I never thought I would see this time in our culture. Never.
I never thought I'd be talking to my kids about "gay marriage" or "transgender bathrooms" or even the Egyptian martyrs.
Sixteen years ago when I got pregnant, none of that was really an issue. I felt pretty relaxed in my Christian, Texan culture. I knew about the culture war, of course, but it was far away in exotic places like Omaha...or Detroit.
Fast forward to the recent SCOTUS decision. My world was rocked. I didn't want to tell my kids that this once great country, that once honored faith and God overall, had done something like THIS.
I didn't want to talk about these things. Heck, I didn't even want to read Corinthians to them and field questions like, "What's an orgy?"
But, alas, here we are. Someone is pulling on the sweater yarn of Western Civilization and it is unravelling at an alarming rate.
As an educational historian, I know a lot. I know a lot about Enlightenment ideology on education, I know a lot about socialism and communism and their ideas about education. I know a lot about fascism and Prussian education. I know a lot about statist education. And Dewey. And the behavioral psychologists. I know about UNESCO and Robert Mueller. I know about Alice Bailey and her interesting visions. I've read the books by Iserbyt, Blumenfeld, and Gatto. I've delved into the modern-day issues with data collection, Common Core, and the like. In short, I see how it all strings together to create a full-frontal assault on our faith and our children.
So why am I so shocked? Because,
where is the church in all this? How did we get to the point that the immoral minority is running this show? When did we, as Christians, become so damned impotent?
I have two simple answers, one secular, and one religious. The first, secular reason, is the education system. We have given these people our children. These institutions who, on the whole, want to centralize everything in the world, tell us what our jobs and careers should be, tell us we must be "tolerant" of godlessness, do not themselves tolerate prayers or Bible studies, who hand out devices like candy, who create huge rifts between parents and children, who have stripped our children's education of classic works of literature and replaced them with news reports, who have modified math to beyond incomprehensible, and the list goes on. We. Have. Given. Them. Our. Children. Should we be surprised?
The moment a Christian parent sends their child to a place all day, five days a week, nine months out of the year, where they are not allowed to acknowledge that knowing God and His creation is the end GOAL of education....well, that is the moment we have lost.
I'm not saying that there aren't godly educators, administrators, etc. No, by all means! But it doesn't much matter. They cannot "out-Jesus" the machine of educational ideologues. They are crushed under the weight of oppressive doctrine and godlessness. Under World Core, Common Core, "New Math," environmentalism, multiculturalism, sensitivity training, and the like. There is no room for Christ in our modern public schools.
And the second, religious, problem? A watered down church. I am no fan of the Reformation for a variety of reasons but this is a big one. We have churches today who create their own unique doctrine and then argue and divide over non-essential issues. They narrow their congregations down to the minutest points of theology and only fellowship with those who agree. Well, that's one set of churches.
Then we have the non-denominational churches (including denominational ones that have switched over) who don't want to make a huge fuss and divide over doctrine so, basically, they just don't teach it. Church becomes a rock concert with a motivational speech and a lot of emotional tugging. It feels good. "They have good kids' programs." "The worship band ROCKS! Did you hear them cover that Eagles song?" Uh-huh. And....how is that formative to faith again?
In my opinion, the first split of the church (the East-West schism) was the worst because it spawned all the others. Then you have Luther and Lutherans. Then comes Calvin and Calvinists. Anabaptists. Anglicans. Puritans. Baptists. Methodists. Reformed Baptists. Episcopalians. Churches of God. Churches of Christ. (Shouldn't those last two, you know, be the same church?)
Need I go on? I think not. We are certainly not a church united. And, in my opinion, we never will be united nor effective for the Lord in any grand way until we concede the error of our ways and reunite with the earlier churches. We must quit judging them as heretical if
for no other reason than that they gave us our faith (and we are now arrogant enough to judge them as heretical)
. One of my favorite sayings is "We stand on the shoulders of giants and beat them about the head." This is true in civil life as well as spiritual.
We must quit saying all sorts of silly things like, "They just don't understand grace. They are all works based. They are idol worshippers." These things are utter nonsense and I'll wager that anyone who says such things has never once questioned one of these churches on such doctrine.
And, really, the switch is on. Evangelicalism is losing a lot of people to atheism. But a large number are returning to early churches as well. And I see that as a good thing. Until we can agree on basic tenets and dogma and
work together under the same umbrella, we are going mostly nowhere.
And make no mistake. There are people waiting in the wings to pick up where Western Civilization left off. There is no shortage of those desirous to see Sharia Law or Communism overtaking the entire world. The only way we will be able to withstand such a takeover is to be united and to stop sending our babies to institutions which teach them to godlessness and "tolerance."
