parents and students—but in January right thing, I probably overdid some of the discipline. … ere Stollar and other homeschool alumni traveled to Richmond, was just a lot of emotional turmoil.” Heather Doney’s parents Va., to vocalize their support for House Joint Resolution No. are now divorced, and she admits that “the average home- , a measure to re-evaluate the state’s religious exemption schooling family is fi ne. … I’m looking at [families] who are from compulsory education. HSLDA leaders were also in doing terrible things in the name of homeschooling, hiding Richmond to lobby—against the resolution. behind homeschooling to do it.” at’s what her “It’s obvious to me that homeschool parents love their Homeschooling’s Invisible Children’s website documents: kids and don’t want to abuse them,” said J. Michael Smith, criminal cases of neglect and abuse. president of HSLDA. “ e reason they’re homeschooling is e existence of such cases, and the growing reach of the because they don’t want to neglect their child’s education.” anti-homeschooling websites, raises questions that home- Both Smith and Darren Jones, a staff attorney at the organi- schooling defenders are primed to answer. Educational zation, agreed that abuse and neglect cases do exist within neglect? Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education some homeschooling families, but argue their number is Research Institute in Salem, Ore., said most studies by dozens small. HSLDA staff ers call them “fake homeschoolers.” of researchers since show the average homeschooler CRHE’s homeschool policy guidelines are aimed at tight- scoring in the th to th percentile on standardized tests. ening overall regulation of homeschoolers so as to catch ( e national school average is the th percentile.) families that might go awry. Among the recommendations: JUNE What about abuse? e Health and Human Services “Child Homeschool students should be academically tested or CHENG Maltreatment ” report noted that . percent of U.S. assessed each year by mandatory reporters; homeschool par- children were involved in abuse investigations in . A ents should have GED or high-school diplomas; and parents
SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 • WORLD
18 BTS PART 2.indd 55 8/20/14 9:46 AM HOME RUN: The Romeike family fought the nesis
German government for the right to homeschool e (see “Schools of thought,” May 4, 2013). Heather G
Doney of the Coalition for Responsible Home enin/ u Education (left) says “the average homeschooling G family is fine,” but hers was not.
convicted of child abuse or sexual offenses should be barred from homeschooling. HSLDA agreed with some recommenda- ibergall/ap • Doney: Krista Krista Doney: • ibergall/ap e
tions but strongly opposes expanding N mandatory reporting or mandatory annual arlie arlie h
testing. Attorney Jones acknowledged that C some families have used homeschooling as a shield, but stressed, “We have always taken the position that the homeschool
community should deal with that.” homeschooling:
56 WORLD • September 6, 2014
18 BTS PART 2.indd 56 8/20/14 9:47 AM at Risk in Idaho: “You don’t need regulations, I think you need more informed investigations.” He said ICHE helped improve those investigations in 2008 by drafting, in cooper- ation with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, investigation guidelines for child protective services workers dealing with homeschool families. The Idaho experience suggests the homeschool commu- nity could find ways to help identify problem cases, however rare, while minimizing government interference. For Doney, it’s an important first step for people to simply acknowledge that stories like hers exist: “There’s been a culture of child abuse denialism within homeschooling.” Jones, the HSLDA attorney, said he recognizes some in the Homeschoolers Anonymous community didn’t have a great experience growing up. “I feel terrible for them. I don’t think that’s a reason to crack down on all 2 million kids who are being homeschooled across the U.S.” A
The role of churches Bill Roach, the president of Christian Home Educators of Colorado (CHEC), has served on the organization’s board for the past eight years. He hasn’t spent all that time attending a traditional church: A few years after he started homeschooling the first of his five children in 1991, Roach left his Baptist church and began meeting on Sundays with several other families committed to home education and family discipleship. They met in homes, sang hymns and contemporary worship songs (often a cappella), and set up a lectern for the dads, who preached on a rotating basis. They had no formal leadership: When the men set out to appoint elders, they broke up over various disagreements, including whether debt was permissible. Roach left the group in 2007 and has since returned to a formal church setting—an Orthodox Presbyterian church in Elizabeth, Colo., where he serves as an elder. Roach now regrets the autonomous nature of his former house fellowship: “It got a little bit too independent. … In Recent events in Idaho suggest homeschoolers might be some ways it was just family first,” without respect for the nesis e authority of the church, he said. Israel Wayne, an apologetics
G able to police their own. Barry Peters, the president of the Idaho Coalition of Home Educators, said his organization had speaker who meets thousands of homeschool families enin/ u
G established a cooperative relationship with child welfare annually at conferences, often hears from students and officials: Under a protocol initiated 14 years ago, whenever graduates asking his advice about family battles concerning officials from the state e ducation department received a teenage dating and video games. He often asks disaffected report of e ducational neglect involving a homeschool family, youths if they’ve talked to the elders in their church: “Almost they forwarded the tip to ICHE, which investigated each case inevitably, they tell me no,” either because they don’t feel and reported back to state officials. But from 2000 to 2004 in safe discussing family issues at their church, or because Idaho, state officials logged only 15 such tips, and further they aren’t attending one. ibergall/ap • Doney: Krista Krista Doney: • ibergall/ap e
N investigation revealed the claims were groundless, mistaken, Thankfully, in recent years homeschool leaders have or didn’t satisfy legal definitions of neglect. recognized the problem of church disconnectedness and are arlie arlie h
C The education department canceled the protocol arrange- working to correct it. At CHEC’s state conference in June, ment with ICHE in 2006, apparently because of the lack of Voddie Baucham, a homeschooling pastor and Gospel legitimate reports. “There are very few cases of educational Coalition council member, gave a keynote address titled neglect that come out,” said Kirt Naylor, a child advocate “Why Your Family Needs the Church.” —D.J.D.
homeschooling: homeschooling: attorney and chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Children
September 6, 2014 • WORLD 57
18 BTS PART 2.indd 57 8/20/14 9:47 AM Good credit Competency-based programs off er college credentials without the debilitating cost by EMILY SCHEIE /
B . He was director of admissions at a private, liberal arts college and was watching students take on unsustainable debt to attend college. “I would be making a living off of asking people to make what I would Jconsider a bad fi nancial decision,” he explained. Brush was right about the debt problem. e Institute for College Access and Success reports that seven of college graduates borrowed money to complete their degrees, owing on average ,. Student loan debt is now more than . trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Students, parents, college offi cials, and policymakers are now examining economical alternatives to the traditional four-year diploma. Competency-based programs are one alternative. ey award college credit for learning done outside of traditional college classes that meet for a set number of weeks. In competency-based programs, students can work as quickly as they want and receive credit for a course whenever they pass an assessment test or project. Although programs diff er in particulars, they all measure learning rather than time, says Robert Mendenhall, president of Western Governors University, an online, competency-based school. WGU awarded its fi rst degree in and now has about , students who pay a fl at rate—about , for most degree programs—every six months. For Nicholas Lotts, , WGU has been a time- and cost-eff ective way to work toward a bachelor’s degree in information technology while keeping his full-time job. He earned a traditional associate’s degree right out of high school, but some classes were so tedious he would “literally fall asleep in class” because he knew the material from tinkering with computers on his own. With WGU’s model, he said, “I’m not going over or rehashing stuff that I’m already familiar with.” For example, Lotts discovered his job training in retail man- agement had taught him much of the material in his organizational behavior class, so he only studied for about days before taking the test. For harder classes, he has learned from WGU course mentors, his own outside sources, and even his colleagues in the University of Cincinnati’s IT department: “I work with other experts.” e average age of WGU’s student body is , but many recent high-school graduates are also foregoing the classroom. Jonathan Brush left his position in college admissions and took a job with CollegePlus, which uses one-on-one coaching to help students create
WORLD • SEPTEMBER 6, 2014
18 BTS PART 2.indd 58 8/20/14 8:38 AM their own paths to college degrees. For an average of $24,000, students earn their degrees through accredited universities—Thomas Edison State College, Liberty University, Moody Bible Institute— collecting credits primarily through a combination of tests and online classes. Christos Dimoulis, 21, used CollegePlus to earn his history degree from Thomas Edison. He paid about $15,000 total and is beginning law school at Loyola University debt free. Dimoulis earned the majority of his college credits through College Level Examination Program (CLEP) tests, developed by the College Board, and DANTES Subject Standardized Tests (DSST), originally offered to military service members. The tests cost as little as $80 each and Dimoulis used internet resources and college text- books from the library to prepare. Every two to three weeks he’d take another exam and “just keep racking up the credits.” Dimoulis said no one at the law firm where he interned or the county circuit courthouse where he aided and shadowed a judge ever looked down on his method of education. In fact, he believes his way of earning a degree gave him an edge when applying for law school: “They’re looking for unique people who have unique experiences.” Still, convincing people to embrace this new educational path may be difficult. A 2013 Gallup-Lumina poll showed that almost a third of Americans believe a job candidate’s alma mater is very important. Contrast that with the views of business leaders: Only 9 percent of them agreed. That seems to support CollegePlus co-founder Woody Robertson’s view that businesses don’t care where you’ve learned: “They will want proof that you Dimoulis: “[Law schools actually have learned it.” are] looking for Dimoulis said earning a degree the unconven- unique people tional way “requires an incredibly regimented who have unique and organized student,” traits also important in experiences.” law school and the workforce. Brush agrees. He says the ability to find, evaluate, and master information quickly in order to pass tests translates into the problem- solving skills required by a rapidly shifting workplace. Competency-based programs may not offer much help to students who need specialized training. Kaitlyn Rawlings used CollegePlus to earn an English degree, but at 22 she is studying acting at Northern Kentucky University. She says she needs more training than she can get in community theater if she wants to pursue her interest in Christian theater and film. By living at home and working multiple jobs, including dressing up as Disney princesses for birthday parties, she is trying to graduate with no loans. Traditional colleges will continue to offer four years of living with others and interacting in classrooms, and those that distinguish themselves from the crowd will survive. Traditionalists might not think much of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., which last December became the first university to award credit for badges based on the Polaris Competency Model, which assesses skills like active listening, organization and planning, and conflict management. Students can earn up to 30 credit hours from the initial, eight-hour assessment. “Thirty credits?” Some professors will wax sarcastic, but others will remind them about 30 credit hours gained from half-listening to lectures while text-messaging, passing multiple choice tests, and making sports events and parties the centerpieces of the semester. With employers increasingly skeptical about the results of generic education, many colleges will change or die. A —Emil Scheie is a teacher and WORLD intern
September 6, 2014 • WORLD 59
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18 AD DIRECTORY.indd 64 8/15/14 10:37 AM NotebookLifestyle > Technology > Science > Houses of God > Sports
Hispanic man shouted into a loudspeaker. Most people passed by without a glance, as one man wearing a T-shirt with the image of Game changer a marijuana leaf held up his own homemade sign that read “God is a LIE.” Inside, though, Gamechurch On a hot July afternoon, young anime devotees crowded around a booth people in bright wigs and elaborately with a blown-up image of Jesus holding an is seizing hand-sewn costumes filled the Los Xbox controller. opportunities to Angeles Convention Center. For one That Gamechurch >> EXPANDING reach the gaming weekend, Japanese anime characters came to booth, sandwiched THE BORDERS: life as 60,000 participants at the annual between others selling Gamechurch at community Anime Expo primped and posed as characters Pokemon toys and big- Anime Expo. byl Ange a Lu they had painstakingly recreated. eyed anime posters, u L
Outside the center, bright yellow signs featured volunteers telling each passerby a l bobbed with the messages “The Wages of Sin that Jesus loves them just the way they are, g
An e Is Death” and “Eternal Life in Jesus” as a dyed-pink hair and kitten ears included.
Download WORLD’s iPad app today; details at wng.org/iPad September 6, 2014 • WORlD 65
18 LIFESTYLE.indd 65 8/18/14 9:43 AM Notebook > Lifestyle
Gamechurch is a ministry reaching gamers right where they are by attending “nerd culture” conven- tions and running a video game news website. At Anime Expo, its volunteers passed out lanyards with the words “Jesus loves gamers” in block letters and more than , “gamer bibles” (the book of John with gamer-aimed commentary) that delve deeper into the gospel message. Christians now have a small piece of a billion video game industry that caters to tens of mil- group is ALL THINGS: lions of Americans: e average age of planting seeds T-shirt; Gamechurch gamers is , and nearly half are women. at these con- tradeshow e games themselves cover a wide ventions: One table. range: Not just relegated to fi rst-person young man shooters or role-playing fantasies, a emailed to say new crop of empathy games artfully tell he read the “gamer bible” on interactive stories about diffi cult topics the airplane ride home, gave like depression, autism, and poverty. it to the person sitting next to ey are big business: Grand eft Auto him who seemed interested, and was his game at Dragon, Cancer, an auto- V, a raunchy crime-riddled game, cost emailing Gamechurch to ask for biographical empathy game that follows a reported million to make, and another copy. Green as he deals with his son Joel’s took in billion in merely three days. Gamechurch also aims to minister losing battle with cancer from age to Many churchgoers have a negative to people through the context of relation- age . Green started creating the game view of video games; too violent and ship–in this case the camaraderie built with developer Josh Larson two years too sexual, which many are. But video from fi ghting monsters or protecting ago as an artistic way to sort out his games have as much variety as movies, each other from enemy fi re. Online feelings. In one level of the game, play- which few Christians now boycott, and multiplayer games such as World of ers take on Green’s point of view and each highly involved game displays a Warcraft group strangers together to fi nd themselves inside of an ICU hospital worldview. Christian gamers see video fi ght battles, and Brian Buff on, director room with a crying son in the crib, games as opportunities for parents to of Gamechurch, said the time spent unable to be consoled. rough words on bond with their children and for together in the game builds trust so the screen and voice-overs, players Christians to bond with nonbelievers. that when a teammate goes through a hear the thoughts of helplessness run- At Gamechurch’s Anime Expo booth, diffi cult time such as a breakup, they ning through Green’s mind, until the most people were curious and inquisi- can turn to him for support, creating only option left is to sit down and tive, some saying that even though they an opening to talk. pray—and the crying fi nally stops. don’t agree with Christianity, they Christian video game developers Reviewers from secular publications appreciate what Gamechurch is doing. have been trying to bring Christ into who tested the early demo of a t Some signed up for email updates in the industry—mostly to tap the large Dragon, Cancer, praised the game, exchange for a poster of Jesus stylized Christian market—since the s, many leaving with tears in their eyes as like a warrior from the fi lm . often by ripping off popular games and they recalled loved ones they’d seen in adding a biblical twist with titles such that position. Green wrote that as a A few passersby snickered but none T-SHIRT: HANDOUT • POSTER: ANGELA LU expressed hostility. “How do you argue as Spiritual Warfare, the Left Behind Christian game developer he had “the with ‘Jesus loves you’ and free stuff ?” series, and even Dance Praise. But with power to limit choice, to bend the play- asked Chris Gwaltney, Gamechurch’s the rise of indie developers, more er’s knee in prayer, to create a black missions coordinator. “He loves you Christian developers have the freedom and white world in which the pillars of right now, you don’t have to shower to create games that aren’t as overtly faith can be crammed down their fi rst.” Founder Mikee Bridges, a former Christian, but are intertwined with a throat in megabyte-sized chunks. If I alt-Christian rocker who went on to Christian worldview. did that, then I would not be much like open a skate park, PC gaming center, For instance, developer Ryan Green the one person in history I desire to and now Gamechurch, believes the has created a buzz in the past year with emulate.” A
WORLD • SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 Download WORLD’s iPad app today; details at wng.org/iPad
18 LIFESTYLE.indd 66 Download WORLD’s iPad app today; details at wng.org/iPad8/18/14 9:45 AM Visit our website—wng.org—for breaking news and more Listen to WORLD on the radio at worldandeverything.com Raising Kids To Do Hard Things" 2014 National Tour with Gregg Harris" A “wisdom workshop” for dedicated parents, grandparents & teenagers!
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18 LIFESTYLE.indd 67 8/14/14 3:35 PM Notebook > Technology
Internet for Give everyone the Gift of Project to spread web access could speed up growth in Africa By Michael Cochrane
A simple smartphone app may become the key that unlocks economic development potential for dozens of underdeveloped nations. Last month the nonprofit >> organization Internet.org released an app that provides free internet data access to a set of core services for people in Zambia. The Internet.org app is being launched in partnership with cellular carrier Airtel, and will provide users with free mobile web access to services such as Google and Wikipedia, along with health information websites and online job listings. The app will also include a free version of Facebook and its But those who applaud this experiment in economic develop- Messenger app, which is not surprising since Facebook is one ment point out that simply providing a communications net- of the founding backers of Internet.org along with Nokia, work in countries without one contributes to economic growth. Ericsson, and several other leaders in mobile internet. Leonard Waverman of the London Business School studied GDP Internet.org is the brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s growth in developing countries and showed that adding just 10 young CEO, who has made it a personal challenge to bring more mobile phones per 100 people increases average annual For the special internet connectivity to the 70 percent of the world’s popula- per capita GDP growth by more than half a percent. gift pricing of only tion currently without it. The Internet.org initiative is in keeping with the economic “Getting access to the internet is a really big deal,” said development principles advocated by the late Nobel Prize– $3.99 per month, Zuckerberg during a CNN interview last year about Internet. winning economist Friedrich von Hayek, who believed org. “I think we’re going to be able to do it.” empowering people from the bottom up created greater eco- you can give the gift According to Internet.org’s director of product manage- nomic opportunity. Hayek’s approach to development is dis- of WORLD to your ment, Guy Rosen, only 30 percent of the world’s population cussed in the recent book by NYU economics Professor William accesses the internet, however more than 85 percent lives in Easterly entitled, The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, loved ones, friends areas with existing cellu- and the Forgotten Rights or colleagues. lar coverage. Many more of the Poor. That book is people could access the WORLD magazine’s 2014 internet but aren’t— book of the year in the primarily because they analysis category. either can’t afford the While Facebook, Airtel, data plans for their and other internet-based mobile phone, or they companies hope these don’t really understand emerging markets will lead the Web and what it could to more business and Shining light on the stories that matter most, your gift will provide do for them. many criticize their globe: tonivaver/istock • Zuckerberg: Jeff clarity and insight for your loved ones through WORLD Magazine, Reaction to Internet. motives, Zuckerberg org’s launch in Zambia deserves credit for taking WORLD Radio and WORLD’s fully-shareable digital content—making has been mostly positive, up this important chal- it easy to access the news they need the most, at their convenience, but there are critics. One lenge and putting his commentator described money where his mouth is. day or night. the rollout as “a Facebook “If we were just growth tactic masquerad- focused on making Giving a membership to WORLD is quick and easy. Visit ing as altruism.” Others have complained that it creates a new money, the first billion people that we’ve connected have way wng.org/giveworld or call 1-800-951-6397, Monday—Friday kind of digital divide—with essentially a separate internet for more money than the rest of the next six billion combined,” 9:00 a.m.—7:00 p.m. ET, excluding holidays.
poor people. Other critics say that having one portal for inter- said Zuckerberg. “It’s not fair but it’s the way that it is. And C h net access in a country violates the tenets of so-called net we just believe that everyone deserves to be connected and on iu/ap neutrality. the internet, so we’re putting a lot of energy towards this.” A
68 WORLD • September 6, 2014 Visit our website—wng.org—for breaking news and more
18 TECHNOLOGY.indd 68 8/20/14 9:28 AM Give the Gift of
For the special gift pricing of only $3.99 per month, you can give the gift of WORLD to your loved ones, friends or colleagues.
Shining light on the stories that matter most, your gift will provide clarity and insight for your loved ones through WORLD Magazine, WORLD Radio and WORLD’s fully-shareable digital content—making it easy to access the news they need the most, at their convenience, day or night.
Giving a membership to WORLD is quick and easy. Visit wng.org/giveworld or call 1-800-951-6397, Monday—Friday 9:00 a.m.—7:00 p.m. ET, excluding holidays. CREDIT
18 TECHNOLOGY.indd 69 8/18/14 9:48 AM Notebook > Science Green light, red alert Is an expedited approval process putting unsafe medications on the market? BY JULIE BORG
O new medications concern about the time it available to consumers are later took new medications to withdrawn from the market or reach patients. PDUFA >> given a black box warning due allows the FDA to collect to safety risks. at represents a nearly fees from pharmaceutical percent increase since Congress companies to speed up the approval e study’s researchers admit the expedited the FDA approval process process. Average drug approval time increased rate of medications being years ago, according to a study pub- has dropped by more than percent, taken off the market or given a black lished in the August issue of Health from to months, since the act was box label does not prove the expedited Aff airs. authorized. In President Obama process is the cause. Still, the statistics e Prescription Drug User Fee Act signed into law the Food and Drug raise concern that some unsafe medi- (PDUFA), passed by Congress in Administration Safety and Innovation cations may be slipping through after heavy lobbying by the pharma- Act, which includes reauthorization of before side eff ects and risks have been ceutical industry, addressed growing PDUFA through September . thoroughly investigated.
Lights out Inevitable solar super storms could have catastrophic consequences on Earth, warns University of Bristol aerospace engineer Ashley Dale in this month’s issue of Physics World. Dale was part of a team of space experts who examined the potential damage such an event could cause. e team’s report, SolarMax, called on policymakers to fund research and subsequent actions to protect society “as we know it.” e sun goes through an -year cycle culminating with the SolarMax, a phenome- non in which the magnetic poles fl ip. It is during this time that gigantic explosions— solar flares—are most apt to occur. ese violent events can disrupt Earth’s magnetic fi eld and play havoc with all forms of technology. For example, power
surges could blow up transformers, CAUTION: ISTOCK IMAGES • ROBOTIC FUELING: NASA • SOLAR FLARE: SDO/AIA/NASA Satellites orbiting Earth can function cutting off electricity for entire only as long as their fuel supplies last. nations or even continents for NASA is developing a robotic fueling weeks, causing disruptions in food station that can add years of useful life and water supply, sewage removal, to spacecraft by going to a satellite and medical care, transportation, heating, refueling, repairing, or relocating it in etc. e result could be economic orbit. devastation and a global crisis, the Approximately , spacecraft orbit scientists warn. It is estimated that Earth. ese include the international even a typical solar storm can cost as space station, weather satellites that high as billion to billion in total predict storms and assist with search losses. and rescue missions, and scientifi c e strongest solar storm ever recorded hit Earth in , damaging telegraph lines spacecraft that study the stars. and railroads and igniting auroras visible as far south as Cuba and Hawaii. Another NASA’s Bob Granath said NASA solar storm in knocked out the entire Quebec power grid leaving million people hopes to expand options for satellite without electricity for over nine hours and costing an estimated billion to billion. GEE/GENESIS
operators who face tougher economic NASA scientists said a powerful solar fl are barely missed Earth in . ey esti- Mc demands and aging fl eets. —J.B. mate there is a percent chance that another solar storm, at least as powerful as the
one of , will hit Earth in the next years. —J.B. STEPHEN
WORLD • SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 Listen to WORLD on the radio at worldandeverything.com
18 SCIENCE and HOG.indd 70 8/20/14 8:25 AM Notebook > Houses of God caution: istock images • robotic fueling: nasa • solar flare:
The worship space of Hillsdale Orthodox Presbyterian Church nesis e is the recently purchased New York Central Railroad Depot in Hillsdale, Mich. G S e/ D e O G / A IA Mc / nasa Stephen
September 6, 2014 • WOrlD 71
18 SCIENCE and HOG.indd 71 8/20/14 8:25 AM Notebook > Sports ,
He ran out of money. Seven accompanying vehicles broke down, with three totaled. He had to repeat miles. Drew Burnett faced many obstacles in his attempt to run the Appalachian Trail in record time for a Ugandan orphanage, where he and his family plan to go live next year (see “Run for the chil- dren,” June ). He didn’t break any records, and he almost didn’t fi nish. e crew even ran out of money in West Virginia and discovered it needed , in hours. But after notifying his prayer team of the situation, he received , in Money changer hours, without asking. “It’s hard not to trust Him after District judge’s ruling may radically alter college sports beyond that,” Burnett told me. football and men’s basketball BY ANDREW BRANCH Sure enough, Burnett met his wife and son Aug. D’ You’re not alone. After a summer of rule for the fi nal hike up Springer changes, settlements, and a landmark court decision, people who work in college Mountain in Georgia. He sports may not understand college sports. completed all , miles of >> U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled Aug. that players in the Football Bowl Subdivision and Division I men’s basketball are entitled to at least , a year for rights to their names, images, and likenesses. Mitford Fans Rejoice e NCAA is appealing the ruling and has long argued that athletes are students, not employees or professionals, and play for the love of the game. But its own love of money has made that philosophy irrelevant, even unjust, according to Wilken. NCAA organizations make millions from television contracts, video games, and merchandise featuring players—but they say compensation above scholarships undermines the student half of “student-athlete.” JAN KARON e highly publicized antitrust lawsuit, launched by former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon, prompted many voluntary changes from the NCAA even before the ruling. e returns to Mitford in NCAA Board of Directors voted Aug. to give the fi ve biggest football conferences more autonomy over what benefi ts they give to players beyond scholarships. One of the fi rst things on the agenda of a powerful new voting body will be providing stipends to athletes. SOMEWHERE SAFE But with votes and appeals yet to take place, no one really knows what the NCAA will look like in coming years. e new rules generally apply only to men’s football and basketball, WITH
NCAA: G. FIUME/GETTY IMAGES • BURNETT: HANDOUT SOMEBODY GOOD and that could lead to more lawsuits. Title IX regulations, for example, say female athletes are the trail in days. “Proud” supposed to receive equal opportunities. What about Olympic sports? Smaller conferences to have experienced God’s or fi nancially strapped schools may drop some sports altogether. power in his weakness, he e NCAA brings criticism on itself, though, as stadiums become shrines, locker rooms told me, he hopes to raise “Jan Karon’s books set in Mitford make me laugh, while become spas, and more schools enter the fi nancial arms race to attract players. While select , for the orphanage programs like Duke basketball and Notre Dame football succeed both in the classroom and by sharing the journey with reminding me of many of God’s important truths in on the fi eld, winning often outweighs integrity. “ e concept of college football no longer church groups and through a walking this Christian walk. Seldom do we find books has any bearing on the quality of the person, the quality of students,” Kansas State coach documentary. His story? with such warmth and caring, spiced with laughter.” “Failure in the eyes of the Bill Snyder said. “Universities are selling themselves out.” —Christian Library Journal Wilken has thrown the NCAA’s legal language into confusion. But because the NCAA world in order to bring God didn’t always practice what it preached about amateurism and integrity, it may have lost glory.” —A.B. the credibility to preach.
MitfordBooks.com JanKaron WORLD • SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 Download WORLD’s iPad app today; details at wng.org/iPad SEPTEMBER 2014 Audio Photograph of the author © Candace Freeland available
18 SPORTS.indd 72 8/20/14 8:31 AM INTRODUCING CROSSWAY’S CHRISTIAN GUIDES TO THE CLASSICS
CROSSWAY’S CHRISTIAN GUIDES TO THE CLASSICS SERIES is designed to help readers enjoy the greatest literature in history with the aid of an experienced teacher to answer questions along the way. Leland Ryken—professor of English for over 45 years—explains and evaluates each classic text from a Christian worldview.
NOW AVAILABLE: Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter Homer’s The Odyssey Milton’s Paradise Lost Shakespeare’s Macbeth Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress Dickens’s Great Expectations The Devotional Poetry of Donne, Herbert, and Milton Shakespeare’s Hamlet
For more information or to watch the informational video, visit Crossway.org/ClassicGuides.
Mitford Fans Rejoice JAN KARON returns to Mitford in SOMEWHERE SAFE WITH SOMEBODY GOOD
“Jan Karon’s books set in Mitford make me laugh, while reminding me of many of God’s important truths in walking this Christian walk. Seldom do we find books with such warmth and caring, spiced with laughter.” —Christian Library Journal CREDIT
MitfordBooks.com JanKaron SEPTEMBER 2014 Audio Photograph of the author © Candace Freeland available
18 SPORTS.indd 73 8/15/14 10:46 AM BOOKS Community. Nestled in the beautiful I Order NOW for the upcoming school foothills of the Ozarks in Tahlequah, OK, THE WORLD MARKET year! God, It’s Me: Days for Young the village off ers activities, fellowship, Classifi eds are priced at per line with an average of characters per Adults to Become Passionate about and security knowing you will always be cared for in independent, Assisted Living line and a minimum of two lines. Bold text and uppercase available for Prayer and Bible / P.Greene; -; Amazon, B&N. or Long Term Care environment. CALL per line; special fonts and highlighting available for an additional charge. TODAY () - or visit our You will receive a percent discount with a frequency of four or more. REAL ESTATE website www.goyevillage.org for more All ads are subject to the approval of WORLD. Advertising in WORLD does information. I Naples: Marco and Bonita, Florida. not necessarily imply the endorsement of the publisher. 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18 MAILBAG.indd 74 8/15/14 4:55 PM Mailbag ‘A life worth living’ July My sisters and I cared for our mother through her decline with Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia to the very end. We off ered this gift daily to
her and to God, thanking her for her years of escape from their POW status is faith in self-sacrifi ce. God transformed us while we cared God’s Son, Jesus Christ. for Mamma, improving our lives as He drew us —RR MM,, Alpine, Calif. closer to Him. Grelen’s point is so very true: God ‘Debt decisions’ July David Skeel asserted that stu- determines the purpose of life, not humans. dent loans are justifi able as a “public —F P B, Charleston, S.C. good,” but where is the constitutional warrant for taking my money and transferring it to someone else’s chil- dren for their education? An endless No one can say how another person How much has Christians’ widespread list of items might benefi t the “public “experiences” life, and that should acceptance of premarital physical good.” is excuse has been the manure aff ect how we treat those at the begin- aff ection (as long as it stops short of to fertilize the growth of our fast- ning and the end of life. We must stand “that little word”) contributed to the growing, unconstitutional, and up for those who are most defenseless acceptance of sex outside of marriage? “benevolent” tyranny. among us: the unborn, the disabled, We could help our young people by —J S, Lebanon, Ind. and the elderly. teaching them a fuller, more biblical —G N, Louisville, Ky. view of sexual intimacy that goes ‘Tolerance in the court’ beyond the act of consummation, one July While the Supreme Court was What will our four small children say that focuses on how the glory of mar- deciding Hobby Lobby’s case, demon- about our marriage when I am on my riage refl ects Christ and His bride. strators on both sides carried signs; but deathbed? Will it inspire them and —K C, Waynesboro, Ga. the photo of their expressions said their future spouses and children? much more than the words on their Growing up I was blessed to see similar ‘ e great escape’ posters. e truth does not have to devotion in my grandparents and par- July Marvin Olasky’s column about scream, shout, or angrily demand you ents, and it strengthened my resolve to how Christians should be saboteurs in conform to it. do the same if necessary. Taking care of “enemy-occupied territory” reminded —E N, Big Canoe, Ga. the elderly at the end of life can be a me of Oscar Cullmann’s metaphor: We beautiful thing to witness. are living between D-Day and V-Day. Quotables —C C, Chattanooga, Tenn. We know Who has won, but we are still July What could Hillary Clinton say involved in a massive mop-up operation. to college students that would be worth ‘Little word, big meaning’ Only royal children can have such ,? What a waste of money July is column was so encouraging. optimism. when colleges are hurting for income. I am a father of three preparing for the —J L, Waco, Texas —M T, Collierville, Tenn. birds and the bees conversation with my oldest, so it is timely hearing that a Speaking the gospel to men in county ‘Dictated change’ commitment to sexual purity lies in jail, I point out that they are prisoners July e th U.S. Circuit Court of complete submission to Christ and not in a war between God and Satan, a Appeals ruled that homosexual couples in anticipation of a reward situation much more signifi cant and have a “fundamental right” to marry, payable-upon-vows. devastating than their temporary but fundamental rights involve things —R P, Birmingham, Ala. incarceration. eir only means of that have been around since the
Send photos and letters to: [email protected] SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 • WORLD
18 MAILBAG.indd 75 8/19/14 8:31 AM Mailbag
Eighty percent of orphaned THIS children are abandoned beginning. at includes life, mar- because their parents cannot BRACELET riage between a man and woman, afford to care for them. The bearing children, and worship of GO Exchange helps you step the Creator. Gay “marriage” will HELPED into the lives of these parents never enjoy this status, whether or to give them something that not the courts impose it on us. KEEP OVER keeps their families together: —J M, Flower Mound, Texas living wage jobs. ‘Married to Darwin’ Today, The GO Exchange July I am an evangelical helps sustain living wage jobs Christian, a young-earth creation- in Haiti and East Africa for ist, and a practicing scientist. I over five hundred families. In greatly respect those who try to reconcile modern science with the fact, parents from over twenty Bible, but I believe the issue is families in Port-au-Prince moot. Once you accept that God help create each one of these created supernaturally, you must beautiful, hand-woven cotton also accept that you can’t extrapo- 20 bracelets, designed by Paula late back from what we observe FAMILIES Coles in Haiti. today to the origins. Given this, why would one compromise what TOGETHER You can purchase this and the Bible plainly says just to other Wonderfully Made accommodate what science clothing and accessories teaches? GOEX.ORG at GOEX.org. —A J. C, Dayton, Ohio It really is a question of God versus Darwin and not God versus sci- ence. Christians, of all people, should know to embrace the account by God, who was there, rather than a human hypothesis. —J P, Pensacola, Fla.
ank you for the recent articles upholding the literal interpretation of Genesis. It is so refreshing. I also appreciate all the reporting done on the other topics in America and the world. —T G, Siloam Springs, Ark.
‘Study halls’ July Susan Olasky’s piece on Hemingway Editor had me laugh- ing for days after I noticed that it included an image showing the website’s low score (readability: ) and assessment (“bad”) of her own story. ank you for remind- ing me how to have a little fun at one’s own expense. And, by the way, she deserved a much better score. —S F, Corvallis, Ore.
18 MAILBAG.indd 76 8/14/14 3:11 PM There’s still ‘Humble pie’ July I read this column on the health care for people same day I failed a test for a job on which I had placed much hope. In the past two years I’ve had plenty of painful failures in job pursuits and of Biblical faith! often felt as if I’ve wandered off the trail of God’s leading. I’ve prayed fervently to hear from Him, and in this column I did. —M M, Saratoga Springs, Utah
‘Defi ning pluralism’ July Some defi ne pluralism, as Joel Belz said, to mean that “all worldviews are equally true or valid” in an attempt to rationalize moral relativism or neutralize opposing worldviews. But that is irrational. It violates the law of noncontradiction. —B J. W, Valparaiso, Ind.
Please remove me and this church from your mailing list. Your attacks on the president and anything other than conservative Republicanism stinks of anything but God’s Word. As a committed Christian, you can live consistently with your beliefs —P K S, by sharing medical needs directly with fellow believers through Buckroe Baptist Church, Hampton, Va. Samaritan Ministries’ non-insurance approach. You do not have to ank you, thank you, thank you purchase health insurance that pays for abortions, abortifacient to all the staff of WORLD. How drugs, and other unbiblical practices. Health care sharing satisfies the blessed we are to have a publica- individual mandate in the recent Federal health care law (United States tion like this. Code 26, Section 5000A, (d), (2), (B)). —R C, Indianapolis, Ind.
Correction Every month the more than 36,000* households of Samaritan Min- Nazry Mustakim’s drug off ense, istries (over 120,000* persons) share more than $10 million* in medi- while not an aggravated felony in cal needs directly—one household to another. They also pray for one criminal law, qualifi ed as an another and send notes of encouragement. The monthly share for a aggravated felony in immigration law (“Detention contention,” Aug. family membership of any size has never exceeded $405*. , p. ). For more information call us toll-free at 1-888-268-4377, or visit us online at: www.samaritanministries.org. LETTERS & PHOTOS Follow us on Twitter (@samaritanmin) and Facebook (SamaritanMinistries). * As of July 2014 Email: [email protected] Write: WORLD Mailbag, PO Box , Asheville, NC - Please include full name and address. Letters may be edited to yield brevity and clarity. Biblical faith applied to health care www.samaritanministries.org
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krieg barrie 18 SEU PETERSON.indd 79 KRIEG BARRIE Email: [email protected] What river speaks river waterfront—and
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A information or behavior than more much about is schooling Christian 18 OLASKY.indd 80 8/11/14 11:13 AM 5/15/14 1:52:15 PM 18 OLASKY.indd 3 Brand Cover World 6.14.indd 1 krieg barrie KICKING THE CAN HAS CONSEQUENCES
Enslavement of a Generation Washington politicians have been cravenly “kicking the can” of debt down the road for years. Our children and grandchildren will likely be shackled by an insurmountable mountain of indebtedness as a result. In “wisdom” that could only originate in Washington, the supposed solution to America’s debt problem has been to multiply our debt at breakneck speed. Quantitative easing policies (printing money out of thin air) over the last several years have been a dismal failure in stimulat- ing the economy, yet this same dangerous policy has now set the stage for a future inflationary or hyper-inflationary climate that could destroy the value of the dollar. Most Americans are unaware that the paper dollars they own have lost over 35% of their purchasing power over the last decade and more than 80% since America abandoned all monetary ties to gold in 1971.
The Great Global Wealth Shift Many foreign nations that hold large sums of U.S. treasuries have begun a pronounced transition out of dollars and into real, tangible forms of wealth. China, the largest holder of U.S. debt, has embarked on a massive global buying spree of natural assets, real estate, oil interests, and over the last three years Chinese imports of gold bullion have increased over tenfold! As the wealth of the West moves eastward, plans are already set in motion to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Eventually, international trust in Washington’s monetary and fiscal policies will evaporate, and the dollar could suffer a huge devaluation, similar to what the British suffered when the pound lost the distinction of reserve currency status.
Preserving Purchasing Power - The Key to Protecting Your Wealth Following President Nixon’s decision to cut all ties between the dollar and gold in 1971, no other primary asset class has served to protect purchasing power and grow in value as successful as gold. Gold has outperformed real estate and bonds, and grown more than twice as much as the DJIA since 1971. Gold has continued to protect the purchasing power of kings and the common man since the time of Solomon. Two FREE Reports You Need Now: The Rider on the Black Horse GOD, Gold and Government What Happens if Hyperinflation Comes to America? Why People of Faith Should Take a New Look at the Oldest Form of This in-depth and well-researched report traces the causes, effects, and history of Financial Protection. how currencies are destroyed by the effects of inflation and hyperinflation. This This report attempts to offer Christians a foundational basis for reconsidering informative report also explains how the stage for a new world currency is now and rediscovering a proven centuries-old method of protecting your assets in being set and why the U.S. dollar could soon lose its coveted reserve currency an era of rising economic, political, and geo-political uncertainty. You may be status. surprised what the Bible says about gold and money.
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18 OLASKY.indd 4 8/12/14 9:11 AM