Christianity, The Northwest Ordinance, and Government Schooling

“Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”

The Northwest Ordinance
Passed July 13, 1787

Those who passed the Northwest Ordinance knew what many if not most people have forgotten and that is that education by definition is as hopelessly about religion, and morality as it is about knowledge. There is no passing on knowledge, that isn’t at the same time a passing on of religion and morality. Each is bound up with the other and though distinctions might be made between the three, divorce between the three is impossible.

This means that when you send your child to Government schools you are sending your child to a place that not only is going to pass on knowledge to your child, but you are also sending them to a place that is going to pass on religion and morality to your child.

If you’re a garden variety heathen you don’t lose any sleep over that. If you’re a Biblical Christian the fright involved in thinking that your children would be indoctrinated against Christianity as a religion if attending a Government school will make your heart stop. Biblical Christians know that they could never send God’s offspring entrusted to them to educational establishments, run by the State, that are committed to overthrowing the knowledge, morality, and religion owned by the Christian parents.

Naturally, very few Government schools open classes with the teacher saying; “Today students we are going to learn why Biblical Christianity is not true.” It’s not the way the game is played. Instead, every book, every curriculum, every assignment, every lesson in Government schools is premised upon the fact that Christianity is not true. History is taught presupposing Marxist class conflict. Science is taught presupposing Evolutionary theorem. Philosophy is taught presupposing the humanist manifestos. Children attending public schools are children attending Government factories where the raw material are children and where the factory laborers working on the raw material (Teachers) are actors and agents of the State. The product these children factories are seeking to manufacture is an adult who has been trained to religiously and morally fit into a social order created by centuries of Government factories hardwiring anti-Christ religion, morality, and knowledge into centuries of students.

Folks are often discouraged by the state of the Christian church and the Christian clergy in America and the West but the reason for such a demise is found in the fact that the overwhelming percentage of “Christian” parents send God’s covenant seed that God gave them to raise in the fear and admonition of the Lord to the Government schools where the Government actors (Teachers) labor for 13 years to pass on religion, morality, and knowledge to children who were supposed to be reared “in the Lord.” It is silly to expect that the Church or clergy would be in any better of condition then it or they currently are given this ongoing cultural dynamic.

There are well intentioned people out there who want to reform the Government schools. This is a lost cause. Government schools cannot be Reformed until the Government that is running the Government schools is Reformed. The Government schools in the US cannot be Reformed. Instead they must be starved to death and the way that happens is by more and more parents (Especially Christian parents) refusing to send their children to the Government school factories. Only once the swamp of Government schools is drained can education hope to be Reformed in this country. Similarly, only once the swamp of Government schools is drained can the Church and clergy hope to return to a reinvigorated Christianity. Until such a time the faithful church remnant and the faithful Christian clergy are going to be continually dealing with a people sitting in the pews who are the expected humanist products of Government factories and Government agents (teachers) efficiently doing their jobs at creating humanist humanoids.

Scripture teaches; “As a man thinketh in his heart so he is.” Government schools run by agents of the State teach men and women to think in their hearts like Christ haters. The religion, morality, and knowledge these Government schools with their Government agents pass on to children rejects the religion, morality, and knowledge of historic Christianity.

As long as the Government schools stand the cause of Christ will be diminished.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane