Still not sure what I think about Edward Snowden. First, he blows everything we say about needing a college degree to get a good job–he didn’t even finish high school and yet landed a position that gave him access to highly classified information. Second, I’m not sure whether to see him as a whistleblowing hero or a traitor. Ever since 9/11, we seem to be saying that we’re willing to trade some personal freedoms for greater national security, and yet when we see what that looks like in real life, we understandably don’t like it. I thought David Brooks wrote an insightful column on Snowden a few days ago in The New York Times: The Solitary Leaker – NYTimes.com.
random musings on life, literature, film, and the matchless love of God
Yes, I think you could argue that he got a good job; it wasn’t a job he could keep, however, and he apparently made no lasting friendships and no significant difference, other than a bad one. One might consider, too, that one of the things we do at Asbury and at Bethel is guide and develop the character and spiritual formation of students so that they become mature disciples. From that point of view, what Christian higher education does is a lot more than job preparation, though not less.