Written by Perry L. Glanzer |
Friday, May 3, 2024
We must teach our students to work hard to empathize with and understand others. Students need many prior Christian virtues, such as humility, self-control, and gentleness, before learning and applying these skills. Yet, at the same time, we must not shy away from teaching our students to identify fools, offer reasons for their foolishness, and yes be willing to avoid or exclude them when appropriate. 

Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless.— Dietrich Bonhoeffer1
Like snow in summer or rain in harvest,honor is not fitting for a fool.Prov. 26:1 (NIV)
This post will demonstrate that I do not believe the last sentence of Bonhoeffer’s quote above. I contend we are not defenseless against stupidity or what the Bible calls fools and foolishness. I think our defense can start by identifying fools and foolish ideas and offering clear reasons why they are foolish. Ideally, Christians in universities should help with this process.
Yet, I must confess that I don’t help my students identify fools and foolishness as well as I should. The likely reason is that I’ve absorbed the cultural pressure to be nice that I described recently. I don’t think I’m alone. According to the Google N-gram, we have talked less about “fool,” “fools” “foolish,” and “foolishness” ever since the 1930s.
I would hypothesize that the declining use of these words stems from the dominance in our culture of sentimentality, by which I mean excessive tenderness and niceness. For Christians, it may involve the erroneous assumption that we need to be “nicer” than both God and Scripture or perhaps an erroneous view that we should avoid that kind of “demeaning” language.2 That sort of foolish niceness is a vice and a way our culture has deformed us.
After all, biblical wisdom literature is quite clear that the path to wisdom entails learning to identify fools and foolish ideas. Yet, we often avoid this part. For example, how many times have you heard Proverbs 1:7a in Christian discussions about education, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,” but you never hear the second part quoted, “but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Indeed, I cannot recall a time I have heard the second part quoted in these contexts.
The wise and diligent know how to identify fools, help others identify them, and avoid them (Prov. 14:7, “Stay away from a fool, for you will not find knowledge on their lips”). Indeed, Jesus and Paul freely identified fools and foolish ideas (Mt. 7:24-26; Mt. 25; Luke 10; Gal. 3:1, 3, etc.). Christian education should help with these tasks. I was reminded of this important endeavor when rereading the philosophy of education by one of the greatest Christian educators, John Amos Comenius:
We do not choose parasites, fools, or buffoons, but serious, wise, and pious men as tutors for the sons of our kings and princes. Should we not blush, therefore, when we confide the education of the sons of the King of kings, of the brothers of Christ and heirs of eternity, to the jesting Plautus, the lascivious Catullus, the impure Ovid, that impious mocker at God, Lucian, the obscene Martial, and the rest of the writers who are ignorant of the true God?3
Comenius is simply applying and expanding upon Proverbs 14:7 in his day. We should make sure our young students are equipped with the Christian critical thinking they need to identify fools before having them read fools.
To help students identify and critically analyze fools we must dig deeper than surface level impressions to expose foolishness.
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If Christ has done everything, if justification is by grace, without contributory works; it is received by faith’s empty hands — then assurance, even “full assurance” is possible for every believer. No wonder Bellarmine thought full, free, unfettered grace was dangerous! No wonder the Reformers loved the letter to the Hebrews!

Let us begin with a church history exam question. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621) was a figure not to be taken lightly. He was Pope Clement VIII’s personal theologian and one of the most able figures in the Counter-Reformation movement within sixteenth-century Roman Catholicism. On one occasion, he wrote: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is _______ .” Complete, explain, and discuss Bellarmine’s statement.
How would you answer? What is the greatest of all Protestant heresies? Perhaps justification by faith? Perhaps Scripture alone, or one of the other Reformation watchwords?
Those answers make logical sense. But none of them completes Bellarmine’s sentence. What he wrote was: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is assurance.”
A moment’s reflection explains why. If justification is not by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone — if faith needs to be completed by works; if Christ’s work is somehow repeated; if grace is not free and sovereign, then something always needs to be done, to be “added” for final justification to be ours. That is exactly the problem. If final justification is dependent on something we have to complete it is not possible to enjoy assurance of salvation. For then, theologically, final justification is contingent and uncertain, and it is impossible for anyone (apart from special revelation, Rome conceded) to be sure of salvation. But if Christ has done everything, if justification is by grace, without contributory works; it is received by faith’s empty hands — then assurance, even “full assurance” is possible for every believer.
No wonder Bellarmine thought full, free, unfettered grace was dangerous! No wonder the Reformers loved the letter to the Hebrews!
This is why, as the author of Hebrews pauses for breath at the climax of his exposition of Christ’s work (Heb. 10:18), he continues his argument with a Paul-like “therefore” (Heb. 10:19). He then urges us to “draw near … in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22). We do not need to re-read the whole letter to see the logical power of his “therefore.”
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Written by Gary L. Welton |
Monday, April 18, 2022
Data collected from individuals in about 150 countries through the Gallup World Poll, and summarized by the World Happiness Report, provides an answer to this question. In at least one way, we have changed for the better. This survey, conducted annually since 2006, includes three questions about altruistic behavior. Respondents are asked to indicate their behavior in donating to charity, helping a stranger, and volunteering. Answers to all three questions, across every part of the globe, increased by about 25%. During these challenging times, we have become less self-focused, and behaved in ways that showed more love and concern for others.

For the first time in our lives, we have experienced a universal international event, known as Covid-19. The World Series doesn’t come close to being a global event. The World Cup and the Olympics are much more global, but even these events bypass certain parts of the globe (and many around us have no interest in these sporting events). All of us, however, have been impacted by Covid-19. We have all, at times, been wearing masks, monitoring our social distancing, and discussing the pros and cons of various treatments and vaccines.
This pandemic has wrought tragedy in so many ways. We have seen more than six million Covid deaths across the globe, with a disproportionate number in the United States, where we are approaching one million deaths. In addition, there was a surge in alcohol-related deaths in 2020. We have seen heightened levels of anxiety and depression associated with the social distancing, an increased sense of vulnerability, and a loss of perceived control. This has occurred in conjunction with issues of social justice, an opioid crisis, and Putin’s attack on the country of Ukraine.
It is certainly a troubling time to be alive, yet my mother always said that above every cloud, the sun shines. Where can I find that silver lining?
Data collected from individuals in about 150 countries through the Gallup World Poll, and summarized by the World Happiness Report, provides an answer to this question. In at least one way, we have changed for the better.
This survey, conducted annually since 2006, includes three questions about altruistic behavior. Respondents are asked to indicate their behavior in donating to charity, helping a stranger, and volunteering. Answers to all three questions, across every part of the globe, increased by about 25%. During these challenging times, we have become less self-focused, and behaved in ways that showed more love and concern for others.
I have observed such behavior as I saw people donating their stimulus checks to those who needed the money more than they did. I have seen offering numbers within my local church and across my denomination increase in unexpected ways. This survey indicates that we have become more willing, not only to help our brother, but also to help strangers. Yes, I am my brother’s keeper, but also, “we are the world,” and we have indicated that our concerns and behaviors have broadened to the helping of strangers at this difficult time.
Now, as we are anticipating yet another Covid wave in the United States, based on increases across Europe and in certain parts of Asia, and as we see inflation approaching 10%, we realize that our struggles pale in comparison to the citizens of Ukraine. European countries in general, and Poland in particular, have risen to the challenge, welcoming refugees by the hundreds of thousands, even by the millions, demonstrating that not only are we our brother’s keeper, but we are also a keeper of the strangers across the globe.
The Covid years have been a deadly era, and I speak as one who lost a close family member, and as one who grieves with students, classmates, church colleagues, and many friends. In comparison, the Ukraine invasion has totally disrupted the lives of an entire region of Europe. This is an era that will live in infamy.
Yet, there is a silver lining. If we respond by reducing our radical individualism, to demonstrate more concern for our brothers, our neighbors, and the strangers around the world, there will be a lasting positive impact, in the midst of human tragedy. Let’s all accept this challenge.
Dr. Gary L. Welton is assistant dean for institutional assessment, professor of psychology at Grove City College, and a contributor to the Institute for Faith & Freedom. He is a recipient of a major research grant from the Templeton Foundation to investigate positive youth development. Use with permission.