It's possible that the subject of Christian Education may come up at our parenting course this evening so, in addition to this previous quotation from John Fame, I've prepared the following jottings:
Some Bible texts
Ephesians 6:4 – “Fathers, … bring them [your children] up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”
Deuteronomy 6:2, 6-9, 20-25
Gen 18:19; Dt 4:9-10; 11:19; Ps 1:1-2; 78:4-8; Prov 22:6; Mt 18:5-6; Jn 14:6; 2 Cor 10:5; Col 1:15-18; 2:3-8; 1 Tim 6:20; 2 Tim 3:14-17
Some principles
Bringing up our children (including education) is primarily the responsibility of parents – not of the state (nor even of the church) though it may be shared or delegated
There is no neutrality – God is the maker, sustainer, ruler, evaluator of all things – everything finds its meaning, purpose and destiny in connection to God - Everything is connected and is ultimately related to God
The universal Lordship of Christ – e.g. Christ is the Lord of history, arithmetic, biology, geography
The authority, sufficiency and relevance of Scripture – the Bible is our ultimate authority on everything on which it speaks – the Bible thoroughly equips us for salvation and godliness, for a life that pleases God (2 Timothy 3:14-17)
Some quotations
Some quotations from R. J. Rushdoony on schooling:
“Our choice of schools indicates our faith. If God is left out of every area of life, or virtually every area, then we subscribe to the death of our God, or at least his basic irrelevance to the world.”
“Education in its essence is always the transmission of the basic faith and values of a culture to its young. Education is thus in essence always a religious concern.”
“The unspoken thesis is that the child who is not in touch with the state school staff and children is not being prepared to face the “real world”. … For all such people, reality, the basic reality we are all supposed to keep in touch with, is the world of anti-Christianity, of humanism, and immoralism. We are not supposed to “deprive” our children of their time in the sewer.”
G.K. Chesterton said: “Every education teaches a philosophy; if not by dogma then by suggestion, by implication, by atmosphere. Every part of that education has a connection with every other part. If it does not all combine to convey some general view of life, it is not an education at all.”
John Gresham Machen said: “I can see little consistency in a type of Christian activity which preaches the gospel on street corners and at the ends of the earth but neglects the children [of the Christian family] by abandoning them to a cold and unbelieving secularism.”
Doug Wilson says: “… God expects parents to provide for any protect their children. It is truly odd that one of the most common charges made against parents who provide a Christian education for their children is that they are “sheltering” them. What is our nation coming to? Parents sheltering children!
Because pluralism (with regard to worldviews) is a false theology (it is institutional agnosticism), Christian parents are required to protect their children from this lie.” (Standing on the Promises, chapter 7, ‘The Necessity of Christian Education’, Canon Press, 1997, p96)
Voddie Baucham Jr says: “We cannot continue to send our children to Caesar for their education and be surprised when they come home as Romans.” (Family Driven Faith) - thanks to Blog of Dan for that
For further provocation see: http://davidpfield.com/other/homeschool.pdf - from which I stole some of the above
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
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3 comments:
I'm curious to know how this was received if you got an opportunity to teach on this.
I didn't go through the handout in detail but gave my jottings to people to take away and mull over or burn in furry! We talked about some of the texts and ideas and had a useful discussion.
I think the group agreed that Christian Education was important but some thought this could be done well enough at home in addition to sending the kids to the local state school.
Although no one disagreed on this point, I'm not really sure that the idea that there is no neutrality and that all truth is related to God really gripped everyone. I said I didn't know all the implications of Christian maths but at least I knew it was my aim!
Some had reservations about home schooling etc. Kids have to live in the real non-Christian world and what about their socialization? etc.
I didn't push it very hard but suggested that people make Christian education the priority in their decision making and at least consider the possibility of homeschooling (perhaps in co-operation with other parents) in the absence of a thoroughly Biblical Christian school.
Rushdoonyite site; please visit & comment.
And forget, please, "conservatism." It has been, operationally, de facto, Godless and therefore irrelevant. Secular conservatism will not defeat secular liberalism because to God both are two atheistic peas-in-a-pod and thus predestined to failure. As Stonewall Jackson's Chief of Staff R.L. Dabney said of such a humanistic belief more than 100 years ago:
"[Secular conservatism] is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today .one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution; to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt bath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it be salted? Its impotency is not hard, indeed, to explain. It is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It intends to risk nothing serious for the sake of the truth."
Our country is collapsing because we have turned our back on God (Psalm 9:17) and refused to kiss His Son (Psalm 2).
John Lofton, Editor, TheAmericanView.com
Recovering Republican
JLof@aol.com
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