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BreakPoint Cultural commentary with Prison Fellowship's Chuck Colson http://www.breakpoint.org August 18, 2004 The Way It Isn�t - Fighting Temptation Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. Christian parents know that when their children head off to college, they face a host of new temptations�not the least of which are sexual temptations. With co-ed dorms and little adult supervision, young people need to know how to defend themselves against the standard �lines� that they will encounter. Even more important, they need to understand that many of the most common lines express a false worldview. As Professor J. Budziszewski points out in his book How to Stay Christian in College, this is especially true at college�because ideas are the stock and trade of higher education. * * * * * * * * * * * * ADVERTISEMENT * * * * * * * * * * * How can you change the world? Help save a child through World Vision�s child sponsorship program. For just $26 a month, you�ll provide clean water, regular medical care, a secure food supply, and access to education. Request your no obligation packet today! http://l.salemweb.net/worldvision0604/bp/081804/ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Take, for example, the argument for sexual experimentation. It goes like this: �In order to make wise choices about sex, you have to experience it.� This isn�t just a �line� a guy might use with a girl; it�s a false theory of knowledge. It says that personal experience is the only way to know anything, and the test of experience is, of course, how you feel. Now that�s a principle many people rely on when making decisions. Is abortion wrong? �Depends on how it makes you feel,� they say. Is God real? �Well, I�ll try it, and see how He makes me feel.� But as a theory of knowledge, this principle is clearly inadequate. In fact, in reality experience sometimes limits our ability to make wise choices. Consider drug addiction or suicide. We don�t become drug addicts to find out whether it�s a good idea to be addicted. And we can�t commit suicide to learn more about it. In these cases, experience prevents you from being able to choose wisely. The addict can�t choose wisely because he�s hooked, and the suicide victim certainly can�t choose because he�s dead. Over the centuries there have been quite a number of cases like these�experiences that make it harder to choose wisely, behavior that subtracts from wisdom rather than adding to it. That�s one reason Scripture identifies some behaviors as sin and warns us not to try them. Sex outside marriage is one of these. The best way to understand it is to stay away from it�to avoid experience and instead to determine what�s right and wrong through rational evaluation in the light of biblical revelation. Of course, later we do get different knowledge of sexual relationships from the �inside���inside� marriage, that is, a relationship in which each partner has an irreversible commitment to the good of the other. But you can�t gain that except in such a relationship�after you�re married. At college, where learning to think is the name of the game, temptations gain most of their strength from false ideas. So if you�re heading to college this fall, or have a loved one who is, get your hands on a copy of J. Budziszewski�s book How to Stay Christian in College. God promises that He will provide a way out of every temptation, and part of that means preparing our minds to refute false ideas. With this terrific book, surrounded by prayer and a commitment to seek God�s truth, college can be a time of real intellectual and spiritual growth. 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