***NEWS RELEASE***
For Immediate Release
February 23, 2017
CONTACT:
Jen Retallick, Hamilton Strategies, 610.584.1096, ext. 100, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, or Deborah Hamilton, 215.815.7716 or 610.584.1096, ext. 102
Progressives vs. Trumponians: A Second American Revolution?
Southern Evangelical Seminary President Dr. Richard Land Subhead Explores This Topic in The Christian Post, as SES Prepares to Offer New Concentration in ‘Philosophy, Politics and Economics’
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—The world received one of the biggest political shocks in history with the turbulent United States presidential election of 2016.
And whether they were buoyed or dismayed by the results, Americans today are somewhat divided: hopeful or hopeless, glad or gloomy, optimistic or pessimistic.
Dr. Richard Land, Evangelical leader and president of Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES, www.ses.edu) has written a new editorial for The Christian Post, where he serves as an executive editor, about the very phenomenon that overtook the world from Election Day to Inauguration Day and beyond.
“Pollsters and pundits found their forecast models, based on previous, more traditional election cycles, were inadequate to forecast or even understand the social and political upheaval Americans experienced in 2016,” Land wrote. “Even large numbers of President’s Trump’s supporters were surprised by his victory.
“Even more shocking for many have been the divisive rhetoric, demonstrations (sometimes violent) and vows of complete resistance to President Trump and his new administration commencing before his inauguration,” he continued. “Polls show that perhaps 35 percent of Americans are committed to total ‘resistance’ to President Trump and his administration, with millions of American citizens dedicating themselves to making America ‘ungovernable’ during President Trump’s tenure. As of mid-week, Trump has the fewest number of confirmed cabinet appointees since George Washington.”
What does all of this say about the changing face of American politics? What it reads should cause great concern across all positions on the political and socioeconomic spectrum.
“What progressive forces have been seeking to do, from the Olympian heights of the various American business, political, academic, media and entertainment elites,” Land continued, “is to perpetrate a second American Revolution—enshrining secularism, socialism, globalism and multiculturalism as the regnant values in American culture. This revolution gathered significant steam during the Obama presidency. President Obama’s attempts to press this revolution well beyond where millions of more traditional Americans were willing to go eventually provoked a profound reaction embodied in the unlikely figure of Donald Trump.”
Land’s most recent op-ed topic (read more of the editorial here) is just one of the many headlines that will be explored through SES’s proposed new “Philosophy, Politics and Economics” concentration set to begin this fall. The PPE concentration, which is offered at just a few top-tier universities around the world, will introduce students to the Christian worldview of how philosophy, politics and economics intersect, focusing on the works of Augustine, Aquinas, the Reformers, John Locke, the Founding Fathers, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Henry Hazlitt and Michael Novak, as well as other modern commentators.
The PPE proposed new concentration will also train pastors, undergraduate and graduate students, along with lay people interested in a Judeo-Christian perspective of the vital interconnectedness of philosophy, politics and economics.
SES is also planning its Tactical Evangelism Seminar on March 4. Beginning at 9:30 a.m. with doors opening at 9 a.m., the seminar will focus on “Cults & World Religion.” A central question—“Why are you a Christian?”—will explore the fact that a large part of evangelism is loving people enough to answer their honest questions about Christian convictions.
Cost for the March 4 seminar, which is presented by T.E.A.M. (Truth, Evangelism, and Apologetics Mission), the missions/outreach arm of SES, is $7, plus a small processing fee, which includes lunch. Groups are welcome to attend, and registration is required. View a promotional video here. Registration will close March 2.
SES also recently announced the 2017 National Conference on Christian Apologetics, one of the largest events of its kind, with the fitting and timely theme of “Pursuing a Faith That Thinks.” The conference, offered for 24 out of SES’s 25 years, is set for Oct. 12-14, 2017, at Calvary Church in Charlotte, N.C.
The conference will welcome the nation’s top apologists, who will give the thousands in attendance new presentations on studies, research, history and insight into apologetics and other intellectual, scientific and religious fields. In addition to Land and SES co-founder Norman Geisler, confirmed conference speakers include Richard Howe, Greg Koukl, Jay Richards, Hugh Ross, Frank Turek and J. Warner Wallace, along with many others. The event will also feature a debate between SES professor emeritus Richard Howe and co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, minister turned atheist Dan Barker, on the topic “Is There A God Who Speaks?”
SES was incorporated on Jan. 6, 1992, and began offering classes on Sept. 10, 1992. The year-long 25th anniversary celebration will culminate at the conference.
At SES’s apologetics blog, www.WhyDoYouBelieve.org, Land and other SES voices address the most pressing issues of the day. SES also explores ethical issues through its “Ethics in Emerging Technology” program; for more information, visit www.ethics.ses.edu.
Land is featured in his nationally syndicated daily radio commentary, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” which airs on nearly 800 stations nationwide, including nearly 200 on the American Family Radio Network, 100 on the Bott Radio Network and almost 400 on the CSN radio network. “Bringing Every Thought Captive” is also podcast daily on the free SES mobile app and airs locally in the Charlotte, N.C., area every weekday. The “Bringing Every Thought Captive” television program, hosted by Land, airs on the NRB Network Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and midnight EST. “Bringing Every Thought Captive” also reaches nearly 2 million households in the Chicago area on the Total Living Network. For details about stations, times, downloads and more, click here.
Land has taught as a visiting or adjunct professor for several seminaries and has authored or edited more than 15 books. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University in England and his bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) from Princeton University. Land also earned a Master of Theology (Honors Program) degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received the Broadman Seminarian Award as the Outstanding Graduating Student. Dr. Land was the 2013 Watchman Award recipient from the Family Research Council for his leadership on moral and cultural issues. He also received the Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth from Biola University in 2010. Land served previously (1988-2013) as president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s official entity assigned to address social, moral and ethical concerns, with particular attention to their impact on American families. In 2014, he was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow of the ERLC’s Research Institute, and in 2015, he was named in the top 15 of Newsmax’s “Top 100 Christian Leaders in America.”
Southern Evangelical Seminary invites visitors to its web site to join the more than 20,000 people who have already downloaded the SES Apologetics App for Windows mobile devices and Android and Apple phones and tablets. Those with the app can get the very best news and information in Christian apologetics, including articles, audio, video, blogs and more from today’s most able defenders of the Christian faith—William Lane Craig, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, William Dembski, Frank Turek, Hugh Ross, Gary Habermas and other well-known speakers, authors and teachers.
Southern Evangelical Seminary has been ranked as one of the top graduate programs for General Christian Apologetics by TheBestSchools.org’s “Top 10 Graduate Programs in Christian Apologetics.”
For more information on SES, visit its web site at www.ses.edu or its Facebook page, follow the SES Twitter feed, @sesapologetics, or call (800) 77-TRUTH. For more information about SES’ “Ethics in Emerging Technology” program, visit www.ethics.ses.edu.
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For information on SES or to set up an interview, contact Jen Retallick, 610-584-1096, ext. 100, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, or Deborah Hamilton, 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096, ext. 102.
Southern Evangelical Seminary is a leader in apologetics education—teaching students to defend their faith and talk intelligently, passionately and rationally about what they believe and why they believe it. The Christian college and seminary offers a wide variety of bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees. Programs can be completed through residence in the Charlotte area or online. The award-winning education at SES is distinctively Christian and focused on evangelism and world-engaging defense of the Christian faith—Christian Apologetics.