Fear and Faith

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I had an unexpected conversation with a student after class yesterday that left her in tears. They were good tears, the kind you get when you realize there is meaning to life, a God in heaven, and a way out of the despair to a place of hope and peace. Just exactly why it's unexpected is because of who and what I am and do for a living.

Most students will tell you that their professors don't believe in God or at least care little for Him. Ask the students in biology, and they will report that we can't possibly because we teach evolution rather than creation. Well, for my part, creation belongs in philosophy and not in science because I know nobody with enough actual power to recreate creation so we can study it.

Oddly enough, it came up as a fluke. We were discussing what we normally do during the week after class ended, and I told them that I also go to church. Apparently, this surprised the students. From there, the conversation quickly turned.

We live in a world governed more by fear and greed than by faith. Even as the fearful ungodly and the greedy preach to us about charity and compassion, the former secretly hopes everyone else will be discredited, demoted, and ruined. Far too many among us are experts not in charity and discipline but rather in the uncorroborated accusation, the confidential report, the pretended alliance, and the stab in the back. A thin crust of endorsement for good manners and respect and equality sometimes erupts and the scalding lava of hatred spews out.

Consequently, many of the decent or normal people feel dejected and depressed. Beset by the effects brought upon them when other people misuse their agency, they wonder if they'll ever have peace, be happy, or see a change in their stars. Many of them lose whatever fragile faith they have and turn to drugs and fornication, desperate for an escape from a world that seems bereft of hope. That's where I come in.

From the ether, they find a professor who not only believes with his lips but also believes with his footsteps. I explained to the students how I have learned there is a God, how I have learned to listen to His voice and how I have benefitted from following His counsel. One young woman began to cry. She told me in an email late last night that she finally realized that although she felt she didn't need God let alone know where He was, she discovered after our conversation that He had been there all the time waiting for her to lend Him an ear.

As I told my students, it's been a somewhat trying year. Several things have combined to hedge up my way. As I have sought God's counsel and acted accordingly, even when I wasn't sure it was a good idea, I have seen myself brought through the rough seas and stormy winds to a land of promise. In dark times, God has carried me through to a place of light and joy.

For a long time, many of the people I know have struggled. They find themselves like we were last weekend in the cave, squeezed between two layers of rock, crawling on their stomachs, scraping against the floor and ceiling, hot and tired and worn as they desperately crawl toward that small flicker of light that indicates a way out. See, you don't have to be overtly wicked and evil to be distant from God and trapped by the rocks. Sin is technically just opposition to the will of God.

Just as resistance to God is service to the adversary, resistance to sin is service to God. When we insist we know the way or have a better way or decide to disobey God's counsel, we are trapped. It hedges up our progress. Sure, sometimes obedience to God short term appears to damn us, but sometimes you must go backwards in order to go forwards. Try that sometime in a cave. When we back away from things and places we know will hurt us, we put ourselves in a position where God's voice or hand or mercy can reach us.

One of my favorite pictures of Christ knocking at the door. Notice there is no handle. He cannot come in unless we let Him. When we do not listen to God, live in a way that's nothing more than 'going through the motions' for show, and do not care whether or not His word reaches us, we miss out on the opportunity to realize what He has planned for us.

God's work will be done, it will be done well, and it will be done on time. Most of the time, no matter how hard we try, we can't mess it up. Sometimes, we can at least temporarily screw things up for our part in it. That's where the Atonement comes in; it allows us to return to the straight and narrow and partake of all other opportunities God has for us from this point forward.

Rather than let other people govern by greed and fear, govern your own life with faith. Learn to hearken to the voice of the Spirit. I testify that talent will give you peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come.

Use or Lose Leave

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A few months ago, my leave keeper notified me that I needed to take 13 days off before the end of the year or lose them. This was particularly annoying as my work had denied my request for leave to go to Alaska this summer because they needed me around to help move into the new labs. While that turned out to indeed be true, it means I don't get to use the leave when I wanted to or how. Instead, I'm taking days off and working on my landscaping at my house. I know. Super fun.  At least they let me take it.

I earn far more leave than I need. In the past decade or so, except for when I was injured on the job, I have only been to the doctor when the government told me that I must. So, I started using the sick time so I could go to the dentist or optometrist at leisure. When I return to work, I just have to catch up, so there wasn't much incentive to take time off. Shoot, I even get to cover for other people for long swaths of absentia. I am underpaid.

Much to my surprise, I have figured out about the sick leave scam. Apparently, government workers are allowed to cash out unused sick leave when they leave the job. This is a new concept for me, although I can't imagine that many of my coworkers actually have much accrued leave. They seem to always be absent for this or that reason, and many of them are catching terminal cancer. Must be the asbestos...

Commercial enterprises treat almost all leave as use or lose. When I left Walmart, they paid out the personal time off I had accumulated at my standard hourly wage, but I surrendered several dozen hours of unused sick time. Sick leave is for when you are sick, and if you are lucky enough to not need it, you should thank your lucky stars, not expect a paycheck. That sounds like bias against people who are sick, because they can't get a bonus check when they retire. I don't think anyone should.

Over the past year, I have seen dozens of special catastrophic leave donation requests. These are for people who have exhausted their sick leave on grievous medical issues. Now, I understand people are suffering. I might one day actually give some of mine away. My problem with this is that they get paid even though they are not only absent from work but also costing the taxpayers who are fitting the bill for their medical care. When I had non government jobs, I was NEVER paid for work I did not do. Far more commonly, I was not paid for work I did do.

Health care ‘benefits’ are part of the huge increase in expense. How many millions has it cost us to buy out people and then to cash out their unused sick leave? They weren't sick. If they are sick, that's one thing, but these people were healthy. Departing administrators, even if they have been on administrative leave, are paid in cash for unused sick time. It’s interesting that I cannot store up personal time, but that if I leave my employ I can cash out sick time.

Sick leave is a perk. Personal time off is a perk. They do not have to offer it. They choose to because they desire to show they value the people who help them get the job done. If you do not use it because you do not need it, it should be like our annual vacation. Perhaps you can store up a bit, but hundreds or thousands of hours? Why?

Last week someone complained about how people who think we should cut teacher salaries 3.5% oppose cuts in CEO salaries. That's not true. We oppose forcing them to take a cut. See, with private companies it works differently. If you do not like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or even Helen Walton, you can opt not to shop in their stores or buy their products. If you do not like how schools are working, especially if you do not have kids in the schools, you cannot refrain from paying or you lose your house. The government forces you to pay for things you do not use or may oppose under penalty of law. Then, apparently, they give kickbacks to teachers. Sure, we may not earn millions in special bonuses, but this is still a form of special kickbacks. It is the same as the things they decry at high levels of industry.

Use it, or lose it. Freedom is easier to maintain than to regain.

Remembering the Dead

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I attended Nellis AFB's "Aviation Nation" this Saturday for the first time since coming to Vegas. It was an interesting experience in many ways. What bothered me most was the behavior of the people I saw in attendance.

This past weekend was, not only for the USA but also for the UK, our Veterans Remembrance. The words of a poem whose author remains as yet unknown to me come to mind:

It is the soldier, not the artist, who gave us freedom of expression.

It is the soldier, not the journalist, who gave us freedom of the press.

And it is the soldier, who fights for the flag, dies for the flag, and is buried wrapped in the flag, who allows protestors to burn the flag.

People were running, laughing, buying, and taking photographs. Few people were talking to the military personnel who lined the ropes and manned the stations, and even fewer walked around thanking those who were clearly veterans for their service. One young lady brushed past me and dropped her American flag on the ground. She laughed and said 'oops' as she stooped to retrieve it.

When they played the National Anthem, I was even less impressed. At least two uniformed personnel did not salute during the presentation, and it was not people of recent foreign ancestry who failed to observe the protocols. The offenders included older white men with cameras slung about their necks. I stood still and watched the flag descend in the hand of a paratrooper.

Everyone ooed and ahhed the displays of airpower. While they are grateful for the protection betimes, they do not think of the men and women who designed these awesome vehicles nor those who pilot them in time of war. However sad it may be that so much of our technological innovation has been driven by war, I thank God that He has blessed us to be the ones who protect it. Like Michael Sharra says in his novel "The Killer Angels": this is an army that hasn't happened much in the history of the world...this is an army out to set other men free.

Yet, that freedom is a double standard. Imagine my surprise to learn this morning that a school in Southern California has been granted permission to ban the American flag on campus during Cinco de Mayo because it might incite violence. Excuse me? This is America. If you don't like it, feel free to leave it. Apparently, it's ok for Mexicans to be offended if we fly our national flag on their independence day but not for us to be offended when they march with their flag on ours.

The older I get, the more I realize we are enslaved and do not know it. Ok, it's not as dire as 1776, but we are not as free as we think we are. Government is in our homes and heads, and they haven't the right. They meddle. You can speak and think as you like unless you endorse capitalism, God, and freedom.

Our soldiers did not die abroad so that America could become part of some global empire. In fact, in every major modern conflict, the only land America has taken has been land to bury our war dead that we could not bring home. We are the last bastion of freedom. I walked around looking at the B2 bomber, the reaper and predator drones, all the other engines of war, and I listened to the sound of the jet engines as they flew in front of us. Those are the sounds of freedom. America has made possible the only nation I know of on earth where you can hear the military coming and not fear.

In the pomp and pagentry of weekend holidays, we frequently forget for what they were intended. Too many of our events, associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, are mismanaged, not as times to remember, but as times to frolic. They are days sadly no longer remembered as they were intended. I remember the dead, including some of my own friends and kin, and those who although they did not give their last full measure of devotion nevertheless still gave their lives to protect liberty.

One of the things I told my students a few weeks ago is true for the soldiers as well. You do not join the military or go into medicine for the pay or prestige. You do it because you are willing to sacrifice your life to save someone else's. To all those who died, I close with these words: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

Salu.

Why is Christ in Christmas?

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During the day on Halloween, I ran a few errands. I had the day off because I felt like taking it off, and I took the opportunity to do some things around the house like shovel rocks, pull weeds, change my oil, and buy groceries. I know; exciting day off. One thing that has stuck on my mind since then occurred when I went out for lunch. I found Christmas decorations already up.

People tell me they’ve been up for sale for longer than that. I probably didn’t notice either because I don’t shop at the stores that sell them or simply because I don’t shop that much. I am male after all, and when left to ourselves, we often just buy what we need rather than things that count more as decoration. Cave men were not known for their homely touches.

Then there’s the Christmas Tree tax. Obama announced and rescinded it within a 24 hour period I think over outcries that it was another attempt to remove Christ from Christmas. Excuse me? Christ was put into Christmas by the pagans. The man who decided to celebrate Christ’s carnation was the pagan emperor Constantine himself who was a poly theist after the Roman persuasion until just before his death.

Imagine also my surprise to discover that various congregations of my Faith were holding Halloween activities as a means to reach out to the community. It is commonly known that Monday nights, whatever the holiday might be, are reserved as Family Nights. So, they pick the day least associated with Christ as a means to share His message with their friends and neighbors? Nice isn’t it when we can clothe ourselves with odd old ends stolen forth from holy writ to seem saints. He makes a convenient scapegoat even today to wash away our sin.

Still, it’s possible that Christ was at the halloween gala. Christ is wherever we invite Him to be. He taught us that where two or three are gathered in His name He would join them in their midst. I have felt him on mountain tops surrounded by nought but His creations, in my car after my near collision in April 2010, and in the hug of a small child to whom I spoke after he told me he liked my tie. Christ isn’t just in Christmas; He might be there, but as Christians we gather together supposedly every Sunday to speak of Christ, to rejoice in Christ, and teach our children about Christ so they might know to what source they might look for remission of their sins. That’s His gift- He is the difference in our lives.

Sounds of Freedom

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Today is the first day of Nellis AFB's annual "Aviation Nation". It is also the first time in several years where Veteran's Day actually coincides with the event without being observed to a Friday.

As I shoveled and scooped and pulled weeds, I heard the planes fly overhead. I looked around and saw nobody flying the flag. So, I texted my father and thanked him for serving in the USAF. It has influenced my life in so many positive ways. Sure, it was a trying experience, but it was the best experience for me.

Long ago, although the phrase is not mine, I heard someone complain about the jet noises. The other person turned and said, "Those are the sounds of freedom". America has made possible a consistent annual trend where people can see their military in motion and not fear for their lives.

I love the part in Michael Sharra's novel "The Killer Angels" where Colonel Chamberlain talks to the 2nd Maine deserters. He tells them "This is an army that hasn't happened much in the history of the world...this is an army out to set other men free."

Last week, I gave my students a lecture that wasn't from the book or on the exam. I told them that you go into medicine, not for the pay or the prestige, but because you are willing to give up your life to save someone else's. That's what America's soldiers do.

My legacy of service to our nation fills me with great joy. My father set a fine example and took me to great places on wings like eagles.

To you, dad, and all those who have actually defended the Constitution in their service. Godspeed, and many thanks.

Be Straightforward

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I tell my students that all I ask for is that they speak the truth to me. You see, we all make decisions based on the information given to us, and if it's not based on truth, nobody arrives at a good destination except by chance. Whatever is true as you understand it, give it to me. That way I won't waste any time.

During graduate school, I made a great nuisance of myself. When I attended conferences or seminars, I would question the validity of the results based on their usefulness in future research. By that time, I had seen people fabricate data, hide outliers, and steal other people's work, and so if I was going to base the next 3-5 years of my life on someone else's work, I needed to be confident of how they arrived at their conclusions. I suspect they were not after truth like they wanted me to believe.

The story is told of a certain airline flight from New Zealand to Antarctica in 1979. When the plane left, the directions were off by just two degrees. This took them 28 miles from where they were expected to be. During the flight, because it was snowing and the ground was covered with snow, it was difficult to see anything. As they searched for land markers that were miles away because of the error in degrees, they did not notice the altimeter. They were flying towards a volcano, and by the time the alarm klaxon blared, the ground had risen to meet them. All aboard were killed or froze to death before search crews found the site.

One of my students used to work on a survey crew. Survey teams placed marker monuments every exact amount of feet. Some of the people who did the work were not very good, and you can tell when you look at the streets in Las Vegas, which is the width they travel before they do a correction based on the stars, that they made errors when laying out the streets. The north-south survey markers are all corrected at Charleston Blvd, and Bonanza Road jogs oddly towards the north against the far east of the valley. I know that Frenchman Mountain is dangerous. I have climbed the face once. I also know that we based our decisions on the assumption that those who came before us did a good job.

Such is not always the case. About a year ago, while climbing Turtlehead Peak at Redrock NCA, my friend and I decided to kick over a bunch of trail markers. It was our third trip to the top, and the trail marked by these people was the most difficult pathway we had ever taken. It was dangerous, more work, and took great detours, making this strenuous hike even more difficult. Just because someone has been there before doesn't mean they got there a good way.

Over the last few years, I have come to the conclusion that truth is not only the best policy, it is the only policy. It might hurt you up front, but if you are not honest up front, it will certainly hurt you later on, and in ways you cannot anticipate. This is why I ask people to give me truth. I told my students a few weeks ago that I don't care so much how or what they believe just as long as they do. If they own it, then we can move forward from there, but if I respond to something that isn't true, it won't help.

Take for example two of my students this semester. I already wrote about the girl who requested remedial credit. There was another fellow who missed the first quiz. He came to me in class the next time and said "I know there's no way I can make up the quiz, but can I get a copy of it so I know what to study?" I handed it to him without thinking. The first girl wanted makeup work, to compensate for poor performance. The fellow owned the fact that he scored a zero.

Similarly, too many people avoid the truth in every aspect of life. I attempted several times to date women who want to play games. I worked with people who want to get paid without working. People want equal outcomes regardless of input. You know the exchange. The guy asks, "what's wrong?" to which the answer comes "nothing", and then it escalates and you're off course 28 miles and you crash.

I don't do hints; I do truth. I am not on a crusade to be right or be the one who gives all truth. If there is one lesson that can be learned from this blog is that as I gain truth my perception of things changes. Too many people lost knowledge as they gain information and lose wisdom as they gain knowledge. Wisdom seems to be a search for and application of truth. It isn't learning from mistakes in itself- it is in the fact that the learning experience opened your eyes to truth you did not see or could not see.

Give me truth. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. That's the only way I know to guide you as best to where you claim you intend to arrive. It's certainly the only way I know to really live.

Fortune Favors the Bold

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People are divided about how to regard me. A lot of people think I'm amazing. Some other people disagree. I once told a Bishop in my Faith that "I don't really do anything special. I just do what I ought." I have been blessed that fortune has favored my boldness.

One of my themes in 2011 has been "Truth Will Out". As a consequence, I have been more interested than normal in Hermann Cain's current conundrum. I have made decisions over the past few years on the belief that giving people truth and focusing on what's best for them long term will be the best choice, even if it's the worst choice for me personally in the moment. Most of the time, I have just been lucky.

I am very young and have a lot to learn about love and life and art and success. I came into the situation where you find me without going through the normal process, which is probably why I am willing and able to do what others in my field elect to avoid. People all around me tell me to hunker down and bite my tongue, and while I agree that might be best for me, life isn't just about me. Sure, my life interests me a great deal, but I'm neither the only person on this planet nor the most important one on it.

I think what really makes me appear to be great is because I'm interested in Truth. I don't need to be right or have all the answers from the get go. I seek Truth, and I am happy to be corrected if I'm wrong. Last night in class, I told the students that I have no ego to wound if they know things I don't and no ego to boost proving I know things they don't. I already know that's true, and if we're both edified by coming together, then I think that's better.

Too many people make decisions to avoid conflict and maintain some semblance of harmony. While that may be comfortable in the moment, I learned years ago that eventually you will face a Kobayashi Maru- the no-win scenario. At that time, it will not matter what choice you make: but how you respond is illustrative of your character, and decided that if I was going to be damned anyway, I might as well be damned for being who I really am. Maybe my students, neighbors, friends, and fellow church goers don't like what I do for them today. What I really do is make decisions that I think will be to your long-term and lasting benefit. I learned long ago that the chief cause of failure and happiness is trading what matters most for what matters in the moment. As a consequence, I also teach life lessons to students in class, things that are neither in the book nor on the test, because those things will help them use what they know to make themselves successful on the Test of Life.

After class last night, I spoke with a young lady about her career choice. She said something about how she chose it because it was a guaranteed job and how she couldn't get one doing what she really wanted to do. I asked her to consider if that was really true. Many of the most 'successful' people at least as the world defines success are actually college dropouts. These people MADE opportunities for themselves. I hope my students will realize that they can make opportunities as well and do what they dream.

I know it can be scary to go out and live your own life. I know it can be scary to stand for what you believe. Each time I have braved the odds, I have been carried forth on wings as eagles by my Maker. Maybe the path was rocky or stormy or painful, but I have arrived each time at a Land of Promise and become a better person in a better situation by doing what I ought. Also years ago, someone taught me the truth that has stayed with me that if you do today what others won't tomorrow you'll be able to do what others can't. I am testament to the truth of that statement.

Fortunately for me, the environment of higher education allows me to be bold. I have been able to establish that I'm in charge of the class. I enforce the rules, and the administration, however reluctantly it might be, backs me up by enforcing the consequences. As long as students learn what's on the rubric, the other things I share with them are considered to be enhancements rather than distractions and allowed to remain. Students seem to enjoy my classes more and frequently ask what else I teach and when in hopes of having me again on another subject. I don't know how good I am; I might just be better for them than the other alternatives. I am different, partially because I have a devil may care attitude about whether I keep this particular post. I know someone somewhere will see what I offer and staff me if they can, and that meanwhile God will carry me through the lean times. He already has. For His good fortune and favor to me, I thank Him and bless His name.

Extra Credit

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Last week, I received an email from a student. This particular student is doing VERY poorly in the class. Even if she scores 100% on everything left, she might not manage to get a 'C' in the course. She never talks in terms of participating, although she often talks and laughs with the girl next to her, with whom she is ostensibly a close friend. Often disruptive, they don't seem to want to be there. In her email, she had the gall to ask for extra credit.

What she wants me to do in essence is do more work. While I understand that I work for her, there is also a reciprocal responsibility on the part of the student to learn. I am disinclined to acquiesce to her request, in part because I refuse to teach people who refuse to learn. She wants me to do more work so that she can do more work that forces me to do even more work as I grade it. To be fair, I also have to offer it to everyone, which creates even more work.

The story is told of Hal Eyring. He intended many years ago to be a Chemist like his father. One night, he asked his father for help with some problems, and they went down into the basement. His father turned at one point and asked, "Didn't we do some of these before?" Hal sheepishly admitted that they had, whereupon his dad asked, "In your free time, do you think about Chemistry, because if you don't, maybe you should rethink your career".

People tend to arrive at the place on which they set their sights. I can tell from the performance and behavior of this girl that although her rhetoric claims she hopes to arrive at a certain place, her ego is writing checks her body is unwilling to back with hard currency. In essence, she wants to arrive in Oregon without having to cross the plains. It doesn't work that way.

Students routinely ask for extra credit. Extra credit is for work above and beyond the course content. What most students actually want is remedial credit as if it's simply a matter of doing enough work, however poor their performance on the basic elements may be. They have this misbegotten notion that success is simply a matter of doing enough work, even if it's crappy work, late, and subpar. They want to be treated equal regardless of inferior output. It is an expectation that does not hold water in the real world, and their attitude evinces that they would like to spend their time doing something else.

I am not sure these are the type of students we want to be in health care or as college graduates. If they do not want to be in college, why are they there? If they do not want to be in class, why are they disrupting the experience for those who do? They want to be paid, but they want to be paid what others are paid even if they do subpar work. What would you say to a Doctor who, if you went in to have a hernia repaired, removed your lung instead. Even if he did a fantastic job, you still have a hernia. It is not about doing enough work or about doing something other than the standard rubric well. Yet, people want credit for this.

At the end of my first semester teaching in Las Vegas, a very nice young lady came to see me. It was perhaps two weeks before the final, and there was no way that I could do anything to help her pass. Instead, I told her to let this be the lesson and do better the next time she took the class. Rather than ask what more they can do, the students should be asking what they can be doing better. Study harder. Be better next time.

Contrast that with this semester. Just before the first exam, a young lady came to me in tears. After I outlined the course in a mathematical manner, she left feeling better. When she turned in her exam, I followed up with her. Her analysis of her performance was well summarized with a quote: "I have learned that I need to reprioritize how I use my time and study more for the course." She learned something. She is on her way to becoming successful, wherever she goes.

We have this misbegotten notion that doing equates with being. We think that if we practice enough we'll be very good. Only perfect practice makes perfect. We think that if we give enough gifts, even if they are junk or given grudgingly, that it will be accounted with us as if we had been Charitable. We think that it's simply a matter of balancing our bad deeds with enough good ones. God is not fooled by what we do. He sees what we are. In the end, only doing that begets becoming counts.

Life is not about what we do. It is not about accumulating enough points to get a particular grade. After you graduate college, few people give a flying pinwheel what your grades were. They are interested in what you know, what you can do, and who you are. I think that may be why, when Jesus turned to the thieves crucified adjacent to Him, He felt inclined to say they were headed to paradise with Him. There were Pharisees and Sadducees and Gentiles and Samaritans who did great deeds. Some of them hated His very existence. I think it possible that Christ looked into the souls of the thieves and saw that, although some things they did were bad, they were at heart good people.

We talk a lot about inheritance. You do not get to earn a place as a son or daughter of a person in order to inherit what they have to bequeath upon you. You qualify, not by virtue of what you do, but by the very nature or what you are. Otherwise, it is simply a matter of doing enough stuff. God is not deceived. He knows His sons.

It is not enough to do more. We must be better. We must do more than we think we can under the circumstances. We must be valiant. Qualifying to be a Son of God is more than doing the right things, irregardless of our reasons for doign them. We must do them because we have an eye single to His glory because we have become like Him. In the end, all credit is His.

Presidents, Priestcraft and Priesthood

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Yesterday, the President of the United States claimed that God wants Americans to have jobs. He's partially correct, and he's partially involved in priestcraft by that assertion. God indeed wants people to work, for as He told Adam that by "the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground", it does not presume that work is the end God had in mind. God uses work as a means; He works not for man's satisfaction or pleasure but for man's exaltation. Meanwhile, other people are jumping onto the "God speaks through the messianic president" bandwagon. It's an interesting development.

Priesthood is the authority to act in God's name. You can't be given permission to act in God's name by anyone but God himself. You can't be given permission to speak in God's name or put words in God's mouth unless God himself says so. Usually, the prophets start with phrases such as "thus saith the Lord" and they will include some exhortation to probity and repentance. I don't hear that from the president.

What I hear from the President is supposition of authority. Obama has already made clear that while in Wright's church he didn't hear any of the sermons. He has already made it clear that worship is a low priority in his life, unless golf courses are the chapels of his Faith. Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, upped the ante today when he referred to a quote in the Bible about how "God helps those who help themselves" which is actually a line from Aesop's fables about Hercules. Making up scripture is a form of priestcraft.

No man taketh the honor unto himself. Prophets are called of God and given their authority either by God himself or by someone ordained by God already, like when Elijah's mantel fell to Elisha. Obama wants us to think not only that he's the messiah, but that God is talking to him. Interestingly enough, when previous presidents did this, the liberals flipped a lid and went bonkers talking about theocracy and how insane the presidents were. Those who live by that kind of scripture not only take the wrong course but also forsake the protections of the Almighty.

Every word of God, through the scripture or through His servants, is subject to personal proof. Indeed, it is the duty and privilege of all men to confirm for themselves and gain a personal testimony of the message communicated to them by God. Some messages are general; some are personal; some are not from God, and it is important to be able to distinguish between them.

For my own part, I do not think Obama speaks for let alone knows the mind of God. Why would a man who knows everything and believes he can do anything have any need of a god? Beware when politicians speak in sweeping terms of faith and charity, because they do so not because they intend to act that way but because they know you do.

Grades and Degrees

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This week, I've had several conversations about education, educational standards, and educational prospects. Generally speaking, I see the same problem inherant in every aspect of education. We do not begin with the proper end in mind, and therefore as garbage goes in, garbage comes back out.

Monday night, a woman in front of me in line opined her son's inability to get a job. Apparently he attended a prestigious school and earned a degree in engineering. Once City Center in Vegas folded, they turned him loose. Now, if he were really that good, he would be competitive. He should also consider leaving Las Vegas. At least he was smart enough to study something for which you can get paid. For a long time, I have believed that college is sold to us as a panacea. Although it can be important, not all college degrees are created equal.

Someone finally did an analysis of college degrees and prospects for careers. The bottom line is that if you're going to attend college, you need to study the right thing. His research found that even as college attendance increases, the number of people who earn degrees in science and math has remained stagnant. This means we have tons of people studying the humanities, which are neither lucrative nor in high demand. Please see some of my favorite Youtube videos for sarcastic analysis of the humanities.

One problem is skyrocketing college costs. Even as students, including the undergraduate who works in my 'lab', believe Obama's throwing them a bone with loan terms etc. colleges are raising the costs of attendance. The students here pay more for their undergraduate degree than I did in graduate school, and I finished grad school less than ten years ago. It now costs, just for tuition, upwards of $50,000/year at some of the top tier schools. The irony of that is that $50,000/year as a wage puts you in the top 10% of wage earners. These are not degrees that pay well. If you have to get a graduate degree and spend six years in school, you have racked up $300,000 in college tuition costs. It will take you years just to break even, and even longer if you get a degree in the humanities, assuming you can get a teaching post. Even then, I don't even earn $50,000/year base pay (they value my health care and retirement separately when they calculate my 'wage', and I do not receive that money).

Another problem is how we move people forward in education. One of my Organic Chemistry students who is hoping to apply for the nursing school next semester told me that they weight GPA at 50%. The problem with that is that grades do not indicate knowledge or wisdom. You end up with people who transfer in grades they earn at cheaper institutions with different standards who get slots based on GPA and not on what they know. Not all of us teach the same way. I actually hold my students to very strict standards and give tough exams. When the GPA holds more weight than the entrance examination, we have a problem. I can inflate my GPA by taking classes in guitar, interpretive dance, underwater basketweaving, and other asinine courses and outcompete someone like myself who has worked hard in the field itself.

Some of the people making decisions are making decisions the wrong way. Begin with the end in mind and ask some of the following questions: What are the aims of the program? Do the standards as constituted reach the goals? If not, how can we align the standards so we get the best students who will stick to it and be successful long term? We focus far too much on short term statistics and end up with a bunch of young people who cannot commit and do not want to work. They want to get 'extra credit'. They think that 'if we just do enough work', then they will be qualified to earn money to do a job they may not enjoy and at which they will be poor performers. Students sometimes begin with the wrong end in mind. They choose careers for the paycheck or prestige. You do not join the military or go into health care for the pay; you do it because you are willing to trade your life to save someone else's. That's the bottom line.

My students constantly worry about grades. While I happen to have an impressive GPA myself, I point out that nobody is particularly interested in my grades. They look at what coursework I completed, my resume, and look at what I have done with what I learned. That's the key. Nobody really wants a doctor who has a great GPA but obtained it by fraud or masked poor performance in core courses with better performance in fluff electives. People want a competant professional, and GPA does not indicate that. Even your degree does not indicate that. It indicates you met the minimum basic requirements.

The minimum is only the first step. Successful people go much further than the bare minimum. I will work on changing the equation by which we calculate who gets into health care degree programs. Until then, here's my advice: Do more. Be more. That's how you succeed, and that's how we can generate quality people in fields that elevate the quality of life for themselves as well as the people whose lives they touch for good.