What’s going on with schools?
I have no social media accounts. I don’t have cable TV or a satellite dish. Despite not having these, I’m still acutely aware of the state of the public school system throughout our country. You don’t have to look too hard to find CRT and DEI being pushed. Gender theory is becoming more and more popular. Children are dressing up and acting like animals throughout the school day, and teachers and students have to comply. Students cannot have their Bibles out, but books that are filled with pornography line the shelves of libraries. There is no prayer or talk of Jesus allowed lest “freedom from religion” show up and have a demonstration and threaten lawsuits, but government grants are given for yoga mats and Buddhist-style meditation rooms without a peep from said group. We wonder why American Christianity is more Hindu (or “spiritual”) than Christian. Schools are funding and pushing Satan clubs, which promise to promote empathy and fight injustice. These will be full before you know it. We’re not immune to this in the “God-fearing” South. Here in the “Bible Belt” we boast of “giant” classrooms where teachers don’t teach. They “manage!” After all, if children are going to discover “their truth,” we can’t really “teach” them anything. They only need “lived experiences” to figure things out.
The response often comes this way. “Well, what do you expect? It’s the public system. They can do what they want. We’ll teach our children the right way, and it will all be OK. Plus, it’s not that way in ourtown!”
We need to get our heads out of the sand and stop acting like this isn’t affecting our children. How many of your children are in church? Your grandchildren? There’s a reason The Lutheran Witness has an entire issue focusing on the “nones.” We’ve said we would catechize and bring our children up in fear and knowledge of the Lord. We gave them to the schools instead. We cherished the baseball tournament or gymnastics meet more than we did the body and blood of Christ.
Get serious about this. We need to be locating cities that have confessional churches and classical Lutheran schools. I used to think that as long as there was a Lutheran school available, everything would be OK, but not all Lutheran schools are created equally. Many district representatives would rather push the hiring of retired public teachers no matter their faith because the school can save on their bottom line rather than hiring unapologetically Lutheran teachers. Our schools are all about “community outreach,” right? That’s, at least, the last word we heard from our school overseers and even given the source to help bridge that gap (a real recommendation to Southern District schools). Why do we turn to so many non-Lutherans for solutions in our churches? It’s no wonder why so many of our schools look exactly like our public counterparts with a little Jesus on the side.
For those of you with schools, review your curriculum. Actually read your text books to see what’s in them. Stop mirroring the state in everything they do. We’re doing our children no favors and are handing them over to those who hate Jesus and His Church. In reviewing these books, I can guarantee that you’ll be shocked in what you find is being taught as “truth,” “science,” and “history.”
None of this comes easy. It requires a return to our foundation and the reason why we have schools in the first place. Evaluation of these things will drive us to repentance and the knowledge that we can do better for the sake of our own children. We can teach them logic and reason that they might know how to discern truth from error and to defend the faith. But as for now, many are sending them out indoctrinated by the world knowing nothing of God but a few songs they learned in chapel.
And speaking of chapel: Why is it not a given that it occurs every day? Admittedly, we have only recently returned to the practice of everyday chapel. Before the return, we would sing and recite the Catechism in the morning and have a few minutes of teaching (basically Matins), but it was done in the gym. Why were we doing it this way? Convenience? Fear of offending the non-Lutherans with more worship and chanting? I don’t know, but there was no excuse. It has been corrected, and our children are better confessors of the faith as a result.
So what’s the point? Is this just a ranting blog post? I hope not. You know full well what’s going on out there, but you don’t have to submit to it. You don’t have to give into the state of the world. There are actually options for you rather than shrugging your shoulders and acting like it will get better. Find confessional churches with classical Lutheran schools. How many learned over the past few years that your job really didn’t require an office? You have more freedom to move than you think you do. Even if your children are grown and gone, you can find these places to support.
Take heart through it all. Despite the shape of the world, the Lord still reigns and is reigning for the good of His Church. Perhaps now, though, it’s time to repent and evaluate what the mission of the Church actually is and what the education of our children is all about.
Rev. John Bussman is pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Cullman, Ala.
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