Market economies do an amazing job of providing goods and services that we enjoy on a regular basis. A stroll through your favorite supermarket, chain drugstore, or major department store—with countless products on display—clearly illustrates our grand array of choices. When we go to sleep at night, there are literally hundreds of millions of people around the world investing time and energy thinking about us, what we need and want, and how they can produce those things.

I get excited when I can help students appreciate the power of economic forces and understand how market economies work. But at the core of any market system is a concept of value that is egocentric, humanistic, and relativistic. Markets are defined by a sense of value that says, Things are worth what I say they are worth. This poses no little challenge to a Christian professor of economics.

I have come to believe that your greatest strength can also be your greatest weakness, and sometimes a real weakness, in another context, can actually work for you. Such is the case, I believe, with marketplace morality. The greatest weakness of markets is they are morally neutral—they can’t distinguish between penicillin or pornography, peanuts or prostitution, housing or heroin. In 2004 Americans spent $92.8 billion on gambling as compared to $38.7 billion on computers and peripherals. But markets are excellent mirrors for reflecting whatever values people bring to them. If we bring the right values to the marketplace, then that is what will be reflected back to us in the form of goods and services.

Over the last several years, I’ve been trying to synthesize a list of values that transcend pure economic individualism. Are there values that everyone can agree and aspire to? I offer these twelve:

• People are more important than things.
• Treat others as you want to be treated.
• Truth matters at all levels.
• Leave things a little better than you found them.
• People are looking for a cause to live for that is larger than themselves.
• Let freedom ring. (In the best companies, people don’t feel like slaves. They feel that they can have influence.)
• Community counts.
• Good laws will outlive good men.
• Value vocation. (Decide who you want to be, and let that drive what you do.)
• Life is a mix of duty and delight.
• Choice has consequence.
• Keep the core when all else is changing. (People will be better positioned to accept change when they know something isn’t changing fundamentally.)

I’m not suggesting that people have embraced these values to the point where they are fully integrated into economic activity, but people do want to live in an economic world where critical transcendent values operate throughout the system. This requires economic leadership, and leaders who know where to go. Our desire at Wheaton is for students to graduate with a recognition of knowing how to find “true north,” a keen sense for moral direction. It is the only way we can be truly pleased with all the outcomes of the marketplace.

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Dr. Bruce Howard ’74, Professor of Business & Economics, is chair of the business and economics department of Wheaton College. He is a CPA, and earned his Ph.D. in economics and his M.S.A. in accounting from Northern Illinois University. Dr. Howard enjoys spending time with his family, and his hobbies include art, music (guitar and banjo), and playing tennis. He is also currently working on a book that elaborates on his 12 values for a moral marketplace. (The above statement was included at the time of publication — Wheaton Magazine, Winter 2006)

 

Has the pursuit of truth become irrelevant in the 21st century?

Truth matters—now more than ever. In recent years, I have watched the pursuit of truth wane in popular focus as well as intellectual discourse. A generation ago, Dr. Arthur Holmes ’50, M.A. ’52, encouraged graduates of Wheaton College to scrutinize carefully the truth in all realms of intellectual inquiry. Truth must emerge from biblical revelation in concert with the evidence God has proclaimed in His created order. Theory and evidence are married together, creating a symphony of insights that are relevant on and off campus.

I contend that the neglect of truth is potentially catastrophic for world civilizations, for truth is the gravity that draws human beings to the holiness of our Lord. Truth matters even more in a diverse, complex, and violent world for individuals and social systems alike.

Our Lord stated that possessing the truth makes us free. There has never been a riper time for Christians to pursue knowledge and truth than in this age of confusion. Talk shows promulgate specious ideas without sanctions. Other media outlets regress to levels of simplicity that often border on stupidity. Prophetic voices are muted by vacuous sound bites and petty sensationalism throughout popular culture. Like an epidemic of
obesity for the mind caused by the junk food of ideas, we languish in confusion as great visions and ideals atrophy under the oppression of relativism or the utter foolishness of dogmatism. The Columbia University historian, Jacques Barzun, has suggested in a recent monograph that our civilization has moved toward moral decadence. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned us generations ago about living in an age of guided missiles and misguided human beings.

Into this conceptual chaos, the students of Wheaton College must be educated to pursue truth, while recognizing the inherent biases, limitations, wounds, and pathologies of the human condition. Redemption must triumph over idiocy. Truth crushed to the ground must rise again (by tomoson). Good must prevail over evil, as Dr. Roger Depue (a Christian and former organizational leader of the FBI’s legendary Behavioral Science Unit) concludes in his recent book, Between Good and Evil, after decades of confronting the most horrendous evils among humankind.

At Wheaton, the legacy of Drs. Art Holmes, Merrill C. Tenney HON, Sam Schultz HON, Zondra Lindblade ’55, Norman Ewert, Donald Lake ’59, M.A. ’60, and many others, has created an intergenerational tapestry of truth where the integration of faith and learning can extend Christ’s kingdom to the problems of urban schools, crime, missions, inequalities, and churches.

Truth always matters at Wheaton College.

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Dr. Henry Lee Allen ’77, Professor of Sociology, teaches courses on the sociology of education, criminology, and urban sociology. He has consulted with the National Education Association, the FBI Academy, the American Bible Society, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the Federal Correctional Facility in Pekin (Ill.), the Kettering Foundation, and the Aspen Institute. Dr. Allen has published many scholarly articles about the sociology of higher education and faith and learning. (The above statement was included at the time of publication — Wheaton Magazine, Spring 2007)

As an education professor, I am frequently asked about the three types of educational opportunities: homeschooling, public schools, and private schools—each of which I believe is viable and valuable.

My own experience included a private Christian elementary school, public high school, a private Christian college, and a public university. My children attended public school until they enrolled at Wheaton. Our experiences have been rich and stimulating for academic, social, and spiritual growth. In these settings, we have encountered gifted Christian and non-Christian teachers who challenged our faith by helping us examine what we believe and why we believe it.

When asked to recommend one of these forms of schooling, I encourage parents to examine their own educational views and their child’s characteristics in order to find the best fit. Similarly, when education students ask where to begin their profession, I respond that they need to prayerfully match their educational philosophy with their own God-given personality He calls some to private schools and others to public schools. And often the call changes within a career.

Having offered this advice, I am frequently asked to defend my support of public education. Not only have I attended and taught in public schools, I consider it to be a vital area of service today.

First, the vast diversity in public schools includes both Christian and non-Christian students.While Christian teachers need to demonstrate God’s love to non-Christian families and colleagues, they also offer an important ministry by affirming Christian students for their core belief and values. Respecting every student requires that these individuals’ views be heard in the marketplace of ideas. In caring for all learners, Christian teachers in public schools can provide a model of Christianity in action for a student who might otherwise feel marginalized in a secular world.

Second, public schools offer an opportunity to reflect Christ’s love to students of all economic levels. Christ calls us to meet the needs of the poor. Public schools are increasingly the only option for our poorest students.They (like all students) deserve the most committed and compassionate teachers.

Economic hardship often creates the need for stability. When Steve Mcllrath ’93 began his teaching career at a public high school on Chicago’s west side, his young math students questioned whether he would still be there when they graduated. During his ten years there, Steve has seen nine principals and almost 50 other math teachers come and go (by rhonda). As the epitome of a Christian teacher who serves faithfully in a public school, Steve is much more to me than a former student; he is my hero.

Dr.Jillian Nerhus Lederhouse ’75, Associate Professor of Education, began teaching courses at Wheaton in 1978 while still an elementary teacher in the Chicago public schools. She joined Wheaton’s faculty full-time in 1989 and currently serves as coordinator of the elementary/middle grades program. Recipient of the 2001 Senior Faculty Achievement Award, she has been published in several education journals addressing topics ranging from classroom management to assessment and Christian teachers in public schools. She holds a B.A.from Wheaton, an M. Ed.from DePaul University, and a Ph.D. from University of Illinois at Chicago. She and her husband, Wheaton swimming coach Jon Lederhouse ’74, have three children. (Wheaton Magazine, Winter 2005).

At the request of President Duane Litfin, an Arts Task Force is considering the place of the arts at Wheaton. While Dean George Arasimowicz puts the finishing touches on the first report, we continue to address unimaginable changes in the arts—changes we are trying to take stock of when we consider the trajectory of arts education at a world-class undergraduate institution.

So what has changed? This is no surprise, but technology has changed. Plans are under way for new sound, lights, and a projection system for Edman Chapel. Conservatory faculty members are already gearing up to use this system to project subtitles of text- based music performances. We will use it to lead congregational song (words with music, if I have anything to say about it). We will use it to reintroduce visual art to worship. And we will use it to communicate with Wheaton friends in the far corners of the world through the Web.

Then, the Chicago Tribune recently published an article titled “The Spirit Moves Them.” The subtitle reads, “Sacred dance troupes transcend the boundaries of worship.” I’ll never forget my experience with movement at a worship conference in Berlin several years ago. The Praise Dance Ministry of Friendship-West Baptist Church, Dallas, danced to a song called “Total Praise.” The African-American church is taking the lead in this area. And movement is just one art form among many being used in the quest for authentic, intimate worship.

Attitudes have changed, too. My son Patrick, a Wheaton College freshman, is one example. Pat wants to be a filmmaker. He’s exploring films as diverse as Babette’s Feast and Traffic. In Berlin, the only thing he wanted to see was the Picasso exhibit. His tastes in music range from Shostakovich to Smashing Pumpkins. At the theater, it’s Shakespeare. He wouldn’t think of limiting his engagement with the arts to one stylistic or technical portal. The world of the arts is just too rich and diverse. And Patrick isn’t so unusual.

Have you heard the latest recording by banjo virtuoso Bela Reck? It’s called Perpetual Motion—a recording of collaborations with the great violinist Joshua Bell, marimbist Evelyn Glennie, and others. No, it’s not bluegrass—this time—but intelligent, artistic transcriptions of standard works by classical composers. Then there’s Ben Heppner, arguably one of the greatest dramatic tenors of our time. Ben and I sat at dinner one evening last fall with our vocal studies chair, Carolyn Hart, and reminisced about the old John W. Peterson cantatas we sang during our formative years.

I want to let you in on a little secret. In a way, I wish music study at Wheaton could be done from an observatory instead of a Conservatory. Our students and faculty are involved in so many exciting things. Keyboard Chair William Phemister is devising a graduate degree in arts ministry. Gerard Sundberg sang the Messiah with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra last December (by tomoson). Lee Joiner, Kathleen Kastner ’71, Curtis Funk, and Howard Whitaker ’63 participated in the inaugural season of the International Improvisation Institute, collaborating with Ken Medema, Charlie Peacock, Jake Armerding ’00, and others.

I just told a student this morning that it’s a great time to work in the arts. Our culture is receptive to the arts. And the church is poised, more than at any time in recent history, to use the arts for Christ and His kingdom. This is why we are so excited to be expanding our arts horizons.

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Tony Payne ’79 is director of the Conservatory of Music and associate professor of music. He holds degrees from Wheaton (B.Mus.), Bowling Green State (N.Mus.), and Northwestern University (D.M.A.). Recent compositions include “Hold on to Hope” (Carl Fischer CM4689), and a new setting of “Give Thanks to God on High” for the Wheaton College Men’s Glee Club. The LIttle Match Girl was most recently staged in 1999. He has been a co-editor of two cross-cultural hymnbooks and has written dozens of songs and hymns. (Wheaton Magazine, Winter 2002)