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by Mike McHugh
Many educational institutions throughout the world claim to be non-religious or secular? Is this possible? The American College Dictionary defines a religion as a “quest for the values of the ideal life, involving three phases: the ideal, the practices for attaining the values of the ideal, and the theology or world view relating the quest to the environing universe.” Religion does not necessarily include a belief in God. Teaching is religious if it prescribes values, practices, and a world-view. In 1961, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized this fact in its official statement concerning the case of Torcaso v. Watkins. Because religion of some sort is always involved in the teaching of values and world-view, all programs to educate children are inherently religious, even in schools where God and the Bible are locked out. The claim of some educators that instruction can take place in a neutral manner, therefore, needs to be recognized for what it is … a myth!
The teaching of any general subject includes religious instruction. To teach history, we must prescribe values and a world-view. History courses that leave out the call of Abraham or the resurrection of Christ are not non-religious, they just represent a religion that either denies these important historical facts, or considers them unimportant. To teach science, a basic philosophy of knowledge must be taught. That philosophy will either be biblical or anti-biblical. Science courses also usually deal with the origins of the earth and the universe. The children being exposed to these things will either learn the Christian view of origins or the view of some other religion. To teach language, we must either include or leave out the idea that there are moral aspects to the use of language. An English class, therefore, will always reflect a religious bias of some sort.
John Dewey, the father of modern educational philosophy, said that “the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true Kingdom of God.” Nearly all of the framers of American public education claimed religious motives for their work. But their religion was not the Christian religion. The fathers of the modern public school system in America were nearly all “Humanists” in their religious viewpoint. Humanism is a religion that puts man in the place of God. Man is to be pleased, obeyed, and glorified. Humanism is now the prevailing religious force in our nation’s political, ecclesiastical, and educational establishment. What Christianity was to America in the nineteenth century, humanism has become in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Christian parents are not faced with a choice between giving their children a religious or a non-religious education. All schools are religious. Parents must choose rather which religion will ultimately influence their children’s education. Will it be biblical Christianity, Catholicism, Humanism, or something else?
Did God ever intend for Christian parents to give their children over to non-biblical schools for much of their training? Proverbs 19:27 says, “Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.” II John verses seven through eleven, tells us to reject teachers that teach anything that is not consistent with “The doctrine of Christ.” We are commanded, therefore, to close our ears to non-biblical teachings. How then can we justify enrolling our children in non-biblical schools?
Some argue that Christian children should attend secular schools in order to witness to children in their community. In other words, they are to go to school in order to teach non-Christians about Christ. But students do not go to school to teach, but rather to learn. The mind of a child is not constructed to reject false doctrine (see Ephesians 4:14). It is a funnel, designed to receive what is poured into it. Parents, therefore, must put their children in schools where they will receive what God wants them to learn. If any parent is struggling to comprehend what it is that God would have children learn, they can simply go to Philippians 4:8 for the answer. This verse states: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of a good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
An increasing number of parents are seeing Christian education as a part of their duty in providing for the children that God has given to them. Much sacrifice may be required in order to give our youngsters a biblical upbringing, but obedience to God has always required sacrifice. By the time he reaches the eighth grade, many a Christian student has absorbed a thoroughly humanistic world-view, because of the over ten thousand hours of godless instruction that he has received in the humanistic schools. The eighth-grader who has attended a Christian school may or may not be living for the Lord. The influence of his home, his church, and his personal relationship to God will have as much of an effect on his life as his schooling. It still stands true, however, that a child sitting under godly instruction will have a mind that is permeated with a biblical world-view, at least as much as the mind of a secular school student is soaked with humanism. His education has given him a tremendous advantage toward becoming what God wants him to be. It is worth the sacrifice to give your child that advantage.
How shall we educate our children? Let us determine to do it God’s way, and let’s expect God to bless our obedience to Him.
Copyright 1991Pastor Richard FlandersReceive the newest devotional each week in your inbox by joining the "Homeschool Helps" subscription list. Enter your email address below, click "Go!" and we will send you a confirmation email. Follow the instructions in the email to confirm your addition to this list.