The Atheism of Government Controlled Schools

After reading the previous post, a friend asked me why I say that the government schools are atheistic. It was a great question and one that I think everyone needs to understand.

The schools are atheistic in that they have nothing to do with God and deny Him his rights as Lord over all. Christians are supposed to recognize that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge (Prov. 1:7). His law is to be learned and obeyed. God is to be put first above all subjects and honored in them (when was the last time a teacher said, "Kids, this is amazing. Let's praise God for the awesome animals he created." or heard someone stand up in Science class and say, "God created all things out of nothing in the span of six days."). On top of this we see how prayer is disallowed and reading the Scripture is virtually never done.

Instead, the fundamental view of man is darwinistic, the universe is considered a random accident and product of chance, history is nothing more than just "One damn thing after another," (to quote Henry Ford-- this is obviously opposed to the Christian view that history is His Story, the outworking of God's ultimate plan and providence.). Though many teachers are not committed atheists, they have learned their teaching styles and methods from those who were (BF Skinner, Mann, Dewey). On the other hand, many teachers are explicit in their denial of God (shacking up, homosexual, or proudly divorced).

In sum, kids learn that they are nothing more than sacks of cells with no dignity or purpose. While they are given rules here and there and told to "be nice" from time to time, they are not taught that they will be held liable to the absolute standard of God's law (or openly accepted by Him due to His gracious acceptance and the blood atonement of Christ).

Studies show that 85% of kids who grew up in Christian homes are do not stay in the church by the end of their freshman year of college. After being indoctrinated in unbelief and materialism (as opposed to the material and spiritual worlds that God has created) for 8 hours a day 180 days a year, how could we blame them for their unbelief? As it stands, kids know nothing about God when they graduate, if they even acknowledge a god at all by that point.

I personally can attest to this. By God's grace I remained a Christian through my years in Ashland City Schools. However, this is despite the school's work. In science I learned that I evolved from an ape purely by chance, as opposed to being created in the image of God. Math was just a bunch of equations (rather than a reflection of the glorious ordered nature of God himself). None of my teachers spoke of Christ openly. None of them prayed with me or taught me to pray. The one time the students did ask about spiritual things, the teacher said, "This is a good conversation. Unfortunately I cannot talk about it during school hours. If you would like to come back and talk about it after class, I would be more than willing to do so." In sum, he willingly denied Christ to keep his job.

As I just mentioned, I never denied the faith. Yet I was never built up in the faith either. I remained weak against temptation and ignorant of spiritual things.

This is why we must opt out of the government system.  If we cherish our children and desire them to grow up (and thrive!) in the faith, they must be given a distinctly Christian education.