Leading Our Children Out of Darkness

Part One


By By Ken Smitherman ,
Special to ASSIST News Service

One of the most significant contributions we can make to our culture is to educate our children. The word "educate" comes from the Latin educo, which means "to lead out of" and inferred that an educator led a student out of the darkness of barbarism into the light of Christian civilization. Regrettably, today educational processes often imply the opposite-to lead out of the light of Christian civilization into dark neo-paganism.

This chapter addresses this predicament and offers solutions using insights from two Christian educators who are gifted with Christian wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

While I recognize exceptions, prevailing motifs affect all students today that blur any cultural differences between Christians and non-Christians. These motifs include:

• Pressure for performance. From parental demands for high grades to personal anxiety about being above the cut on a sports team, pressure for performance can be almost all consuming for a teenager.
• Premature sophistication imposed by subjection to illicit influences that short-circuit character development. This is a trend perhaps best symbolized by media presentations of five-year-old Jon Benet Ramsey, the kindergartner portrayed as a glamour model, who was the victim of a grisly murder.
• Diminished concern for ethical and moral values. The message here is that "if it's right for you, it is right!"
• Personal entitlement. This is a credo of deserving rather than earning, which says, "Here I am to collect!"
• The belief that the end justifies the means. What counts here is where you end up. Process and procedure take a back seat to shortcuts, instant responses and self-gratification.
• Indifference to cheating, sexual irresponsibility and violence. This is the belief that "what you do is none of my business; it's your life. To each his own!"
• Anti-social conduct. This is often reflected in gross rudeness, flippant and open vulgarity, disrespect and mockery.
• Pessimistic uncertainty about the future. Despite economic prosperity, young people have the sense of being caught in a downward shift from good to bad times as they hear of such threats as the aids epidemic and global environmental disasters.

Developing a God-honoring Worldview

Today's cultural messages powered by the high-octane fuel of entertainment media present a great challenge for the family, the Church and the Christian school to apply the Word of God against these ungodly influences. It is a world impacted by a spirit of materialism to the point that consuming to live has become living to consume. However, many Christian schools today are diligently seeking to help students develop a God-honoring worldview. Fran Sciacca, a Christian educator, writes the following regarding this in his book Generation at Risk:

I completely rewrote my senior Bible curriculum to focus on the principle of worldview. One week was spent on each of ten key questions about life from the standpoint of both secular and biblical worldviews. We sought answers in the Bible for the problems that any worldview, whether Christian or secular, must address and answer to be legitimate. The ten issues of life we discussed were:

1. Individuality: Who or what am I?
2. Meaning: What's the point of it all?
3. Values: How am I to make moral choices?
4. Truth: Is it possible to know the truth about ourselves and the universe?
5. Love: What is love, and where can it be found?
6. Suffering: Why is there suffering, and how can we live with it?
7. Death: How am I to face death? Is there life after death?
8. Hope: What hope is there for the human race?
9. Reality: Is there anything more than the physical world?
10. Evil: Is there any hope in fighting evil and injustice?

A number of curious things began to happen as we examined secular and biblical answers to the above ten questions. Those who were intently following what we were doing gradually began to see that biblical Christianity made sense of life as it really is. They slowly realized that being a Christian was not just a matter of saying yes to a creed. It involved all of life and demanded the alignment of their lives with God's will.2

This is but one example of the diligence and effort that mark Christian schooling and give us a choice-to develop young men and women who are not of the world but effectively in the world, bringing salt to preserve it and light to dispel its darkness.

Paganism Coming Out of the Closet

I am saddened, however, by what I recently read in the Chronicle of Higher Education, a secular publication that reports trends on campuses. One article I read stated, "Inspired by environmentalism, feminism, and TV, more students embrace pagan beliefs. . . . [These students] embrace a variety of earth-based beliefs, including traditions of ancient Celtic, Norse, Egyptian, druid, and shamanistic origin. Their most significant influence is Wicca, a religion with roots in pre-Christian Europe, which is often referred to as witchcraft."3 The movement is clearly one that rejects the claims and gospel of Jesus.

The Witches' Voice, an advocacy group for paganism, lists 113 pagan college groups on its website, with 38 added so far this school year. Although the numbers pale when compared to the number of Christian organizations on campuses, paganism is growing. Some students claim that they turned to paganism after they became disenchanted with the rigid structure of mainstream religions. To them, paganism was a more individualistic in nature and allowed them to shape their own belief systems by combining a variety of traditions. Combining a variety of traditions is a reflection of how postmodernism denies absolute truth.

As Christian parents, challenged to recognize the influences that will impact our children, the issue moves from mild to extremely urgent concern as the forces at work in our culture detract from and undermine our faith. The co-president of one pagan group likens the magic spells of pagan worship to the power of positive thinking. She states, "A spell is like a prayer. Its function is to use our ability and our connection with the divine to make change and increase the possibility of something happening". This is a gospel that seriously misconstrues the Christian tradition of prayer.

It is important to experience and enjoy the support of Christian schools, which instill the words of Jesus to His disciples in Matthew 24:11: "False prophets will appear and deceive many people." Our responsibility for parental guidance and direction is awesome. The world is replete with contrary challenges and opportunities, and our task may seem overwhelming as we work to provide our children with the best spiritual and educational foundation possible. Yet perhaps there is no better time to give thanks for the Christ-centered school that knows who Jesus Christ is, bears His witness, models Him daily, and diligently teaches spiritual truth. In the Christian school, children are taught to discern between His truth and pagan religions that falsely promise to meet their personal wants and needs.

Investing Where It Counts

I am reminded of a story that Gordon MacDonald tells at the beginning of his book, The Life God Blesses. He begins, "Once a foolish man built a boat. From the beginning, he intended it to be the grandest, most talked-about boat that ever sailed from the harbor of the boat club he belonged to. He was determined to spare no expense or effort."4

MacDonald goes on to explain that the man began to build the most lavish boat ever, with colorful sails, complex rigging, comfortable appointments and every possible convenience. Its decks were the most beautiful teakwood with custom fittings of polished brass. The man imagined the admiration and applause of his fellow club members. He soon began to obsess over the things that would show, so he invested even more time and energy into what would truly draw attention. Since no one would see the bottom of the boat, he decided not to give much consideration to the keel, or ballast, or anything that had to do with distributing the weight. He concluded that people comment on what they can see-he had no memory of anyone ever admiring the bottom of a boat. So the foolish man continued to build.

Finally, the day came for the boat's maiden voyage. The man's earlier observations had been correct, for the club members offered high praise for the sails, rigging, teakwood, and brass, reassuring the man that he had put the emphasis in the right places. Big gold letters proclaimed the boat's name: "Persona." The boat slid smoothly into the water, and its maiden voyage began. Sailing with a small flotilla, it stood out as the grandest. Even from a distance, the captain could be seen gripping the rudder with fierce pride in what he had accomplished!

However, when high gusts of wind began to rock the boat, bad things quickly began to happen. The sails were soon in shreds, the splendid mast was a tangle of splinters, the rigging was unceremoniously draped over the bow, and the shiny teakwood decks were awash in saltwater. While other boats righted themselves, this one did not. Why? All that was below the waterline had been ignored; there was no weight there. A well-designed keel and adequate ballast would have righted the boat, but none of that existed.

Days later, as observers viewed the tattered wreckage that had washed ashore; they were quick to see what was missing. "A wise man would never build such a boat, much less sail in it" they commended. "A man who builds only above the waterline does not realize that he has built less than half a boat."

And so, as you consider the costly efforts of "boat building" with your children, remember that it is worth investing where it counts to draw attention to the Word of God. By building below the waterline, you are preparing your children to sail in a stormy ocean. God richly blesses such efforts. Later, as you see the big picture, you will know that whatever it cost, the price was right!

Faith Sustains Us

Have you ever been brought up short by a comment you heard? It might have occurred on the street or in a place where people were gathering and conversation was in motion. The topics might have ranged from those that reflect reckless moral abandon to the many ways a person can come to know his god.

I recall a dinner conversation with two international college students who were living in our home. We talked about spiritual matters and our personal relationship with Christ. At that time, two of our four daughters attended a Christian college. Our two guests shared about their own religious heritage-a practice of ceremonially attending church at Christmas and Easter. They explained that in their country, religion was really only practiced by the elderly. They could understand why my wife, Karen, and I were religious-since we were, after all, in our forties. But they could not understand why our daughters were religious. To them, that simply did not make sense. The conversation brought the clear realization that our story was not their story; it was, in fact, far removed from their reality. Such differing realities are far too popular in the cultural arena today.

Christianity: A Prevailing and Influencing Force

According to Michael Regele, author of Death of the Church, there was a time in Western civilization when the separation of church and state was unthinkable, because for many centuries societies had an authoritative central belief system based on religious tradition. The truth of this system was unquestioned: it simply was. For example, you either worshiped God or Baal, and those who made any attempt to combine the two were shown no mercy. Culture and politics were governed by the prevailing religion, which was Christianity, carried forward by Roman Catholicism from the fourth century on. Around the time of the Renaissance and the Reformation, this central belief system began to be undermined by Galileo and a host of other scientists that challenged the church's Christian worldview, which was supported by the state and at least paid lip service by the general populace.

Christianity was a prevailing and influential force in the time of America's founding. As early settlers in the New World, the Puritans prized an intellectual and spiritual life. Their ministers founded colleges and studied science and philosophy. Christians were the authorities in the community and at the center of the marketplace of ideas. Their views were more than mere ideas; a Christian worldview was the basis of their biblical lifestyles, which had a significant impact on the culture of the new nation. Now, in the twenty-first century, our Christian story is often viewed with disdain, even mockery, and considered the realm of the weak and the powerless.

Effective Christian schooling is not merely a process of adding chapel and Bible class to a traditional academic curriculum. Rather, its mission is to forge a new mindset-a transformation that begins through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that is then nurtured and developed by deliberate and strategic integration of biblical truth into every curricular area. Christian schooling, then, confronts and challenges the fragmented secular worldview.

The Postmodern Worldview

Postmodernism-a term very much in vogue today-denotes the thinking and attitudes of a significant part of our world. Actually, we should probably think of this term as naming a time rather than a clearly articulated ideology. The things that are happening, the way people think, and the way they act in this postmodern era are having a great impact on the Church and on parachurch entities such as the Christian school, as well as the people within those institutions. Our story may not become their story, yet through faithful development of the spirit and the mind we can once again have an impact on the marketplace of ideas.

Let me first make it clear that there is no expectation that the few words in this article will come anywhere near covering this continually unfolding topic. Nonetheless, this postmodern culture presents some great challenges to our Christian schools, as it works to confront issues that have a tremendous impact on our children's learning. Recognizing a few of the key components of postmodernism may help us better understand what is happening and perhaps will assist us in nurturing our children in the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord.

Postmodernists live in a culture of individualism where society is a means to accomplish the individual's self-centered goals. The expectation is that everyone should be tolerant of anything, because there is no absolute truth. It is as if to say, "What you believe does exist, and for you it may be right, but please, please, don't suggest that your truth should be truth for me."

This concept flies under the banner of existentialism. The nineteenth-century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard was first to describe himself as existential. He proclaimed that "I must find a truth that is true for me . . . the idea for which I can live or die." In essence, this is the belief that one must choose one's own way without the aid of universal laws or objective standards for moral decisions.

Another 'ism that marks the postmodern age is pragmatism. In its simplest form, pragmatism suggests that ideas or theories must past the test that they will bring about a desirable result. In other words, if it works, it is considered right. The pragmatic ideology is extremely critical of the concept of absolute truth and reveals an electrifying absence of the concept of faith. Christ alone provides a desirable way through faith in absolute truth, thus the Christian school makes a radical departure from pragmatism. The concept of truth is a vital and critical component in Christian schooling that is based on unchanging biblical precepts and the understanding of them.

Perhaps your first notion is that we must escape postmodernism-we must go back. Well, the fact of the matter is, we will not be going back. We must learn to navigate these challenging times while teaching our kids how to be effective as salt and light, rather than comfortable, at-home citizens in an ungodly culture. That's what Christian schooling is all about-built and sustained on the absolutes of God's Word and His call to make a difference.

Notes

1. Ken Smitherman has served as the president of the Association of Christian Schools International for the past 10 years. Prior to that time, he served as a Christian school administrator in Idaho, Hawaii and Washington for 26 years. He currently also serves as the president of the Board of the Council for American Private Education (CAPE).
2. Fran Sciacca, Generation at Risk (Minneapolis, MN: World Wide Publications, 1990).
3. Leo Reisberg, "Campus Witches May Wear Black, but Don't Look for Hats or Broomsticks," Chronicle of Higher Education, October 20, 2000. http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i08/08a04901.htm (accessed December 2006).
4. Gordon MacDonald, The Life God Blesses (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1997).

EDITOR'S NOTE: This insightful article is a companion article to Dr. Ted Baehr and Pat Boone's new book CULTURE-WISE FAMILY: Upholding Christian Values in a Mass Media World. It is available in a special section of www.movieguide.org. 

Entertainment expert Dr. Ted Baehr and legendary musician Pat Boone think it's time we began paying attention to our mass-media consumption. They urge people to make wise choices for themselves and their families so they can protect their children from toxic messages in the culture.

The Culture-Wise Family offers a rich, authoritative analysis of the many perilous trends in a time when parents face challenges that are unprecedented in their intensity and detrimental influences. This book builds on the firm foundation of a biblical worldview and analyzes the implications of other worldviews as they are expressed and promoted in media, entertainment, and public education, the three purveyors of the increasing secularization and pluralization of our times.

It will not only help you to protect your children and grandchildren, but also it will help you redeem the times and the culture!

Read Part Two