Standing for Goodness and Truth in Our Schools

Babylon Falling- Grace Rising #3

Babylon, an ancient city in the Bible known for its wickedness, has become a symbol for all that is in rebellion in any culture, against the one, true God.

Active grace and truth are the lifestyle pillars of every Christian who longs to be light and salt in an ever-darkening world.  

Babylon, the world’s humanistic system, has entwined its tentacles into our education systems for decades. The subtle methods of encouraging students to reject their parents’ beliefs became noticeable to my family in the 1960’s. In my elementary science classes, the theory of evolution was taught as fact, not theory. Divine design didn’t appear in science lessons. Instead, colorful charts showed a human progression from single cell through various sketchy characters and critters until we reached upright humans. My parents responded by discussing truth at home, helping me understand evolution’s fallacies.

In my high school civics class, the teacher spent much of our class time sitting on the edge of his desk leading discussions on his opposition to the Viet Nam War. He assigned chapters to read in our civics textbooks and tested on that information, but class time didn’t discuss or process much of that. We memorized enough to regurgitate it back onto tests. I’m now an adult who listens to courses on the U.S. Constitution so I can authentically learn that stuff.

I’ve got dozens of stories, like the professor who mocked me and other believers in class for believing that God exists or the professors who showed up to class reeking of pot. (marijuana) If you don’t have any stories like this, I’ll bet you know people who do. There are many tales from God-followers who waded through inept educators and humanistic dreck to earn their degrees. If you think Christian colleges are exempt from this nonsense, think again. I know too many folks who will testify otherwise.

There are godly teachers and professors all over the nation. God bless em, I’ve been there. They do their best to hold onto kingdom values in impossible situations. They are a minority. What excites me right now about schools though, is how many families woke up when children were forced to do online classes at home. Depending on where you live, it turns out some schools are straight up indoctrination centers, teaching sexual perversions and humanistic claptrap as valid curriculum.

The funniest thing I observed during the lockdowns were schools who started prohibiting parents from observing their students’ online classes. What the what?!? Those silly educators only peaked parent’s interest. There are now hundreds of videos of people standing up at school board meetings and holding board members accountable for decisions and curriculum that not only do not mesh at all with the family’s core values and beliefs but are openly hostile to conservative, Judeo-Christian values.

Another casualty in the war to win our children’s hearts and minds over to Babylon’s ways, is that millions of students are not learning useful information and knowledge. Test scores and experienced educators will testify that students are not being taught to read and speak effectively, understand the basic math of everyday life and to know accurate history. American history has endured so many revisions, we are ignorant of our heritage, good and evil. For example, some of our ideas about the history of slavery are not correct. If you want to fact check your body of knowledge on that one topic, watch this five-minute video by Candace Owens and Prager University entitled, “A Short History of Slavery.”   

So, what do concerned God-followers do about all this? Well, if we do what we’ve done in the past, stay uninvolved in our schools, the progressive agenda will advance by leaps and bounds. The minimal presence of God-followers on many school boards in K`-12 and regency boards for higher learning, is precisely why we are in this fix now.

In the next post, I’ll share practical ideas for how to stand in this area if this is the arena to which God is calling you to invest your kingdom resources or if you have school age children. The rest of us should be faithfully praying for our schools. More on that further down. Before we get to the doing part of this, we need to know our why. Why should we care, especially if there’s no children or teens in our home? Why should we shift our lives around to attend school board meetings and do the work of getting on the agenda and then speaking up? Why should we pay better attention to the elected officials we vote for who make decisions for our education systems? 

It can’t just be because we are disgusted with the present situation. As believers, our process must always be to first understand and internalize God’s principles and ideas on any matter. We search the scriptures. We listen and talk to him in prayer. Then, we look and observe where he seems to be working and align ourselves with what he is already doing. What is he already blessing and where is he creating open doors and momentum? God has always been at work in our education systems, waiting for believers to join him and work alongside him.

What does the Bible say about about educating children? Lots. Here’s two verses I found and then my thoughts about them. I bet those of you who are sensing a call will find lots more verses.

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words that I give you today. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you’re at home or away when you lie down or get up. Write them down, and tie them around your wrist, and wear them as headbands as a reminder. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

The education of children is a parent’s responsibility first. Now, many choose to partner with schools but that doesn’t mean that parents should take a passive role. The picture that Abraham creates here is a hands-on parent who is dialed in to the details of their child’s education. During my teaching days I met hundreds of parents who did not have a clue what was going on in my classroom with their child. I could have been indoctrinating them into a cult for all they knew.

Do the work of following teacher’s classroom pages or social media pages about their classroom. And for heaven’s sake show up to parent teacher conferences and meet these folks face to face. During family mealtimes, lead guided discussions with your children as to what they were taught that day. Ask specific questions about specific subjects and classes and look at their homework assignments. This helps to discern the worldview of a teacher. Read the Sparks notes of books students are required to read or read them yourself. You will be amazed at some of the “required reading,” in place for our students. For example, so many people my age were required to read a hideous book entitled, “Lord of the Flies,” in Junior High. The crudities, plot and overall theme of the book are anti-God. There are scenes in that book that still make me gag all these years later. I could name a dozen “required reading” books that fall in the same category.

If you are faithfully teaching your children kingdom principles (not abdicating that responsibility to youth leaders and Sunday school teachers) and doing the things above, you will recognize quickly when your principles are being challenged by a school curriculum. Is this more work for parents? Absolutely, but consider what is at stake.

2 Timothy 3:14-15 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

How did Timothy become a wise, discerning pastor whom Paul trusted? From childhood, his mother and grandmother taught him godly principles and values which then translated into wisdom as Timothy grew up. We want our children to recognize for themselves, by the time they reach middle school, when classroom content challenges or mocks your family’s core beliefs. If we’ve taught them well in elementary school, by 7^th grade we should be able to shift to adviser and coach to help them stand up for themselves when their faith is attacked or devalued.

Timothy was so young, Paul felt concerned that people wouldn’t respect him, yet Paul recognized that Timothy could hold his own and entrusted the young man with the Ephesians church. How did this come to be? It was due to Timothy’s childhood training.

Don’t be discouraged if you are late to the game because you are new in Christ or you haven’t been previously hands on with your kid’s educations. If you’ve still got students at home, you can activate all the things I mentioned above. Don’t expect teens to love that. Nevertheless, be respectful and be involved before they become college students who turn their backs on their faith. Lifeway Research reports that 66 percent of American young adults who attended a Protestant church for at least a year as a teenager say they also dropped out for a year between the ages of 18 and 22. Once these same people reach their twenties, only 1in 3 still attend church.

We all want our children to be the one that stays so let’s take our responsibility seriously concerning our children’s education. Before we start doing things outside the home to affect education systems, let’s get our own houses in order.

On this topic, here’s a word to grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. without school age children. Pray faithfully for your children as they try to stand up in their kid’s schools. Please don’t tell them not to make a fuss or make waves. Pray for them. If they are passive, pray they hear Holy Spirit calling them to action. If they are active, hands-on pray for protection as they will be enemy targets. Pray that they will have courage and speak truth with grace. Pray that other parents will join them and stand with them, for the sake of everyone’s children. And please don’t just sit back and do nothing if your family is home schooled like my grandchildren or your kids are in Christian schools.

So, what is the “why” for every believer? Our why is to bring the kingdom of God into the battles waging in our education institutions for the hearts and minds of our children and youth. God takes educating children seriously and expects us to do the same. Older generations, will you pray for those in the battle? Will you pray for any students or teachers you know? Will you get in the fight and fight on your knees? What might happen if the body of Christ united and paved the way with prayer and action for goodness and truth to regain control of our schools?