Using examples such as a video game that involves “killing” photos of Christ, and a group that asks teens to give up their souls to the devil and record it on YouTube, and Hindu principles in a classic children’s book, Nancy Pearcey, noted Christian worldview expert, makes the case that parents, educators and churches must pay attention to the world around them.
Nancy PearceyPearcey, author of “Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity,” was in Charleston to do a series of lectures at East Cooper Baptist Church, Citadel Square Baptist Church, and to deans, faculty and staff at Charleston Southern University.
“The job of the Christian educator today is more challenging and more urgent,” said Pearcey. Citing statistics that many churchgoing teens leave the church after high school, Pearcey said, “Educating students in apologetics and worldview is not optional. It is necessary survival equipment.”
Students need to know what they believe and how to defend their beliefs. “If you don’t have an intentionally Christian worldview, you have a void,” she said. “Some other worldview will enter that void.”
Pearcey addressed ways that Christian educators can relate Christian views in the academic disciplines. She advised faculty and staff members to “get out your worldview detectors.”
Students need to be taught tools of analysis about all the
“-isms,” Pearcey said. For example, what do Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, etc., have to say about creation, fall and redemption, she said. Each worldview can be evaluated against a grid that includes creation’s purpose, humanity’s fall into sin, and God’s provision for redemption.
Pearcey reminded educators that, as Christians, we are to bring everything under the lordship of Christ – including the mind.