Εκπαίδευση στην υπερατλαντική Δύση

Από το άρθρο της Washington Post που ακολουθεί (αν και λίγο παλιό) το διαβάζω με πολύ σκεπτικισμό, επειδή προκύπτει ότι η υπερατλαντική Δύση εκπαιδεύεται για να αντιμετωπίσει την Ανατολή με όρους «τζιχάτ»

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/16/AR2007111601684.html?referrer=emailarticle

Program Unites God And Politics

John Jay Institute Preparing Young Christian Conservatives For Leadership in Public Life

By Carol McGraw

Colorado Springs Gazette

Saturday, November 17, 2007; Page B09

COLORADO SPRINGS

They look like graduates waiting to march across the stage to get their diplomas.

But the students, seated around a granite table at Grace Church, dress in long, black academic robes every day.

All in their early 20s, they are the first class of fellows at the Colorado Springs-based John Jay Institute for Faith, Society and Law.

The six men and six women politely call each other by courtesy titles and last names, and engage in Socratic discussions four hours a day, four days a week. They are learning how to spread their moral beliefs in a thoughtful manner, without beating people over the head with their faith.

The yearlong program combines their calling to public life with their conservative Christian worldview. After a semester of academics, they will intern at conservative think tanks in the District and elsewhere, where they can further hone their skills in Christian persuasion.

We are teaching students of faith how to engage a secular society," President Alan R. Crippen II said. Crippen founded the institute in 2005 in Harper's Ferry, W.Va., and moved it with him when he relocated to Colorado Springs in 2006. "It's leadership development. We take bright, promising students and give them the intellectual and spiritual foundation for service in the community."

The institute is the latest evidence of an intellectual movement that is taking the conservative Christian message beyond hot-button topics such as gay marriage and abortion to attract better-educated and younger people who are interested in wider social issues such as the environment, science and law.

Proponents see institutions such as John Jay as antidotes to secular universities, which they believe are intolerant of conservative views. Others fear such programs will train professionals to wage war against the separation of church and state, and infuse government and the Constitution with religion.

The conservative intellectual movement is a far cry from the stance of some fundamentalists, who shun intellectualism and refer to opponents as pointy-headed liberals. Many conservatives now believe that focusing on intellectualism will help win the culture wars.

William Armstrong, president of Colorado Christian University in Lakewood and a member of the John Jay advisory board, calls the institute's academics "impressive, intense and high-quality." The former U.S. senator says the program follows the tradition of intellectual standard-bearers such as Carl Henry, first editor of Christianity Today, and Os Guinness, an Oxford-educated philosopher who has been a John Jay lecturer.

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a nonsectarian group that defends separation of church and state in courts and educates on religious-freedom issues, says scholarship is a fairly new venue for some in the Christian right.

"Since they captured talk radio and religious broadcasting, they have been looking for a new forum, and the academic world is it," he said.

The push to recruit young intellectuals is an "investment in future allies," says Chip Berlet, senior analyst for Boston-based Political Research Associates, a progressive think tank.

"It's a complicated time for the Christian right," Berlet said. "They regrouped after the last election and decided they won't be able to capture the presidency, so they are digging further into the grass roots for the future."

Crippen says separation of church and state does not have to mean exclusion of religion from the public square. John Jay supporters have similar views.

"So much education in the last few decades has tended to ignore religion, but now you are seeing a resurgence of traditional intellectualism and recovery of historical roots," said Kenneth Starr, who is on the John Jay advisory board and is dean of the Pepperdine University law school in Malibu, Calif.

Starr, the former independent counsel whose investigation and report led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, says law has always been rooted in morality and informed by religious thinking.

The program is an expensive endeavor for the nonprofit institute. It will take more than $800,000 each academic year for 24 students to go through the program. Each student receives $37,000 in benefits, including the academic program, room and board and a $7,000 stipend.

The institute obtained seed money from major conservative donors -- officials won't say who -- and is raising money now to pay for next year's scholars.

"The classes are hard. It demands diligence," said Adrienne Morehead, 22, of Atlanta, who got her undergraduate degree from Lee University, a Christian college in Tennessee.