A Publication About Covenant College
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Ii ll ll i. - - ---- --- - --- --- iiiiiiii---- Vol. 2 No. 1 -- A Publication About Covenant College ................................................................................. If you look at all the statistics, you will see that the number of I) people who believe 1n absolute truth continues to decline. Shockingly, it Interview declines more rapidly among evangelicals than among the culture at large. Interview Yfrth Chuck Colson We read our Bibles and say Jesus is the truth and yet we're saying at the With same time there's no such thing as truth, it does not surprise me that the cnme rate continues to soar, that families continue to break up, and that we are marginalized as Christians. People do not take us seriously but treat us lllbrs'Noles Chuck Colson rather as bigots. It does not surprise me that we have minimal influence in President Frank Brock recently had the opportunity to talk with Chuck affecting the fate of our culture because we may win a host of battles in the Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship, author, speaker and columnist. The culture war, or we may fight them to a standstill on some of the issues, but following is part I of their interview at root we're losing the foundation That's the foundational question and I don't even think we recognize it President Brock: You and I have both been motivated by the question , "How can a country where there are so many people who call themselves Brock: I think that there is no place that the relativistic theme emanates evangelical Christians, have all the statistics going the wrong direction? more than from higher education . The crime, the divorce rate, abortion , incarceration , adultery, illiteracy, Colson : I think the force behind relativism in American life today is the drugs, whatever you want to use. secular economy. Precisely where it is coming from is higher education. Chuck Colson: It continues at an accelerating rate , and what that says, of Vartan Gregorian was inaugurated as president at Brown seven or eight course, is that religion is not affecting the moral life of the nation. The years ago, my alma matter, and at his inaugural convocation Arthur reason that we see the signs of moral decay accelerate is the fact that his Schlesinger spoke and gave a talk called "The Perils of Absolutism." It was tory moves on the waves of great ideas, they're below the surface. a denunciation of Christian beliefs, and talked about all the horrors com- Christians are very good at fighting a lot of the battles that we see in the mitted in the name of religious truth and absolutism. That paper eloquently "culture war." I think we're great at picketing the abortion clinics, and sums up the prevailing attitude of the economy. Post-modernism has calendar fighting homosexual rights, we're good at our campaigns to clean up gripped the economy. The Christian could contend with modernism since pornography and now campaigns to stop people from watching the dread- it believes that there is truth and believes that you could apprehend it by fully immoral pollution called daily talk shows. We do all of those things rational means. We as Christians say that's not so, that it comes from reve- really well , without recognizing that there's a much deeper root issue of lation and so the modernist-Christian confrontation is over the means of People ID Nole which these battles are simply manifestations. I don't think the evangelical [arriving at] truth . The post-modernist-Christian confrontation is over the community has identified the core issue-truth. existence of truth because the post-modernist says there is no such thing. The root question of our culture and of our times, which Francis Schaeffer, the late theologian and founder of L'Abri, identified: is Brock: Is it an important distinction to differentiate between truth and there any such thing as objective reality? Is there an objective moral order objective truth? that governs the conflict and behavior of people? It's basically an episte Colson: Absolutely Schaeffer made this point. Truth is that which con mological question, a question out of which all these other skirmishes in forms to reality. It sounds like we're saying that we're talking on the phone lhe culture war go on . We spend our time fighting the battles, never right now and doing this interview and that this is Wednesday and that the News Hash knowing the issue that is causing the war, and that's why I think we con sky is gray and I'm leaning on a desk which is made of wood, all these tinue to lose. things are true. But, they are not the truth in the sense that there is a point of evident reality from which everything else flows, that there is an objective root to knowledge and to what we see and can call truth. Items It may be that there will be a time at which we will discover lhal this table I'm leaning on is really not what it appears to be. It appears to be for Prayer solid wood, but it may be something else. We may discover through quantum physics that it really should be called something else or be Pray that the Spirit will continue to powerfully affect the lives of students and faculty in this new school year Pray that chapel will continue to be meaningful understood another way. But, the epistemological question is answered lhal and that more and more faculty and students will actively participate. Pray for we can be assured that the point of element reality, that of course is God, the board and administration as they seek the best way to encourage spiritual growth and development. who revealed truth, revealed propositional truth through scripture so lhal that is the point from which all truths proceed. The college is in the early stages of a new live-year plan. The first steps are often the most difficult. Pray that the leadership will have wisdom in imple menting the plan. We are praying that the college will grow by 250 full-time traditional students to a total enrollment of 1100 students. This will require up Brock: You just recently wrote a novel, Gideon's Torch, which is by defini to $16,000,000 in capital and endowment gilts Pray for President Frank Brock, tion untruth in the sense that it doesn't portray real life. Can you say why trustees and the capital campaign committee. The college must receive ma1or gifts lrom new donors to meet this goal. Pray that new major gifts will be you decided to write from the point of view of a novel and how that would received play into what you're talking about as far as truth and objective truth. Pray for trustee advisor Bronwyn Leonard, Lorlee Carraher (trustee wife), Sharon Hall (wife of former trustee), and trustee Ken Avis, all of whom are Colson : I think great moral teaching through the centuries has been more struggling with cancer. profoundly accomplished through moral literature than through moral Pray that more churches will participate in the Church Partnership Program telepathy. Some people simply don't have the capacity to understand and enable Covenant to provide badly need financial aid to more families. abstract arguments and even those who have the capacity to understand Pray for faculty, administration, and the board as we consider the long-range abstract arguments can only take them at the cognitive level. Jesus often educational implications of technology such as distance learning, the Internet, and interactive learning. Some say that there has not been such a fundamental used a good story to convey ultimate truth. Great stories engage the listener change in communication since the discovery of the printing press. or the reader. The reader becomes a participant and discovers for himself or The unofficial word is that an agreement has been reached among New Era herself the truth that is conveyed by that literature. participants that will return more that 60% of the funds to the net loss charities. In The Brothers Karamazov, Dostyovsky conveys profound truth More will come depending on the law suit with Prudential. Continue to pray for an amicable resolution with 100% restoration without exorbitant legal rooted in objective reality. The deepest truths in life, the truths of the moral expense.• order, the truths of God, the truths of individuals seeking God and the truths of what happens when you turn away from all of this reality in God. In Brothers Karamazov he makes a more compelling apologetic for ultimate truth through literature than he could possibly do through objective argu well as students. Placement services are available lo ment. So I went to a novel because through that approach I felt I could assist in localing employment or gaining entry into grad uate programs. Alumni involved in a variety ol profes better convey an understanding of the deepest questions of the culture, the sional career l1elds also represent a valuable information and networking resource in assisting each other and current students in the career research and employment deeper questions of the Christian response of overcoming evil with good, processes. Alumni interested in receiving assistance or becoming a resource-joining and the deeper questions of life. I felt those points could be made more the Alumni Advisory network-may contact the CDC by mail, or call the college and speak with the CDC staff at ext. 1156 or 1141 . profoundly in a novel which engaged people to participate and to live Covenant's office of Experiential Studies recently received compliments on the Covenant through the story, rather than by appealing to their rational selves.