World Magazine: Gene Edward Veith: Salt Recipe, Part II

World Magazine: Gene Edward Veith: Salt Recipe, Part II

"When Christians are better educated than the non-Christians, Christians will become the major culture-shapers.

"The state of contemporary Western culture today resembles a patient dying of AIDS. In that dreadful disease, the body's immune system stops protecting the body and instead turns against it. Similarly, our current artistic and intellectual establishments--which have always before defined, built up, and transmitted our cultural heritage--have turned against it. Artists are attacking the very concept of beauty. Intellectuals are dismissing the intellect. Ethicists are denying morality. Those who used to pursue truth are now saying there is no such thing....

"The best-educated are invariably the leaders, the creators, and the shapers of culture. Those who write the books, make the art, populate academia, and run the businesses are the cultural leaders. Today, our best-educated folk are mired in a nihilistic worldview, and they are dragging the rest of the culture down with them. But what if Christians took on this role?"

(For more in this vein, listen to my speech at St. Augustine Academy's fall banquet on the value of a classical Christian education.)