A Show of Faith
Millennial, Priest, Minister, and Rabbi walk into a radio station...
A Show of Faith
December 1, 2024 Advent Anticipation, Education's Purpose, and the Influence of Cultural Marxism
Unlock the mysteries of Advent and its profound significance in the liturgical calendar. Discover how this sacred season not only marks the beginning of the liturgical year but also serves as a time for preparation and reflection. We'll decode the symbolism of the Advent wreath and explore the thematic readings that are central to this season, providing insights into how these traditions mold the spiritual rhythm of the Catholic Church. Our episode paints a vivid picture of how anticipation and preparation during Advent are deeply intertwined with the coming of Christ and eschatological themes.
Ever wondered about the difference between education and training? Prepare to uncover the nuances that set them apart and the implications this distinction has on our modern educational landscape. Education is more than a mere destination—it's a journey in pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, while training zeroes in on specific skills for practical application. We'll reflect on the cultural shift towards career-oriented education and its impact on the liberal arts, weighing the importance of being both well-trained and well-educated to tackle life's complex challenges.
Take a step into the intricate world of Marxism as we trace its evolution from economic theories to cultural phenomena, including the often-debated idea of cultural Marxism. We'll examine how these theories identify societal power structures and address controversial topics like critical race theory and postmodernism's influence on contemporary issues, including transgenderism. This episode not only critiques the fragmentation of education but also delves into how these themes intersect with religious and moral perspectives, offering a lens through which to view the ongoing crisis of moral standards and the quest for a unifying truth.
And then he is ain't exactly clear.
Speaker 2:The man with the gun over there.
Speaker 1:Telling me well, well, I got to be there. Nowadays, if they did that song on the radio, there's a man with a pew pew over there. Pew pew, yeah. You can't say gun. Why? Because Tik Tok or whoever will censor you.
Speaker 3:Pew pew.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:Battle lines being drawn.
Speaker 2:Nobody's right If everybody's wrong.
Speaker 1:Young people speak in their minds.
Speaker 2:They're getting so much resistance From behind Can you stop.
Speaker 3:Hey, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down.
Speaker 1:Welcome to A Show of Faith where professor, priest, millennial and rabbi discuss theology and philosophy and anything else of interest in religion. If you have any response to our topics or any comments regarding what we say, we would love to hear from you. Please email us at ashowoffaithathotmailcom. You can hear our shows again and again by listening pretty much anywhere podcasts are heard. Our priest is Fr Mario Arroyo, retired pastor of St Cyril of Alexandria, the 10,000 block of Westheimer, and honored to be with you. Our professor is David Capes, Baptist minister and director of academic programming for the Lanier Theological Library. But, as I keep saying, we are real priest, real minister, real rabbi, and we get called away. So David cannot be here tonight. We miss him and I'm sure everything's going well with those he is helping.
Speaker 1:Rudy Cohn is our millennial. He's a systems engineer, has his master's degree in theology from the University of St Thomas. Howdy, howdy, Howdy, howdy. I am Rabbi Stuart Federo, retired rabbi from Congregation Jarar HaShalom in the Clear Lake area of Houston, Texas. Jim Robinson is our producer and engineer. He's the author of the book I Am With you Always, Matthew 2820, a daily devotional. Corey and Miranda are our board operators and together, Jim and Miranda and Corey help us sound fantastic. So tonight lead-off question Well, what is an Advent calendar? What is an Advent candle and, parenthetically, what is Advent? Okay, and parenthetically, what is advent okay?
Speaker 2:very quickly, just yes, I know it's not your topic, just hijacked my topic, but that's okay. The catholic church does not run on a year calendar like normal january to december. We run on what's called the liturgical calendar, and the liturgical calendar dictates the readings that are going to be present or proclaimed throughout the world on Sundays and the whole theme of what's going on. The church has, on Sundays, a three-year cycle, so that one year we hear the Gospel of Matthew, one year we hear the Gospel of Luke, one year we hear the Gospel of Mark. Now the Gospel of John does not have its own year because we use John every year, interspersed with the other three gospels.
Speaker 2:So when does the liturgical year start? Liturgical year starts on the first Sunday of Advent. What is Advent? Advent? The word Advent comes from the word adveniat, meaning he is coming, meaning he is coming. Then in Spanish, veni means to come, so he is coming. And so during the season of Advent, the first, the beginning of the liturgical year is always the first Sunday of Advent, which is four Sundays prior to December 25th.
Speaker 1:Hence the four candles on an Advent candle.
Speaker 2:Right, so Advent wreath, so you take the day of Christmas and then you count four Sundays back and that's the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the liturgical year. It's officially a season of preparation or penitence, but it's actually more preparation, of reflection, it's penitence, like the one before Easter. Yes, that's it. That's why, both during the liturgical year, the Catholic Church, the priest and the church is decorated in purple before and during Advent, which is the preparation for Christmas, and Lent, which is the preparation for Easter. And so it's a color, a deep color, a deep color of reflection, of penitence, of getting ready.
Speaker 2:Okay, so in the custom of the Catholic churches, we commemorate or observe the Advent season by having an Advent wreath, advent season by having an advent wreath. And if you ever want to look, look in, look at amazon or actually look at any browser, and just put advent wreath and you'll see what it is. It's four candles, three of them are purple and one of them is rose color or pink. Okay, yes, and so the pink one is the middle sunday. So we always celebrate the pink one, the pink Sunday, on the third Sunday of Advent, and the reason is that in the middle of each of Lent and of Advent, the church marks the middle of that season by mixing purple and white, and what you get with purple and white, you get a kind of a pink, okay, and so that pink is called Rejoice Sunday and we use the word in Latin, called Gaudete in Advent or Laetare in Lent.
Speaker 1:Okay, and you called it an Advent wreath, but what I saw in the pictures are Advent, I'm sorry, are four candles, that's right.
Speaker 2:They're put in a circle, and usually they're surrounded by yes, they were in a circle.
Speaker 1:Okay, so when I think of a wreath, I think you know people's doors. Yeah, okay now imagine a wreath, but put it on the table, okay and four candles and put the four candles around it Of the two colors Right right, that's right.
Speaker 2:So that's what we're, that's what we just. This is the first Sunday of Advent. But what's crazy, crazy, crazy. If you don't, if you're not quite liturgically adept, when you come to the church on the first Sunday of Advent, you think, oh, preparation for Christmas, and the readings are beware, as the time comes near, for there will be wars and rumors of wars and the terrors will come on the world, and then you will see the Son of man coming and you're going. You're finishing that gospel reading and you're going. Oh, by the way, merry Christmas.
Speaker 2:But actually the situation is this that what the church is celebrating is not only the preparation of Christmas. We celebrate the waiting for the Lord, as we see the waiting for the Lord, the way you are waiting for the Messiah, and then we celebrate those first two weeks. We see the waiting for the Lord, the way you are waiting for the Messiah, and then we celebrate those first two weeks. The first two weeks are always the waiting for the coming of the Son of man at the end of time, and the second two weeks are the looking forward to the birth of the Messiah from the Jewish people.
Speaker 1:Okay, and it is also called Advent for Easter. No it's called Lent, lent, lent for Easter, advent for Christmas. That's right. Okay. Now forgive me, but in Hallmark movies, some of them have an Advent calendar. Yes, okay, but they're not wreaths, they're not candles.
Speaker 2:No, that's just a different custom. They're calendars counting the four weeks of Advent, and what you do is you open up.
Speaker 4:Right chocolate or something.
Speaker 2:Some chocolate, or some are telling you to say a prayer, all kinds of different stuff. It's just a way of marking the time, the time Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I see that a lot in not all but some Hallmark movies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's a Catholic thing, you know yes.
Speaker 1:It's Catholic Right. Rudy, do you have memories of an Advent calendar? Or they don't do that in Guatemala.
Speaker 6:No, we do, and it's actually quite a tradition that most so. When you go to a church just I mean, this is any church really in the world you'll see what Father Mario's talking about this wreath right with the four candles. So they'll light one of the candles Every week, every week, and so normally something that we do here is we have our own sort of mini-reef with our own candles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have one in my house, I bought it from Amazon Right, hey, amazon has everything.
Speaker 6:So I don't think it's a very I don't know if that's a Hispanic thing, father Mario, or if it's like no, no, the Advent calendar is pretty much universal.
Speaker 2:What's Hispanic is the Posadas, which is what Right Do you want to describe the Posadas, rudy?
Speaker 6:I mean, is it a food? Yeah, I guess.
Speaker 2:The Posadas no, Go ahead. Rudy Describe the Pasadas.
Speaker 6:Well, so the Pasada how we it's kind of like during the nine days leading up to Christmas. It's pretty much like it's like a place or like a. I don't know, some people do like a.
Speaker 1:You're faltering In the church or in the home.
Speaker 6:I've been in Guatemala too long. I feel like I'm forgetting English. It's like a procession.
Speaker 1:In the church.
Speaker 2:No, it can be anywhere. It's a folk tradition, just a way of commemorating the trip that Joseph made from Nazareth to. Bethlehem, yeah, and they go around in different places and they knock on the doors and oh, you can't stay here, you can't stay here you can't stay here, and there's people praying different prayers and then you get to the end of it and they have some hot chocolate and stuff like that, right of course. And so you go until the final night of the Posada and then they let you in, they let you in.
Speaker 2:yeah, they let you in.
Speaker 1:They let you in. Yeah, they let you in. That's interesting. I've never heard that custom before.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, some people have pinatas and other things too while they're doing this whole thing. So it just it's. Some people really make a whole party out of it too, like, at the end it's a thing, it's a big thing.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, All right, so Advent is the four weeks for Sundays preceding the 25th of December for Christmas. That is correct.
Speaker 2:And it means the coming like an Advent Advent. Advent Advent means he is coming. Okay, All right.
Speaker 1:Calendar candles Okay.
Speaker 2:See, here's people at the Posada, as I'm showing you a picture right. There's people at no, these are everywhere. Oh, this is if you put in the word posada, p-o-s-a-d-a. In in in any google or anything, and then just ask it to give us, give you images and you'll see all kinds of images of the posada. All right, now have you finished stealing my time? I just, well, we might as well just forget it, because right now we've got two minutes before I'll start with my subject. Well, you should tease the audience, okay.
Speaker 1:Ooh baby, Not what I meant.
Speaker 2:Father, baby, not what I meant tonight. Tonight we're going to talk about the difference between education and training. Now, that's what I want to now, granted, there's meanings of words change. The meanings of words change all the time, okay, but I would like to use a different organization in order for us to understand the difference between being educated and being trained. See, the word educated comes from the word to lead, for example, ed, ed, but dukated means comes from the, the. The center of the word is du, ct, duct, to conduct. Okay, edge means to bleed someone and to conduct them now, and the education is usually um, education is more, more of a liberal arts, and we're going to talk about that, the difference between liberal arts. It's an end in itself. It is not done for anything other reason other than for you to deepen your understanding of being human and of culture. Training is to help you to get a job With a specific goal in mind.
Speaker 2:That's right. So we're going to be talking about the difference between education and training, right, and we'll get into that when we come back. This is knth 1070 and we'll be right back am 1070 the answer.
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Speaker 1:And together we will see how lovely heaven will be Welcome back to A Show of Faith. On AM 1070 Answer.
Speaker 2:Okay, we're going to be talking about the difference between education and training. Now, granted, there can be these days many different meanings attached to those words, but at the same time, I'm going to just make but words have specific meanings, not necessarily, I don't think you can play around sometimes.
Speaker 1:But words evolve. Yes, they do evolve.
Speaker 2:They evolve in meaning Okay, and especially the word education and training. Let me give you an example. Because the word education it's interesting because, as I told you during the break, interesting because, as I told you during the break, the word education, if you hear the word in, in the center, d, u, c, k, duck, adduct, occasion okay, it means to, to lead. That's where we get the word conduct, adductation. Okay, so education is to lead someone to a specific destination, for its own sake. Education, now, training, is different. Training is to get you to develop a specific skill. Okay, a skill. Education is not training in a skill, it's. It's it. Basically, now, I'm making some fine distinction. Okay, there's some overlapping. So, what is education? Now, education, I'm going to talk about it in terms of what's called liberal arts. Now, what am I? What is a liberal arts? See, in the medieval period there was a distinction between in Latin it's called the artes liberales and the artes serviles. And what's the Artes serviles? Okay, basically, liberal arts and service arts, service, service arts.
Speaker 2:That's interesting Service arts, service, service arts. Okay, now the artes serviles and the artes liberales. What are our liberal arts today? Let me give you the example. Basically, they're the humanities Right. English theater.
Speaker 5:We're talking about.
Speaker 2:English fine arts language, philosophy, literature, psychology, sociology, music, journalism, communications, art, history and literature. Those are all what's called the humanities. Now the training is, it can go all the way from being an excellent bricklayer all the way to being a neurosurgeon, because it's specific to a skill A skill, it's a skill
Speaker 2:to help you, that you, because it's specific to a skill, a skill, it's a skill to help you that you can use that skill to make money. Okay, now I have to remind you of something that's funny. About 10 years ago, I was visiting my nephew at Colorado State University and he was giving me a tour of the campus and he was taking me to all the different buildings. You know, there's the architecture building and there's the science, the astrophysics and the physics building, and there's the chemistry building, right, and there are all kinds of these huge buildings. And then we were walking by a tiny little kind of a house, almost like a residential house, that had been converted into an office, and I said, well, what's this? Somebody lives here.
Speaker 2:And he says no, that's the liberal arts department, the whole department, the whole department Right Now. Why am I saying this? Because what we have done as a culture is we have turned college not into education but into training. You go to college. If you ask most kids today, why do they go to college? To get a better job. They're not interested in education, they're interested in being trained.
Speaker 1:Mario, when you and I went to college, what was the purpose, the stated purpose of college.
Speaker 2:To broaden. It's interesting because here's the name liberal arts. It's liberating. Let me give you an example. If you're in a small room and a bedroom and all you've ever seen is that bedroom, you're going to think the whole world is that little bedroom Right? If somebody takes you out and conducts you, educates you and takes you to a bigger room and a bigger and a bigger until we get to the point that's right. What is happening? Your world is being liberated you're being okay.
Speaker 1:But but that's liberal arts I'm. My question is that is education, college in general. What was its purpose? To liberate you from ignorance? Ah, from ignorance, that's correct. The way it was always explained to me is that up through high school, early, early school, was experiential, middle school, high school, was factual. You learn the facts. You learn who, what, when, where, why. Okay, maybe less why, but a little why. But when you went to college, it was to learn to think critically. That's correct. To be able to take what you've learned and the knowledge and the facts and whatever, and be able to see something new and, from that education, critique it. That's correct.
Speaker 2:Not anymore, not anymore, but we'll talk about that a little, a little bit more when we come back. Okay, we're going to go to a break. Right now, this is 1070 knth and we will continue our discussion on the other side am 1070 and fm 1033 the answer I can't get my computer to work.
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Speaker 1:Welcome back to A Show of Faith.
Speaker 2:I want to just take a little more time to talk about, because I think what we're being inundated with these days is a lot of training, and the sad part about it is that there's very little education in terms of the understanding of human life. You see, education. Let me read to you just some characteristics of the educated person. According to my understanding of education, this is An educated person has a deep understanding of themselves and how they fit into the world. They possess soft skills such as complex problem solving, creativity, entrepreneurship, self-management and lifelong learning. They develop their own aptitudes and interests. A person is educated when they are literate, cultured and aware and appreciates the arts and comports themselves in a calm and comfortable manner.
Speaker 1:That's educated.
Speaker 2:That's educated. A trained person is one who is someone who has been taught the skills and the knowledge to do for a particular job or activity. Now, please understand this is not saying that one is better than the other. I would argue that if you are educated but not trained in anything, you're going to have a hard time getting a job. Okay, You've got to be trained in something.
Speaker 1:Okay, right, but if you're well-educated, usually you can apply. You can apply, yes.
Speaker 2:But there's a lot of people who are very well-trained but are not educated Right, and that's the forte of our culture.
Speaker 1:The forte is because what they're being trained for really isn't even a job.
Speaker 2:It's to execute what is wished for by the consumers, by the woke, because the college campuses are not but you're going into the immediate, right now, for example, if you go into engineering, or if you go into architecture or medical school that's why we need to stay before we go into the woke issue, but we need to stay in the concept the distinction between education and training, and the training can be for STEM, but what training is there when you're doing liberal arts?
Speaker 1:Are you trained to be a college professor? You could be.
Speaker 2:For example, I am well-educated. I am not well-trained, but I have been educated, but I use my education.
Speaker 1:Mario, in your Catholic training as a priest yeah, your training as a priest were you taught how to teach? Were you taught how to teach? Were you taught?
Speaker 2:how to do a lesson plan, but I was taught how to say mass that's my point, I was that's the skill, that's the training, that's not the education. That's right, but the education is the higher part and the training is the lower part. These days have the inversion. You have people who are highly trained and very minimally educated.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Ed Rudy, you want to jump into this?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're more recently in the education than we are.
Speaker 6:Okay. So you guys were talking about STEM and I thought about when I was doing my engineering degree, I quite and this was at Texas A&M, and I quite liked the way that there was a lot of let's call it like theory, right. So when you look at, for example, optimization models, okay, you look at all these variables and you want to, let's say, optimize a production line, like okay, wonderful, these variables, and you want to, let's say, optimize a production line, like okay, wonderful. So you look at these equations and you do this and you run the theories and you, you know, you write some code and boom, you know you have to, you find the bottleneck and you do this right. But this is what I like. That we did as part of the process for us graduating the last, last year of the school, one of the main courses that we took was that they would pair a group of us with a company, for example, schlumberger Exxon. That could be cool. That could be really cool, yeah.
Speaker 2:But that's still training.
Speaker 6:Well, so I think so when I think about it, and I think so. To me the education came in to understand all the theoretical aspects of this right Like what exactly am I looking at? I have to be educated in the process, for example, that I'm trying to optimize.
Speaker 2:I would argue, Rudy, that that is still part of your training.
Speaker 1:I would argue, Rudy, that that is still part of your training.
Speaker 2:See, I identify education more with the humanities, and they're both really important. For example, if I have to have a heart bypass surgery, I do not want a well-educated person, I want a highly trained surgeon Absolutely.
Speaker 6:We want a surgeon that's done that operation 200 times, that's right. 300 times, 500 times a day.
Speaker 2:That's right. But I have met medical doctors and I have met other very highly trained architects, engineers, people whose education is minimal. They don't know anything about philosophy, literature.
Speaker 1:And for what they do they don't have to. No, but that's the problem.
Speaker 2:But no, here's the problem. Yeah, the problem is what they do is not their entire lives. They are not educated in order to face the problems of life.
Speaker 1:And that is the education that people need to find meaning in their lives. That is correct.
Speaker 6:No, Father Mario, but that's education from a very Catholic perspective.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think so. What did he say? A very Catholic perspective? Oh, I'm done. No, I disagree with you. I agree with think so. What did he say? A very Catholic perspective? Oh I'm done. No, I disagree with you. I disagree with you there.
Speaker 6:No, Well, I would expand that a little bit to a perspective that views that has a transcendent moral dimension.
Speaker 2:That is correct. That is correct In other words okay, a religious perspective. A religious perspective.
Speaker 6:Let's say a religious perspective.
Speaker 2:Well, and remember what we mean by religion. Reconnecting to God and to each other, no, not just to God, god as you understand him. Okay, mainly because a lot of people.
Speaker 5:See, I would argue that even atheists have religion.
Speaker 2:It's a religion, All right. Okay, Because what you're dealing with is how are you going to answer the basic questions of the human condition? Where do I come from? Does my life have any purpose?
Speaker 5:Why am I here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, does the human being have any purpose? See, for example, an engineer can build you a wonderful car. A mechanical engineer can build you a wonderful car A bridge, a building, but they cannot tell you what to use it for, right.
Speaker 2:What's it for Right? What's the point of this? Okay, tell you what to use it for, right. What's it for right? What's the point of this? Okay, and so that's my, my only issue is you can have all the training that you want, but if you don't know what to use it for, and not only that when you a lot, your life begins to pass before your eyes or you begin to enter a crisis of meaning and you ask yourself yourself what is this for? Your engineering is not going to help you a whole lot.
Speaker 1:It's not going to help you a lot. It may help pay the bills at the hospital.
Speaker 2:It's not going to help you in the hospital, no but then your life is going down the drain because you have no sense of meaning. You have not studied the tradition of humankind, and I think by the way.
Speaker 1:This is a lot of the reasons why people later in life kind of look around and think maybe I've been wasting things.
Speaker 2:Maybe I've got a problem here, exactly.
Speaker 6:Comment Rudy. Yeah, you know, I think back to when I was doing the master's courses, right, a lot of what I thought I was like and I don't mean to sound facetious, but I was like what the heck am I going to use this for? Right? I mean, of course I was on the radar and I get to talk to you guys and of course it had a more sort of imminent utility for me, right. But to your point, it's not like I'm sitting here like nobody's going to hire a theologian to go work at a consulting group to optimize their system right, but, rudy, doesn't that mean you were more education than training?
Speaker 2:When he got his master's in theology.
Speaker 6:yeah, but I will say this I think that from a human perspective, I think it allowed me to understand and communicate with clients and people better, the more I understand about the sort of human condition.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 6:The more I understand about how humans work.
Speaker 2:In a fundamental way, a liberal arts degree is useless. Now understand what I mean by that. Understand what I mean by that. It does not have a specific use. The use of a liberal arts degree, whatever it is in, is an end in itself. It is wisdom. It's supposed to be. It's wisdom.
Speaker 1:Don't get into the woke stuff yet. No, I'm not. I'm saying that when you get a theater degree, it's to either teach theater or to be in a theater. Yeah, but I would argue that's theater degree it's to either teach theater or to be in a theater, yeah, behind the scenes, or no, no, but that's that's.
Speaker 2:I would argue, that's training. That's my point, you're saying it's only education. No, I'm, I'm talking about education, which is philosophy, literature, all the the humanities. Okay, now you can get it is human. No, you could. Theater production, that's the fine arts production, lighting and all that kind of stuff. That's not, that's training. That's the fine arts production. Lighting and all that kind of stuff, that's training. That's not education.
Speaker 1:I think there's an overlap there.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't disagree that there's an overlap A couple minutes. Yeah, yeah, there's an overlap, but in and of itself there's a joke which is, by the way, I have my BA in liberal arts. That's actually my BA in liberal arts. That's actually my BA. And also my master's degree is in theology and religious education. So you talk about and you know there's the joke. This is a good joke. What kind. If I'm an architect, you can say, hey, build me a building. If I am an engineer, hey, make me a machine. If I'm a computer programmer, make me a program. If I have engineer, hey, make me a machine. If I'm a computer programmer, make me a program. If I have a degree in liberal arts, you know what I can say. Would you like french fries for that?
Speaker 1:I'll pick my coffee with two creams you know technically both psychology and religious studies, so I should be insulted by that.
Speaker 2:No, but that's the point. The point is that it's an end in itself Exactly. For example look, you can be a tremendously wealthy entrepreneur that has made lots of money with your training, Right Okay, you can go to Europe and you can stand in front of the greatest statues and paintings of the world, but you won't know what they mean. You can go to all these places, but you will be ignorant as to how they fit into the philosophy and to the existential meaning of the human condition and its history. You won't know how to appreciate it. It's kind of like being able to buy a bottle of wine because you're rich and pay $3,000, $5,000, $10,000 for a bottle of wine, but you can't tell the difference between a $10 and a $10,000 bottle of wine because you're not educated.
Speaker 1:You can be trained, but you're not educated. And you can be trained to taste the difference, but it doesn't mean you really understand.
Speaker 2:You don't understand, and I understand now, yes, that we, that we have to go to a commercial. I knew you were going to say that this is 1070 KMTH. We'll be right back.
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Speaker 2:The answer oh, this is a great introduction.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we've heard it every week.
Speaker 2:No, no. This is a great introduction to what we're going to talk about Strange Brew.
Speaker 3:Strange Brew.
Speaker 2:Kill what's inside of you. Now think about woke All the woke miseducation. She's a witch of trouble in electric bloom. If you're real mad, mind she's in love with you. With you. Now, what you gonna do. Think of the woke virus as a woman.
Speaker 3:Strange proof kill what's inside you.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to A Show of Faith on AM 1070 Answer.
Speaker 2:Okay, we're going to turn over the last few minutes about what's happened to university education Not necessarily training, but university education in the past.
Speaker 1:In what it's become.
Speaker 2:In what it's become, Because what's happening just for you all, just as a background for everybody to get a little bit better in terms of where we are, what is called critical race theory, which has swept all of the university Critical race theory DEI.
Speaker 2:That's right. All of that. It comes from Marxism.
Speaker 2:Karl Marx developed the philosophy that the workers were being oppressed by the owners of the means of production. The proletariat was the workers and the bourgeois was the owners. And they were expecting in 19th century England and in 19th century Europe that there would be a revolt of the workers the way that there was in Russia. They weren't expecting it in Russia at first. They were expecting the first revolution of the worker to be in England because it was the most industrialized country.
Speaker 2:When it did not happen, when the revolution occurred in Russia the communist revolution and in the 50s, the 40s and 50s and they began to see that it was not happening anywhere else, a group of thinkers began to ask the question what's happening? Why are not the oppressed rising up against the oppressors? But they decided that the mistake was that they were thinking only in terms of economics. What they began to understand is that they needed to find who is really oppressed, which means everybody, which means they decided to start what's called cultural marxism, and cultural marxism is when you look at the culture, at who has the most authority or power in the culture, and then who is so, who is controlling the culture, and who are those who are being controlled?
Speaker 1:And even if they don't have the control of the culture, if you can make them look like they're in control, of the culture, then you can divide people and easily conquer them.
Speaker 2:So now what's happened is that they have said that European white males were in charge of the culture.
Speaker 1:Therefore they are the oppressors.
Speaker 2:Therefore, they are the oppressors, and everybody else was the oppressed. And so what you have now is— Mario, you're such an oppressor, I know, I know. But you know what my saving grace is? What's that? I'm Hispanic, oh, you're right, yes, and you're Jewish, yes, so we can jump in Right we can. They won't let us. That's what's called intersectionality.
Speaker 1:You're male and you've got white hair.
Speaker 2:Oh geez. Okay, Rudy, jump in Anything.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I wanted to One thing that I read, and as you sent out this article there's a letter, essentially that Pope Benedict XVI wrote, which was addressed to Catholic educators and he was essentially highlighting the dangers of education being fragmented continually into all these different disciplines.
Speaker 6:And I was just thinking about how education, if you think about how it was a thousand years ago, 500 years ago, and you look at I mean look at sort of middle school, like my middle school, let's say I would have English class and I would have science class and I would have geography class and I would have religion class, and so during the course of one day I would hit like eight different subjects, right. So it was kind of a more holistic approach to education, but the more which I guess it kind of. It kind of maybe it makes sense, maybe it doesn't, but we've sort of stripped out education per se at least how you described it, father Mario from this entire process. Everything is just sort of like a technical training, even when you look at the liberal arts and when you look at so you're talking about critical race theory, right, I mean, to me it's just people being trained on a particular narrative, without looking.
Speaker 2:Stuart was saying that, but I still. I would call it corrupt education or poisoned education. It's like it's like a, it's like a mental virus that has entered the academia. Okay, and so you have to remember that what we're dealing with here is the fact that the whole everything has been permeated with oppressor versus oppressed, and so everybody is trying to become an oppressed so that they can be blamed, the oppressors.
Speaker 1:And because they can pat themselves on the back and say I am a good person because I am oppressed. That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:That's right, and so everything—go ahead.
Speaker 6:I was just going to say everything's just sort of bifurcated right. I mean, there's no longer like an integrated—.
Speaker 1:No divide and conquer.
Speaker 2:Yeah understanding of things, the truth, yes, right. Plus also, the other thing that I find interesting is that with a philosophy called postmodernism. Postmodernism, basically, is a philosophy that says there is no truth. You have your truth, I have my truth. There's no truth whatsoever. So, for example, why do you think we have the whole issue of transgenderism? Because, since there is no essence of being a man or a woman, everything is in your mind. You get to make it up. There's no natural nature in and of itself. You just get to make up what you are.
Speaker 2:Now we have guys fighting girls, a boxing ring or all kinds of different things, and all you have to do. You don't have to do anything, you don't have to have an operation. You just one day say I'm a girl and that's it, the entire. We have removed the human body from the equation.
Speaker 1:I think it's all the poisoning of the educational system that gave rise to the recent election. I think that I know it's not our topic, but I still wanted to say that I think it's people getting sick and tired of the perversion of our education system that they voted as a response to it, because right now, do you know the problem?
Speaker 2:There is no such thing as perversion, it's all alternate lifestyles, right?
Speaker 1:And my lifestyle is.
Speaker 2:You know why, why? You know why? Because if there is no human nature that we're supposed to live up to, nothing is off the table. Right, everything is Dostoevsky, wasn't it Dostoevsky, rudy? I said Dostoevsky.
Speaker 1:wasn't it Dostoevsky, Rudy, that said Dostoevsky, without God, everything is permitted. Everything is permitted, All is permitted.
Speaker 2:That's right, right, and so once you remove God from the equation, everything goes and remember.
Speaker 1:Woody Allen is a devout atheist, but in his movie Crimes and Misdemeanors he worded it as without God, life is a cesspool.
Speaker 2:That is correct, because you can no longer tell the difference between what is good or what is evil.
Speaker 8:You can't label anything evil.
Speaker 2:You can't label anything, because it's just your opinion. It's kind of like who died and left you in charge and they're also words that had meaning.
Speaker 1:They're now making it. They have no meaning. They have no meaning Like the word woman. Yeah, you get to make up your own meaning to the words that you want, and I think that is what led to the recent elections. People just had enough of it. Yep, I agree, rudy.
Speaker 6:I think it's also part of this sort of development in all these different fields, right? So now you have critical theory specialists and you have gender specialists, and then you have they said.
Speaker 1:I can't remember what the figure is, but it's an unbelievable amount of money that every single college is having to spend on people on campus. Who will, you know, make sure that DEI and all that stuff is being followed? It's sucking the money out of them.
Speaker 2:But it's starting to crumble. That is starting to crumble, slowly it is. Trump's election was a crumbling. It's the beginning of the crumbling.
Speaker 1:I hope so is all I can say.
Speaker 2:You were going to say something.
Speaker 1:I just think it's going to go a different direction. We do, it's not our topic. But education and uh, training. It worries me when people have a specific agenda in mind and if you know anything about the recent curriculum passed by the texas te, you know anything about that let's just say it's very, very, very, very very fundamentalist, evangelical Christian, explicitly Christian. That's a problem?
Speaker 2:Yes, it is. Any closing comments, Rudy?
Speaker 6:Just quickly, rabbi, to your point. Dei spending has doubled and tripled at universities. I mean they've increased their staff completely. It's unreal.
Speaker 1:It sucks the money away from where it should go.
Speaker 6:Completely, and I think that's part of what the whole issue is that people are really is. We are creating, we are quote-unquote educating, but what we're doing is just essentially training. But we're training and then creating this ecosystem that can't be sustained by creating jobs in universities to then supplement the same graduates that they're trying to push out by these programs. It's a vicious circle. It's going to eat itself by eventually, right?
Speaker 1:And I'm cynical and I admit it, but I think that's its purpose. I think the purpose is to completely destroy the status quo so that it can be removed and replaced, and what terrifies me is what they're going to use to replace it with. I worry about what's going to be the future for my grandkids.
Speaker 2:Yep Well, it has been an honor to be the future for my grandkids. Yep Well, it has been an honor to be with you tonight. We are right now going into the final home stretch. Thank you for listening to us. And who's in charge next week, is it?
Speaker 1:you. I think it's going to be. It'll be either me or Rudy. Rudy, you just had one, didn't you? So did I. I just had one last week't you? So did I. I just had one last week.
Speaker 6:Rabbi did it last week, so I think it's my turn.
Speaker 2:Okay, your turn next week. Okay, folks, thank you for listening to the Show of Faith where Rabbi Stuart Federal and Rudy Kong and Father Mario have been with you this evening. Please always keep us in your prayers because you know you are always going to be in ours.