In the past two years, fewer issues have been rushed to the American forefront more than those pertaining to the state of public education in America. Prior to Covid, the spotlight on Marxist encroachment into education was largely focused on academia and collegiate environments. Many heard about various discrimination by way of affirmative action, the adoption of MeToo kangaroo courts, rogue and ultra-woke commentaries by college professors, or the general fight for free speech on campuses. This all changed when parents began witnessing what “distance learning” was actually teaching their children—and that is assuming it was teaching them at all. Through applications as Zoom, American parents observed a portal into the institutions their progeny inhabits for eight hours a day all at the expense of the taxpayer. Likewise, watchdogs like LibsofTikTok gave exposure to the degeneracy of hundreds, if not thousands, of teachers all across America. These problems were not isolated, but incessant and omnipresent in every school district across America.
2021 became contentious with videos of school board meetings going viral as parents fought back against the indoctrination of Critical Race Theory, the homosexual agenda and child grooming, and the mask mandates that schools were imposing onto students. In many of these occasions, police were involved, often arresting parents fighting for their schools—another reason not to back the blue. Under the direction of Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Department of Justice has labeled these parents domestic terrorists, dispatching the hounds at the FBI against everyday Americans.
The pushback against the Marxism in our schools is not some fringe reactionary movement, but represents a tangible wakeup call to many parents, even those who previously embraced the cultural decay. It is all fun and games until your child is taught about anal sex and masturbation in the third grade.
It was parental activists who propelled a milquetoast, socially liberal Glenn Younkin to victory in Virginia, turning his election into a referendum on Loudoun County Public Schools. Then came legislatures pushing back against the men dominating female sports. 2022 continued this trend as Florida’s parental rights law, derisively labeled “Don’t Say Gay” became a national story, further heightening the national profile of Governor Ron DeSantis. States that previously did nothing against transgendering children, like Greg Abbott in Texas, finally took a stand. Other states passed legislation prohibiting Marxist materials in public schools.
Though they do these things, the situation of the schools is little improved. School boards across America gaslight and deny teaching Critical Race Theory or related concepts. They will claim it is not part of the curriculum even though it is being taught. The financially fortified teacher unions have buttressed their preferred candidates and labeled those in opposition as being the ones who wish to bring politics into the classroom. In Carroll County, the neutrality policy that the board concocted was subverted by pride flags, ultimately giving way to an eventual flag policy. Currently, the Biden Administration wants to attach the transgender agenda to school lunch programs—the same agenda that allowed sodomy in Virginia schools. In Washington DC, Muriel Bowser wants students to risk myocarditis to attend her underperforming public schools. Overall, no matter what parents and school boards do, fighting the metastasized cancer of liberal indoctrination in public educations is an unending game of whack-a-mole.
Where is the Church?
In all these battles, the fighters appears more political than spiritual, despite the spiritual damage that will be wrought by these sinful ideologies being engrained in our schools. The most prominent church in Northern Virginia is undoubtedly David Platt’s McLean Bible Church, yet they were absent in the fight against the Loudoun County school board.
The Big Evangelical and megachurch mentality is unabashedly liberal and subversive to Christian doctrine. Those same pastors that were absent, or subversive, on the school boards were the same ones peddling government Covid narratives, lockdowns and Critical Race Theory in response to George Floyd. The disconnect between the pulpits and the pews grows, as Covid also provoked a realignment with many Christians switching churches while a quarter of regular attendees fell away.
At the same time, there might be a trend that those churches which were faithful during the pandemic were also involved in education. Calvary Chapel in San Jose launched its private school in 2011, and they were faithful during the pandemic. Their program appears rigorous and emphasizes a classical education. A church in my area has a private school, and likewise they were more faithful during the pandemic than most churches in the Mid-Maryland area. The recent media storm surrounding Grace Christian School in Valrico, Florida is yet another church that founded a school that remained more faithful than most churches, having allowed mask optional in August of 2020. When the media attacked them for holding to a biblical sexual ethic through an annual reminder email, Grace Christian School did not rescind their stance, but stood strong.
Hardly will one find a megachurch with a Sunday morning emphasis place a large focus on the education of their congregants’ offspring. Moreover, the megachurch mentality feeds much of the ideologies permeating in the public schools. They do not take issue with Diversity Inclusion Equity initiatives because they either overtly or covertly support them.
Growing Mission Field
In Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Schools are the mission field. America’s children need Jesus all the more in today’s world. They need a proper education, one that will not indoctrinate them with Marxist ideologies or sexually groom them, but instead teaching them a classical education that is proper and relevant.
The same falling away that has happened in Church has also been witnessed in public education. According to the American Enterprise Institute’s Return2Learn Initiative, 19 of the 46 states studied saw enrollment declines of more than 3%. Only two of the top ten school districts have not seen a decline in enrollment, with the two being located in Florida. New York and Los Angeles suffered churn of 9.5% and 8.6% respectively. People are pulling their children out in droves, seeking alternatives to the failed public education, even in liberal strongholds.
It should befall on the church to take up education as a mission, to open schools and organize homeschooling cooperative programs to meet the needs of the people. In previous generations, it was Christians who planted Harvard, Yale, Oxford as theological seminaries to raise up future pastors. Unfortunately, as these institutions drifted away from their origins, they were unreplenished. Even the Catholic counterparts have undergone similar mission drift.
Churches should once again fill this void, and there is plenty to fill.
Leave the SBC, Plant a School!
For generations, churches have dedicated funds to denominational organizations with an emphasis on seminaries and missions, both international and domestic. The most prominent is the Southern Baptist Convention, which is the largest protestant denomination in America. Many churches are enamored with the idea of donating to the missions work, for good reason. Tragically, Annie Armstrong does not really go towards planting churches across North America, or those that are funded are apostate. Instead, the North American Missions Board is an investment firm with a diverse portfolio of stocks, bonds, and real estate holdings in the hundreds of millions, significantly greater than their annual expenditures. They do not need a local church’s money nor do they care that the SBC bleeds away churches. Similarly, it is unknown how Lottie Moon is spent within the International Mission Board, though their proclivity for poisonous vaccine mandates is unbiblical and detrimental towards their mission. It is known that they have fewer missionaries with presumably more money (that is undisclosed). With their full embrace of placing Cooperative Program dollars towards resolving sexual abuse allegations of dubious evidence or relevance towards the SBC itself, the mask of liberal drift is off. Recapturing these institutions is a wasted effort and supporting the Conservative Baptist Network will do little to implement the necessary reforms while serving as an opportunity cost to actual work that fulfills the Great Commission. Instead, Churches should plant new institutions with direct oversight and agency. For the purpose of this treatise, schools and educational ministries are the emphasis, though it could likewise be said of local congregations supporting church plants or missionaries without an intermediary organization.
Already there has been an SBC Exodus, with numerous churches publicly announcing their departure. Pueblo West Baptist Church, which is by no means a large church, claimed that they spent 11% of their budget towards the Cooperative Program and 3% to the local affiliations. How much more fruitful would that money have been if invested in educational resources for children in Pueblo West, Colorado? How much more could be said of prominent, well-funded SBC churches that remain steadfast in the SBC? And while this is directed at Baptists, the same could be said of other denominations or nondenominational churches.
Previous generations of Christians understood the need to educate the next generation. No longer should we continue to outsource this duty to the liberal public schools. Let the American Church redeploy this tactic in fulfilling the Great Commission.
One Response
Find out where pastors send their kids to school and you’ll have your answer. (Hint: they send their kids to pubic schools or expensive secular private schools.)