Pro-Palestinian students take part in a protest amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza, at Columbia University in New York City on 12 October 2023. Photograph: Jeenah Moon/Reuters

As is so often the case, whenever Israel responds to terrorist attacks, there are many protests against them, as if they were the cause of these attacks.  Accusations of apartheid and Israel being an ‘occupier’ are heard.  To ordinary people looking on, this can be difficult to understand, and it is never explained.  All you hear are the chants.  My investigation of history tells me that Israel became a nation again in 1948 after a United Nations charter granted them statehood.  Both the Jewish and the Palestinian inhabitants were offered statehood. The Palestinians refused. They did not ‘invade’ Palestine.  When Arab nations around them fought against this happening, a war for independence was fought.  Since then, much of the history since then has consisted of Palestine in general, and Hamas specifically, refusing to recognize Israel’s ‘right to exist.’  What would any nation do if your neighboring people were consistently committed to ending your right to exist?

Since these facts of history appeal to most people’s idea of fairness and logic, why the instant protests whenever Israel is forced to defend itself?  The answer is found in the age of the protestors.  Most of them are young – college age or near college age.  Many of the protests are on college campuses.  This is yet another example of the “rot inside our universities” to borrow a phrase from Bari Weiss’s excellent article.

Again and again, when we see outrageously stupid and morally repugnant positions taken by protestors, such as saying there is pervasive police brutality, or the climate is going to kill us soon, we find the source in recently educated college students, mostly from middle or upper class families.  There are never any statistics or facts given to back up their claims, something you would think an educated person would be skilled at.  Only chants and loud rhetoric, which is the hallmark of indoctrination instead of education.

I’ve written an entire chapter on the folly and the darkness of our modern education system in my book Modern Paganism. The fall of modern education today is widely known, but far fewer people recognize the reason.  Many people do not know that our modern education system came out of the Christian worldview, beginning in the middle ages, which I detail in the book.  In the modern age, educators thought it fashionable to detach themselves from our Christian roots, thus leaving a wide moral gap in the institution.  Christian morality has been replaced with pagan morality and this has created an instinctive rejection in academic circles against many moral positions supported by the Christian worldview, not only in sexual morality but also personal responsibility, freedom, and in this case, Israel’s right to exist, which is strongly supported in scripture.  These indoctrinating professors and administrators may not know much about the Biblical position, they just know that it’s there in the text, and so must be resisted for the new fashionable moral positions praised in their small academic bubble.

Of course, the students specifically and the public in general suffer from the effects of the morally bankrupt academic environment prevalent today.  A growing number of corporations and law firms are refusing to hire graduates from these so called ‘elite’ or ‘woke’ universities.  It is entirely foreseeable that having a college education is seen as a liability instead of an asset in the not too distant future for many careers.  Companies just cannot afford not only the incompetence but the destructive politics and social environment these new ‘social justice warriors’ bring with them.   Some of the books I cite in Modern Paganism give excellent career preparation alternatives to the classic four year degree plan. 

And there are some refreshing educational alternatives to the bleak morally dark modern campus.  Most of them are Christian universities, not just in name only, but in practice as well.  There are state schools as well, such as the University of Florida, whose President issued a statement on the Hamas attacks with the moral clarity needed today. 

Going forward, both prospective students and the parents paying the bill should be wary of what will actually be taught at a prospective school.  Schools with an ‘elite reputation’ should be especially suspect.  The student has the very real prospect of coming out more damaged and less prepared for real life than when they went in, with a large bill tacked on.  Examine statements made by college presidents and administrators on hot button political issues.  Inquire as to whether there is real freedom of thought and speech by asking around.  These institutional leaders have not been used to being held accountable in many cases to their morally repugnant positions.  Consider online alternatives for some or all of your degree.   It is really hard to indoctrinate someone long distance.  A college degree has never been the cure all for vocational success, and that is never more true than today.  The trades are begging for good workers and the pay has never been higher.  They are also careers that have a very low chance of being replaced by AI.  Just this week a business owner in our church asked if I knew anyone looking for a job they could train as an agent in his very successful insurance agency.  Degree not required.  Walmart just announced they will no longer require a degree for consideration for hiring in their corporate offices.  That represents a real sea change in thinking in corporate America. 

Until there is a wide scale rejection of the modern academic culture, represented by both enrollment and financial donations, there will not be a change in the rigidly held and arrogant mindset of many of out modern educators.  In fact, the evidence shows that many educators with academic integrity are leaving.  In the meantime, it behooves each one of us to protect our children, and our moral as well as our intellectual integrity by pursuing alternatives.