First Sent: 2006-05-20 14:54:25 (PST)

(The Buzzard is especially for people who are teaching worldview, worldviews and the biblical worldview.)

Fellow Buzzards,

Over the past three weeks, the College Forum page of the blahblahbook.com website has been completely revamped.

In honor of George Orwell, we've renamed the page to "Resisting Groupthink."

If you're teaching worldview, worldviews and the biblical worldview -- this College Forum section might be a useful resource for your students.

The sections are:

"Sound Off!" where students can tell from their own perspectives what it's like to be a Christian on their campuses;

"The Thought Police," which is intended to document abuses of free speech, academic freedom and religious bigotry in the academy; and

"Thought Crimes," which is about encouraging students to creatively rebel against the Thought Police by giving them examples from around the country on what others are doing.

So far almost all the posts have been mine. I figured it would be good to prime the pump. I also wanted to set some precedents for this part of the website -- I want it to be a useful and encouraging resource for people.

*****

Notices:
1. The release of the book was postponed from May 17 because of a bookbinding error. Looks like the new release date won't be until June. Bummer.

2. If it's been useful to you, please tell others about the blahblahbook.com website.

3. If you know Christians who will see the value of the book Blah, Blah, Blah and this website in teaching a solid biblical worldview in a pluralistic culture, please encourage them to sign up for this newsletter!

4. As always, I'm open to your feedback and suggestions.

First Sent: 2006-05-20 14:44:42 (PST)

(The Buzzard is a newsletter to help motivate and give ideas to people involved in teaching worldviews.)

Fellow Buzzards,

(This is a repeat of my April 26 post from my blog, with slight modifications. I'm reposting it with you because [1] it's directly related to teaching worldviews and [2] I'm curious if you ever got around to reading this post on the blog. If you'd like to contact me on that question, please do!)

When I wrote Blah, Blah, Blah, I kept a 16-20 year old audience firmly in mind. In a way, I was writing back to myself when I was that age: I had just become a new Christian, I was in my early stages of follow-up and spiritual growth, and I was brimming with questions.

Unfortunately, the questions people struggle with at this age are generally not addressed in the churches (and if they are addressed they are not adequately addressed). Just at the point in their young lives when they're most curious and interested in the world, churches abdicate their teaching responsibility and send their kids to the spiritual killing fields of the universities.

Is there any wonder that the fallout of this kind of short-sightedness is tragic? Some surveys say 2 out of 3 Christian kids fall away from faith in college.

To fortify them, it's simply not adequate to tell kids things like, "stay committed," "read your Bible" and "go to church." This reduces the whole issue one's personal spirituality and faithfulness.

But people are more than just spirits -- a full biblical understanding of who we are as humans includes our minds (and bodies!), too. Asking students to take a non-questioning Sunday School faith and a non-academic or anti-academic attitude into a rigorous academic environment is asking for disaster to strike. And strike it does.

Another problem is Christian isolationism. We seem only to be able to have conversations with ourselves or people who think very much like us. We don't know how to talk to people who have completely different worldviews.

We can do better. We must do better.

For those over age 16, Blah, Blah, Blah and the blahblahbook.com website address these issues head-on. Even though I have tried to make worldview ideas as fun and simple as possible, they're too complex for kids under 16 (there may be rare exceptions). I just don't know how far you can (or should) go teaching worldviews at the younger ages. (Somebody out there must be trying stuff for the younger ages, but I haven't yet seen anything that's particularly effective.)

For juniors or seniors in high school, and every college or university student, this book ought to be must reading. It won't answer all their questions. But it will give them a decent running start.

Just about every parent who's read my book has said something like, "I wish I knew this 20 (or 25) years ago!" Older people will definitely profit from the book, but it will be most relevant to those in the center of the intellectual and cultural storm. That center is the college and university campus.

(I invite you to contact me with any feedback, comments or suggestions.)

First Sent: 2006-04-10 21:13:24 (PST)

Fellow Buzzards,

I'm a little wobbly on the technology, so please have patience with me.

I want you to know that I've posted the earlier newsletter/email I sent you today on the newsletter webpage.

I posted it in two parts: "Welcome, Fellow Buzzards" and "Teach It! (part 1).

But it's hidden! To access it you have to click on the bar labeled "Archives" under the "Buy A Buzzard" icon.

So now you can enjoy that post in two places.