Principal's Perspective

What's in a Name?

The founders of Mars Hill Academy, Tom and Linda Thistleton, chose the name Mars Hill Academy in spite of all the quizzical looks they knew they'd receive (not to mention all those folks who unintentionally drop the "Hill" from our name...making us sound like aliens from "Mars Academy") because they sensed that their own cultural context was becoming more and more like Ancient Rome.  They were also convinced that the only answer to a culture in decline was the Gospel of Jesus Christ, namely, a God who raises the dead (Acts 17:31-32; 2 Cor. 1:9).  Voila... Mars Hill Academy!

I think they made an excellent choice, no matter how many times I have to explain the name to the uninitiated. 

You've probably heard about the Atlanta area pastor - an evangelical through whom much good has been done - who was selected to give the Invocation at the Inauguration of President Obama due to his good labors in the area of ending sex trafficking, but then withdrew after a controversy erupted concerning his views on homosexuality.  The Rev. Louie Giglio withdrew himself (and his prayers) from the event, saying that he and his team "don't feel it best serves the core message and goals we are seeking to accomplish to be in a fight on an issue not of our choosing."  Hmm.

I'm disappointed.  Saddened.  And a little angry.

The Lord appears to give (one of us, anyway) an unprecedented platform to speak of the goodness of God and the mercy shown to us in Jesus Christ and we punt.  What could be more consonant with the "core message and goals" of a Christian pastor than to declare Jesus' Lordship over all things? 

What was so bad about Rev. Giglio's views on homosexuality, you might ask?  Apparently, fifteen years ago he preached a sermon where he had the audacity to call homosexual practice a "sin."  That's it.  And in the past fifteen years, with all of the movement to normalize the abnormal (and sinful), not a word.  That's all it takes to get disenfranchised from the public arena these days: just believe the Bible in public.

Friends, as shocked as you and I might be (or maybe not), none of this comes as a surprise to God.  Remember the words Psalm 2:

"He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. ⁵ Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, ⁶ "As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill."

He laughs.  Oh, if only we believed this.  We still pretend like our God, the Lord of heaven and earth, merely wants a "place at the table."  We just need more "dialogue."

My sincere hope and prayer is that our students will be sent into the public arena as Paul was in Athens.  With our spirits "provoked" for the glory of God and outraged at the idolatry around us (Acts 17:16), with a heartbroken knowledge of the futility of worshipping ANYTHING other than the one true God and a desire to see men repent and change (Acts 17:30), even willing to be called names, dragged before courts, and endure mocking and apathy (Acts 17:33) so that Christ, the friend of sinners, might be made known and our Father in heaven glorified.

All of our study of mathematics, science, languages, logic, rhetoric, fiction, poetry, music, and the Bible are designed to make us worship differently, not merely think differently.  Make no mistake about it: the cultural "fog" we're in as a nation (and, perhaps, as a civilization) is not primarily intellectual.  It is spiritual.  We have a worship disorder - which is exactly what the Apostle Paul told those highly culture and spiritually lost Athenians, "What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you."

This is time of training, of building-up, so that when the time comes for our children to speak on behalf of the Lord in their homes, in their college dorms, on the athletic fields, in their local communities, in their churches, or... on national television, they'll not shrink back in the day of battle.  Make no mistake, fellow parents.  It is a battle - Jesus vs. the Enemy - and the time will come when our children must speak.

This issue of what it means to be human - male and female - made in the image of God and what marriage is (and isn't) has arrived and isn't going away.  It will remain right at the top of the list of issues that will land you in the deep stuff, pronto, and without any human hope of recovery.

Faculty Notes

by Andrew Stapleton

Logic: Reasoning According to the Rules

One of the unique features of a Christian and Classical education is our emphasis on the study of logic. At Mars Hill Academy we devote four periods per week for two-and-a-half school years (the final installment, 9th Grade Logic, is a semester-long course that just began a few weeks ago) to "the science and art of reasoning well," as our textbook defines logic. Why do we do this?

As Dorothy Sayers observed in her essay "The Lost Tools of Learning," children of roughly "junior high" age are in the "pert" stage of their intellectual development. Younger children are "parrots" in that they are able to memorize and recite vast amounts of data - this is the Grammar stage of the trivium. "Pert" students desire to think critically and argue about everything. They want to argue about the meaning of words, the truth of statements, and the validity of conclusions - this is exactly what we do in class. This, by the way, is "arguing" in the best sense of the word: not an angry, door-slamming temper tantrum, but reasoning with clarity of thought and conviction, the kind of reasoning Paul did during his missionary encounters (see for example, Acts chapters 17 and 18, where the word "reasoned" is used).

The Logic stage (a.k.a. "dialectic stage," because of the back-and-forth nature of well-reasoned debate), then, moves students from the information they've mastered in the Grammar stage to the valid conclusions they will learn to express beautifully and persuasively as "poets" (the label Sayers attaches to the Rhetoric stage). Thus, by God's grace, our students become "young men and women who think clearly and listen carefully with discernment and understanding, who reason persuasively and speak precisely, who are capable of evaluating all human knowledge and experience in the light of the Scriptures, and who do so with eagerness in joyful submission to God." (MHA Vision Statement)

In closing, I'd like to suggest that you as a parent study logic along with your child. Even if you've had no formal training in logic, you will be able to pick it up easily because it's the way you reason every day - it's common sense. Plus, if you read the textbooks we use (by James Nance, published by Canon Press), they're written for kids, so they're not at all hard to understand. Your own study of logic will serve at least three worthwhile purposes: 1) You'll be able to help your child if and when he or she needs it while studying at home, 2) You'll be equipped to respond when your child accuses you of committing a fallacy, 3) Most importantly, you'll be able to help your child apply what he or she learns in the classroom to all the debates and "arguments" swirling around us today. Whether it is gun control, taxation, or same-sex marriage, your child needs your guidance in embracing true conclusions based on true premises, thus "bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5). 

MHA Extras   

Come cheer on our boys' Jr. High and Highschool basketball teams.  Our athletic calendar showing all their games can be found on the home page of our website.   Go Highlanders!