From time to time, CHRISTIANITY TODAY has published articles exposing diploma mills which, for a price, deliver academic degrees without requiring an output of academic work. The unpleasant assignment this time fell to the lot of staff reporter Tom Minnery.
Unfortunately, many of the worst offenders in this educational racket are evangelicals. Some are in it only for the fast buck; we hope they are not evangelicals. Those who claim to be evangelical are a disgrace to the cause. Many more are well-meaning individuals who sincerely believe they are serving Christ by equipping Christian workers with bogus degrees. And, alas, plenty of Christian ministers are eager to snap up such cut-rate academic bargains. Ministers should recognize these degrees for what they are—a swindle; churches searching for an honest pastor should refuse to recognize fraudulent degrees.
Our children are our most precious possession. But strange as it may seem, parents often don’t even know their own children. Sandy Larsen discusses the intellectual and spiritual gulf between adults and teen-aged children. The first step in rearing children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is to love them. But surely, next to loving them is to know them—to know them intimately. And that is not easy. It takes hard work and much patience to maintain a warm and close relationship with maturing offspring. And as with physical warmth, the secret of staying warm is never to grow cold. Time spent with our young children when they are small—and when we are tempted not to bother—cements a relationship and creates bridges of understanding and communication for the crucial teen-age years. We must learn to listen to our children, and that is not the same as waiting for them to finish talking so we can tell them what’s on our mind.
Like Mark Twain, who insisted that reports of his death were greatly exaggerated, I must deny the rumor that I have resigned as editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY. The kernel of truth at the center of this rumor is undoubtedly my notification to the magazine’s board at its last meeting that I would hand in my resignation at retirement age. I wanted only to warn them so they would have plenty of time to search for a successor. Except for an act of God or of the board (and they are not the same), I shall probably continue at my present post for a while.
