Christianity Today Argues Public School A Training Ground For Faith

Stefani McDade is the theology editor at Christianity Today which is, perhaps the first nonstarter for the latest cringe inducing slop to come out this cesspool of liberal heresy. But in a bold response to Kirk Cameron going viral for stating that parents “subcontract parenting” by sending their children to public schools.

In an article titled, “Public School Can Be a Training Ground for Faith” (paywall), Christianity Today responds.

By contrast, writer Jen Wilkin has made faith-led arguments in favor of public education, citing benefits for children including a more diverse socialization, a healthy exposure to different worldviews, and fulfilling the call of being a Christian witness in the world. “Our participation in the public school system was directly related to loving our neighbors,” she said in a Gospel Coalition debate on the issue.

As a new school year starts with an election underway, I think the Christian case for public schooling is worth revisiting—not only because it’s a pressing conversation right now but because it prompts us to examine how we think about education, discipleship, and the faithfulness of God.

It’s worth noting the crossover between The Gospel Coalition and Christianity or Compromise Today. And it was scornful at the time to argue that children ought to be missionaries in public schools even though they may lack maturity in the faith or the faith is not yet their own. For instance, a Baptist might be sending their child to public school at 5 years old where, in some states like Maryland, they can learn about buttsex. Generally, 5 years old is before most credobaptists baptize children. How on earth can the child grow strong in their faith with this instruction? Rather, they are impressionable and trusting of their environment.

One of the most important considerations for me in making that choice is that studies show there are more important elements for building and safeguarding our kids’ faith than the school they attend. As I’ve previously reported for CT, research suggests that taking children to church regularly matters more than finding the “right” school.

In my observation, the children who do not depart from the faith, albeit temporarily hopefully, are the ones who regularly worshipped with the adults instead of getting funneled through the childcare programs at church.

I look back on that time now as pivotal for my spiritual formation. Until then, I’d mostly been living under my parents’ faith; it was something I just took for granted. I didn’t know how to articulate my beliefs because I’d never had to defend them.

Once I was regularly provoked at school, I had to learn why I believed what I believed. I had to make my faith my own. With my parents’ guidance, I began reading apologetics books so I would know how to respond when someone attacked my views. That decision began a trajectory that led to who and where I am today, serving as theology editor at CT.

It’s worth noting that I attended high school from 2003 to 2007, near the height of fervor around New Atheism. That context, especially in California, made it socially acceptable in my school to openly mock Christianity and anyone who identified with it. But children in most public schools probably wouldn’t have the same experience today. New Atheism has fallen out of style, and some recent research has shown that vitriol toward religion generally and Christians specifically has significantly declined over the last decade or so.

The argument of McDade is that she faced adversity for her faith and came out stronger, therefore it’s good for children to experience this in public schools. This argument is weak on several fronts. First, public schools are far more hostile to Christianity than they used to be. The Obergefell decision and subsequent Civil Rights Act transgenderism ensure this. Moreover, there’s an epidemic of female teachers having sex with students, something that was once a joke because of how rare it was. Public schools are far riskier than any church, actually, but you won’t see that reported in the Houston Chronicle. Second, social contagions of sexual degeneracy, not just homosexuality and transgenderism but also pornography are cultivated in these environments. Protect our kids.

Think of it like strength training: Your children need to build muscles of faith, and public school can provide weight to lift while you’re around to spot them. Let them wrestle with worldly counternarratives to God’s truth while they’re still under your care. That may feel risky, but the alternative—keeping them sheltered, then letting them be exposed to everything all at once when they leave home for work or college—is risky too. 

There are better ways to teach counternarratives to children than public school. But children young in the faith should not be seen as missionaries. Parents are charged with disciple-making, as Jesus commands in Matthew 28. The sheer amount of time a child spends in public school versus church is one-sided.

Much of the rhetoric urging Christian disengagement from public education in America has to do with the larger question of how Christians should interact with the broader culture—with what it means to be “in the world but not of it.”

Homeschooling or Christian private schooling is not about withdrawing from the world. It’s about discipleship and taking ownership of it. McDade argues that we “trust God” with the souls of our children, but Christians are to trust God for the salvation of their children while actively discipling them, not letting a hostile regime disciple them.