We have dealt with the whole BLM, Critical Race Theory, and Social Justice world over the last several podcasts. In that time, we have had to deal with riots in our city, and the expectation of more as soon decisions will be rendered about the police officer who shot Jacob Blake; not to mention the Kyle Rittenhouse trial.
We have tried diligently to give you a biblical framework to work with as you think through these issues, and we hope in some small way we are of help.
Today, we want to talk a bit about the so-called "elephant in the room" in this whole racial, social justice problem in our nation.
That elephant is called the education system.
We will argue against having children in the public education system, as well as in many private institutions. We will also argue that great care needs to be used when considering higher education.
There are too many stories of young adults heading off to college, and coming back with radical, rebellious ideas that baffle the parents.
So we will jump right in on this, and we ask you to give a careful listen.
- Our First Premise is that: Education is not neutral -
The bible makes this clear in every area of existence, but Christians seem to fail to grasp it.
Galatians 1:4 speaks of the death of Christ rescuing us out of this present evil age (eon). Do you grasp that? Do you understand that all things unredeemed by Christ belong to this age that is defined as evil?
Satan is described as the god of this world or age in 2 Corinthians 4:4.
Paul, in describing his conversion and mission to King Agrippa in Acts 26:18, says that all outside of Christ are under the dominion of Satan, and dwell in darkness.
Romans 3:9 tells us something we all know, but somehow don’t extrapolate into all parts of our lives. It says that all people are “under sin.” The idea is that of power and authority. The ruling thought and motive of this age is sin, and apart from Jesus, everyone is under that power.
So is it any surprise that Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2 that we are to reject conformity to this age by being in the consistent state of transformation of the mind? Why? So that we might discern what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Ephesians 4:23 tells us to be renewed in our minds, and Ephesians 5:10 tells us to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
But do you apply these to your decisions related to education for your children?
Do you understand that the system, at its very core, is atheistic and immoral?
Do you understand that it is under the power of Satan?
Do you understand that its very goal and purpose is to take your child’s mind and conform it into the image of this age?
We keep trying to fight battles that were lost long ago in the minds of the youth. We hear things suddenly espoused, and wonder where they came from.
Instead, you should ask yourself why so many of the young people are pushing for these changes. The point in common is usually their education. Add to this the ability for so many differing ideas to affect your children via their phones and internet, and it is no surprise that a very different worldview is accepted by your child.
We fool ourselves into thinking that though there are various ideas being pushed in schools, that their overall purpose is to somehow educate children in the basics of knowledge (reading, writing and arithmetic).
This is untrue, and the test scores prove this over and over. Even after we totally redo (time and time again) the methodology of testing, they still reveal a shocking low standard.
Voddie Bauchaum tells this story, “One of our elders taught honors math at one of the ‘best schools’ in one of the ‘best school districts’ in Texas (you know, one of those schools people lie and cheat to get their children into so that they can get a ‘better education’). His advanced geometry class was filled with a bunch of imbeciles who could barely do basic arithmetic. As a result, most of them failed their first major test. You know what happened next? The principal called him into the office and told him to make things right. One of the things he was told was to employ a grading technique called “Square root times ten.” Thus, a student who made a 49 on a test ended up with a 70 in the grade book (for those of you who went to government schools like me, that’s the square root of 49 times ten).”
Ask kids who Christopher Columbus was, and it is quite amazing how much hatred will come out against him showing a complete inability to understand history and the complexity of events.
Ask them to describe the Native Indian’s life prior to the Europeans coming into North America. Usually it is an idyllic life filled with peace; though the truth is that the warring tribes terrorized the more peaceful ones. That tribes would fight over lands, and the level of demonic and animistic religious activity defined so much of what they would value.
Kim and I went to a local school to show support for a young lady we knew. She had a small exhibit showing, so we went. We were heartbroken as we watched so many young teens who were obviously transgender, transvestites, and homosexual; openly flaunting it. The school willingly had pro-homosexual banners displayed. This is not by accident, but by purpose.
Over the past years, we were a bit stunned at first by how much anti-christian garbage flowed out of the mouths of Christians related to government, economics, racism, gender roles, and such. But no longer.
We find that the current generation of pastors in the pulpit have drunk deeply from the well of godless men and women. It is unsurprising that while we are supposed to keep the gospel central, somehow the gospel never quite reaches into our private convictions on the many social sins in our nation.
The next crop is even more concerning to us. Critical Race Theory and Social Justice are happily ensconced in most seminaries and Christian colleges. The product that most will produce is something not quite Christian. It is of great concern to us as pastors as we see the schools producing wolves, rather than shepherds.
A question we would ask is this: Do you understand that anything that is “non-Christian” is by its very nature “anti-Christian?”
Just because it is not punching you or your child in the face does not mean it is actively pushing and promoting a God-centered, God-honoring idea or goal.
A gentle and nice form of atheism will suffer the same wrath of God for all eternity as the harsh, genocidal type.
We are long past the days where the presumption was that most students were from Christian homes (in the broadest sense of the word), and being raised with Judeo-Christian values.
Education is not merely claiming to put the Christian worldview on a level playing field with other worldviews, treating them as equal. Education at its highest levels hates the very name of Jesus Christ. It is not even trying to hide itself anymore.
- Premise two is that we assume the younger years are more important for development than the older ones -
Parents who love their children, usually most enjoy them when they are small, easily managed, and tending toward cute. The problems with smaller children can frustrate the parent, but they are minor and easily resolved for the most part.
One thing we teach about parenting is that by five you should have your child consistently showing you respect and obedience. They are not children who are given to interruptions, tantrums, and rebelliousness. They have learned to sit still in church for an extended length of time and to accept that their way is not what matters. Those years are normally the pre-school years.
Then you watch parents who are counting down the days to when they can see their kids off to school to get back to what they want to do. When that happens you see how they really view children.
But from ages 5-10/11 kids are forming standards, morals, goals, and convictions. At this age they are thrust into an immoral and atheistic world where the values of a godly life and mind are completely at odds with it. They swim in a polluted pool, and we wonder how they become spiritually and socially so sick.
They begin to conform themselves to their classmates. They learn how life works but not from the wise mouth of their parents, but from the foolish lips of fellow classmates. It is at this critical stage in life that we pass them off to a godless system with the quaint idea that if we pray for them it will all be good.
Parents too often think that if they are in a solid church, and the kids are in a good school and the parents show an interest in their children’s lives that everything will turn out fine.
But this is a lie we tell ourselves.
We think that if the kid is in Sunday School then they will be fine, but we cannot find the time to teach our children in family worship. We think that spending ½ an hour or so a day after work and school with our kids will reveal any issues of the heart that need to be addressed, but it doesn’t.
By the last years of school they are now debating life and morals and goals. They are forming long-term senses of purpose for themselves.
It is done in the realm of the enemy. It is not the parent building the deep convictions into their heart; it is the drama teacher, the english teacher or some coach.
- Premise three is that we try to believe truth can be grasped apart from God,
but it can’t -
Jesus said in John 17 that the source of truth is God’s Word. In John 8 He said that truth will make you free. In John 14 He describes Himself as “the truth.”
It is amazing that parents can nod in agreement with this, and then think that somehow their child is receiving a great education at their school.
Even many so-called Christian schools are devoid of this understanding. They teach the same things in the same way as the public school, they just add chapel or maybe basic Christian doctrine along with it.
What happens with this is that we train our children to create compartments in their minds and lives. You have your religious life and you have your public life and your private life, etc.
The result is that kids grow up, and become pastors who teach that a 6 day creation is really a well-meaning myth and that truth tells us that Genesis should be treated as a ANE legend/myth.
For many, when the two worldviews collide it is the religious one that must make room and adjustments. We see it over and over.
Truth is truth, and it is defined by Jesus and the Word of God. It doesn’t change just because someone says it is wrong or shortsighted. How many of your children are immersed in the task of knowing this truth?
When your school sets about to teach on ethics, history, social sciences, they do so without God and the Bible. Every time.
So without these being the anchors and guiding lights they are left to find other standards which amazingly seem to mirror their own fickle and sinful desires. The student, your student, is taught overtly and covertly to use himself or the masses as the foundation of what is right and good.
The public education system promotes ignoring God, and this is never good. So art becomes art for its own sake. Beauty is now in the eye of the beholder. Sexual ethics are a private affair into which others cannot speak. If you doubt us, then at the next PTA meeting simply raise the question, what does God say about this? Or how does this fit with the Scriptures?
Helpful hint, to remove tar and feathers you should use lots of ice to keep the tar hard as you pull it off.
So you disagree with us? What now?
Then you disagree. What you should ask is why you disagree, and make sure you give it a lot of thought.
You may argue that you went to public school, and did fine. We would question that by asking if you really mean that? Did you walk out of school unscathed, or has your life been a process of seeing how much junk is actually in your life?
What are your views on abortion, euthanasia, economics, society, purpose of government, legal systems, prison and jails, police use of force, capital punishment, art, music, entertainment, sexual issues, gender issues, private property, racism, education, and a whole host of other things?
We would wager that most have not really developed a sound theology on these, but every one of these are under the sovereign hand of God; and they are to be expressions of Him and His character.
You have opinions on these things, but too often they were developed in your time while at school with a smattering of Christianity tossed in.
Which is why a single girl will get pregnant while attending a Christian college, and she and her boyfriend will then get the baby aborted. Yet, at the same time they will claim to be anti-abortion.
They had an unbiblical understanding of relationships.
Of sexuality.
Of gender roles.
Of reputation.
Of the sanctity of life.
And likely many more.
Some will argue that private schooling is too expensive.
Perhaps, but it is also possible that you have bought into a godless worldview that says you need a bigger home with land and at least two cars, newer the better.
It is possible that you bought the lie that you must go to a fancy college, and do it while taking on school debt so that you have spending money during college.
You may believe that decorating your house all nice, and making sure you and your family are dressed in a way that reflects your fashion sense is important.
You don’t believe in wasting your time in the kitchen, so you need to buy store made products and order eat out foods.
What if, instead, you moved into a smaller home in a less fancy neighborhood? What if your cars were older, and so on?
If you need to have two incomes to live, then likely you have made many choices that are not biblically sound choices.
In other words, when you play the “I can’t afford it” card, we would then offer to sit with you and help you find ways to cut back on things so that you could afford it.
The reality is that few want that to happen.
In America, we will do hard things, as long as they only appear hard and don’t cut into our creature comforts.
You may argue that you see the public school as your mission ground.
We would shrug and be unimpressed.
The reason is simple, you cannot be truly evangelistic in the school system. Even if you did it on your free time you know you run the risk of getting into serious trouble.
As a parent volunteering in your school what do you do when the teacher is an open transvestite? What do you do when you hear him or her frame things in an ungodly manner? Do you stand by silently while the school introduces gay-pride history lessons for pre-k through year 12? Where is your line drawn?
Is your child really so strong in their faith, assuming they are even yet in Christ, that they can discern good and evil? Really? Because we have not met them yet.
You are not to use your children as an evangelism tool. You are commanded to train, instruct, discipline and lead your children into two things: a saving faith and a biblically solid worldview that makes them firm in their faith. How that is done by giving them over to 8 plus hours in a school system that is literally opposed to that is beyond us.
You argue that you can’t teach them, because you are not good at that.
Then we would say -- learn. Like everything else in life, you have to learn these skills.
Most homeschool curriculum is extremely helpful in showing you how to teach. It does require you to have an attitude that says you will learn and conquer this weakness.
What really happens with many who try homeschooling is that they find out they have done a terrible job in raising children who obey the first time, show self-control, and who are respectful.
Add to this that many parents have never trained themselves to control their reactions and thought-life, and so they are filled with anxiety that controls them and defines their decisions and actions. The result is chaos.
But it can be changed by heart that repents before God.
Your children won’t sit still, and listen to you.
Then you have had the grace of God show you how poorly you have been parenting up to that point. Give thanks, and then begin to repent.
Work first on bringing your children under your control, so that you can teach them. This is a miserable task, but it is only because you chose not to train them from the beginning.
This will one day be a whole series on its own. But don’t dump your disobedient child off on some teacher because you can’t be bothered to teach him to sit still for a half-hour.
Challenges the church must face:
Over the last few decades, a new challenge has grown in the church to the point that it is simply accepted without much thought. We speak of single parents.
It used to be rare, and if it existed there were extenuating circumstances such as war, disease, or the like. To be sure, there were single parents, usually single mothers, but they were so rare that they stood out.
Now, in many schools there is daycare for the children of single mothers so they can attend high school. It is normal.
When you start to speak about educating your own children either via homeschool or through a truly Christian private school you create challenges.
How can the mother work and teach her child? She can’t.
Unless the mother has a very good paying job the cost of private schooling is not an option either.
We think churches need to give careful thought to helping support those women, or men, in these unique situations.
If the parent is willing, then having another parent in the church bring their child into their homeschooling environment would be good. A lot would need to be worked out, but it would be a beginning.
The church could start a fund that helped offset the cost of private schooling.
The church could promote legislation that allows for vouchers to be used for private education.
Or, the church could start a private school itself.
These take time, but they are all worth pursuing. The problem with single-parenthood should be a single generation problem for that family. If the child is raised to see the wisdom and necessity of a husband/wife home then the cycle is broken.
But this requires a wholistic approach that begins and ends with a God-centered home and life.
In other words, as a rule, Christian homes should not be producing single-parent homes. Those should primarily come from those who are saved from outside the visible Church. As they are cared for and taught by the church they should radically change how their home functions in every way.
The result should be a generation of children raised to be godly men and women.
The church must preach a full-orbed biblical model of the Christian faith.
Not merely good sermons that are expositional, but then the expectation that the households in attendance are learning to put them into practice.
Too many times you can have a good preacher at some church, but alongside his sermons are classes on the enneagram or love languages or psychological approaches to anger, bitterness, lusts and such. The classes and small groups are petri dishes of every godless idea and the question is not asked how the sermon, and more importantly the biblical text, addresses these things.
These two are the biggest challenges though many others exist.
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Give what we said careful thought. Don’t chuck it out the window in a fit of emotion. If you ultimately don’t agree, then that is your choice and the fruit of all our choices will become evident in time.
But until then, make sure to tune in, join this conversation; we’d love to hear your thoughts on education as Christian discipleship.