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Episode Notes
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TranscriptIntroduction
I’m so glad you’re back with us today. We are tackling a huge topic on this show, but—don’t worry—we’re going to break it into three bite-sized pieces. We’re going to talk about what anti-intellectualism is, we’re going to see how it’s influencing your kids, and we’re going talk about how to biblically parent our kids away from anti-intellectualism, but not simply toward intellectualism.
As always, today’s show includes free episode notes, a transcript, and a bunch of related resources. You can access them all in the description of the episode, and I hope you will deepen your understanding of this topic. So, let’s get started. Topic
Just in case any of you were still on the fence, let me start by saying that anti-intellectualism is bad. There you go. Now you know.
It goes against so much biblical teaching; it must be rejected, but the problem is that too many of us don’t know that it exists, we can’t spot it when we see it, we don’t know it’s influencing our kids, and we don’t know that we need to do something about it let alone what we need to do about it. By the way, I forgot to mention in the opener that I just returned from Vail, AZ. I had the pleasure of being one of the speakers at Vail Valley Baptist Church’s worldview conference. Pastor Jay Miller is a wonderful man with a heart for his church and his community. It was fantastic. And—let me tell you—speaking and counseling in person are my favorite things to do. There is so much energy and understanding and fellowship when God’s people get together. So, if you’d be interested in inviting me to speak at your even, please visit AMBrewster.com or simply express your interest in an email to [email protected]. I speak on a wide rage of topics including marriage, parenting, and family. But I also preach on basically any topic on which the Bible expounds. I talked about the double-edged sword that is worship in New York and Arizona this year, and I’ll be speaking about Counseling Sorrowing Children at the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors annual conference in October. I love serving God’s people, and I’d love to serve you and your ministry or organization. So, please reach out so we can connect and grow both our intellects and our love for God. And speaking of intellects . . . 1. What is Anti-Intellectualism? In the 1960’s Richard Hofstadter popularized this term. Up until recently, it didn’t matter what your religious or political persuasion was, it was always considered a bad thing to be called an anti-intellectual. But that has changed significantly with some very large demographics. Originally the term referred to the fact that life experience and common sense was better than book learning and expertise. Such beliefs cause the individual to mistrust those who would teach from the standpoint of an educator. They would say it’s useless or—worse—the actions of a power-hungry dictator set on bending people to his or her will. Now, I want to be fair. Formal education has always been the venue for indoctrination—whether good or bad. I firmly believe that the American public school system is dangerous because the powers-that-be are filling the students’ minds with propaganda. These “schools” are nothing more than factories churning out the next generation of God-hating masses who—instead—bow in subservience to the state. So, yes, like many other wrong philosophies, there likely was—at one point—a legitimate criticism that was being addressed. However, the baby was thrown out with the bathwater for sure. By the way, those of you who have listened to our episode entitled “Are There Failure Philosophies in Your Home?” knows that there are. None of us are immune from embracing philosophies doomed to failure. If you haven’t heard that episode, you can access it from the description. Yet, despite the fact that anti-intellectualism may have one or two valid observations, that doesn’t mean that it should be embraced by God’s people. A moment ago I referenced the fact that up until recently anti-intellectualism was pretty much always viewed as a bad thing. No one wanted to be called an anti-intellectualist . . . until recently. A year or so ago Natasha Crain made the observation that you use to be able to have debates with people where the pursuit of logic was the means by which you proved you were right. Throwing your opponent’s logical fallacies onto the pile was a way of showing them that they were wrong. But there has been a steady increase of people who absolutely are not trying to be logical. They view logic as something to be rejected. Instead they embrace emotional arguments even when those viewpoints are clearly hypocritical and inconsistent. By the way, it’s a been a while since I’ve said it here, so it’s good for us to be reminded that a perfect philosophy will work perfectly 100% of the time. That means that if your philosophy doesn’t work 100% of the time, you need a new philosophy. Inconsistencies, hypocrisy, and contradictions within a viewpoint should reveal its weaknesses, but today it’s actually not seen as a problem. We’re living in the “my truth/your truth/their truth” era where anything can be true as long as we feel like it can be true. Such a belief leads people to reject history or—at least—rewrite it. And it also causes people to be very unscientific . . . even though those who purport such thinking will always try to wrangle “science” to their side. And, yes, you’ve probably already identified that it’s these anti-intellectuals who are promoting evolution, the gender insanity of our generation, aberrant sexuality, the supposed moral good of abortion, they’re always pushing for people to become slaves of medication, and they rally and riot for critical race theory because it’s critical theory that was created to legitimize anti-intellectualism. How can we convince people that math is bad? Well, we can tell them that it was devised by privileged white men, and we can talk about how it was used to enslave people of color, and we can champion the notion that their truth doesn’t have to be everyone’s truth. In fact, because it’s their truth, it must be rejected by everyone else unless you want to be a racist. Actually, strike that, you are a racist, so the only way you can do penance is to reject everything that a white man ever said was a good idea. Emotion is all that matters. You personal experience and how you feel about tit—no matter whether you’re interpreting it accurately—is how you’re to know what is good and what is bad. Now, with that description, you can probably guess some of the answers to the next point. 2. How is Anti-Intellectualism Influencing My Kids? A. The World Obviously, any influencers who are toeing the current leftist mentalities are screaming this at your kids. This includes their teachers, their music, their movies, their gossip . . . everyone from Disney on down is trying to convince us that drag queens are far more wholesome that stay-at-home moms who homeschool their kids and dads who teach their children about God. By the way, in this discussion about “the World,” you really need to understand what we’re talking about from a biblical perspective. I’m not taking about the earth, I’m talking about the World system that God says is one of the three greatest enemies we and our kids will ever face. I invite you to learn all about the World and the other two enemies in our series called “The Spiritual Warfare in Your Home.” I’ll share that link with you in the description. “But, Aaron, we absolutely do not allow our kids to interact with the World through media and individuals who would espouse such thinking.” Good for you, I say. But there are a couple things you need to consider. Listen, nobody’s bubble is impenetrable. Don’t ever assume no one is speaking lies into your kids ears. And I say this in part because—especially as they age—your kids will be influenced by people and ideas you absolutely can’t manage. But I also say this because of my next point. B. You That’s right. Even the most biblical parent will at one point and another influence their children with anti-intellectual thinking. Every time we sin we say that we know better than God. Every time we complain about the state of our world, our bank accounts, our school systems, and our government, we’re telling our kids that God can’t be trusted when He promises that He desires to use every situation for our greatest good and His greatest glory. Sure, you may not tell your kids that all formal teaching is bad and that their feelings should be their guide, but you demonstrate it when you disregard the biblical preaching you heard on Sunday and instead simply do what feels good. We do it when we eat too much food, we do it when we consume wicked entertainment, we do it when we do the right things in the right ways for the wrong reasons. Sure, it may not be anti-intellectualism by the strictest definition, but anything that elevates self over the truth that has been taught to us, is in fact anti-intellectualism. But it’s not just the World and you, it’s also . . . C. The Church And I’m not talking about the faux-churches that preach heresy. I’m talking about the ones that generally have solid doctrine. There was an old country church I visited long ago that actually prided themselves on the mediocrity of their Christmas program. They looked down at churches that taught their people to excel and bad-mouthed Christians universities that strove to produce high quality performances. Sure, the preaching on Sunday was biblically accurate, but the anti-intellectualism of that church prided itself on it’s not be learned and polished and professional and . . . let’s be honest . . . even painfully bad. God demands our best, how could they celebrate the terribly uncomfortable pageant? They were anti-intellectuals and didn’t even know it. Anti-intellectualism is telling your kids to follow their hearts even though following their hearts has hurt themselves and other people so many times. Anti-intellectualism is telling your kids that science has changed and that facts aren’t facts anymore. Anti-intellectualism is telling your kids that they don’t have to listen to people that think differently than they do. It’s become a pejorative used about anyone who won’t accept the claims of critical theory. It’s really the oldest trick in the book. What Satan did to Eve was a sort of anti-intellectualism. He tempted her to doubt God’s teaching and intentions. So, yeah, I’d say it’s very safe to say that your kids have been and are currently being influenced by anti-intellectualism from one degree to another. So, what do we do about it? 3. How Can I Biblically Parent My Kids Away from Anti-Intellectualism? A. Teach your children the truth. You always need to start by teaching your kids what God says about knowledge and understanding. To that end, I strongly encourage you work through the Teach Your Children to Learn Series. In that series we search the Scriptures to learn all about knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. You should also make sure you work through the series on Expectational Education. Teach your kids that God created them to learn, commands them to learn, and capacitates them to learn. He wants them to do their best in all things. He doesn’t want us following our hearts. He doesn’t want us abandoning logic, or—better yet—theo-logic. Proverbs 18:15 tells us, “The heart of the understanding acquires knowledge, And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” The Bible tells us to be hesitant to accept information before it’s been tested against truth. I John 4:1 reads, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” In John 7:24 Jesus tells us that judging isn’t always wrong, it’s wrong when we do it the wrong way: “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”” In Acts 17 11 we learn that fact-checking—when done the right way—glorifies God: “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” And consider the opening admonition from the book of Provers, verses 1-7, “1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: 2 To know wisdom and discipline, To understand the sayings of understanding, 3 To receive discipline that leads to insight, Righteousness, justice, and equity, 4 To give prudence to the simple, To the youth knowledge and discretion; 5 Let the wise man hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire guidance, 6 To understand a proverb and an enigma, The words of the wise and their riddles. 7 The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; Ignorant fools despise wisdom and discipline.” Have you taught your children these truths? That is your God-given responsibility and highest calling. 2. Discuss errant philosophies. Your kids are being sinfully influenced all the time. It’s so helpful for you to talk about that line from the movie and discuss the foundational views of that political party and theologically dismantle the lies of the world. Tear down those strongholds that are built out of wrong thinking and speculations that attack God’s character. But even when you’ve taught them what’s right and what’s wrong, they’re still going to succumb to one degree or another. In those moments . . . 3. Reprove anti-intellectualism when you encounter it in your kids. You should watch the Biblical Parenting Essentials Conference on the Evermind App. In fact, use the link in the description to get access to it for only $10. And you should also listen to the Parent’s 5 Jobs podcast series. Those are both fantastic resources for teaching you what reproof is and how to do it well. Conclusion
Those, my friends, are the biblical ways to protect your family from the ever-increasing tsunami of anti-intellectualism that is pervading our country.
Teach them what God is right, teach them what God says is wrong, reprove them when they fall into the sin, and when they embrace true repentance, help them correct their thinking, and train them to persevere in godly knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Please share this episode with your friends and family, and never hesitate to reach out to us by emailing [email protected] or leaving a voicemail at (828) 423-0894 if you need personalized biblical counsel for you and/or someone in your family. On our next episode we’ll be discussing The Truth and Lies of Developmental Stages. I’ll see you then.
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