What's Going On?

Another school year will be starting soon and having participated in the Texas Christian Schools Association Conference this past weekend in Midland, Texas, I feel fired up with purpose. During the conference, I was faced with time to meditate on all of the things I have witnessed in public education over the past 30 years and it was easy to follow the reasoning behind speeches given at the conference detailing the importance of keeping Christ foremost in everything we do and teach.

I have been guilty in my past of separating my Christian life from my work life. In my mind, I accepted the concept of public schools needing Christian men and women so God could still have influence in the school setting. We are called to live the likeness of Christ in every facet of our lives and I still believe it is a good thing to have Christian men and women around our children. Unfortunately, when I look back on the in-service sessions given to teachers and the various faculty meetings I attended, it is easy to see the joy Satan is having with our public schools and teachers, even those of us claiming to be Christian teachers, have been drawn into the snares of Satan and allowed his influence to form the framework of reference for living instead of Christ.

Glen Schultz, author of “Kingdom Education,” was one of the speakers I was blessed to hear speak on Friday and Saturday and he mentioned a fact about Satan I have never considered. “Satan can’t turn darkness on. We have to turn the light out!” I thought this comment was great and it disturbed my thinking because I could quickly see how many times I witnessed Christian men and women, even leaders in the church, dim the light of God towards darkness as they accepted and promoted darkness in our schools.

I can’t remember who was quoted but an early quote catching my attention stated it was the “role of the church and parent to teach God and the role of the school to teach facts.” We have been easily trapped into believing and accepting as fact; God has no place in school. It was a bit scary when I chose to leave public education last year but oh the blessing of being able to make God the stated reason and purpose for everything I do and teach at school.

In one of the lessons given, Glen Schultz spoke of our framework of reference and on his PowerPoint presentation, he had the following five points of reference circling the reasoning people have to belief certain things about our lives.

1. Creation-The material is all there is
2. God-Does not exist
3. Mankind-We are a result of choice
4. Purpose-People create their own sense of meaning and value
5. Moral Order-Morality is determined by humans alone and based on need

God is removed in our schools from being a point of reference and the reference our kids and teachers use to make choices will allow for the acceptance of any number of sinful actions in our society. I personally witnessed the acceptance of homosexual behavior presented in teacher in-service as acceptable behavior. As a teacher, we were forced to read and discuss openly sexually deviant things “for the good of the school.” Many teachers found these things disgusting but sat through the process anyway. Some chose to walk out on sessions declaring sin to be righteousness.

One defining example of Satan’s influence on our public schools comes from the example of extortion used regularly in our schools as a “fund-raising project.” Deer Park ISD was famous during my years as a teacher for allowing students the opportunity to “buy” their way out of detention. As I write this, I can visualize the long line of students forming to pay their dollar and be freed from detention. I would guess the school has extorted $150.00 a week on average from the students as they teach the concept of “adjusted” morality!

As the reader can see, the problem with our faith is not simply limited to the tradition of playing church on Sunday but also includes the area of our lives where we choose to play with Satan. How I wish I had a bus to drive to school every morning and take the kids of our congregation with me to school. Am I in a perfect Christ-like Utopia? No, but it is great to have Christ behind every action and purpose. Creation is the work of God who does exist and all things, even the numbers and formulas used in Geometry are the work of God.

The future of our country is in the hands of those who control the education of our children and we do not have to watch the leadership of our country for long before we recognize the acceptance of sin by those who have a framework of reference taken from men and not God.

My encouragement for those with children in the public schools and even Christian teachers continuing in public school education is for you to be fervently on the watch for Satan desiring to trap you in sin and be the one in your life to take a stand for righteousness. Of course, if you like Michael Hicks (one term school board member) choose to take a stand for God; you will be ostracized by the community. The great news is how I seem to remember one of the writers in the Bible more or less guaranteeing the persecution you will face for the cause of Christ.