To use the words of Jewish Hebrew scholar Michael V. Fox:
“Wisdom belongs to a different category of value and hence cannot be acquired in [secular contemporary education] fashion.”
In an attempt to define America’s wholehearted embrace of secular atheism, we’ll begin with a short quote from Joy Pullman’s excellent article in The Federalist.
“In the first three-quarters of the United States’ existence, many American schools were directly funded by tax dollars and run by local churches, and sometimes even taught by local ministers (often the most educated person in a town). … So until Supreme Court and legislative changes in the mid-1900s, U.S. public schools were usually overtly Christian: ‘In the 1800s, the country was predominantly Protestant, and public schools taught a generic Protestantism.’”
7
My own experience as a young student at the Konawa, OK, grade school is in line with this. Each day started with prayer, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, Grand Old Flag, God Bless America, Scripture reading, and emphasis on the virtues of good character and honesty. Virtues that come packaged with wisdom.
Nonetheless, following 350 years and the spectacular rise of America, the profane Warren Court liberals in 1962-1963 removed 1) prayer in public school [Engel vs. Vitale] and 2) Bible reading [Abington vs. Schempp], pronouncing them “unconstitutional.” The Warren Court’s decisions redirected America’s energies to a course conflicting with God.
The lone dissenting Justice Potter Stewart in Abington vs. Schempp decried the decision, arguing that it “led not to true neutrality with respect to religion, but to the establishment of a religion of secularism.” The Wall Street Journal agreed, saying that atheism was now “the one belief to which the state’s power will extend its protection.”
8
Secularism is of course no more “
neutral
” than is Christianity
. Both are religious belief systems vying for control of resources and ideological supremacy in America’s public square.
Excluding prayer and the Bible from public education is just as much of a religious decision as is including prayer and Bible reading in public education.
The Warren Court’s sleight of hand by presenting their worldview as neutral was simply to whitewash the imposition of their secular, atheistic religion by use of judicial power from 1953 to 1969.
There is no neutrality in religion; to believe in God or to not believe in God, both are religious beliefs
.
Benjamin Wills Newton [1807-1889] in his 19th-century classic,
David the King of Israel
, pointed to the spiritual blight that placed ancient Israel in harm's way:
“Saul, the ostensible shepherd of God’s people, found himself unable to confront the danger: no tongue responded to the challenge of the Philistine, no arm was raised on behalf of God’s people, or God’s truth; the energies of Israel seemed paralyzed; their strength gone; their glory departed.”
America’s Christianity may have reached its
kairos,
a New Testament Greek indication of “
the appointed time in the purpose of God
.”
Christian under-shepherds and leaders should take the opportunity to lead a mass exodus from the sexularized, heretical inculcation of America’s youth by government-run bureaucrats, facilitated by Covid-19 and the merciful shutdown of all educational institutions.
Chances are good that this will trigger a Fourth Great Awakening in America.
Gideons and Rahabs are cordially invited to stand.
David Lane
American Renewal Project
1. dailycaller.com/2020/04/04/who-abortion-essential-coronavirus-covid-19/
2. F. Charles Fensham, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah; 1982.
3. Archie P. Jones, Foreword to Benjamin F. Morris’ greatest single work, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States; 1864.
4. M. Stanton Evans, The Theme Is Freedom; 1994.
5. Bruce K. Waltke, The Book of Proverbs; 2004.
6. Bruce K. Waltke, An Old Testament Theology; 2007.
7. thefederalist.com/2020/01/22/supreme-court-to-decide-if-atheism-can-keep-its-monopoly-on-k-12-schools/
8. David Horowitz, Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America; 2018.