I like tradition, so it cuts against the grain, but we can never just give up and walk away.
Christians are not called to hide themselves from the world or to become outraged over the lack of "Silent Night" in a school program. We are called to be the "salt of the earth." This whole concept of forcing Christianity through the school-house door also has the Pandora's box backlash of opening up the door to Islamics. If Christians have rights inside school, why not the Islamics? If Christians as Mr. Sekulow would have it, can post a bulletin in the school hall bulletin board announcing Bible School, doesn't that mean that Muslims can do the same? We are unwittingly litigating rights for Muslims, Bhuddists, and who knows what else.
Its much better for Christians to interact with non-Christians in public schools on a person-to-person basis and leave the Bible teaching and honoring Christ to Sunday School where it belongs. So many students have been reached by Christian friends who have prayed and led them to Christ.
If we withdraw from the world, we withdraw from the "Great Commission" which is to preach the Gospel to the world.
Fight against the foolish teachings of evolution theory, but don't stop going to public schools because they won't play "Silent Night."
I think the issue is the refusal of the public schools to accomodate the opinions of their clients. Once upon a time they did it. Schools in Mississippi were practically Protestant parochial schools. In many Catholic areas, they gave heavy respect to Catholics. Nowadays they give similar respect to minorities but trash the opinions of the majority.
I’ve heard all those arguments before.
The argument that young Christian children can be salt and light is laughable and unbelievable naive. The broad purpose of government schooling is to indoctrinate children in secular humanism. They are very successful at accomplishing that goal. It is no surprise then that about 80% of Christian children who enter the government school system leave with a very unChristian secular humanist, socialist worldview.
But don’t take my word for it. If one wants to be an informed Christian, one needs to do one’s own research. I recommend reading Bruce Shortt’s book “The Harsh Truth About Public Schools”. He is far more convincing than I could ever possibly be.
I personally don’t want to reform the government school system. I would love to see it shut down, but would settle for the return of my tax dollars so that I can use them for my children’s Christian education.
If we withdraw from the world, we withdraw from the "Great Commission" which is to preach the Gospel to the world.Fight against the foolish teachings of evolution theory, but don't stop going to public schools because they won't play "Silent Night."
First,the command to make disciples was given to mature believers, not children. The responsibility for education is given to the parents, especially fathers. I see no evidence in the New Testament or writings of the Early Church Fathers that Christian children attending pagan schools were a prime force for evangelism.
The decision to use state, private, private-Christian, or home schooling is intensely personal and the best choice may be different for different children at different stages. That said, to think of a Christian school as a state school with Bible added may be representative of some schools but is far from what is meant by a Christian education. A secular/naturalistic/materialistic philosophy has consequences far beyond teaching evolution and banning Silent Night, but actually affects every subject. Whatever choice of schools a parent makes, they are responsible for making sure the child is instructed in a Biblical world-view of every aspect of scholarship and life.
I used to think such as you but found that all the Christian folk I new sent their kids to expensive private schools and not necessarily for the Christian teaching but rather so their kids could more easliy become doctors/lawyers etc. This left a dearth of Christian kids in my children’s school. I sent the first one to public school and the second one to a private school - turns out the first is far more Christian orientated as the second one saw the hypocrasy of so called christians and ditched the baby out with the bath water.
From what I have seen homeschooling is the only option.
Mel
Of course if Christians decided on mass to send their kids to public schools and then protest what is wrong then we might see some change in the system.
You shouldn’t let your children be used like this.
Christian or not, they are children and lacking the wisdom and strength that comes from being an adult Christian.
You are playing with fire my friend without the fire extinguisher.
because, America has as strong a right to term itself as a judeo-christian nation, as that of islamic nations that demand the right to maintain the islamicy of their own nations. moo jmo imo
"Tom, you are like a man who sees a freight train heading for a cliff. You don't know the first thing about freight trains, but you see that it's heading in the wrong direction, and you are determined to jump on board and turn it around." A very wise (and non-Christian) friend offered me that insight many years ago, when I was contemplating a career in liberal denomination. He was right. There are things worth doing, and some tasks that I'm not called to do.
Christians are not called to hide themselves from the world or to become outraged over the lack of "Silent Night" in a school program. We are called to be the "salt of the earth."
If we withdraw from the world, we withdraw from the "Great Commission" which is to preach the Gospel to the world.
This position reminds me of the Ayatollah Kohmenhi, who blessed 8 year old boys, gave them plastic martyrs' medals (made in China), and sent them out into adult battle fields to serve as human mine sweepers.
So you are cool with the idea that Christian adults can use their children as cannon fodder in grown-up wars? On fields rigidly controlled by the enemy, with mines liberally planted? What's wrong with nongovernmental organizations? Why can't your son acquire Jewish and Unitarian friends through a Boy Scout troop, where you also serve? Why can't your kids acquire a surrogate big sister who's a Turkish Muslim grad student, and frequent guest in your home?
Hey, the hookers in the local brothel need evangelizing, and you have teenage daughters! We are called to be salt and light, aren't we? To mingle promiscuously with the world, on its own terms? Think what a ministry opportunity that could be for you! And for your girls! Think how much they could learn!
1-Eagle wrote, “Christians are not called to hide themselves from the world or to become outraged over the lack of “Silent Night” in a school program. We are called to be the “salt of the earth.”
The purpose of government schools is to mold the world-view and mindset of youngsters into collectivism. There is no way a child can protect his/her mind against those thousands of hours of subtle propaganda and brain-washing. Parents are exposing their children to weapons that the children are totally unable to withstand by sending them to these government propaganda institutions. Perhaps there are a few left which are not so far down the road, and perhaps the parents can judge that (tho I would suspect many parents don’t know all that takes place in the school day and also may not be sufficiently alert to recognize the subtle forms of influence.) But in general, schools are very successful at their goals. Rather than trying to force the leopard to change his spots, parents should fight against forceful funding of government socialized education.
Here's the blind spot in this argument: Secularism deserves to sit right alongside those other worldviews - and it IS the religion-slash-worldview being taught. Don't fall into the fallacy of pretended neutrality, my FRiend!
More importantly, in the public perception it would relegate such Christians as responded to the call to the ranks of whackadoodles who live in compounds -- which is something that popular culture has long done anyway.
Any attempts to preach the Gospel would therefore first have to contend with the a priori assumption that the speaker is nuts.
Of course, this silliness comes to us courtesy of WND, so you can already guess that it's playing to a pretty small audience to begin with.
Kids are in their formative years in school and the socialist agenda will LIKELY have a much greater effect on them than you think.
I think the salt in the public school system should be the Christian teachers - our kids are NOT mature enough in their faith to withstand the onslaught of depravation “taught” them.
I pulled my kids after only 3 months of kindergarten and home-schooled until they reached the higher grades and then I put them into private Christian schools. It was expensive, but the best money I ever spent.
They are young adults now and strongly agree that if they had stayed in those terrible schools they would not have the values they have today.
Trust me, it’s not a good idea to subject your kids to what the public schools thrust on them.
Why do you think that the left KNOWS that if they get their hands on our kids, they can change society? It’s because they can.
“Christians are not called to hide themselves from the world or to become outraged over the lack of “Silent Night” in a school program. We are called to be the “salt of the earth.”
That’s very true, but as D.James Kennedy once said, “You don’t send your 8 year-old out to fight the Vietnam war, either.”
Christians are called to train their children in the way they should go, NOT to send them into a cesspool and call it salt or evangelism.
There is no longer any legitimate reason to have the government-controlled monopoly. The nation needs alternatives including private schools, parochial schools and home-schooling families to counter the unbalanced indoctrination of an education industry dominated and distorted by leftwing agents of influence, beginning with the squalid "education departments" and the malignant NEA.
There is no virtue in sacrificing a child's education to the mendacious offerings of the likes of Obama's friends. Breaking the government monopoly in a meaningful way would be the best thing that could happen not only to the children but to the public school system itself.
These are just a few thoughts about the nature and benefits of public education. For the life of me I can't understand why you'd think a child would be benefited by going there to defend or temper their ‘faith.’ Children need guidance and nurturing - they are not spiritual warriors. Maturity in faith is a function of a faithful walk and almost always to product of years.
For a few thousand more reasons why public schools are not the place for children you care about, use the FR search function and type in the keyword ‘PUBLIKSKOOLZ.’
>>If Christians have rights inside school, why not the Islamics?
Because Christians are not part of a totalitarian political-religious system in which political aspects of the system are inseparable from the religious ones.
Other than that, it’s the same issue. No one wants to talk about this nontrivial difference.
There is no reason. Whatever the lawmakers say, goes. That's why the government should keep its grubby hands out of education. Let Christians have Christian schools, let whoever wants secular schools to have them, etc.
and leave the Bible teaching and honoring Christ to Sunday School where it belongs.
Wow. That is so wrong I don't even know where to start. For a Christian, these are not Sunday activities. These things are life.
If we withdraw from the world, we withdraw from the "Great Commission" which is to preach the Gospel to the world.
Neither homeschooling nor Christian schooling will take anyone out of the world (the only way to leave the world would be to leave the world), but it will allow the influence to be controlled. That is the key. When you send a 6 year old packing off to a public school, you are not sending a missionary into hostile territory. You are throwing a child to the wolves. During those years a child is not and cannot be equipped to deal with the temptations and influences presented them. That is why they need to be trained first. True, some come out all right anyway. Some people have even survived jumping out of a plane and having the parachute fail. That doesn't mean either is a good idea.
Do not concur, and the very prayers you reference are nearly illegal on school grounds. The NEA needs to learn who the taxpayers really are. Pull the kids, shut down the indoctrination industry and pray for a do-over for public "education."