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Classes have shut down---for the most part---kids are out for the long, fun summer. Everyone takes a deep breath and puts "school" aside---at least for a month or two.
Experts are encouraging parents to take this time to think seriously about education during this summer break.
Christian parents and donors are being advised to closely examine schools of higher education that claim the name of Christ – because some of those institutions are, in fact, not holding to scriptural truth.
Be informed, not misled.
As American Family Network reported and we discussed on our radio program last week, Promise Keepers planned to host an event this year at Belmont University in Nashville. It was to be one of the stops of the ministry's "Daring Faith" events, including locations such as Houston, Memphis, and New York City. But after the men's ministry rejected "Pride Month" and made clear it holds to the biblical definition of marriage – one man and one woman – Belmont abruptly broke the contract, saying its values don't align with those of Promise Keepers.
Why would any Christian university's values "not align" with those of Promise Keepers?
We will not stand on the sidelines and remain quiet. As fathers, husbands, grandfathers, and young men we see the dangers of gender ideology and the harm it causes.
At Promise Keepers, we affirm that God made human beings in His image to reflect Him. He created male and female with equal worth and dignity—and there was no mistake in that design. (Genesis 1:27; Mark 10:6)
In our present day, men and women are increasingly confused about their identities. Biological identity has been severed as separate from “gender identity,” while children across the United States are actively indoctrinated into intense inner turmoil about who they “really are.”
What’s behind this change? Throughout history, humans have traditionally looked to God, the church, and their families as the starting points for identity. Now, our culture has decided each person must decide his or her own identity by looking inward—which leads to isolation, loneliness, and confusion.
At Promise Keepers, we believe it is more important than ever to stand up boldly for what we believe as Christians. God’s Word is very clear on this topic—and we also see the way gender ideology has damaged lives, mutilated bodies, and torn apart families in our own communities.
So-called "Christian" schools are not "aligning" with Promise Keepers values because they have replaced them with a secular worldview and secular values.
In Texas, for example, the Christian Church Disciples of Christ-affiliated Texas Christian University is offering a course called "The Queer Art of Drag."
The class syllabus states that students will create their personas through a "drag vision board," engage in self-reflection and assemble a collage of images to gain inspiration.
They're also required to read commentaries such as "The Gender Binary Is a Tool of White Supremacy" by Kravitz Marshall, and each student must "produce a one-to-two-minute solo drag performance to be recorded, edited, and shared with an open audience at TCU’s Annual Night of Drag on April 21."
This is sick.
"Texas Values," Jonathan Covey says, "It's reprehensible. Those who feel like they have to bow to the woke crowd are essentially cowards. They're afraid of what might happen if they don't pander to the Dylan Mulvaneys of the world, and I think they should let Bud Light and Target and Maybelline all be a tale of caution for them."
"They don't want to be on the wrong side of history, but right now, they are," he adds.
Meanwhile, Texas Tech University and the University of North Texas are offering classes on witches, witchcraft, and black magic, and courses of a similar vein are offered by upper education nationwide.
Covey says that "it's really just contributing to the dumbing down of America."
"We used to be a country based upon independent thinking, based upon logic, based upon a mission and a focus of academics," he notes. "Now we're a country that's just teaching that you don't disagree with the popular cultural ideology."
During a recent interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Promise Keepers president Ken Harrison said many Christian colleges are hiding their unchristian values.
"The reason they do this is that they show up claiming 'We're still Christian' because their donors – some of whom are 70 and 80 years old – are giving back to schools that they think are teaching scripture. Then over here they're teaching absolute garbage – critical race theory, gender stuff."
Harrison is warning donors and parents to do their homework. "There are lots of people giving tens of millions of dollars to these Christian schools that are not teaching Christ. Instead, they're polluting the minds of our youth."
Schools like Belmont and others need to make up their minds – either they're Christian or they're not.
They can't have it both ways.
The Book of James says, "Don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God?"
I John says, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. Anyone who loves the world does not have the love of the Father in him."
Some observers argue that Belmont deserves to be disgraced – and sued – for breaking its contract with Promise Keepers.
Belmont is not returning their calls.
There's no such thing as a values-neutral education.
The article has a great deal of information regarding education---public and private. I encourage you to read it.
In one section of the piece, the Federalist article says, "Schools Transmit Values."
A growing social science literature documents the role that schools have played in transmitting cultural values ranging from religion to assimilating immigrants to the majority culture. While people can argue about specific cases, it seems plain that parents care about the values their children adopt and want more control over that.
But while values do matter, there are important questions about which values and who decides on those. In 2004, China reformed its curriculum with new textbooks and rolled that curriculum out incrementally across its provinces. Research shows that even at Peking University — a university known for being critical of the Chinese state — the new curriculum moved beliefs about democracy by 25 percent of a standard deviation toward the position favored by the Chinese state.
The truth is there is no such thing as a value-neutral education. For some, the values taught in public schools may be the right match for their family. For other parents, private schools and other educational options such as homeschooling provide a way for parents to inculcate their values in their children.
Takeaway
Noah Webster, generally recognized as the Father of Public Education in America, said, "The Bible was America's basic textbook in all fields."
He also said, "In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed...No truth is more evident in my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people."
Webster also said, "If citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted."
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.