{"id":302435,"date":"2012-01-04T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-04T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/%series%\/those-crazy-college-years\/"},"modified":"2012-01-04T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-04T17:00:00","slug":"those-crazy-college-years","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/those-crazy-college-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Those Crazy College Years"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marvin Olasky talks about his childhood in a secular Jewish home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":294104,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"https:\/\/web.familylifetoday.com\/fl2012-01-04.mp3","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"00:","filesize":"25.44M","filesize_raw":"26673155","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":""},"categories":[2906],"tags":[4133,4134,4679],"podcast_series":[7849],"cwp_profile":[9254],"series":[2101],"class_list":["post-302435","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-becoming-a-christian","tag-coming-to-christ","tag-life-change","tag-salvation","podcast_series-an-unmerited-mercy","cwp_profile-marvin-olasky","series-familylife-today"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2024\/09\/FLT-Podcast-Cover-2-508x508-3.jpg?w=508","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2023\/02\/image-scaled.jpg","download_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast-download\/302435\/those-crazy-college-years","player_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast-player\/302435\/those-crazy-college-years","audio_player":null,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"light","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/familylife-today\/id212174303?mt=2&app=podcast","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/0j5UaKdQOHQCuo1bt0ebEm","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"youtube":{"key":"youtube","url":"","label":"YouTube","class":"youtube","icon":"youtube.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/feed\/podcast\/familylife-today","embedCode":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"ZFRae14dOY\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/those-crazy-college-years\/\">Those Crazy College Years<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/those-crazy-college-years\/embed\/#?secret=ZFRae14dOY\" width=\"500\" height=\"350\" title=\"&#8220;Those Crazy College Years&#8221; &#8212; FamilyLife\u00ae - A Cru Ministry\" data-secret=\"ZFRae14dOY\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script>\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll(\"iframe.wp-embedded-content\"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute(\"data-secret\"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+=\"#?secret=\"+t,e.setAttribute(\"data-secret\",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:\"ready\",secret:t},\"*\")},!1)))}(window,document);\n\/\/# sourceURL=https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-includes\/js\/wp-embed.min.js\n<\/script>\n"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2024\/09\/FLT-Podcast-Cover-2-508x508-3.jpg",508,508,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"kfairris@familylife.com","author_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/author\/kfairrisfamilylife-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Marvin Olasky talks about his childhood in a secular Jewish home.","meta_box":{"show_notes":"","transcript_url":"https:\/\/transcript.familylifetoday.com\/fl2012-01-04.pdf","transcript_content":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Marvin Olasky grew up in the \u201860s, on the \u201cpoor side\u201d of town.\u00a0 He says that the anger and resentment that was stored up in his own heart, together with his rejection of God, proved to be a combustible mixture in a time of social upheaval.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 I had my basic class envy; but instead of actually seeing this in myself and seeing this as a problem that I had, I was able to project it onto society and think of everything in terms of class struggle and feel very idealistic and high-minded for fighting for the little guy\u2014when, actually, it was my resentment that was coming through.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> This is <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em> for Wednesday, January 4th.\u00a0 Our host is the President of FamilyLife\u00ae, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine.\u00a0 Given the setting in which Marvin Olasky grew up, it may surprise you to know that he is, today, a follower of Christ.\u00a0 It actually surprises him a little bit.\u00a0 We\u2019ll hear more today.\u00a0 Stay tuned.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd welcome to <em>FamilyLife Today.<\/em><em>\u00a0 <\/em>Thanks for joining us.\u00a0 I have no way of confirming this, but I <em>think<\/em>\u2014I think I\u2019ve been a subscriber longer than you have, to <em>WORLD Magazine<\/em>.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know that for sure, but I was an early\u2014 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Why would you boast about that, Bob, because the one who can answer that question, who really is a cover-to-cover reader of every page of <em>WORLD Magazine<\/em> is Barbara.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Is your wife.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 She\u2019s not here.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>Well, that\u2019s true.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>She can\u2019t answer it.\u00a0 We could call her.\u00a0 (Laughter)\u00a0 So, why do you think you\u2019re the longer subscriber?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, I was an early adopter to <em>WORLD Magazine<\/em>.\u00a0 I think I saw an issue at a broadcasting convention I was attending and picked it up, and I thought, \u201cWell, this is pretty good.\u201d\u00a0 I think we subscribed not long after that, just to keep up-to-date on what was going on, not only in the Christian world, but in our world.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe\u2019ve been at it ever since.\u00a0 We don\u2019t mind writing our check and getting our subscription.\u00a0 In fact, I\u2019m on a three-year subscription pattern right now.\u00a0 I\u2019m just hoping that the magazine continues a print edition for another three years; you know?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, Barbara gives <em>WORLD Magazine<\/em> subscriptions to all of our adult children at Christmastime.\u00a0 It\u2019s a way of getting a Christian perspective of the news and a current perspective\u2014from, really, a fresh viewpoint.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe have with us the editor-in-chief of <em>WORLD Magazine<\/em>, Dr. Marvin Olasky.\u00a0 Marvin, welcome to <em>FamilyLife Today.<\/em>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<em>\u00a0<\/em>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 It\u2019s terrific to be with both of you.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 You know Bob, we\u2019ve had some guests here on <em>FamilyLife Today; <\/em>but just looking at his track record\u2014I think it may be one of the few guests who, when he walked in the studio\u2014he doubled the IQ of the studio.\u00a0 (Laughter)\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI mean, he\u2019s a graduate of Yale, has his PhD from the University of Michigan, is the author or co-author of more than 30 books, a former writer for <em>The Boston Globe,<\/em> former Provost of King\u2019s College in New York City, and, of course, I mentioned <em>WORLD Magazine<\/em>.\u00a0 There are a number of other things I could mention here that he has written about or done in his lifetime\u2014really, a remarkable person.\u00a0 The story we\u2019re going to hear today is really a great one.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Today, you have hundreds of thousands of readers of the magazine.\u00a0 I love the fact that when I get my issue, it has more pages than either <em>Time <\/em>or <em>Newsweek <\/em>these days.\u00a0 (Laughter)\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tIn fact, I gave up on <em>Newsweek <\/em>a couple of years ago after a <em>long<\/em> run of subscribing.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Me, too.\u00a0 Me, too, Bob.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 It really is delightful to see <em>WORLD<\/em> thriving in a counter-cultural way in an industry where magazines are starting to wonder if they\u2019ll be around three years from now.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 Right; and we have such terrific readers.\u00a0 The <em>Time <\/em>magazine still has a lot more subscribers, but I really enjoy getting around the country and meeting our readers.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine that the editor of <em>Time <\/em>gets as much love from readers as I do.\u00a0 So, it\u2019s terrific.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, we had a love fest in Manhattan.\u00a0 Barbara and I had the opportunity about a year ago to have lunch with Marvin and Susan, his wife.\u00a0 We sat down and I introduced Barbara to him.\u00a0 I said, \u201cMarvin and Susan, you don\u2019t know this, but Barbara Rainey is the head of the <em>WORLD Magazine<\/em> fan club in Natural Steps, Arkansas.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe kidded about that for a while, but she reads every page of every issue.\u00a0 I\u2019ll never forget what Marvin said in response.\u00a0 Do you want to share it with our listeners?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, you remember it well\u2014probably better than I do; but at least from what you\u2019ve just told me, I said, \u201cI don\u2019t even read every page!\u201d\u00a0 (Laughter)\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what you said.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 I guess, since you remember it\u2014that must have happened.\u00a0 I must have acknowledged that.\u00a0 (Laughter)\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 You\u2019re blushing a little bit\u2014so I need to check my memory, but I\u2019m pretty sure that\u2019s what you said.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe had a great time.\u00a0 It really was fun at that lunch to say, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come down to our headquarters?\u00a0 Let\u2019s do some radio and let\u2019s talk about your life, and how you came to faith in Christ, and also talk about <em>WORLD Magazine<\/em> a little bit.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 I\u2019ve got to say, it\u2019s a long way from Yale to <em>WORLD<\/em>.\u00a0 The distance there is a pretty good distance\u2014not geographically, but ideologically.\u00a0 When you were at Yale\u2014even before you were at Yale\u2014you were to the left of Hillary Clinton when she was at Yale; weren\u2019t you?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 That\u2019s right; much to my shame, but to God\u2019s grace and His glory.\u00a0 I\u2019m very thankful that He changed me.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Tell us about the home you grew up in.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 Oh, this was a largely secularized Jewish home\u2014not particularly affluent.\u00a0 My father, for a number of years, was a Hebrew school teacher; but whatever faith he had, which I\u2019m not sure was all that much to start with, he lost that.\u00a0 He eventually moved to become a community college administrator.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo, it was a home with <em>Newsweek<\/em>.\u00a0 That was the magazine that we subscribed to because <em>Newsweek<\/em>, at that time (and probably even to this day), is to the left of <em>Time <\/em>magazine\u2014they\u2019ve both moved\u2014but <em>Newsweek, The Boston Globe\u2014v<\/em>ery liberal newspaper.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tCertainly a liberal household, probably with some Socialist leanings; but I wasn\u2019t a \u201cred diaper baby\u201d as some are in the sense that my parents were highly political\u2014no, they watched television\u2014we watched the news all of the time, but tended to interpret it through a secular, liberal perspective.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 As a teenager, you indicated that you were an atheist and you believed that mankind invented the whole concept of God.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, sure.\u00a0 This, sadly, is not unusual in the Jewish community\u2014Bar Mitzvah at 13; atheist at 14.\u00a0 I became an atheist from reading.\u00a0 I read Sigmund Freud\u2019s book, <em>The Future of an Illusion, <\/em>where he writes that man invented God as kind of a childhood fantasy\u2014that once we realize our parents are not omnipotent, we create a God.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThen, H.G. Wells, the science fiction writer, also wrote <em>A Short History of the World\u2014a <\/em>straight materialist history, starting with the original evolution and proceeding with the hopes of a bright Socialist future.\u00a0 So it was all there\u2014highly popular\u2014and I bought it all\u2014hook, line, and sinker.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Was this tied to the fact that you were obviously a bright young man and, to be intellectually respected, you pretty much had to put faith aside in order to survive in the right intellectual circles; didn\u2019t you?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes, I would like to think that it was all high-minded, intellectual stuff.\u00a0 There was exactly what you have described.\u00a0 There was also a lot of ugly stuff\u2014class envy basically\u2014we\u2019re hearing that term recently.\u00a0 It was very much a part of me.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tMy mother was full of envy.\u00a0 She had five siblings\u2014mostly sisters.\u00a0 The sisters married people who were entrepreneurs and very skilled at creating businesses but\u2014at least in my mother\u2019s mind and probably in objective, academic terms\u2014they weren\u2019t all that bright.\u00a0 She had married a very bright person who was poor.\u00a0 Every single day, I think, she resented that.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe got that from her.\u00a0 So, you know, parents do lots of things.\u00a0 I mean, she did the best she could and was a great mother in some ways; but here, she basically taught me class envy, and that was very much with me all of the time.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Marvin, as I did the research on your life, one of the things I appreciated was your honesty.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot of anger that was fueled by this envy.\u00a0 That really fueled your passions, ultimately, to the point of you becoming a card-carrying Communist?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 Oh, yes, and it pushed me all the way.\u00a0 Again, I don\u2019t like to admit this.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to think it was all a noble sense of being concerned about the poor, being in favor of peace, and things like this; but, no.\u00a0 The other kids had bright, shiny Schwinns\u00ae.\u00a0 I had a bicycle sort of put together out of spare parts, which I was embarrassed to ride around.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI was very conscious that we had a black and white TV; others had color TVs.\u00a0 We lived in apartments with peeling linoleum; others lived in\u2014my uncles and aunts lived in what were called \u201csplit levels,\u201d with wall-to-wall carpeting.\u00a0 All of these little material things contributed to that.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThen, when I went as an undergraduate to Yale University, I came with a suitcase, with my two polyester sweaters.\u00a0 My roommate brought in a whole dresser just to house his luxurious woolens.\u00a0 There was some Yale alum had put up money for a contest to give a prize to whoever had the best book collection.\u00a0 I spent three years building what I thought was a very tasteful and brilliant collection of probably close to 1,000 paperback books that I\u2019d been able to pick up rather inexpensively.\u00a0 I thought, \u201cThis shows my good literary judgment,\u201d and so forth.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThere was a committee that came in to inspect.\u00a0 They walked out chuckling, with the chairman of the committee advising me very kindly, \u201cWell, this is very nice.\u00a0 You have all of these paperbacks; but actually, it would be better for you to sell them and invest the money in several good first editions.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Hmm.\u00a0 Did you celebrate Passover as a family?\u00a0 Did you go to synagogue at all as a family?\u00a0 Was Judaism more than just something that you kind of just checked off a box?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, when I was younger, I did.\u00a0 In elementary school, we did.\u00a0 Then, increasingly, by the time I was getting older, my parents had stopped going; and of course, I was very happy to stop going.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI went to Hebrew school for a while\u2014again, enough to be bar mitzvahed, to learn some Hebrew\u2014but I think the teaching was that, \u201cThese are nice stories, culturally.\u00a0 They are good fables,\u201d but is there anything there?\u00a0 Is there any truth there? Does this actually come from God?\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have any of that.\u00a0 So once I got to the old age of 14 and figured I was fully adult, I wanted to put aside these childhood myths and turn to the real, hard stuff of materialism and then Socialism and Communism.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 You were a liberal, or maybe better stated, a radical, in the days of a radical age that, really, we haven\u2019t seen in America since\u2014back in the late \u201860s, early \u201870s.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 Right.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 There\u2019s a story you tell about a black cat and a bag that you entitle in your book, <em>Creativity R Us<\/em>.\u00a0 I love this because you actually received some honors at Yale for this.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 This was an unusual period.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think Yale before that was like this, and it may not be like it now; but at that particular time, everything was reversed.\u00a0 The professors were looking to students for wisdom\u2014again, not all of the professors, but some of the really \u201cwith it\u201d professors.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThere was a fellow named Charlie Reich (I took a course from him) who had the #1 <em>New York Times<\/em> best-seller in 1969 or 1970.\u00a0 It was called <em>The Greening of America.<\/em><em>\u00a0 <\/em>It described how the college students had things right.\u00a0 To put it in Christian terms, which Charlie Reich penned, the college students were suddenly without any original sin; these were pure.\u00a0 So, Charlie Reich would sit in the cafeterias at Yale and listen to the students, and then write his <em>Greening of America <\/em>book.\u00a0 He would say, \u201cI don\u2019t know anything.\u00a0 I\u2019m from this other generation.\u00a0 You know, stuff.\u00a0 Let me know.\u00a0 Tell me what I should know.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tIt was that type of situation.\u00a0 In fact, the course\u2014I grew up a Boston Red Sox fan and went to lots of games at Fenway Park\u2014so, in his course, my term paper was\u2014I had a lot of old Red Sox yearbooks.\u00a0 I would cut pictures out of the Red Sox yearbooks and paste them on (this was a college course) and write about the racism of baseball and the racism of the Red Sox.\u00a0 There was some of that; but it wasn\u2019t at all what I made of it.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of funny to think of a term paper, just with cutting out pictures from a yearbook and pasting them up.\u00a0 I got a very good grade for it.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 At Yale?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 At Yale.\u00a0 At Yale University, yes\u2014one of the leading intellectual institutions of the country.\u00a0 (Laughter)\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tNow, the \u201cblack cat\u201d situation.\u00a0 I was taking a course\u2014this was an American Studies course, including looking at American art.\u00a0 The idea, one particular week, when we were writing papers, was to create some art of your own.\u00a0 Now, my drawing is very, very poor.\u00a0 I can draw stick figures, but that\u2019s about it.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have any bright ideas.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo, I decided, \u201cOkay, let\u2019s do something else.\u201d\u00a0 One of my roommates had a black cat.\u00a0 This was at a time when the Black Panthers where getting lots of applause from folks like me on the left and lots of criticism from others, but they were very much in the news.\u00a0 I took the black cat and put him in kind of a gym bag and took him to the art museum, where we were having this particular class\u2014student by student\u2014revealing the projects.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSome of the students, actually, could draw and paint very well.\u00a0 I was toward the end.\u00a0 I figured, in my own mind at least, \u201cI trumped them all,\u201d by bringing in action art.\u00a0 I opened up the bag and the cat jumped out.\u00a0 I was able to describe, \u201cHere\u2019s the way the Black Panthers are kept in the bag by \u2018white America\u2019\u201d\u2014by racism and so forth.\u00a0 \u201cNow, they\u2019re going to be free; they\u2019re going to move around.\u201d\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWell, this black cat, indeed, was liberated.\u00a0 He scurried out of the room and went into the places where there were a lot of very expensive paintings being stored.\u00a0 There was a furious search for the cat because we were trying to find him and capture him before he was as destructive as, in many ways, the Black Panthers were.\u00a0 So, it was a different type of action art that I was showing\u2014not exactly what I had in mind, but in some ways it made a larger point (one that I was not willing to admit at the time).\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 But the professors applauded it?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 They applauded it.\u00a0 Oh, this was crazy because, again, we had already been told coming to Yale, \u201cYou are the future leaders of America.\u201d\u00a0 They loved stuff like this\u2014again, the particular professors I had.\u00a0 There were some sober professors, but I tried not to take courses from them.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI was taking courses from the really \u201cwith it,\u201d younger, radical professors.\u00a0 You could do anything, say anything.\u00a0 In one sense, it was condescending\u2014the way we applaud a three-year-old or a four-year-old when he does something, but this was serious.\u00a0 They thought, \u201cThis is wisdom\u201d\u2014what Charlie Reich described as \u201cconsciousness three,\u201d\u2014the new, higher form of consciousness we were showing by doing these things.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Was journalism on your radar at this point?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 Insofar as I had worked on my high school newspaper and was working on <em>The Yale Daily News<\/em>, I was starting to think that this was probably the only thing that I was talented enough to do anything with.\u00a0 I really wanted to be a Major League baseball player; but once I was cut from my sixth-grade team, I thought that was not likely. (Laughter)\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tYou know, I encounter students sometimes who can do a great many things well and they have a hard time making decisions.\u00a0 In my case, writing, and eventually editing, was the only thing in which I was barely competent.\u00a0 So, that\u2019s the direction in which I tended to head.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Did you pursue it with an agenda in mind as a journalist or was it just, \u201cThis is a good way to put food on the table\u201d?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 Oh, definitely an agenda\u2014again, very high-minded about it.\u00a0 I was an intern of <em>The Boston Globe<\/em>.\u00a0 I was writing articles from a radical perspective there, and the editors liked it.\u00a0 Later on, I actually was a regular reporter on <em>The<\/em> <em>Globe<\/em> for a while.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAt that point, this was when I was a member of the Communist party\u2014the editors didn\u2019t know I was a Communist\u2014but I was writing stuff that was basically Communist material.\u00a0 I wrote articles about Portuguese immigrants\u2014immigrants from the Azores Islands to the United States\u2014to Fall River and New Bedford in Massachusetts.\u00a0 These were immigrants\u2014I mean, when I interviewed them, were very happy to have jobs.\u00a0 Their living situation was better than it had been back in the Azores; but through my perspective, it was all Capitalist oppression\u2014they were being underpaid, exploited, and so forth.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI remember writing a feature article about small farmers in western Massachusetts.\u00a0 They, of course, were being driven out of their callings by the big, corporate farms.\u00a0 Again, there were some problems surrounding agriculture; but I exaggerated it, hyped it, and turned everything into class struggle.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI was able to have my basic class envy; but instead of actually seeing this in myself and seeing it as a problem that I had, I was able to project it onto society and think of everything in terms of class struggle and feel very idealistic and high-minded for fighting for the little guy, when, actually, it was really my resentment that was coming through.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 I think we need to say here, \u201cLadies and gentlemen, this is the Editor-in-Chief of <em>WORLD Magazine<\/em> who is describing that political philosophy.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes; and, Marvin, the thing that I appreciate most because\u2014again, I don\u2019t know that I\u2019ve ever really talked with a card-carrying Communist\u2014I appreciate, not just the explanation for the ideology of what they held and their tenets of Communism, but the dark side\u2014the human issue that ultimately Jesus Christ came to deal with.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 Right.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 It was interesting, in your story, that in 1973, you were studying Russian so you could be a better Communist; and someone had given you a New Testament.\u00a0 You sat down and started reading that.\u00a0 Tell them, just real quickly, tell them what took place between 3:00 pm and 11:00 pm.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Marvin:<\/strong>\u00a0 Alright.\u00a0 This was very strange.\u00a0 This was on November 1, 1973.\u00a0 I had been a member of the Communist party.\u00a0 At least in my own mind, I thought I was a happy, dedicated member of the Communist party.\u00a0 I sat down\u2014I had a room just off-campus at the University of Michigan, where I was in graduate school.\u00a0 I sat down to read a pamphlet that I had read once before.\u00a0 I wanted to remind myself of it.\u00a0 It was by Lenin and called <em>Socialism and Religion.<\/em>\u00a0 Lenin talks about atheism being the basis of Communism.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThat\u2019s something I knew and was proud of; but, for whatever reason, and this is what was so strange\u2014I finished reading that around 3:00 and was planning to get up and go to the library to do some work.\u00a0 I just sat in that chair; and suddenly, into my brain, came all of these thoughts of,\u00a0 \u201cWhat have I done here?\u00a0 Is this really something that I believe in?\u00a0 How do I know that there isn\u2019t a God?\u00a0 Why am I so hostile toward America?\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tJust to back up for a moment, my grandparents all came from the Russian empire.\u00a0 On my father\u2019s side, my grandfather loved America.\u00a0 He loved baseball.\u00a0 He loved the freedom he had and the safety he had as opposed to being knocked on the head by the tsar\u2019s officials.\u00a0 I was remembering that and thinking, \u201cWell, now I am hating America.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 I mean, here my grandfather worked hard; and, in this free country, was able to buy a house and eventually make things better for his children and grandchildren.\u00a0 Why am I hating America?\u00a0 What is so bad about this?\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tIt was a combination of thinking about America and what kind of country this is and thinking about, \u201cIs there a god of some sort?\u00a0 Why am I so adamant in my atheism?\u00a0 What do I really know?\u201d\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t anything I had been reading to trigger these thoughts.\u00a0 I mean, I had been reading Lenin\u2019s <em>Socialism and Religion<\/em>;but it wasn\u2019t as if I had been reading some philosophical or theological works that question this.\u00a0 These were just thoughts that were coming into my head.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWhy they were coming, I didn\u2019t know; but I just sat down in that chair from 3:00 until 11:00.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t doing any drugs; I wasn\u2019t sleeping.\u00a0 There was an alarm clock there and about every hour I would look over and say, \u201cIt is 4:00,\u201d \u201cNow, it\u2019s 5:00.\u00a0 What am I still doing in this chair?\u201d\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t move.\u00a0 These thoughts just kept coming and were overpowering me.\u00a0 Seven o\u2019clock, 8:00, 9:00, 10:00\u2014by 11:00\u2014eight hours\u2014I had been sitting in that chair and came to the resolution that I wasn\u2019t an atheist\u2014that there must be a god of some kind.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t\u201cWho this God is,\u201d I had no idea; but I was no longer an atheist.\u00a0 I then walked around.\u00a0 I went over to the University of Michigan campus and just walked around.\u00a0 Outside, it was dark; but for the next two hours, from 11:00 until \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t1:00 am, I was just sort of walking around and still sort of thinking.\u00a0 At the end of that period, I realized that I had to leave the Communist party.\u00a0 I was no longer a Communist.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know what I was, but I wasn\u2019t that.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 As I listen to your story, I think of the phrase \u201cthe Hound of Heaven.\u201d He chased me down.\u00a0 It was through the book of Romans and God pursuing me, turning a selfish teenager\u201419, 20 years old\u2014just full of himself.\u00a0 God chased me down with His love, and I moved from being a mission field to being a missionary in a matter of months.\u00a0 For you, it took a little longer than just a few months; but I want to continue our discussion here as we talk about that.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tBob, our God is a great God!\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 There are people listening to this broadcast who don\u2019t know Him.\u00a0 My encouragement is to listen to all of Marvin Olasky\u2019s story because, today, he is the editor of <em>WORLD Magazine<\/em>.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Right.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 There <em>is <\/em>the rest of the story.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 And I love the fact that Marvin shared his story in subsequent weeks in <em>WORLD Magazine<\/em>; and now, it is in a book called <em>Unmerited Mercy.<\/em><em>\u00a0 <\/em>The subtitle is:\u00a0 <em>From card-carrying Communist to Bible-carrying Christian<\/em>.\u00a0 We have copies of Marvin\u2019s book in our <em>FamilyLife<\/em> <em>Today<\/em> Resource Center.\u00a0 Go online at FamilyLifeToday.com for more information.\u00a0 That is:\u00a0 FamilyLifeToday.com, or call toll-free at 1-800-FL-TODAY and ask how you can get a copy of the book\u2014\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t1-800-358-6329. That is 1-800-\u201cF\u201d as in family, \u201cL\u201d as in life, and then the word, \u201cTODAY\u201d.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tBy the way, I quickly want to again say a word of thanks to those of you who help support the ministry of <em>FamilyLifeToday <\/em>and who, at the end of 2011, made a year-end contribution.\u00a0 We appreciate your support.\u00a0 We\u2019re still doing some of the tabulating here at FamilyLife to see how we ended up.\u00a0 We\u2019ll keep you posted online if you want information about where we were in relationship to our matching-gift opportunity.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI just want to make sure you know how much we appreciate your support.\u00a0 Your financial gifts are what make this program possible.\u00a0 You help us cover the production and syndication costs for this program, keeping us on the air and on the internet, all around the world.\u00a0 Thanks again for helping to support the ministry.\u00a0 We really do appreciate you.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe hope you can come back with us tomorrow when we\u2019re going to hear Part Two of Marvin Olasky\u2019s story and hear about how God got a hold of his life and caused him to see some things he\u2019d never seen before while he was a graduate student at the University of Michigan.\u00a0 We\u2019ll talk about that tomorrow.\u00a0 Hope you can be here.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI want to thank our engineer\u2014his name is Keith Lynch\u2014and our entire broadcast production team.\u00a0 On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine.\u00a0 We will see you back next time for another edition of <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em>. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<em>FamilyLife Today<\/em> is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas.\u00a0\u00a0 Help for today.\u00a0 Hope for tomorrow.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe are so happy to provide these transcripts for you. 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