The upshot of this decline will be that many Americans enter adulthood without having been intellectually challenged. The phrase “mind expanding” will exclusively apply to psychedelic drugs, not higher education. Professors for their own survival will play it safe and avoid anything that might, somehow and in some way, offend those who complain when their cherished beliefs are disputed. The triumph of woke dullness. Absent this exposure to the give and take of competing ideas and all else that defines intellectual debate, honest disagreement will become “hate.” It all adds up to a perfect recipe for killing serious public discussions.

Professors often complain about the current crop of students being less intellectually talented than when they began their careers decades back. Such griping is, of course, easy to dismiss — it has occurred for millennia. Unfortunately, this time around the grumbling may be true and not the usual nostalgia for “the good old days.”  The anecdotal evidence from textbook reading levels, shortened college syllabi, scrapbook-like research assignments, proliferating college remedial classes, grade inflation, and the popularity of “gut” college majors such as Gender Studies, is indisputable. We have also invested hundreds of millions in our schools yet test results such as the SAT are flat over the past half century. Add the countless stories of illiteracy among high school “graduates” despite falling class size and expensive reforms. Judged by the standards of evolution, Americans may be going backwards.
The best evidence of this decline are data from the highly respected General Social Survey on mean IQ by decade among graduate students, undergraduates, and high school students (a tip of the hat to Charles Murray on Twitter). This is a complicated subject given how America’s demography has altered, and measuring IQ via surveys might be iffy, but the numbers, even if a bit unsure, are alarming.
These data are divided into three groups: those with high school diplomas, undergraduate degrees, and graduate degrees. Then the data are then divided by decades beginning in the 1960s through to the 2010 onward decade. The overall pattern is a steady decline in IQ scores for each group from decade to decade. For example, high school graduates in the 1960s had an average IQ of 99.3 but this figure declined so by 2010 and onward, it was 93.5. A similar drop occurred among college graduates — from 113.3 in the 60s to 100.4 in the 2010 decade. For those with graduate degrees, the fall was from 114.0 to 105.8.
These are depressing numbers. That in 2010 the average college student had an IQ of 100.4 (almost exactly our national average) signifies that we are miles away from trying to educate the brightest youngsters. Worse, with an average of about 100, many of those enrolled must score below 100 and thus suitable only for low-skill occupations. This picture may even be worse than these numbers suggest if we subtract out the many smart international students now enrolled in U.S. higher education.
This decline has wide-ranging implications for college teachers. Save at the most selective schools, many undergraduates are incapable of grasping complicated arguments, even unable to distinguish what the teacher explained as opposed to what the teacher personally believes. The statement “Many Germans thought Hitler a savior” becomes “the Professor said that Hitler was a savior.”  Nor can many of these intellectually challenged youngsters grasp the idea that something can simultaneously be both good and bad. Try explaining that for a statement to be scientifically correct, it must in principle be amenable to falsification. Even a lame joke about affirmative action may be misunderstood as a hostile remark.
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The Overtures Committee’s task is to evaluate the overtures submitted this year by the presbyteries, to revise the overtures (if and where needed), and to make recommendations to the whole of the Assembly as to how best to handle each overture. The OC will present its report and recommendations on Thursday June 23, 2022.

How has the failure of last year’s proposed Book of Church Order (BCO) amendments regarding sexuality affected the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) so far? Some effects are more obvious than others. The most obvious effect to date is the attempt on the part of some presbyteries to offer fresh alternatives to last year’s proposals.
Several presbyteries have produced new overtures to address the ongoing controversy surrounding ministerial qualifications (or disqualifications), so-called Side B Gay Christianity, and the influence of the Revoice Conference. The deadline to overture the 49th General Assembly (GA) to consider amending the BCO passed on April 20th. So far, 31 overtures have been submitted for consideration at the next GA. Six of these overtures seek to amend the BCO in response to the aforementioned controversy. Five proposed amendments seek to replace the 48th General Assembly’s Overture 23 (i.e., Item 2), which failed to pass the 88 presbyteries of the PCA by around 4 votes. One of the new overtures replaces last year’s less popular Overture 37 (i.e., Item 4), which failed to pass the presbyteries by around 11 votes.
It is safe to say that the authors of these new proposed amendments hope that the improved language of these latest overtures will succeed where last year’s proposals have failed. The 49th GA in Birmingham, AL will meet on June 20-24, 2022 to consider these overtures from the presbyteries.
Overture 12
Overture 12 was submitted on March 5, 2022 by Hills and Plains Presbytery, which covers Northwest Arkansas, Southwest Missouri, and all of Oklahoma. It is notable that Hills and Plains Presbytery voted down both Overture 23 (Item 2) and Overture 37 (Item 4) earlier this year at its winter meeting. This year’s Overture 12 proposes an amendment to BCO 16 by adding the following paragraph (underlining indicates language which is proposed as an addition to what is already in the BCO):
16–4. Officers in the Presbyterian Church in America, though sound in the faith and living lives according to godliness, are well served when they can be honest about both their present fallen realities and their hope for sanctification. Their goal is not just consistent fleeing from, and regular resistance to, temptation, but the diminishment and even the end of the occurrences of sinful desires. Desires that are inconsistent with God’s design are to be resisted and mortified, not celebrated or accommodated. To juxtapose identities rooted in sinful desires alongside the term Christian is inconsistent with biblical language and undermines the spiritual reality that they are new creations in Christ. Sometimes there are disagreements about language even when the underlying doctrinal commitments seem to be the same, and how persons express themselves is not finally determinative of their identity.
This overture proposes to amend BCO 16 by adding language from the Report of the Ad Interim Committee on Human Sexuality (AIC). Since the PCA has voted almost unanimously to commend the AIC report, this amendment seems to be an effort to achieve denominational unity by rallying behind the AIC Report. This amendment addresses the issue of sanctification and identity for ordained officers in the PCA.
Overture 15
Overture 15 was submitted on March 12 by Westminster Presbytery, which includes Northeastern Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia. This overture is notable in that it seeks to amend BCO 7 (the general classification of church officers) instead of BCO 16 (the doctrine of vocation). Westminster Presbytery passed both of last year’s proposed amendments. This year’s Overture 15 requests an amendment to BCO 7 by adding the following paragraph:
7-4. Men who identify as homosexual, even those who identify as homosexual and claim to practice celibacy in that self-identification, are disqualified from holding office in the Presbyterian Church in America.
This amendment would disqualify men from office that identify as homosexual. The authors of this amendment argue that ministers of the gospel are to be above reproach in their Christian character and self-conception. This amendment would disqualify a man from serving in ordained office in the PCA if that man identifies himself in terms associated with the LGBTQ+ movement or has a Gay self-conception.
Overtures 20 & 23
Overture 20 was submitted on April 5, 2022 by Northwest Georgia Presbytery. Southeast Alabama Presbytery subsequently sent up Overture 23, which is similar to the overture submitted by Northwest Georgia (differences between the overtures are indicated in boldface, below). Both presbyteries passed the previous round of overtures on sexuality. Overtures20 and 23 recommend an amendment to BCO 16 by adding the following paragraph:
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Even though we wandered from God, He has made a way through Christ’s sacrifice and the Spirit’s indwelling for us to be fully restored to the Manufacturer’s original design. We will experience this through gradual, daily transformation in this life (and the more we cooperate, the greater will be that growth) and then one day we will be exactly like He is. 

God created men and women at the earliest dawn. We are the height of God’s creation, and He made us like no other being. The design of man and his purpose are summed up in one simple verse.
Let us make man in Our image and let him rule… over all the earth (Genesis 1:26)
We were made like no other creature, with a soul and a spirit, so that we might be just like God. And He designed us on purpose, with a purpose: that we might rule over the earth with Him.
Here is the foundational truth about us. Read the following sentence several times.
He made us like He is so we can do what He does!
John’s Testimony
The beloved Apostle, John, testifies in his first letter that God sent Jesus to restore us to God’s original design even though man fell and was separated from God. Christ’s payment for our sins on the cross and our trust in Him brought us back to God. And at the moment of our salvation, He comes to literally live in us through His Spirit. We can now fulfill God’s original purpose. He now says this about true followers of Christ.
“As He is, so also are we in this world.” (1 Jn. 4:17)
We are a “little lower than God,” the Psalmist said (Psalm 8:5), and in our redeemed condition, we have the capacity to rule over this world. Before we were restored to Christ, the world, the flesh, and the devil ruled over us. We were powerless to overcome them. But then, God saved us by His grace and came to indwell us. This transformed us, giving us what we needed to fulfill the original design.
We can allow the world, our flesh, and the devil to rule over us if we are not wise and cooperating with God.
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