Monday, August 18, 2014

The Brain Afflicting Many Southern States


My son is visiting this week from Washington State where he is attending college and taking a heavy math and science curriculum.  Today in talking about changes taking place in Virginia, albeit far too slowly, he commented on the large number of students and young people he knew living in the Seattle-Olympia corridor who had moved there to escape backward, bigoted states in the South.  It is symptomatic to what is happening across many states in the South where the best and the brightest leave for college and never return except for an occasional family visit.  Opportunity, better wages and progressive businesses shun reactionary states and to pursue careers, many of the younger generation are no longer satisfied to remain in backwaters where the embrace of ignorance (which is synonymous with conservative Christianity) is celebrated.   Even the Hampton Roads region  -which, all things being relative, is liberal in comparison to many regions of The South - is experiencing a brain drain.  Bright students go off to college and never return, preferring to settle in Washington, D.C. , New York City and other progressive cities.   Ironically, even know nothings of the Southern Baptist Convention are waking up to the fact that not only is this bad for the local economies of these back waters, but it is also bad for fundamentalist denominations (especially their finances) that are experiences membership losses.  A writer at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary not surprisingly argues that the solution is to confine college students at "Christian colleges" where they can be brainwashed and held captive in ignorance.   Here's a sampling of the batshitery:
Students who attend public universities are four times more likely to stop attending church than those who attend authentic Christian colleges. Students who attend public universities are seven times more likely to stop praying consistently than students who attend authentic Christian colleges. Churches that do not encourage their youth to attend Christian colleges will likely suffer the heartbreak of seeing a sharp decline in the numbers of educated young adults that participate in church ministries.

Even if such young adults remain in the church, they may ultimately have a negative impact on the church’s health. A March 29, 2005 Washington Post article revealed that 72% of college professors view themselves as “liberal,” 84% support abortion, and 67% view homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle.

Students who attend authentic Christian colleges typically grow in their Christian commitment at five times the rate of students who attend other schools. They have a Christian worldview and a good foundation of biblical knowledge.

One of the great concerns related to the future of several of our Southern states is the notorious “brain drain” on our population. Bright educated young professionals are abandoning struggling states in unprecedented numbers as they seek higher salaries and greater potential for advancement in other states. However, the feared brain drain can also have a devastating effect on local churches. If Christian parents and churches entrust our best and brightest students to secular universities and they are schooled in unbiblical ideologies, the church risks losing its rich intellectual tradition.
The author, in short, argues that parents need to give their children the educational equivalent of a lobotomy to help the charlatans and hate merchants in the pulpits keep a captive audience in the pews.   With more and more pressing issues in the world demanding that we have a better educated and science accepting citizenry, the Southern Baptist Convention, instead argues in favor of abject ignorance - the real meaning of a "biblical worldview" in my view.  For the sake of the nation, we can only hope the exodus and brain drain accelerates.

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