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It is through our personal faith in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection that we become “new creatures” (i.e., something that did not exist previously). We were quickened—made alive—that we might serve Christ in this newness of life. It is because of our new life in Christ that Paul says in Romans 12:1–2a: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." In Colossians 2:8, Paul also gives a strong admonition to believers to keep from being influenced by worldly thinking: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Currently, millions of Christian parents send their children for a period of twelve or more years to a secularized institution (public school) that long ago, with forethought and malice, removed God and the Bible—and even ordinary morality—from its curriculum and daily instruction; therefore, students of all ages from kindergarten through high school are daily trained in a program strictly rooted in worldly thought and practice. It is not as though what the public schools are teaching has not already been exposed; it is, in truth, indoctrination being perpetrated on generations of youth in the name of education. In short, what children have been taught and are being taught in our public schools is most certainly not according to Christ.

The single act of giving Christian children over to be indoctrinated into worldly thinking and behavior for generations has done much to destroy the family and weaken the Body of Christ. The Southern Baptist Council on Family Life reported to the 2002 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention that “88 percent of the children raised in evangelical homes leave church at the age of 18, never to return.”¹

In addition, there is now a widening division in the Christian community between parents who do not allow their children to be indoctrinated by the secular public schools and those who do. It may be excusable for the unbeliever (the person who is “of this world”) to train his own children in worldly thinking, but God commands His children (who are “in the world” but not “of the world” to train their children in ways of righteousness. (See Romans 12:1–2 and John 17:15–16.)

Christian parents who still doubt the evil agendas of the government school system should take heed of the insights provided by well-established Christian organizations such as the American Family Association (AFA). AFA has certainly done their research, which is revealed in their most recent documentary, Speechless: Silencing the Christians. In one of the film’s segments, titled “A Radical Agenda: Indoctrinating School Children,” the documentary’s host, Janet Parshall, tells the story of a mostly conservative, tight-knit community in Kentucky whose schools have not escaped the reach of the homosexual lobby: “When Boyd County Schools introduced sexual diversity training that promoted the homosexual lifestyle, and made it a mandatory part of the curriculum, student T. J. Morrison’s family took them to court. . . . [T]he video in question presented homosexuality as an immutable or unchangeable characteristic. Students were told that they could not make any comments that disagreed with this idea, and they were not allowed to object on religious grounds. . . . There was also no provision for parents to opt their children out of the program.”²

When interviewed about this incident, T. J.’s mother, Mary Morrison, stated for the film: “They [school officials] basically told us [parents] from the beginning that the kids were not allowed to disagree . . . and they said that ‘once that child steps through that door, they belong to the school district.’ And I specifically asked them . . . , ‘You’re telling me that my child is no longer mine as long as he’s on school property?’ and they [school officials] said, ‘That is correct.’ ”³

Some parents believe that these types of intimidation and indoctrination tactics “are not happening in their school,” but the facts show a very different story. The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest labor union, decides on and seeks to implement policies that affect all public schools in the United States. In Speechless, Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs for Liberty Counsel, explains it this way: “The National Education Association is on board a hundred percent with the homosexual lobby’s wish list—with their goals—so they have an ‘in’ to our system of public education. Groups like GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian Straight Education Network, they provide the curriculum that is being taught in our Sex Ed classes throughout schools—and civic classes and elsewhere—they provide the curriculum. So, they [GLSEN] have a direct avenue—direct route—to your children.”⁴

Just as God’s Word is both unambiguous and consistent about prohibiting homosexuality, so are public schools about encouraging it. Concerned Women for America (CWA), another prominent and credible Christian organization, has done their research as well. In a CWA newsletter mailed in 2005, titled “Jesse’s Dream Skirt, New Tactics Revealed to Lure Our Children,” Beverly LaHaye states:

Here’s just a sample of what I’ve discovered:

• Cross-dressing promoted to grade-school children.

• Graphic and explicit instruction in “gay” sex taught to teenage boys and girls.

• A book—published by a taxpayer-funded university—that endorses sex between children and adults!

I’ve warned about this before, but now the evidence is beyond dispute: there is an evil scheme aimed at destroying our children. The attack comes on many fronts. It aims to expose children to sex at earlier and earlier ages . . . to rob them of their innocence and open them up to immoral and unhealthy practices . . . to set them up to accept messages of “safe sex” and homosexuality . . . to usher them into becoming advocates for—and ultimately participants in—sexual promiscuity, sodomy, bisexuality, and transgenderism. These reports confirm my worse fears about this scheme. Radical homosexual activists have long said, “Whoever controls the schools controls the future.” If they can convince the next generation that homosexuality is “just another lifestyle,” there will be no stopping them.⁵

Dr. Tim LaHaye, well-known author and pastor, expressed the solution to the morally dangerous and wicked public school agenda very aptly when he stated: “One of the big problems we have today, I think, is the Church. . . . The Church is facing a serious problem of losing its young people to the world by the time they graduate from high school, and what is the reason? Twelve thousand hours of secular humanist brainwashing. . . . It is time we parents get our kids out of the public school.”⁶

Dr. Charles Stanley, pastor of the well-known First Baptist Church Atlanta and founder of In Touch Ministries^®, expressed his thoughts on the public school system to his congregation:

When you send that child off to school today, you’re sending them into a pagan society because, with few exceptions, the school system is not going to teach them to believe God—not going to teach them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ—or to honor Him. But they’re going to, by the way they teach and the things they teach, little by little, do what? . . . [A]ttack their faith—even as small children in those lower grades—teaching them ethics that are unethical according to Scripture, teaching them to be willing to participate in immoral, ungodly, sensual practices that are acceptable to the world but condemned by Almighty God . . . and that very deceitfully and cunningly . . . seek to undermine the faith of your child very early in life. Will they deny that? Absolutely! Do they say, ‘That’s not my purpose’? Absolutely! But it’s not what they say—it’s what they do . . . and [they] teach those practices that the Bible states very clearly are ungodly, unacceptable, and condemned by God; that’s what you’re sending your child into, and you cannot deny that—if you’re realistic. ⁷

Dr. Stanley is exactly right. Proponents of public education will try to deny it, but the facts say otherwise. It is time for Christians to act on the facts, which are based on the history of public schools and the results of what public education has produced. Most importantly, they must discover what God’s Word has to say—not about education, but about worldly indoctrination.

The late Dr. D. James Kennedy, pastor and founder of Coral Ridge Ministries, in a booklet titled Truth in Education, made the following statement: “Of course, one of the most important concepts to remember is that God gave the job of rearing godly children to parents, not to the state or the National Education Association. . . . The ones who will eventually pay the heaviest price are the children who are left to be trained solely by a false and empty humanistic education system which not only fails to educate, but fails to prepare them to become the moral leaders God intended them to be!”⁸

Consider research done by educational expert Charlotte Iserbyt, former Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, under the Reagan administration. According to Mrs. Iserbyt, her position gave her access to high-level documents for the restructuring of not only U.S. education, but global education as well. She was also a local school board member and is the author of The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America (www.deliberatedumbingdown.com). She describes the U.S. public education system as follows:

You think the purpose of education is reading, writing and arithmetic? The purpose of education is to change the thoughts, actions, and feelings of students. Hitler wanted to control the educational system in Germany, Stalin did in Russia, Mao Zedong in China. You have to get a hold of the minds of the young, where you break the person’s values; you break their understanding of their individuality. You bring them to a consensus with the group; they become a member of the collective. It’s Soviet education, basically—might as well say it—it’s Soviet education. You cannot expect to have a smoothly running, world socialist system if you have people out there who are going to object to what you’re trying to do, so you have to brainwash them.⁹

Now you’ve heard from a highly qualified and experienced educational authority, from well-known leaders of respected Christian organizations, and from prominent pastors, all of whom have researched the facts and concluded that the public schools of the United States are consistently indoctrinating children into secular, immoral, and godless ways of thinking and behavior. Christians who say “The Bible doesn’t give specific instruction about education or school” should take heed.

Unfortunately, more than 85% of Christian parents apparently believe their children are safe under the tutelage of secular, government-run schools.¹⁰ The primary rationale for this erroneous belief is not that these schools offer a quality service, nor because they teach truth, but rather it is because Christian parents believe that they “survived” the experience; therefore, all is “okay” with their children as well.

In fact the opposite is true. Not only are their children being brainwashed, but apparently the parents were as well, because these Christian parents still send their children to these schools, thinking they are merely receiving an education. So, one decade after another, one generation after another, the minds of children, like proverbial frogs in the pot, continue to be indoctrinated, growing up to think like the world—and not according to Christ. (See Colossians 2:8.)

In light of these facts, it is time for every Christian to carefully examine the Scriptures and determine the Biblical responsibility they have to see that their children are brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and that they are protected from learning to practice the ungodly ways of the world.¹¹ If you, as a Christian parent, already understand these truths, please begin to share them with fellow Christians to help them gain a better knowledge of what is really being perpetrated through America’s public schools—indoctrination in the name of education.

God cannot and will not bless teaching that contradicts His truths. However, when children learn from a Biblical foundation, God’s blessing will follow.

Pat Marcum and his wife began homeschooling their children in the early 1980’s. Pat is a marketing consultant, developer of the successful Homeschool Headquarters marketing program for retail bookstores, and is an author and speaker on Christian homeschool issues. Pat believes all Christians must consider the important spiritual implications of placing children under the authority of a secular institution where they receive a godless education. He encourages parents to keep their children home under their protection and spiritual guidance.

Endnotes:

We encourage all parents to make use of the resources that have been referenced in this and other articles that TOS has published. You could even develop a presentation for your own church or community, if you wish. Also, we invite you to submit other resources that give validity to the fact that public schools are no longer about education, and that fellow Christians, based on the history of public school, on experiential evidence, and on Scripture, should not send their children to them.

1. Southern Baptist Council on Family Life: 2002 SBC Annual Meeting, www.sbcannualmeeting.net/sbc02/newsroom/newspage.asp?ID=261, accessed July 15, 2009.

2. Speechless: Silencing the Christians, produced by American Family Association; hosted and narrated by Janet Parshall, radio and television commentator, author, and advocate for the family, and host of the nationally syndicated radio program, Janet Parshall’s America. You may view this film at this website address: www.silencingchristians.com. The program originally aired as a one-hour television special in February 2009.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. “Jesse’s Dream Skirt, New Tactics Revealed to Lure Our Children,” 2005 Newsletter #451, Jesse’s Dream Skirt Version B1, Concerned Women for America (www.cwfa.org), August 8, 2005.

6. Education in Today’s Culture: A Biblical Perspective (DVD), Considering Homeschooling MinistryÔ(www.consideringhomeschooling.org), 2004.

7. Dr. Charles Stanley, “A Mother’s Greatest Gift,” Part 2 (DVD), In Touch Ministries (www.intouch.org), 2007.

8. Dr. D. James Kennedy, Truth in Education (Transforming Truth Collection), Coral Ridge Ministries Media, Inc. (www.coralridge.org), 1996.

9. Charlotte Iserbyt, as quoted in One Nation Under Siege, a William Lewis film (www.undersiegemovie.com), 2006.

10. Bruce N. Shortt, The Harsh Truth About Public Schools, Chalcedon Foundation, Vallecito, California, 2004, page 319.

11. A film produced by the American Family Association, titled Suffer the Children, provides visual, factual proof that undeniably shows how children are being indoctrinated. www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com/suffer

Used with permission. Visit them at www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com.Schoolhouse Store.