I am here… in Carlisle, PA to meet with the “Credendum Reading Group,” an ISI Group at Dickinson College. I just met with them this evening at the John Newton International Center for Christian Studies.
3 students and one advisor came… and they were really great people. Here it is, the John Newton Center, a little “remnant” left over from the days gone by, when a “Christian education” was a vital part of every college and university in this country. Dickinson College started out in the middle of the eighteenth century, with a Christian founding. Today, it’s gone secular, but the John Newton Center and the students involved in the ISI reading group are keeping together a small remnant of the past.
Perhaps when other Dickinson students have gone mad in this nihilistic, post-modern world, they will find themselves at the John Newton Center, or at perhaps some other remnant on campus (unknown to me) and they will rediscover purpose in their lives and in their community.
Carlisle, PA by the way is a great little town… truly American in every sense of the word. I’m staying at a bed & breakfast here called the “Carlisle House”. It’s located just 4 blocks from the college, right in historic downtown Carlisle. This place is great! The room is awesome, the service is great, and the hostess was very welcoming and friendly. This is what customer service is all about – or I was thinking, what it used to be about. I think this little bed and breakfast is also a “remnant” of things of the past. But, hey, it’s still around and probably thriving.
I’ve realized just today that all these things “conservatives” complain about that are no longer around, really are. You just have to find them… the remnants are here, and we can make use of them, discover them, and experience them. We just have to find the remnants and then once we do, we have to help them thrive.