Back in the middle of the twentieth century, the Left began to talk about “capturing the robes”, meaning that they wanted eventually to place men and women from the Left in positions of power and influence – those positions that usually required robes. University professors and academic administrators, judges, pastors, civil magistrates of all levels…

It has been fifty or sixty years, and look around.  Education is dominated by politically-correct liberals to the extent that most conservative perspectives are not even allowed in academic discourse.  The civil magistracy is also largely liberal.  In fact, America has just elected not merely a liberal, but a socialist who gives every indication that he wants to overhaul the Constitution itself to suit his agenda.  Even the Church itself has been infiltrated by men who press liberal agendas before Christ’s.

Christians want to influence their world, but too often we only think in terms of the next election cycle, not in terms of decades and centuries.  We ought to take a lesson from our opponents.  They have spent the last five or six decades training children, grooming young people and getting young adults the credentials they need to be credible candidates for those robes. Ben over at HouseBlog has a wonderful post about the urgency of beginning to prepare for Election 2108 today.

Frankly, that is God’s methodology as well.  When He wanted a deliverer for His people enslaved in Egypt, He started with a baby placed during early childhood with godly parents and educated in Pharaoh’s household.  When Israel needed a faithful king, God started with a youth out on the hillside with his sheep and then trained him for years by having the sitting king pursue him with blood lust all over the countryside.  When He wanted to convert the first world empire to His service, He started with a bunch of homeless teen-aged exiles, and let the emperor Nebuchadnezzar educate them. And when He wanted to remake the world, He started with a baby born in a stable, who eventually grew up to train twelve teen followers, most of whom were too young to pay the Temple head tax.

God starts with the very young, and aims them at critical positions several decades into the future.  This ought to be the norm for our response to the problems and the disasters of our own time and place.  So we need to think in terms of helping our children to acquire the networks and credentials that will put them in the running for positions of leadership.  Normally, that means a college degree – even an Ivy League degree.  It means developing a wide network of like-minded peers and mentors.  And it will never happen by itself.

We will have to take the long view.  And we will have to aim and to prepare for the influence we desire.