Straight paths through crooked roads

Judeo-Christian answers to the philosophy of self-esteem Post # 22

This is the last post on the suggested themes for a Judeo-Christian way of thinking to counter-act the philosophy of self-esteem.  Self-esteem by its very nature sees all of existence from the point of view that how a person esteems themselves is the beginning of understanding of other people and other things.  From this basis we are expected to have the best opportunity to build a happy life. 

My understanding is that to be happy means that we should have three things.  First, we should love someone else who loves us in return.  Second, we should have something worthwhile, positive, constructive, to accomplish each day.  Finally, we should have hope for the future.  I find that series of circumstances to be a good foundation of happiness.  I hope you agree.  I even have hope that the self-esteem believers would accept those three concepts as the basis of a good discussion.

We need to understand what we are referring to when we speak of the word "love."  Love is a term used too broadly for our discussion here.  We might say that we love our car, love our dog, love our video game, love our mother, and love being in love all in the same breath.  By love, we do not mean mere affection.  Love may certainly contain affection but it must also necessarily contain commitment to someone beside yourself.  That means, you decide to love that other person sacrificially without hope of necessarily getting anything in return.  This kind of love is a choice to remain faithful to the object of your love. 

This kind of love is not given to everyone because not everyone understands it, not everyone is mature enough to love you in return in the same level of commitment.  But, this is a fairly good picture of a mother's choice to love her new-born baby.  This is a reasonable picture of a bride and groom facing each other in a ceremony witnessed by others as they give promises that go beyond promising.  They give vows which are promises for which they will hold themselves accountable. 

If you have such a marriage, even in the face of disappointment and tragedy, it would seem that you will find a strength and abiding joy in each other's presence for a very long time to come.  That would make one happy. 

But, how would a self-based esteem be able to be willing to sacrifice self for such a possibility unless it first came to the conclusion that life in not fulfilled by self first of all.  Life is fulfilled by living outside ourselves to the extent that we at least begin to love others just as we love ourselves.

On to the next point.  If we have something worthwhile to accomplish, then whatever we do must be worth something to someone else besides ourselves.  If the point of origin is self-motivation for self-benefit for the sake of self-esteem, what good will it be to someone else?  It must first be good for someone else before the benefits come back to us.  We get no compliments, no payment, no appreciation, if what we build is centered on us.  Certainly, whatever we do begins with our own decisions, abilities, efforts, talents, etc.  But what we must do is to esteem first of all what others need, wish, desire, etc. in order for us to find a way to fill that need, and thus gain from others some measure of the accomplishment.

There must be a balance between self and others.  To have a way of thinking centered on self-esteem is inadequate.

On to the last major point.  Hope for the future is hope in the unseen.  The future will become the present.  But the present time for us has a need for hope for the future.  Those who use self-esteem as the basis for their thinking seem to often center their beliefs on what they can sense in the physical world.  They wish to be certain.  They hope for the future but are largely limited by the circumstances of today. 

That way of thinking has a difficult time with faith in the unseen, especially with spiritual beliefs in orthodox religions.  However, it is those very relgions that have been the source of the greatest eternal hopes of the greatest numbers of peoples around the world.  Those who embrace self-esteem seem to often laugh at such religions as mere campfire tales.  They insist that they are the captain of their own souls, the master of their own fates.  But their hope is limited to a physical body which they ultimately cannot control and that will certainly perish.  Believers in orthodox religions do express hope for an eternity not limited to a physical body and thereby have a hope of unlimited proportions. 

Faith in a Creator greater than yourself offers a hope for both the near and distant future.

In the Creator we find an image of His eternal self stamped upon us who have been created.  We have obviously been created for relationship with other people.  The best and highest such relationship is one of committed love.  The Creator obviously imprinted upon our image His character of accomplishment.  Without accomplishment of the worthwhile benefits to others as well as for ourselves, we cannot be happy.  And, the Creator Himself is the source of our hope of an eternal future.

Judeo-Christian answers to the philosophy of self esteem Post # 21

The suggested theme for "Christology" for 11th grade is that the Creator is the image to model ourselves after in order to determine who we should become. 

Young and old people alike look to heroes to help them shape a better future for themselves.  People who appear successful, beautiful, happy, are the ones we would like to become. 

Few people look at the Creator to be such a model because, after all, we are human, the Creator is not.  The Creator is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and perfect in every way.  We are not.  True.  However, there are certain attributes of the Creator that we should model as best as we can. 

The Creator is wise because He is truth.  We need to pursue truth.  The Creator has compassion demonstrated by the fact that if we understand truth, it will work to our benefit.  The Creator also demonstrates compassion because He sends his sunshine and rain on those who are good and who are bad alike.  The Creator is faithful to those who demonstrate faith in Him.  That is not to say that bad things only happen to bad people.  There are many bad things that happen to good people.  However, the Creator is available to help each person through those difficulties.

If we study wisdom that interacts with compassion and then apply these in a faithful manner to those around us, then, we will have modeled ourselves after a reasonable image of the Creator. 

Modeling ourselves after success often turns into an empty pursuit.  Those who have reached fame and fortune are often reported in the news in some tragic manner.  Those who are beautiful will find their beauty fade and will also find that beauty alone will not equal personal fulfillment.  Those who are happy are happy because of present circumstances.  When circumstances turn negative, happiness is very difficult to maintain. 

If we are wise, we will find success and have a fair valuation of real beauty.  We will also find that compassion will help us love others wilth commitment who will love us in return.  Being faithful in each of these things will build a secure foundation for hope in the future.  Taken all together wisdom, compassion, and faithfulness will help us to both enjoy and to overcome circumstances, whatever they might be.

The Creator produced the universe on the basis of truth.  Wisdom discovers truth.  The Creator produced people with a need for interpersonal relationships.  Compassion and wisdom are both essential for such relationships.  Faithfullness includes a willingness to make personal sacrifices for those upon whom we have compassion.  If you study the Creator closely, you will find that He created principles upon which things work so consistently that we can depend upon certain outcomes.  That is a likeness of faithfulness.

Yes, we can use attributes of the Creator to model ourselves and so to shape our futures with confidence.

Judeo-Christian answers to the philosophy of self-esteem Post # 20

The theme for the curriculum to support the faith of our children in the 10th grade is:  We know God Spirit to spirit.  Therefore, when agnostics and athiests who follow the philosphy of self-esteem say that there is no evidence to clearly prove that there is a God, Christians do not need to feel challenged.  That is because the scoffers do not choose to behold spiritual things.  Christians, on the other hand, do indeed behold spiritual things.

Some people believe that we are only body and soul and that the eternal spirit is part of the soul.  Others believe there is a spiritual part of humans that is separate from the soul.  However you choose to look at it as a believer in Jesus Christ, there is much agreement among Christians that the soul is the breath of life in the physical body and that it consists of mind, will, and emotions.  There is also an eternal spirit within humans that is created specifically for relationship with God and until that spirit is made responsive to God by being "born again" there is an emptiness there.

There are many who believe not in being born again or in the personal relationship to Jesus Christ, but rather believe that the mind, will, and the emotions are only part of the physical body and are located in the brain.  Not so.  Thee are many scientifically validated accounts of people who were "brain dead" and yet who, during the time of their brain inactivity and loss of other life functions, such as heart beat, were experiencing mental and emotional activities which scientists can record but science cannot explain.

This is so because science is limited to "empirical evidence" which means evidence sensed by the physical abilities of seeing, hearing, smelling, touching or tasting or evidence interpreted to our senses by some instrument. However, thoughts, feelings, and decisions may not be empirical but we all know that these things exist.  It is interesting to note that in schools, psychology is not in the science department.  It is in the social science or social studies department because 1/2 of psychology is concerned with non-empirical things:  feelings, thoughts, decisions, etc. 

It can be said that higher animals such as dogs, elephants, dolphins, and let us not forget kitty cats too, have emotions.  These can also be said to think because they can learn to recognize a number of human words.  They certainly make choices (like when my pet dog Humphrey Bogart chooses to put his nose on my elbow to get some attention).  Animals also certainly have some breath of life, In other words, animals have some processes we associate with a soul.

Animals, however, do not worship.  People do worship.  And, even people who choose to not worship will be happy to give you reasons to justify why they do not. 

People seem to have a hunger to find the meaning of life.  They seek to fulfill the emptiness of their spirit.  God is both Spirit and Truth.  Those who find forgiveness of their sin through Jesus Christ also find fulfillment in their spirit by relationship to the Lover of their soul, Jesus Christ. 

A mysterious thing happens to such new believers in Christ.  The act of accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord becomes the process by which they personally receive relationship to the third Person of the Trinity:  the Holy Spirit.  This Holy Spirit now makes that believer's eternal spirit come alive to the Spirit of God.

This new believer always had that eternal spirit.  But, it was not responsive to the Spirit of God until faith in Jesus Christ brought it to life and into contact with the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, when non-believers tell us that there is no God, they are speaking on the basis of physical evidence.  However, God is a Spirit.  They cannot find Him with a telescope, a microscope, or an isotope.  When they try to convince us to not believe in God they are speaking from a very different way of thinking that is limited by physical experience.  It has no access to spiritual reality.

There are also those who do believe in spiritual things who also embrace self-esteem because they feel that this makes them the master of their own fates, the captain of their own souls.  (I believe those ideas came from the poet Longfellow.)  They might try to seduce you away from relationship with the Holy Spirit also, by giving false hope in a deceptive spirit.

The believer in Jesus Christ needs to remember that all the arguments, logic, ridicule, and complaints of non-believers are not able to touch the reality of the personal spirit to Holy Spirit relationship of the authentic Christian.  Those other folks are too late.  We already know the fulfillment of walking with the Holy Spirit.  And, we are not about to allow anyone to deprive us of what we already know in our spirit.  We have eternal life.

Judeo-Christian Answers to the philosophy of self-esteem Post # 19

The suggested theme for the 9th grade curriculum for the faith of our children is:  The Creator made principles we can choose to value or to ignore.  This makes us accountable for how and what we choose.  This theme talks about the actual way we understand what truth is and how we learn from it.

The Bible says that when Pontius Pilate was speaking with Jesus Christ, Pilate asked, "What is truth?"  There are many philosophies of epistemology (which attempt to describe how we know things) that tell us what truth is because truth is what we seek to know. 

Some philosophies begin with the idea that truth is within us.  Truth, they say, is in our mind.  Others begin with the idea that truth is outside of us and is there for us to discover.There are philosophies that try to combine both truth within us and outside of us to make a connection between the two.

However, according to the Word of God, truth is more than that.  Truth is a Person.  In John 14:6 Jesus Christ says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me."  And, again in John 14: 16 and 17 Christ says, "And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Holy Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and shall be in you."

Therefore, when some one in the world, that is, some one who has not received Jesus Christ as personal Savior and Lord says that the truth is there is no God, then they are talking about something that they cannot know.  Christians are born again of the spirit.  They know God exists because they know Him personally Spirit to spirit. 

More than this, God created the universe and everything in it by truth because He called it into existence.He created more than things, He created life itself, something that science cannot explain.  And He created spiritual life inside every true believer in Jesus Christ.  The unbelieving world cannot explain that either.  That is why they try to deny it. 

If what the Bible says is true, then the unbeliever is in deep trouble.  The easiest way to avoid feeling accountable for our choice to not believe in God is to be able to convince others that He doesn't exist.  Let's not fall for their clever half truths.

There is subjective truth that exists within us that we act upon and speak about and which causes us to make new things happen because it is truth to us.  There is also objective truth that exists outside of us whether we know it or not.  It is up to us to discover objective truth.  A wise person will shape the subjective truth inside to work with the objective truth outside in order to choose correctly on how to live. 

But, the best way is to be motivated by the Holy Spirit within us to value the principles of truth that will lead to a wholesome life and will secure our eternal life in our Savior Jesus Christ.

Judeo-Christian Answers to the philosophy of self-esteem Post # 18

God gives people the very rights that they argue about.  This theme is suggested for teaching principles at the eighth grade level.  While public school teachers cannot quote scripture, they can quote Thomas Jefferson.  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 

This quote from the Declaration of Independence is, or should be taught in the opening days of eighth grade U. S. history.  These words are critical for several reasons.  First, although they are written by a man who is not today considered as being a religious person, Thomas Jefferson used the sacred name of God to establish the importance of what he was about to say.  Therefore eighth graders should learn that there are many key ideas to find and keep from this statement.

First, Thomas Jefferson, as one the the founders of our nation, believed that there was such a thing as enduring truth.  Today, many scholars say that there is no such thing as an absolute truth.  But, Jefferson was risking his life by rebelling against the most powerful king on earth in order to establish a government for a people on the basis that there was such truth.  Jefferson felt so strongly about this that he said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident...."  Self-evident means that these truths are as plain as the nose on your face.  We do not argue about whether or not we have a nose.  Therefore, Thomas Jefferson is not about to bother to argue about this "self-evident" truth.

What truth?  "That all men are created...."  Wait a minute.  Why not finish the sentence?  Because, there is a chunk of meaning here that we need to remember.  Thomas Jefferson is saying NOT that we are some accident of nature, as some educators would have us believe, but rather, Mr. Jefferson is saying that to form a society that can govern itself, the people need to understand that they have value greater than they could create for themselves.  People have value because they are the creation of a "Creator."  They have personal value that no one, not even the person himself or herself, let alone someone else, can take away.

If we allow people to talk us out of believing in God, they have also talked us out of understanding how valuable human beings are.  If we have a personal faith in God, then we are simply enacting our own human nature given by our Creator. 

By the way:  all over the world people worship.  If they don't worship God, they make sure they can give you a reason why they do not.  But, isn't it interesting?   Agnostics and athiests who feel that we are just a part of nature like all other animals and who teach this in our most prestigious universities and colleges, cannot find any other animal that worships. There are no ape altars, no monkey hymns, no dolphin temples.  Higher forms of animals seem to show us that they have feelings, they have some thought process, they make decisions to do things.  But they do not demonstrate a spirit to worship.  Oh sure, some one might say, "Maybe they do.  Maybe the coyote howling at the moon is worshiping it."  I believe that folks who study coyotes have come up with other explanations.  The bottom line is that animals do not worship.  Some people who do not worship feel that humans are just another form of animal that used to walk on its knuckles. 

However, most people do worship some deity.  They seem to feel that there is a spiritual connection between themselves and something greater than themselves.  Thomas Jefferson agreed.

Now, some one might say, "It's ridiculous to say that everyone is created equal.  Some children are born rich, others poor.  Some people are born pretty, others are not nearly so pretty.  Some humans are born intelligent while others are not so intelligent."  But, these things are not what Thomas Jefferson is referring to when he says, "equal."  Remember what he wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights...."

What makes people equal is not their attributes or their character, or their strength.  What makes people equal is their Creator given rights.  The word endowed means given.  Jefferson is saying that when the Creator created us, He gave us something:  unalienable rights. 

What does that mean: unalienable?  It's an old fashioned word they used when land was inherited by a son or daughter and the person giving them the land wanted it to never be sold or lost.  Unalienable means that whatever it is can not be separated from you.  In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson is saying that because the rights are given by the Creator of the universe, that because they were given to people, then no one, not even a king of England could take these rights away.  Because these certain rights were unalienable, these rights were equal to any rights the king might claim God had given to him.

What is a right?  A right is the true claim of one person on the duty of another person.  Jefferson said that such rights were given by the Creator. 

The unalienable rights that were given included, "....life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  That's right:  the right to live.  You can claim truthfully that every other person has a duty toward you to allow you to live, to allow you to have liberty, to allow you to pursue happiness.  Of course, others have the same rights in relation to us.

Why do we have such a powerful claim on the duties of others toward us?  Because, according to Thomas Jefferson, the Creator gave it to us on a permanent basis, a basis of self-evident truth. 

There is another kind of right.  We call them "contract" rights.  Contract rights are agreements between people.  There was, back in that time and even today, the idea of the "social contract" of government.  This meant that there was an agreement between the people and their ruler or government that the people gave the government the right to rule them as long as the government did so for the benefit of the people under their power.

Contracts can be changed.  Contract rights are changeable also.  Contracts can be made without reference to God.  Unalienable rights require the Creator to establish them. 

Would you rather have a contract right to be allowed to live or have an unalienable right to live?  Then, would you rather have a government that acknowledges the Creator or a government that does not even allow class room teachers to say that God lives? 

Judeo-Christian answers to the philosophy of self-esteem: Post # 17

Seventh graders are, by this age, quite aware of choices they have about where to put their faith.  Friends will say, "believe what we believe".  Parents will say that too.  Even public school educators will try to guide students into a belief system that the educator accepts as her or his own.  The philosophy of self-esteem as taught in public schools tells students to believe first in themselves and then in other people. 

The self-esteem agnostic philosophy does not seem to attempt to substitute itself for belief in a God. But, in effect it does exactly that.   Students are asked to "accept evolution" as the scientific explanation as to how people came to be as we are today on the basis of "empirical evidence".  The students are not asked to "believe in" physics or to "believe in" chemistry.  But, they are asked to, in effect, "believe in evolution."  They are told that it is more reliable to place one's beliefs in what is empirical.

Empirical evidence means that you put your beliefs in what you can see, touch, hear, taste, or smell.  Spiritual beliefs are not to be trusted because they cannot be reliably believed.  And yet this kind of belief in physical things is so self limiting that it is harder to believe than religion with a God.

All over the world people worship a God or gods.  Animals do not have altars but people do.  People are unique among living creatures because people have a spiritual hunger.  What is more, people are unique because they have a conscience that guides them into some concept of wrong and right behavior.  Animals do not demonstrate a conscience but people of various cultures do. 

In public school we cannot speak of the conviction of the Holy Spirit that leads a person to repent of wrong doing and of the overwhelming sense of relief when a new Christian realizes that everything wrong they have ever done has just been forgiven by God.  In public school we cannot speak about the newly found impulse that now loves God and wishes to do good things and put away destructive habits. 

However, in public school we can say that everywhere religions lead followers to a higher standard of social conduct that makes it easier for governments to keep peace and safety among people less likely to steal and destroy.  Even in public school we can speak of moral codes that encourage families to be healthier than they might have been without moral imperative provided by religious belief.

As public educators we can point out that either people believe in a God or they give long lists of philosophical reasons why they do not.  While we are not in position to discourage people from not believing in God, we can say that not believing in God may more difficult than believing.  People seem to have a spiritual hunger and a conscience that drives them toward spiritual belief that goes beyond the physical.

Many students are suprised when I ask them why psychology is not in the science department.  Why, I ask them, is psychology taught in the social studies department?  Because, I tell them, one half of everything psychology talks about is not empirical.  Feelings are not empirical.  Thoughts are not empirical.  Therefore, because psychology can use science to only cover about one half of its subjects, then understanding ourselves can only be based one half on what we can see, touch, taste, smell, and hear. 

It is up to each of us to discover what it is we wish to believe, what we are willing to believe, what we can believe.  If we are humble enough to believe in a Deity greater than ourselves, then perhaps the spiritual hunger will be satisfied.  Perhaps we will find religious answers to our needs both physical and spiritual.  Empirical evidence is self limiting to only one half of what can be known. The other half can be known spirit to spirit.

Judeo-Christian answers to the philosophy of self-esteem: Post #16 - 6th grade

The basic idea today is that the Creator is the source of self-esteem as well as personal maturity and honor.  We become greater as we benefit others and this is possible because we find not ourselves, but the Creator as our source. 

We are continuing the grade level themes of the curriculum of Christology.  That is, a way of thinking that is based upon scripture, both Old and New Testaments.  This embodies the principles established by God that operate whether or not we value them.  (Remember, our goal is to encourage the Godly faith of our children.)  Thus, we are teaching values in the context of relating them to principles of truth that exist outside ourselves.  At this point, we are addressing how the Creator has extablished a principle that we become greater by serving others than we ever could be by getting others to serve us.  That is, we are going beyond self-esteem, which is a kind of pride, and growing toward genuine honor.

In contrast to what we are teaching, the philosophy of self-esteem, as put forward in public education, views self-esteem as the point of origin for all healthy thinking and emotions.  Other people are important only as they relate to us.  It is important that we be responsible in our relations so that they will be positive toward us.  My, how existential is that?  We are of first importance.  We don't even need a concept of responsiblility to a Creator to be good people, right?  Wrong.

We will find different temperments in people of all cultures and all beliefs.  Some will tend to be kind and cooperative while others will be full of self-entitlement (selfishness) and deception.  There will be a little good in the worst of us and a little bad in the best of us.  But every single one of us need each other.  The question is whether we will operate on a self centered basis or a God centered basis.

In Sunday School, we are free to discuss the role of the Creator, the Savior, and the Holy Spirit dealing with us as valuable because God has placed into our being a value worth redeeming.  We are all so valuable to our Creator that He sent our Savior to be punished, crucified, resurrected, and returned to glory on our behalf.  Further, we are valuable because the Holy Spirit invests love and time and blessings into our lives to draw us into relationship with the Father and keep us there.  Thus, our value, our self-esteem is not based in ourselves, it is based upon something greater than ourselves.  Our self-esteem is based upon what God sees in us.

However, in public school, Christian teachers cannot say such things.  In public school we rely upon Thomas Jefferson to say it for us.  We teach the Declaration of Independence as the basic document that established the sovereignty of the United States.  In the second paragraph Thomas Jefferson states for us, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...."  Thus, if the Creator gives us rights, which are our valid claims upon the duty of another person toward us, then the Creator has manufactured us with value.  This value is so great that it has claim on the duty of other people toward us.

Then again, we have duty toward other people because they too have just as much value as we do.  We are not the point of origin of rights.  The Creator is.  We are not the origin of value.  The Creator is. Thus, we are not the point of origin of self-esteem, the Creator is. 

Self-esteem is seen in the agnostic public schools as being essential to personal growth in maturity for both achievement and relationship to others.  Self-esteem is another word for pride.  And, there is more than one kind of pride.  There is a kind of pride in ourselves that we need, such as the pride in doing a good job.  There are other kinds of pride that are foolish or arrogant toward others.  Some people are so "proud" that they refuse to listen to others so that they can prove to themselves that they are right and everyone else is wrong.  Some people build self pride on the basis of comparing themselves to others who are not as bright, not as attractive, not as wealthy, and so on.  The agnostic self-esteem folks would say that these are not the kind of self-esteem that they are referring to.  However, self-esteem they do speak in favor of, is based first of all upon one's self. Thus, their basis for creating a life philosophy is shallow and weak.

Self-esteem that simply gathers things unto one person may do some talented thing that benefits others, but that is the extent to which that talent will go.  Self-esteem may cause a person to do some nice things for others, but those things will be limited to what self thinks it can get back in return.  My, how small.  There is not much honor in that.

Beyond mere self-esteem people need honor.  There is a clear principle that we become mature by being equally concerned about others as we are about ourselves.  It is a principle we must value beyond mere self-esteem. This maturity is so important that it brings honor from others when they see it in us.

We can be proud of ourselves but genuine honor only comes from others.  Personal maturity and its resulting  honor is not based on our getting from others and giving only what we think is fair in return.   Honor can only be given by others to us.  If we would be people of honor, then we must become important to someone besides ourselves.

Some of us are talented.  Some of us can give to others because we share our talents.  Some of us are not as talented.  But one thing we can all give is time.  We can give some time to care for someone else.  We all need to have some compassion.  We can all show some care for someone else.  We all have other things we can share with others.  The more we share, the greater our role in the lives of others will be.  We will be honored and they will be benefitted. 

The person who has faith in the Creator understands that they have a gift of personal value that no one else can take away.  From that store of value a person can give without needing anything in return and can still continue to give to others.  There is great honor in that.  When we are honored by others, our personal self=esteem is validated, is confirmed, is strengthened. 

We all need personal self-esteem.  We do not need to limit ourselves by denying the existence of a Creator that is the point of origin of that esteem and the source of maturity and honor.

Judeo-Christian answers to the philosophy of self-esteem: Post #16 - 6th grade

The basic idea today is that the Creator is the source of self-esteem as well as personal maturity and honor.  We become greater as we benefit others and this is possible because we find not ourselves, but the Creator as our source. 

We are continuing the grade level themes of the curriculum of Christology.  That is, a way of thinking that is based upon scripture, both Old and New Testaments.  This embodies the principles established by God that operate whether or not we value them.  (Remember, our goal is to encourage the Godly faith of our children.)  Thus, we are teaching values in the context of relating them to principles of truth that exist outside ourselves.  At this point, we are addressing how the Creator has extablished a principle that we become greater by serving others than we ever could be by getting others to serve us.  That is, we are going beyond self-esteem, which is a kind of pride, and growing toward genuine honor.

In contrast to what we are teaching, the philosophy of self-esteem, as put forward in public education, views self-esteem as the point of origin for all healthy thinking and emotions.  Other people are important only as they relate to us.  It is important that we be responsible in our relations so that they will be positive toward us.  My, how existential is that?  We are of first importance.  We don't even need a concept of responsiblility to a Creator to be good people, right?  Wrong.

We will find different temperments in people of all cultures and all beliefs.  Some will tend to be kind and cooperative while others will be full of self-entitlement (selfishness) and deception.  There will be a little good in the worst of us and a little bad in the best of us.  But every single one of us need each other.  The question is whether we will operate on a self centered basis or a God centered basis.

In Sunday School, we are free to discuss the role of the Creator, the Savior, and the Holy Spirit dealing with us as valuable because God has placed into our being a value worth redeeming.  We are all so valuable to our Creator that He sent our Savior to be punished, crucified, resurrected, and returned to glory on our behalf.  Further, we are valuable because the Holy Spirit invests love and time and blessings into our lives to draw us into relationship with the Father and keep us there.  Thus, our value, our self-esteem is not based in ourselves, it is based upon something greater than ourselves.  Our self-esteem is based upon what God sees in us.

However, in public school, Christian teachers cannot say such things.  In public school we rely upon Thomas Jefferson to say it for us.  We teach the Declaration of Independence as the basic document that established the sovereignty of the United States.  In the second paragraph Thomas Jefferson states for us, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...."  Thus, if the Creator gives us rights, which are our valid claims upon the duty of another person toward us, then the Creator has manufactured us with value.  This value is so great that it has claim on the duty of other people toward us.

Then again, we have duty toward other people because they too have just as much value as we do.  We are not the point of origin of rights.  The Creator is.  We are not the origin of value.  The Creator is. Thus, we are not the point of origin of self-esteem, the Creator is. 

Self-esteem is seen in the agnostic public schools as being essential to personal growth in maturity for both achievement and relationship to others.  Self-esteem is another word for pride.  And, there is more than one kind of pride.  There is a kind of pride in ourselves that we need, such as the pride in doing a good job.  There are other kinds of pride that are foolish or arrogant toward others.  Some people are so "proud" that they refuse to listen to others so that they can prove to themselves that they are right and everyone else is wrong.  Some people build self pride on the basis of comparing themselves to others who are not as bright, not as attractive, not as wealthy, and so on.  The agnostic self-esteem folks would say that these are not the kind of self-esteem that they are referring to.  However, self-esteem they do speak in favor of, is based first of all upon one's self. Thus, their basis for creating a life philosophy is shallow and weak.

Self-esteem that simply gathers things unto one person may do some talented thing that benefits others, but that is the extent to which that talent will go.  Self-esteem may cause a person to do some nice things for others, but those things will be limited to what self thinks it can get back in return.  My, how small.  There is not much honor in that.

Beyond mere self-esteem people need honor.  There is a clear principle that we become mature by being equally concerned about others as we are about ourselves.  It is a principle we must value beyond mere self-esteem. This maturity is so important that it brings honor from others when they see it in us.

We can be proud of ourselves but genuine honor only comes from others.  Personal maturity and its resulting  honor is not based on our getting from others and giving only what we think is fair in return.   Honor can only be given by others to us.  If we would be people of honor, then we must become important to someone besides ourselves.

Some of us are talented.  Some of us can give to others because we share our talents.  Some of us are not as talented.  But one thing we can all give is time.  We can give some time to care for someone else.  We all need to have some compassion.  We can all show some care for someone else.  We all have other things we can share with others.  The more we share, the greater our role in the lives of others will be.  We will be honored and they will be benefitted. 

The person who has faith in the Creator understands that they have a gift of personal value that no one else can take away.  From that store of value a person can give without needing anything in return and can still continue to give to others.  There is great honor in that.  When we are honored by others, our personal self=esteem is validated, is confirmed, is strengthened. 

We all need personal self-esteem.  We do not need to limit ourselves by denying the existence of a Creator that is the point of origin of that esteem and the source of maturity and honor.

Judeo-Christian answers to the philosophy of self-esteem: Post #15 -

I somehow skipped over the suggested theme for 3rd graders in our curriculum.  Remember, we are attempting to address the agnostic philosophy taught our children in public school with ways of thinking that will encourage and preserve their faith in God.  The third grade theme is a transition between the idea that there IS a Creator of the universe, and of us and the idea that the Creator created within us a need to worship. 

The basic idea, then, is that there is a Creator Who created us to relate to other people as well as to achieve things.  However, the emphasis is to teach third graders that people are more important than things. 

For example:  when we get Christmas gifts or birthday gifts we are getting things.  But what is more important to us, the gift, or the person who gave it?  If Mom gave the gift, isn't she more important than the gift she gave to us?  She might be able to give many gifts, or she might not be able to give any.  But, isn't it more important that we know that she loves us?  Don't we love her back?

Another idea is this.  When we try to achieve something, are we doing it for the thing we achieve, or are we doing it for the good it will do for us or for someone we care about?  You see, we are more important than the thing.  Other people are more important than the thing. 

The result is that people are more important than things.  Things should be for helping people.  People are not meant to serve things.  Things are only important because they serve people.

Money is for the purpose of serving the needs of people.  Money is needed to buy clothes, food, a place to live.  But, sometimes people think a lot of money is more important than being a friend or being a good person.  That is a shame. 

There is a Creator.  He made all things in nature.  We use nature to make things we want to use.  But, we must never forget that He made us with personal value He built in to us.  We need to treat each other in a way that respects that value that the Creator put there.  We must never allow things, even good things, to be more important than treating other people as we would like to be treated. 

That is why we should not take things away that belong to other people.  That is why we should not lie to get other people to give us things.  That would be making things more important to us than people should be. 

You are more important than things not just because you would like to think so.  You are more important than things because the Creator made you that way and no other person can ever change that.  In the same way, other people are more important than things because the Creator made them that way.  Nothing we will ever do will change that.  Remember, we must always do our best to treat other people the way we would like to be treated. 

Judeo-Christian answers to the philosophy of self-esteem: Post # 14- 4th grade

There is a Creator Who has created us to love and to be loved.  This is the theme of the 4th grade curriculum to overcome the philosophy of self-esteem taught in public schools.  Nowhere in the agnostic philosophy of public education could you find a more glaring fault that this point: we are incapable of fulfilling our need for love by loving ourselves.  Yet, that is about all the philosophy of self-esteem offers at this vital point of human concern.

We need far more than that.  But the starting point of love, in THEIR point of view, is to love yourself first.  The starting point of the Bible is that we are loved even if we think little of ourselves because God built so much value into us that He found it precious enough to sacrifice His only begotten Son for us. 

God loves us so much that we are worth real blood, real pain, real patience, real persistence on His part.  That is the message 4th graders, and we all, need to hear and to remember.  "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so...." goes the Sunday school song.  But, in public school we cannot say such things.  How are we to get that message across to kids in an agnostic setting, an environment hostile to Christian faith?  How are we to encourage Godly faith  in the love message of scripture?

In social studies, controversial subjects can be taught.  We can say with full justification as teachers that it is NOT our job to tell children what to think.  It IS our job to get them to think.  We are just giving them something to THINK about.  In science class we must teach some aspect of evolution.  We cannot teach "intelligent design" in science class.  However, in social studies class we can even teach about different religions as long as we are not promoting a specific one. 

In social studies 4th grade, we can, I believe, address how people around the world think about evolution.  Many people are coming to believe that it explains how the world came to be.  However, we can discuss as a matter of current events that some scientists have come to a theory that there may be intelligent design.  No specific Creator is mentioned.  None can be proven by science because science does not deal with spiritual things, only physical things.  Science is limited to empirical evidence that is physical only.

When it comes to things that are spiritual:  ideas like, "Is there a God?"  Evolution cannot deal with the answer.  That is because if there is a God, God would be spirit.  Science could not find such a God with a telescope, a microscope, or an isotope.  Yet, all over the world people in different cultures, who are said by evolution to have come from apes,  worship some God or gods.  And, humans beings are the only members of the animal kingdom that do worship.  There are no monkey holy writings although monkeys are intelligent and have use of thumbs that could be used to write.  There are no altars made by apes although they are intelligent and emotional creatures capable of manipulating objects.  So, in spite of what the theory of evolution teaches about the development from simple one cell animals to complex animals, the theory cannot be used scientifically to explain why people worship a God.

Two things science cannot answer are:  a.  spiritual hunger; b. a source of love outside myself.

There seems to be in human beings, a desire to worship some God.  In every society around the world you find people going to temples, synagogues, churches, or simple outdoor altars.  Or, people may write detailed explations why they do not believe in a God.  If there was no natural spiritual hunger, why would people all over the world who do not know each other, do not understand each other, speak different languages, live in different kinds of places, have different kinds of families and so on, all have a drive to worship or at least to explain why they chose not to do so?  The theory of evolution cannot explain this in a scientific way.

Perhaps that is because science cannot answer all the questions that people have.  One great question everyone has in the back of their mind is, "Do you care about me?"  Do people talk to you, do people act in ways that show that they care about you?  We all have a need to be cared for.  And, we become happier if we can care about someone else who returns care to us.  So, people in societies all over the world look for a spiritual source that cares about them, perhaps even loves them, that they can love in return.  This outside source of love can be a great source of feeling of personal strength and can even be a source of self-esteem.