Well, this could be a problem. Laying out a case supporting or opposing government education is bound to ruffle some feathers. I really am not interested in making my life any more difficult. That happens all on its own. Unlike some people might think, swimming against the current is not something that appeals to me. A peaceful and quiet life is what I’m after. But neither does swimming with the current sound like a good idea. Sooner or later, the current leads us off a waterfall. Like I said, an unappealing situation. Wading somewhere in a pool with an open book and cold beer seems like it’d be a bit more comfortable.
However, comfort is typically one of the trip hazards in our Christian walk. Not a plan for success. Maybe there are feathers out there that need ruffling, although I wasn’t invited to do so. Perhaps I can simply lay out my train of thought on the subject of government education, explain some of the reasoning for the decisions I’ve made for our family, and the reader can make their own conclusion on whether or not I’m being judgmental. If my words bring confrontations or silent aggression from some, I can claim that I in fact went to public school where I was taught to believe in myself and not care about what others think. I think that’d be a reliable way out.
So, to get right to it, let’s get to it. I’d like to address the question of whether or not it’s a sin for Christians to send their kids to public school. Oh man. Touchy. To tone the question down a notch and put a positive spin on it, we can also ask it in this way: Are Christians required by God to provide a Christian education for their kids? To clarify, the question in front of us is a moral one, not a practical one, as is the first gate for most decisions on this side of grave. Meaning, I’m asking what we should be doing, not how we are to do it. There is a lot to say about the how. But, pragmatically speaking, our practice is to be derived from our ethics, not our ethics from our practice.
In order to address an ethical question, we should probably start by referencing Him who determines right and wrong. Although the government education system teaches against such a practice, nonetheless, it remains a good idea. What does the Bible say?
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” – Deuteronomy 6:6-9, ESV
The first principle we strive to apply in our home is that kids in Christian homes should be taught God’s standard at all times. God’s standard is not like lemonade on a Sunday afternoon – something we get to sporadically enjoy and share with our kids from time to time. The standard of our Living Creator is like the oxygen source a deep diver relies on as he drifts in the depths of the sea. In all our undertaking – when we sit, or walk, or lie down, or rise – we are to be talking about God’s Word. To whom? To our children. If we are to be instructing them in the standards of our Maker even when we are relaxing on the couch, how much more so when they are learning about the world He made? The Creator’s standards should be inescapable for us and our kids – bound on our hands as we do our work, covering our eyes as we observe the world, and written on our walls and doors as we build our household. God calls the believer to structure his household in such a way that God’s commands are ever-present and unavoidable.
Scripture says that us parents should be teaching our kids according to God’s standard all of the time. Instead, Christian parents attempt to diffuse the pagan instruction their kids receive 5 out of the 7 days every week with perhaps some clarification in the evenings and on Sundays. It’s no wonder how many kids within Christian households leave the faith after going through the secular mill.
“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” – Ephesians 6:4, ESV
The second principle set in our family is that our kids are to be taught God’s standard in all things. The authority of God is not an isolated subject in this world. Structuring the education of our children in a way that sets up periods 1-6 as “no man’s land” where they are taught simple facts about the world, and then teaching them Christian truth in the after-hours is not the education that we are prescribed to give. We are to bring up our children under the authority of the Lord in all of our instruction. 2+2=4 because Jesus says so. The earth orbits around the sun because God designed it that way. Boys are boys and girls are girls because the Maker of heaven and earth is on His throne.
When I was in the government school system, their hatred of God was not as explicit as it is today. I didn’t come away from public school hating God. But I did come away believing that He was irrelevant to mostly all aspects of life. God was marginalized into a Sunday School lesson, while math, science, art, history, and everything else was considered “neutral territory.” But the Lordship and authority of Christ covers all of creation. As Abraham Kuyper pointed out, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’” Someone ought to tell our kids.
A rebuttal I’ve frequently heard in response goes something along the lines of, “But I went to public school, and I turned out all right.” And here, in this one sentence, lies the entire problem of our government education. It’s ironic that this is the rebuttal quite often chosen, because it’s a case and point for taking our kids out of that hell hole faster than government mask mandates were thrown upon us. At the very root of the secular project that is public education is the attempt to elevate the authority of man over the authority of God. Humanism is the siege occupying the Western world. And it’s the same deception that Eve fell for – to be like God.
The goal of secularism is to bring you up to be your own authority, your own standard. Dethrone God and sit yourself down. And no clearer example of the success of secularism can be illustrated then when Christians, who confess the Lordship of Christ, respond to God’s authoritative command to bring up their kids under His standard by presenting themselves as the standard by which to live by. When Christians justify their disregard of God’s command by pointing to themselves as the standard to follow – demonstrating the success of the secular agenda in their own heart – you can only smirk at the irony.
We give our kids a Christian education because God commands us to teach them at all times and in all things that His authority is ever-present and always relevant. There is, of course, a lot more to say on the subject. But I must save that for later. One must tread lightly.
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