{"id":7215,"date":"2019-09-18T12:44:52","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T16:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=7215"},"modified":"2019-09-18T06:47:59","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T10:47:59","slug":"fr-john-parker-on-modern-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=7215","title":{"rendered":"Fr. John Parker on Modern Education"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I was dumbstruck during my three short lunch periods on a recent visit to a college campus.\u00a0\u00a0Greeting me at the entrance to the Student Life Center and Food Court were four tall, glass walls on which students were asked to write their opinions and attitudes concerning sex, sex education, access to contraception, and abortion.\u00a0 I would honestly bet that you couldn\u2019t imagine some of what was written there, in clear English and large letters.\u00a0 I\u2019m no prude, but I blushed.<\/p>\n<p>I visited the Barnes and Noble-sponsored University BookStore, and browsed the end-of-aisle display to see what is marketed to students.\u00a0 Here is a selection of the encouraged titles:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cAwakening Your Ikigai: How the Japanese Wake Up to Joy and Purpose Every Day\u201d; \u201cA Sucky Love Story: Overcoming Unhappily Ever After\u201d; \u201cQueer Eye: Love Yourself, Love Your Life.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0There was not a recognizably Christian title on the recommended list.<\/p>\n<p>That is not your grandmother\u2019s college campus\u2014nor your mother\u2019s.\u00a0 And I am willing to bet dollars to donuts, as my English teacher used to say, that this is <em>nothing extraordinary<\/em> today. It is <em><u>the new normal<\/u><\/em>.\u00a0 The campus is one of more than 2500 colleges where these messages confront students every.single.day.<\/p>\n<p>As I reflected on what I had encountered on this campus visit, one Bible verse washed over me, Matthew 9:36, where, \u201cWhen [Jesus] saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were <em>harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 This generation\u2014indeed our society increasingly\u2014is this flock of sheep without a shepherd.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2019 Letter from St. Tikhon&#8217;s Orthodox Seminary in PA<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>***Now and then we include a particularly thought provoking or inspiring excerpt not from one of our regular \u2018Elders\u2019***<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-7216\" src=\"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/0679-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/0679-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/0679-768x513.jpg 768w, http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/0679-480x320.jpg 480w, http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/0679.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I was dumbstruck during my three short lunch periods on a recent visit to a college campus.\u00a0\u00a0Greeting me at the entrance to the Student Life Center and Food Court were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-modern-orthodox-elders","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7217,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7215\/revisions\/7217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}