Article #1 - The foundation

We need a positive change

Lux et veritas - (Light and truth)

Yale University in New Haven, CT was founded on October 9, 1701. It was founded as an institution to train ministers and lay leadership for Conntecticut. A group of ten ministers, known as "The Founders", and led by a man named James Pierpoint pooled all of their books together to form the start of the school's library. Later, a graduate of Harvard convinced 180 prominent intellectuals to donate more books.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_University

One of Yale's rules basically said this:

"If any Scholar shall deny the Holy Scriptures, or any part thereof, to be of divine authority; or shall assert and endeaveour to propagate among the Students any error or heresy subverting the foundations of the Christian religion, and shall persist therein, after admonition, he shall be dismissed."

Downhill from there

Near about 1790, the president of the college brought a visitor to the chapel for an assembly. He was a bit late, and when he arrived, he found the students "yelling, whooping, carousing, and generally out of control." What an embarassment for the visitor. The president forced his way to the podium and wore himself out shouting and pounding on the stage with his cane until the cane splintered. It was some time before order was restored. Seems like history is repeating itself.

Deism, unitarianism, atheism, nihilism and existentialism had so worked its way into the college that many students wouldn't even go by their real name; preferring to instead be called by their chosen heros like Voltaire, D'Alembert, Diderot, and other French and English infidels. The college church membership at the college church was almost zero, and and one of the students of that day later wrote,

"intemperance, profanity, and gambling were common; yea, and also licentiousness."

Now, mind you, this was a college founded upon the idea of training Christian ministers and 80-90 years later, almost none of its students were Christian. Into this mess rode a man by the name of Timothy Dwight. He became the college president, but also taught the senior class. He began a relentless and longingly patient defense of the gospel in a way almost nobody expected and he turned the entire college around.

He let them have an opinion

Timothy first asked all students to submit questions they had about the gospel telling him he would choose one to serve as the subject to discuss. Knowing it would get them expelled, some students purposely submitted questions that violated the rule regarding the denail of the Holy scriptures being divine authority. He didn't blink. In fact, it was this very question that he chose. Every student was to choose a side and speak; arguing in defense of or against. His only requirement was that the students treat the subject with the respect it deserved.

Timothy watched every single one of them argue against. When it was his turn he critique their arguments, slowly and methodically showing the class how weak the deist arguments really were. He then proceeded to answer the question positively in the affirmative, and not only so but also preached incessantly on the subject for six months in the chapel, and delivered additional lectures on the subject of Evidences of Divine Revelation.

After the first year, not one sophomore was a Christian and only one freshman was a Christian. However, the senior class had advanced to ten. After seven years, one third were Christian and a revival broke out on campus.

The Plan

My plan for this site will be to post articles on all kinds of subjects. Sometimes they will be religious in nature, sometimes about science, atheism, self-improvement, family, parenting, and sometimes they will just point out where I believe that we need to improve as a nation of people; mostly with how we treat one another.

My greatest desire is to have guests write articles as well. In fact, I'd love to have almost all the articles come from guest writers on whatever they want to write on! If you are a good writer and want a voice (or know someone else who does), check out the contact page under "About" and submit a copy of something you think would be good to post. Unfortunately, you cannot send a Word document because of filthy hackers, so you will have to paste the content into the message. Make sure you include your email address and real name. The article can be about anything you want, just make sure it is not attacking or insulting someone personally, and make sure all claims are backed up by facts. Attacking behavior is fine, just not people. If I like it, I'll get in touch.

The ability to comment on articles will come a bit later. It is important to understand though, that this isn't going to be the cage-match that is Twitter. This isn't going to be the offensive name-calling/one-sided censorship that is Facebook either. This is going to be adults, conducting themselves as adults, and treating one another with honor even as they disagree.

Always remember. You don't treat people with honor because they are worthy of honor. You treat people with honor because you are honorable.

Watch for more articles coming soon as we ramp up the content.