Maybe I have had too much Egg Nog, or perhaps since I am attempting to do something crazy like spend quality time with my family I have completely lost where exactly it says that 85% of the children loose faith after being in government schools.
What I do see, is a well-written letter that rehashes most of the same arguments I hear on this board, and very little in the way of actual evidence, but rather a chance to vent.
Come to think of it, ALL religions are banned in schools, Buddists, Muslims, Christianity, etc. I really don’t see many folks who are not Christian coming to my school in S. Georgia and try to expouse anything but and live, but hey, I live in the shore ‘nuff Bible belt.
Anyway, I still am not convinced that what is there has any proof of children leaving the faith. I challenge you to show it to me, or give me something more substantial.
Merry Christmas! I am off to see my extended family, for Christmas and read Luke 2:1-10.:)
I mean a link to actual research - not an editorial.
The following are a few of the facts included in his letter:
1)Research by Dr. Brian Ray, founder of NHERI, found that 94% of all homeschooled children retained their faith into adulthood
2) In 2002 the SBC’s Council on Family Life reported that roughly 88% of our children leave the church within 2 years after graduating from high school. It is reported by LifeWay’s Zan Tyler that Josh McDowell Ministries pegs the number who leave at 92%.3
3) The Nehemiah Institute’s worldview testing shows that students in Christian schools reject moral relativism at a rate 500% higher than Christian children attending public schools. The same worldview surveys also show that children receiving a Christian education do better on worldview issues overall than their public school counterparts, with outstanding results typically coming from Christian schools that incorporate worldview materials in their curriculum and homeschooled
4) Barna Research points out that while 86% of teens claim to be Christian and many are involved in church activities, the teens’ professions of Christianity and church attendance are deceiving. When the actual beliefs of our teens were surveyed, Barna research found, for example, that 60% believe salvation can be earned through good works, 53% (including 40% of evangelical teens) believe that Jesus sinned while he was on earth, only 1/3 said they were absolutely committed to Christianity, and only 9% of born again teens believe that there is any such thing as absolute moral truth. Should it be surprising, then, that Barna also finds that, based on survey data, only 4% of teens are actually evangelical Christians? )
5) Based on many years of worldview testing of evangelical teens, the Nehemiah Institute has found that at most only about 15% of evangelical teens attending public schools clearly reject moral relativism and believe that absolute moral truth exists.
6)The results from the largest survey of teen religious attitudes and beliefs, the National Survey of Youth and Religion, have been written up in Soul Searching by the lead researcher, Dr. Christian Smith, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Smith points out that most teens profess whatever religion their parents claim, which, of course, means that the overwhelming majority of teens claim to be Christian. Nevertheless, the research also shows that, whatever they may claim to be, the overwhelming majority of “Christian” teens is absolutely incapable of articulating anything resembling the fundamental tenets of Christianity. According to Dr. Smith: “Many teenagers know abundant details about the lives of favorite musicians and television stars or about what it takes to get into a good college, but most turn out to be not very clear on who Moses and Jesus were.” For example, when asked what God is like, one typical teenager responded: “Um…Good. Powerful.” When asked if there was anything else, she responded: “Tall.” The book uses many examples like these from the study’s teen interviews to illustrate why they concluded that teens are unable to articulate even a simple account of Christianity or whatever else they may profess to believe. In fact, the researchers conclude that the actual “faith” of the vast majority of teens is something that Dr. Smith characterizes as “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” This is a creed that conceives of God as something of a “cosmic butler” who exists to get people out of problems and who has, perhaps, one commandment: “Be nice.” The researchers also found that many parents of the teens appear to hold to a similar faith, even though they may profess Christianity. Further, in the appendix to Soul Searching, Dr. Smith points out that his research shows churches and pastors barely register in terms of the forces that shape and influence the beliefs and values of children.
7) In light of the foregoing, perhaps it isn’t surprising that Dr. Thom Rainer has estimated that nearly 50% of the members of SBC churches may not be Christians. Obviously, our multigenerational lack of faithfulness in the education of children has created a multigenerational problem in our churches.
Shag and Nittany,
By law, our government schools can not be Christian, and ALL education is religious in content and consequences. This is axiomatic! If they are not teaching Christianity, then they are teaching some other religion.
If Christian teachers are trying to sneak in a Christian message into the god-less government schools then they are doing the following:
1) They teaching all children ( Christian and non-Christian) that it is OK to break the law.
2) They are teaching all children ( Christian and non-Christian) that Christians are sneaky.
3) They are ( at best) dishing out a very lukewarm form of Christianity. They are teaching the kids that Christians are whimps! If Christ spits lukewarm Christians out of His mouth, should we be surprised that by the time kids graduate from high school too many have nothing but contempt for Christianity.
So...when praying about teaching in government schools, have Christian teachers actually asked God if it is OK to be a whimp, sneaky, and ludewarm about Christ’s message???? They have really asked Him if they should support 15 seconds of **silence** about Christ’s mission??? And, 6 to 7 hours of a religion that it anti-Christian? Really? Well??....OOOOOkaaayy!