Engaging with Mormons (Corey Miller) Part 3

.1 examines the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from a biblical perspective viewpoint when Mormonism is sponsored by Mormonism research ministry since 1979 Mormonism research ministry has been dedicated to equipping the body of Christ with answers regarding the Christian faith in a manner that expresses gentleness and respect. And now, your host for today's viewpoint on Mormonism welcome to this edition of the viewpoint on Mormonism on your host, Bill McKeever, founder and director Mormonism research ministry and with me today is Eric Johnson. My colleague at MRM, but we also have as our guest, Dr. Cory Miller. He's a good friend of ours. He's been on the show. In times past.

Cory grew up in Utah as 1/7 generation Mormon before coming to Christ as a teenager. He is currently the CEO of Roxio Christie that's Roxio Christie.org if you want to check out their website Roxio Christie is a campus apologetics ministry.

We want to talk about a book that Cory has written titled engaging with Mormons understanding their world sharing good news. But we've kind of gotten sidetracked a little bit because what Cory is involved in with Roxio Christie I feel is very important for us as Christians to know and understand because our faith, the Christian faith is certainly under attack in our culture. How do we respond to this. Can we respond to this.

What should we look out for is it wise sending our kids to secular universities totally unprepared for what they may face there. As far as attacks on their Christian faith, not Cory. Welcome back to the show yesterday you were talking about what Roxio Christie does as a ministry on our college campuses. I want you to continue explaining to our listeners what you are doing and also there is an important court case that is coming up this month. Maybe you could talk about that as well. Yours, so we're on about 125 University campuses from Rutgers to UCLA and were trying to equip students there with historical. Scientific reason for following Jesus.

We also have a high school division Russia Christie college prep work in tandem with the churches and a professor division RC car you can't really take back the universities are making influence there.

If you're not going after the most influential postman, and international scope is well up in Canada we have an MA apologetics program launched from the Philippines were in South Africa study center in the UK and other places were facing off with a lot of legal proceedings.

We do don't have the Constitution outside the country like we do here but here we been about 30 cases of that with two federal victories and we got one coming out at Supreme Court and that regard proclaiming the gospel on campuses free speech, free association and speech sounds. I never thought during my lifetime. The freedom of speech would be under such attack as it is right now. I remember commenting to my guys, I've got a bunch of youth group guys that I meet with weekly and II told them I said you know I knew you would probably say something like this but I never thought in my lifetime that I would see what is happening and it is happening so quickly.

Would you agree that this is probably something that's that snuck up on a lot of Christians let me ask you this.

Do you think the church is prepared for this. I don't and I think were sending our children to Molex. Not even to be able to survive much less thrive in the University.

It's a tragedy that we lost the universities originally but now we're facing it, even in the church and not sure what to do with ourselves. Cory, you wrote an article for the Christian research Journal titled how we lost the universities and how to reclaim the voice of Christ. We want to talk about that article that you wrote give us a little bit of an overview of what that article entails and why you wrote it, that I wanted people to see that there is this idea that there is pain and then there is fact or there is faith and there is reason look the Christian religion is knowledge tradition. Knowledge is central, not personal. We were the ones who founded the universities in Europe and in the in America after 1840. All university presidents were also members of the clergy up to my 1890 church and chapel attendance were still required at every university in the country and between 1880 and 1930.

There's a story that can be told that I wrote the article on it on how we lost the universities and how we can but must reclaim them. We are going to have a substantial impact going forward in America and beyond car you write this in the introduction I think it's a interesting paragraph this is what you said losing the American universities the post-Christian secularism is one of the greatest tragedies of world history, why does it matter it matters because the University is the most influential institution of Western civilization from it, are journalists, artists, doctors, lawyers, businessmen, political leaders, K-12 educators and future professors as goes the University so goes the culture. Indeed, as goes the US University, so goes the world ideas have consequences. Cory what you mean when you talk about post-Christian secularism and why is this view so dangerous to a Christian worldview. Yet here I mean to oppose or contrast secularism not with sectarian is on like a denomination but with an non-Christian nonreligious, sometimes very hostile to religion viewpoint, its parasitical in that we started the universities and it took over and kicked us out. Essentially, Christianity provided the basis for our belief in God to the sanctity of human life to freedom found enshrined in the First Amendment consult for following the building of Western civilization on the back of Christianity hadn't begun all the major and great universities, and even building the governmental system that we enjoy and and hospitals and economic and nations. We've been sidelined and benched and secular state found a brilliant way to get Christian parents to pay for the apostasy of their own children.

The universities car you give a statistic that harbors faculty in 1990 was about 40% far left or liberal, would you say in the last 30 years that that shifted to the left even further sure probably 96%, according to recent data of Ivy League faculty including Hartford give campaign contributions to one political party and New England area where Harvard is that I was just there about a month ago I didn't do most of the colonial schools.

The ratio of left to right professors is 27 to 1. So imagine if you have 100 professors you might have three conservatives and maybe one will speak up and get beheaded after as an example, I can even imagine that small percentage speaking up in light of our cancel culture today.

I mean if you were to even voice your opinion or you're not even allowed to have a dissenting opinion in our culture today, which is frightening but that's not see the foreign-based ideas were facing right now between the left right divide, past the classical liberal tradition which is an internal debate between small liberals and conservatives, we've now got this cancel culture coming in in the past. We believe Voltaire statement I may disagree with that. You say that a defendant the death your right to say liberals and conservatives alike. Now you cannot stall and statement that ideas are more powerful than weapons when allowing them step weapons why she would let them have ideas and so not only do we have this political orthodoxy.

There's no viewpoint diversity on campuses but you got political orthodoxy at such a level that it creates not just an echo chamber, but there become blasphemy laws and you dare not violate one of these blasphemy doctrines in the University. If you want to keep your post that is frightening but you're absolutely correct. It certainly does seem to be elevated to the position of a religion in your right. If you speak against what the religion says you are committing blasphemy. I've seen this in a lot of the reactions to dissenting voices. They treat you like you're a blasphemer. How difficult is it Cory for a person is a Christian to get tenure and one of these university settings. First, you have to get through and navigate a successful PhD. Second, you have to get a job and on the job market today more and more, at least in philosophy, you need to quit not just expertise and logic and ethics, but gender studies or something like that with me. Just let not studied, and you get a job then you gotta finally get tenure and then you are operable professors, so there is a long haul and many people are taken out along the way I look at it like storming the beaches of Normandy needs to happen, but are going to be significant casualties along the way and that's what's happening you make an interesting observation you recommend that Christian professors and full professorships they should do something before they retire.

What you think they should do in contrast to assistant professors and PhD students who may be with us for the next 30 years.

You've got all professors and administrators which gleaned even farther left but for those Christians who are still there at the top just before retiring any think about rehiring and need to be thinking about building a legacy. They need to think about what they're doing, not as a job but a vocation, not as an occupation but as a calling and think about the future generations that they inherited what can they pass on courier, a philosophy, adjunct professor at a public college. What is it like to be a Christian professor in a secular field like yours. I have taught nine different courses over 12 years at Indiana University and whether it's in religious studies, logic, philosophy, New Testament. I always feel like I'm forced to use course textbook that are atheist or agnostic or certainly aren't Christian, absolutely not.

Evangelical and I've been called on the carpet when Ivan got remotely close to doing that is because there is a political orthodoxy and there are assumptions being made and so you have to be very tactical, not just technically knowledgeable in your fill, yet to be tactical if you want to stay in the game and not get sidelined. Now there's going to be a parent listening right now and you're scaring the heck out of them because they're going to send their kids to college that possibly could change their mind. What advice are you going to give to that parent and the child who's thinking about going to a secular university yeah listen the duration of left right it's 12 to 1. Those 65 and older generated retires 23 21 440 and under 27 one is a set of New England. The parent thinking out. Do you we need to send Johnny thence take a least a religious studies class is going to secular university, no in that department. It's 70 to 1 crazy and so people might think well we should send them off to Christian Caldwell phase 2 is starting to happen there and I recruited 20 Christian colleges or seminaries per year. I can tell you it's easier to count the number that are being inspected than those that are at least you know what you're going to get when you Harvard you have no clue when you go to somewhere like Fuller seminary, so what parents and pastors need to be doing is training their kids the next generation not only to survive but to thrive.

This is a post-Christian America and the secularist dominate the universities you have no idea what your you're up against. We are not dealing with culture as if it's snowing acts chapter 2 in the synagogues were on Mars Hill and we been there for at least a generation. So if you do evangelism, you need to do apologetics evangelism. Your kids need to be prepared to defend what's coming. Even in the Christian universities so shouldn't be a prerequisite now use pastors need to jump on that parents need to, and pastors need to talk to Dr. Cory Miller.

He is a former Mormon who is now involved in a Christian apologetics ministry called Roxio Christie and is the author of the book engaging with Mormons and folks, we are going to talk about the book but I too feel that there's a lot of other good information that we can glean from Corey's experience working in the secular universities that is very important for all of us as Christians. If you have children or even grandchildren that are contemplating going to a secular university. So tomorrow were going to continue this conversation with our good friend Cory Miller, thank you for listening.

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