Literally for decades now I have watched Christians bend over backwards to defend public education and subtly denigrate those among their brethren that dare to pass up the very questionable “benefits” of public schooling and educate their children in a Christian way, either via A Christian school or home schooling.
Those who have taken the trouble to so some reading and research, (and there are not nearly enough of them), have discovered that public education in this country has been in the business of trying to blunt and dilute the influence of the Christian faith here literally since day one.
This is not a problem that has only arisen since the 1960s, which is what most people seem to believe. This is a situation that has been a major part of the public education agenda since its inception. I realize lots of folks reading this won’t want to believe that, but again, just go back and do the homework. Read Samuel Blumenfeld’s Is Public Education Necessary? which is still available on Amazon. Also get his books The NEA–Trojan Horse in American Education and Crimes of the Educators which he and Alex Newman wrote together. These are all available at Amazon.
What we see going on in public schools today only corroborates what Blumenfeld and others have written about for the last forty years and more. There are so many Christians who are content to go to church on the Lord’s day, and maybe even on Wednesday evening, who will say “Oh, I’m not interested in dirty politics.” The theological system they have been taught does not encourage them to deal with any of the situations that arise in the real world. They have been taught to just sit and wait for “the rapture” to take them out of this mess so they don’t have to get involved. Sorry folks, but I don’t believe that’s going to happen and you will be forced to deal with the world situation and you won’t be equipped to do that. And neither will your kids!
So you better gain some interest in politics and who we elect to make the laws because this has a direct effect on our freedom to worship as we choose. One doesn’t have to be into politics to a fault, but folks need to get involved enough so that after Sunday Services and IHop, and the football game, you can make a difference by getting informed and making wise choices, especially as they relate to their kids. So many have said tome “The lord’s in control” which for them means He is in control and so they don’t have to do anything. It doesn’t work that way. The Lord is in control – and often He exercises that control through the actions of His people. But they don’t want to hear that.
Quite awhile back now, I read an article on American Vision that noted an essay by an Al Mohler, who I think has been involved with the Southern Baptists. Mohler wrote about the problems facing public schools in our day. Mohler seemed to gloss over some of the history of the public education movement. The article’s author, Lee Duigon, stated, quite accurately that: “His (Mohler’s) reasoning is that public schools used to be okay because they were locally controlled. Again, this begs the question of whether, from a Scriptural point of view, public schools ever should have been an option for Christians. And this causes problems with his subsequent narrative. It ignores the history previous to the period he highlights, it neglects important facts about the very period he presents essentially as a golden age of public schools, and it simply gets some of its facts wrong. For example, Mohler writes, ‘The earliest public schools in the United States were community-based and parent-controlled. Parents and fellow citizens within a community would establish a school and hire a schoolmaster. The community would establish the curriculum…’ These are very broad, sweeping generalizations that do not represent the majority of the early public school movement, or do not represent it in all its humanistic glory.”
And Mr. Duigon continues: “Let’s just be honest to start with: socialism is socialism, and statism is statism, no matter how large or small a scale on which you operate them. Public schools are and always have been based on civil government coercion, forced taxation of property, and redistribution of wealth. These principles are unbiblical whether they are nationally controlled or locally controlled–Washington-based or community-based. Further, from day one the public schools were designed to be centers of humanistic indoctrination…”
He noted the early Unitarian influence, which is seldom, if at all, discussed or even mentioned. He mentioned the teachers union, the National Education Association, which goes all the way back to 1857. That’s right – 1857 – not 1957! How many Christians even have the remotest clue about any of this? Those that prattle on about how good public schools were in the “good old days” mostly do not know what they are talking about. They may be sincere. I don’t doubt their sincerity, but they are sincerely wrong. Anyone who seriously studies the history of the public school movement realizes that there were never any “good old days” It was humanism and socialism since day one, as Mr. Duigon has so aptly noted. If you have a system that is bad at its beginning, then what can you “reform” it back to?
I have asked that question for years now regarding public schools. I have yet to get an answer from anyone’ The question just gets ignored – which means the erstwhile public school “reformers” have no answer for it. Well, I have one. If the public school system will not and can not be reformed, you take your kids out of it and refuse to play with your kids’ lives and souls on their turf.
April 30, 2022
~ The Author ~
Al Benson Jr. is the editor and publisher of The Copperhead Chronicle, a quarterly newsletter that presents history from a pro-Southern and Christian perspective. He has written for several publications over the years. His articles have appeared in “The National Educator,” “The Free Magnolia,” and the “Southern Patriot.” I addition to that he was the editor of, and wrote for, “The Christian Educator” for several years. In addition to The Copperhead Chronicles, Al also maintains Revised History.
He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Confederate Society of America and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and has, in the past, been a member of the John Birch Society. He is the co-author, along with Walter D. Kennedy, of the book “Lincoln’s Marxists” and he has written for several Internet sites as well as authoring a series of booklets, with tests, dealing with the War of Northern Aggression, for home school students.
Mr. Benson is a highly respected scholar and writer and has graciously allowed Metropolis Café to publish his works. We are proud to have his involvement with this project.
He and his wife now live in northern Louisiana.