Written by Bradley Health

Despair and disdain over the cultural moment grow more common with every passing day. Listening to news outlets brings a fog of disbelief and discouragement. Has the world gone insane? Much of the babble billowing across the airwaves invokes words, such as charlatan, libertine, racist, bigot, reprobate, deplorable, ingrate, selfishness and envy, as apt descriptions of the proponents and their propositions.

Instead of dismissing the harbingers of cultural decay, one can learn from them and from how a small minority with radical ideas is achieving disproportionate influence in American and global culture and politics.  Policies and practices once considered ludicrous have now been gaining mainstream awareness and support.

The emergence of social media offers a partial explanation because it is now possible for everyone to have a platform and every idea to have a voice with little effort or cost.  The internet has provided a smorgasbord of perspectives, and it seems as if what used to be “wrong” is “right” and vice versa.  Solomon promised, “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm” (Proverbs 13:20).

GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS

Government schools continue to restrict speech and ban worldviews they deem to be politically incorrect.  Their censorship happens at all levels but reaches its fullest potential on American college campuses.  From kindergarten to college, the government educational system has very successfully produced a compliant, ignorant and dependent citizenry. Christ promised, “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40).

A “WOKE” SOCIETY

Cultural elites regularly use the term “woke” and apply it to those who, after a period of unawareness, have awakened to a new understanding, typically a politically correct understanding of social issues, such as LGBTQ rights, global warming, white privilege, gender bias, inequality, reparations and other fellow travelers on the social-justice bandwagon.  These “woke folk” typically express shame and remorse over their previous unenlightened and politically incorrect perspectives, the guilt of which makes them enthusiastic converts and champions for causes to which they are now “woke.”  Once again, secular culture is stealing lumber from the Christian worldview to build their “awakened” identity and/or ideology.

Centuries ago, the “Great Awakening” swept the United States, resulting in the conversion to Christianity of tens of thousands under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield and other stalwarts of the faith.  Those “woke folk” also felt shame and remorse for their previous life apart from Christ.  They woke from that dark sleep of guilt and sin to find the glorious grace of God’s forgiveness; being “woke” was first a Christian concept.  What we are “woke” to is what matters.  Being woke to Christ and being “woke” to socialism are not the same.

WOKE TO THE DEANGERS OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLING

Do you need to be “woke” to the charade of government schooling?  Children are brainwashed in godless materialism, socialism, globalism, Islamic studies, and pornographic sex education, to name a few soul-damaging ideas.  The roles and responsibilities of parents are being usurped. Common Core curriculum and teaching to the tests are “dumbing down” students.  Proclaiming the “woke” truth about government schooling is often met with disbelief and treated like a Cassandra, whose curse in Greek mythology was to utter true prophecies which would never be believed.

BATTLE FOR THE CHILDREN

This is the battleground to which we are called.  We are often disparaged as cranks, prejudiced, fanatics or religious zealots, and we seem destined to be misunderstood and maligned, even by some within the Christian community.  Many pastors want peace or unity at any cost, and lack the courage and conviction to confront an enemy that appears as an angel of light.  They see no reason to oppose government schooling because, after all, it’s for the kids, as if anything for children must be good.  Consider, “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:17). This is a spiritual battle.  Without God, the battle is already lost, but with God, victory is sure. The children that God has entrusted to the care of pastors and parents are to be protected, not sacrificed.

God has required Christian education for the children of Christian parents. As parents walk faithfully in the light and work incrementally for the desired change, they will experience that their “faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:5).  Support for alternatives to government schooling, such as Christian schools, home schools, private and parochial schools, is a beginning.  Both consistent voting against school tax levies and holding school officials accountable for their dismal financial and academic performance, offer much needed resistance.  Many can support ministries that warn parents and pastors about the dangers of government schooling.

Repentance and asking God to lift the oppression of government schooling from His people is a proper beginning.  In much the same way that abortion and homosexuality not only lead to God’s judgement, they actually are His judgement, likewise government schooling of Christian children is a sin and leads to God’s judgement.  Our nation has been given over to folly and suffers the consequences of arrogant self-deception and self-reliance.  As God has been rejected in the education of children, He has left us to our own devices.  Lord, have mercy. “This is what the Lord says: If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman” (Jeremiah 15:19).

PERSONAL COMMITMENT

All Americans fund government schools whether they believe in them or not.  The government confiscates a portion of our wealth through property tax, income tax, and even sales tax for funding schools that are anathema.  Indeed, we involuntarily sustain the very system we wish to stop.  In response to this harsh realization, you can give away more money in support of Christian education than the government schools take away from us.  We can’t criticize government schools and simultaneously give them more money than we can give to the cause of Christian education.  We must have skin and soul in the game, if we want to have a voice in the game.

My challenge: If Christians matched what they already “give” to the government schools, there would be abundant resources for Christian education and biblical alternatives for our children and grandchildren.

“As for me, I will be vindicated and will see Your face;
when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing Your likeness.”
~Psalm 17:15~

Bradley Heath is an impassioned advocate for the recovery of substantive Christian education. He graduated from Purdue University as an aeronautical engineer and has worked in commercial aviation.  He has been an active member of the evangelical church and has served as an ordained elder and a Christian school administrator.  Brad and his wife, Tari, have three children – all classically home educated. He is author of Millstones & Stumbling Blocks.