We have moved from thinking of institutions as molds that shape people’s character and habits towards seeing them as platforms that allow people to be themselves and to display themselves before a wider world. - Yuval Levin
Or as Carl Trueman puts it, often institutions are no longer authoritative places of formation but of individualized performance.
In today’s Western world, the notion of a sacred order has been largely abandoned. The fear of theocracy and the demands of the pluralism that marks our societies, in addition to the minimized authority of religious institutions, have combined to make appeals to a kind of sacred order implausible or outrageous or extreme.
Philip Rieff, argues that cultures have traditionally justified their moral orders – the set of values by which they organize themselves and regulate behavior – by appealing to a sacred order and the traditions rooted in that order. In other words, they regard their moral codes as having authority because they are grounded in something beyond this immediate world. For example: As we believe, Christianity aligns itself with the Bible as the inspired Word of God and its teachings. Therefore, it gives a moral authority beyond the immediate and tangible world around us.
Unfortunately, there has been a major shift over the last 30 years away from this sacred order. Rieff, indicates that this places us in an unprecedented and highly volatile situation. Due to this shift and the rise of technology our cultures have chosen to justify themselves purely on the basis of themselves. That means that society’s moral order defaults to pragmatism and who shouts the loudest or who has the most effective lobby groups or what feels the best for them. Self identified truth. Therefore, arbitrary moral codes.
With the minimization of moral authority of the of culture, this creates a vacuum of morality that is filled with the competing voices of myriad of new identities and no objective way of adjudicating between them. That means that society’s moral order defaults to pragmatism and who shouts the loudest or who has the most effective lobby groups.
This concept is why our school is vital. We are an institution that bases our moral code on the Word of God and its truth. Going back to the original quote, we are able to be a institution focused on developing character, authority, truth, and proper habits. We praise God for that. In a time of tumultuous waves of cultural and moral fluidity we will be the cornerstone they crash against. We will be an institution whose foundations remain deeply grounded bedrock of truth.
Lead NWA well this week!
- Dr. Keith McDaniel
