Posted on 12/13/2020 5:51:10 PM PST by DeweyCA
So how do we explain this link between education policy and religious belief given that academic attainment itself isn’t a factor? It’s quite simple, really. Children learn more at school than reading, writing, and arithmetic. They imbibe a whole set of implied assumptions about what’s important in life. By excluding religious instruction from public schools, the government-run education system tacitly teaches students that religious commitments are not a first-order priority in life. Faith in God becomes a sort of optional weekend hobby akin to playing tennis or video games. Christ and Moses are treated by teachers and administrators like weapons or drugs — confiscated upon discovery.
In this way, the hierarchy of values communicated both explicitly and implicitly to students in American high schools excludes religious claims from the outset. College, career, and popularity become the existential targets toward which the arrow of each student’s soul is aimed by bow-wielding commissars across the country. In a context such as this, secularization becomes ineluctable. The New Testament itself says that religious belief is shaped more by the places we look for praise and validation than by naked ratiocinations: “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you’re not looking for the glory which comes from the one and only God?” (John 5:44). But the secular public high school dispenses validation and praise according to different criteria than any of the major faiths. This is why government control of education has resulted in religious decline.
The American People never voted to take God out of schools. They never voted to take prayer out of schools. It was imposed on us by the supercilious self-appointed dictators of the Warren Court. Power seduces men into believing that they are the enlightened elite, and that they have a right to dictate Law as they see fit. It never should have happened. The actual story is a sad tale of insidious revenge, fear, and unbelief. Without God the nation is lost. True believers in him must overcome their divisions and unite to return to the Faith that built America. That Faith is a Jude-Christian Faith. Each can affirm the other without forsaking their sincerely held differeNces. There is no other way to Make America Great Again.
In the past, the arm and bayonet were the Enemy. Today the book is the enemy.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Xy2CnNc0L._AC_.jpg
In the article is mentioned the study that found that kids who attended Sunday school tended to be less religious as adults that kids who attended church but not Sunday school.
>deism (that God is irrelevant to life)
That is not the only definition of deism. Deism can also be a belief in God through natural evidence. That is how God can choose to call people who have never heard Scripture (as before there was Scripture, e.g. Enos Gen 4:26). I came to Christ though deism and today call myself a Christian deist. I find it right in the Bible:
1 Thessalonians 5:21
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
I know I’m different. I rejected public school indoctrination by 4th grade (advanced classes) on my own (really stupid propositions in social studies) and questioned God through my teens. But I found Christ through a proper understanding of science (amateur astronomer before starting school) by 1978 and going to a (highly imperfect) religious high school and reading the entire Bible cover to cover on my own that summer. I am still a sinner begging for forgiveness but I believe.
The slippery slope was greased by the Playboy Philosophy, abetted by birth control and fueled by abortion. It was a recipe for sexual experimentation, anti-family and the rebellion against Natural Law.
Our kids went to very liberal public schools growing up. At dinner time we would discuss things and have various learning experiences on what they had been taught. All three are still staunch conservatives. I think them being taught all of the liberal crap when they were young helped us to educate them so they wouldn’t get sucked into it when they went off to college.
And of course it wasn’t just talks at the dinner table but showing them by our actions as well.
“Show me a child who eschews God and I’ll show you a parent who is either an atheist or put shopping, drugs, alcohol, sex, or whatever ahead of their child.”
Nope. Not even close. I can point to kids I know who hate the idea of God or controls of any kind who were raised by God-loving, dedicated parents who cared deeply about their kids.
Free Will. Christianity is neither genetic nor something you can choose to teach. Somewhere in the intersection of free will and God’s sovereignty, kids can be raised well and still turn out bad. Sometimes VERY bad. I could give you 4 names off the top of my head.
You cannot make any one become a Christian. Not be teaching or by birth.
I doubt most American children have heard or understand the Gospel.
I taught CCD (Catholic Sunday school 11-13 year olds) and what you say is true. If parents claim to be Christian and don’t live it, the kids question what their parents say but apparently don’t believe. What parents do is more important than what they say.
Mothers with jobs/careers are a big obstacle to belief but nothing is so devastating as divorce. A parent dying isn’t worse.
One other thing not mentioned is that many Christian parents can’t explain the faith in any rational manner.
In the teenage years many kids want to know the why of things. If a parents faith is based in emotion/feelings then their faith is inscrutable. Many of these parents refuse to step out of their comfort zones for the sake of their children and study the reason side of Christianity. Why, I don’t know.
Focus. The argument is not about the condition of schools. The argument is about who is responsible for teaching your child. If you believe schools are responsible for teaching your children about God you are stupid.
In fact schools have no responsibility to teach your child anything at all in the same fashion that police have no duty to protect you.
The fact the parents are responsible for their children’s education is not a theory it is a biblical principle. Complain all you want about taxes and the state of public education. God gave the children to you and not the state. Their welfare and education is on you.
Since you are home schooling you must be commended for not delegating your responsibility to the state.
My kids went to public screwls. They were well educated thanks to strong parental guidance. By high school they were well founded in our faith and could hold their own in any debate with the teachers. I was actually glad for the utter lack of any religious instruction. What would that even be? Public schools were founded as the antidote to Catholic schools and were intended to be secular.
You are NOT Addressing the fact the the State is forcing us to pay for America’s children to be propagandized by the State. I’ve NEVER sent my kids to public school. Not everyone has this option. Yet I still pay for other children to get LGBTQI leftist indoctrination.
I’m not addressing that fact because that is it what the article is about. The article is about public schools not teaching about God.
If want argue about your taxes paying for stuff you do not agree with find a different post.
The school system in its current form needs to be abolished. Local jurisdictions should teach math, science, and Grammer for those who cannot afford teaching their own children
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
