Category: Education

A Conversation On Christians Sending God’s Covenant Seed To The Schools of Baphomet II

Joshua;

I hear your point about secular. I do not understand it to mean neutral.

Happy to replace secular with anti-Christian. Are antichristian governments incapable of providing something good?

Bret responds,

As we start here would you mind telling me how old you are? Are you a school teacher yourself?  Did you (do you) send your children to government schools?

As to your query … Yes, they are capable.

Now, let’s talk about degrees of anti-Christ. What degree of anti-Christ are we currently at in our government schools?

If, we as a people, were only a wee bit removed from Christian education one might argue that one could navigate around the problems. However, if you will do the reading of numerous books I recommended in the last post you would see that it’s not just that we are off a wee bit. The whole agenda is educate in such a way as to create non-thinking clones. It’s all about command and control. If I want children to be free to think as mature adults I will not want them to attend government schools. Indeed, I am of the conviction that to do so is child abuse.

Joshua writes,

This is where your reasoning is taking you. All schools are religious. If they are not Christian they are antichristian. Therefore they do nothing but harm.

Bret responds,

If I threw children in a pond w/ crocodiles some of them might learn how to swim really well. Throwing them all in the pond would therefore not necessarily do “nothing but harm.” But would it be wise therefore to throw them into a pond with crocodiles because some good might possibly come?

You’re argument here is “let us sin that grace may increase.” Because some good might happen let us ignore the 1st commandment and have our children catechized into a false religion.

Joshua writes,

Cue the anabaptists: all governments are antichristian. They can only do harm. Christians should have nothing to do with them.

Bret responds,

Cue the 1st commandment. “Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me.” Current secondary education catechizes children into a false religion and makes them servants of false gods. As such Biblical Christian in this climate should have nothing to do with them unless they want to destroy God’s covenant seed.

Do you really think that God would’ve had the Children of Israel attend the schools of Canaan in order to learn the Canaanite ways?

Finally, virtually all Christian do have something to do with government schools. They support them with their taxes.

Joshua writes,

But if antichristian governments are still a legitimate institution of God, then they can provide things of real benefit to everyone, Christians included. 

Bret responds,

Yep … just like Stalin and Mao provided things of real benefit to everyone, Christian included.

Joshua writes,

The Church has benefited from inventions of the Cainites, Moses and Israel from the learning of the Egyptians, the apostolic church (at times) from the law and order of the Romans.

Bret responds,

Sure… we should plunder the Egyptians because it is all ours to begin with. But as we are plundering them and taking back what was our to begin with we should not become Egyptians.

However, currently Christians don’t have to attend the Baphomet Elementary school in order to access education. Have you heard of this thing called “the information age?” Never have we lived in a time when schools were more unnecessary.

Joshua writes,

To accurately compare public schools and homeschooling, you have to compare how Christian students do at home and how they do at school. A parent who homeschools is going to instill a value for education in their children. But that value enables the same child to do well in public school.

Bret responds,

But I don’t want a child to do well in Government school since that means they will be lapping up a false religion. If Christian children have to attend government school it is my prayer that they will do really really poorly.

Joshua writes,

Your analysis of schools is misguided if you compare children of highly dedicated homeschooling parents with children of parents who don’t care. A large majority of students in schools have parents who don’t care. Every teacher I’ve talked to says that the number one factor in academic success is parental involvement.

Bret responds,

I don’t want government schooled children to have academic success. I want them to do poorly. I don’t want them to learn to think like pagans.

I am awash in a culture filled with professional people, including “Christians” who did well in government schools. I try to avoid them as much as I can.

Do exceptions exist? Absolutely! But I don’t gamble when I know the house is overwhelmingly against me.

Now, you have repeatedly accused me of being Anabaptist. I can only plead with you to cease being pagan in your thinking.

You might want to look up the Reformed doctrine of the Anti-thesis and consider that subject in light of our conversation.

A Conversation On Christians Sending God’s Covenant Seed To The Schools of Baphomet I

Joshua writes;

I hear this argument a lot: government schools only corrupt and indoctrinate. They do more harm than good. It is a sweeping accusation, but is it true?

Bret responds

Yes it is true, generally speaking;

Look, I’m not going to look up all the stats for you on how bad our secondary education is. Here are just a few;

63% of American 12th graders are rated “basic” or “below basic” in reading achievement, the Education Department revealed.

The Education Department also said the statistic that 37% of 12th graders would not qualify for entry-level college courses is accurate if it refers to a particular National Assessment of Educational Progress (or NAEP) test that the National Assessment Governing Board has said can serve as a proxy for entry-level college work.

While looking up the stats, if you want you can also look up how superior homeschooling numbers are to public school numbers.

Now factor in how bad the education is at the teacher colleges of those who get degrees in “education.”

I think the thing for me to do is to recommend a few books so you can get up to speed on the subject.

“The Messianic Character of American Education — R. J. Rushdoony

“The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America” – Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt

“The Worm In The Apple” – Peter Brimelow

Anything by John Taylor Gatto

Anything by Samuel L. Blumenfeld.

Look, I’ve been all over this subject over the years. I’ve read tons of the material. I know what I’m talking about when I say public schools almost universally suck. If you can find a Unicorn among them … congratulations.

Joshua writes

Is every public school like this? I know of homeschooled/Christian schooled kids who went to public high school, and were surprised at how much study they had to do to stay afloat. Surprised too, that the school had rules, and would expel kids for breaking them.

Bret responds,

Anecdotes hold no water. Do the reading and get back to me.

Joshua writes,

The rhetoric resembles Dabney’s (courageous and brilliant man) but he was proud of his secular university education and he taught at another one.

Bret writes,

There is no such thing as “secular.”

And the education given at the University in the early 19th century is apples and oranges from where we are now. You’re making category mistakes.

Joshua writes,

Schools are terribly secular but they are still studying general revelation.

Bret responds,

There is no such thing as “secular.” All education without exception is hopelessly religious.

Since man’s reason is fallen general revelation is only as good as the religious presuppositions that fallen man brings to the general revelation. Currently, those presuppositions are thoroughly anti-Christ and as such the general revelation he will read will confirm his anti-Christ presuppositions.

Joshua writes,

It is better for millions of children to be studying that rather than nothing at all.

Bret responds,

As a Pastor I have told people consistently that they would be better served having their children stay at home not being formally educated at all then sending them to government schools where they will be catechized into a false religion and where they will learn to read general revelation in such a way that confirms the false religion.

Shoot… if you want I can link you to a video where the chap teaches that Natural law (a subset of general revelation) teaches that sodomy is perfectly in keeping with Natural Law.

Joshua writes,

Obviously they would get a lot more out of their studies if they also studied special revelation from a Reformed perspective, began and ended each school day with prayer, etc. But you and I are communicating right now in part because of pagans who have studied the book of nature well enough to make advancements in technology.

Bret responds,

You and I are communicating only because fallen man;

1.) Is never consistent with his Christ hating presuppositions
2.) Borrows from the capital of a Christian world and life view in order to get his Christ hating worldview off the ground and running.

Fallen man gets things right not because he reads general revelation aright but he gets things right despite his reading general revelation wrongly.

You and I are not on the same page about education and neither are we on the same page in terms of worldview and epistemology.

Joshua writes,

But not studying general revelation at all is what Satan and Rome would prefer. You remember the medieval mindset: “ignorance is the mother of devotion”. Uneducated people are much easier to manipulate and control. Rome therefore argued that only the clergy and a few others, in the tight grip of the Church, should have an education.

Bret responds,

LOL … we spend tens of millions of dollars on education and we have to be one of the stupidest peoples on the planet. Do the reading of the books cited above.

Secondly, it strikes me that many, if not most, of those who have terminal degrees are the most easily propagandized and manipulated people I come across. Clergy and Professors are the worst of all. I know very very few educated clergy and almost all of those clergy I know have either Masters or Ph.D’s.

“Education” hasn’t delivered people from ignorance. Putative education has merely made people confirmed in their ignorance. Indeed, I’d say that currently we need to flip your proverb and say, “Education is the mother of devotion.” That is tongue in cheek of course.

Joshua wrote,

And it is just not the case that if the government gets out of education, all parents will step up and work harder than ever to make sure their children get educated. In his lectures defending the establishment principle, Thomas Chalmers points out that education is not subject to the law of demand and supply. The less educated people are, and the less access they have to education, the less they desire it. “Men love darkness rather than light”- including the light of general revelation. Especially when their bellies are full.

Bret responds,

I’ll place my bet on parents. I’ve seen and know what Government education looks like. I have known countless secondary school teachers. I’ve yet to come across one that was intelligent. Now, I’ve known a few University types who were sharp but not so many that I have concluded that they are the norm.

That men loved darkness rather than light is true. It explains why they are so comfortable piling up degrees.

Joshua writes,

Christian parents will try to educate their children no matter what, but when they do it themselves, the results are mixed. Homeschooling advocates point to high SAT scores of homeschoolers, but that’s only counting the ones that actually take the SAT. I know of many burnt out homeschooling parents and half-educated children who resent the fact that they are studying well into their 20s, while working a full-time job, to get the education they should have gotten in their teens.

Bret responds,

I’m not interested in your anecdotes. I have anecdotes also that are different then your anecdotes.

Believe me … those home educated children you’re talking about should instead thank their parents that they didn’t send them to a place where the interest is not in education but in reinforcing societal command and control mechanisms. You can’t really believe that the secondary schools have any interest in educating can you?

Read the sources I posted. If you believe that you’re deluded.

Joshua writes,

I want to see a Christian nation as much as you. But to convince others, we have to steer clear of bad arguments. One argument against government schools sounds Anabaptistic:

The government must be secular and have nothing to do with religion (or education)
Therefore the government (schools) will be anti-Christian.
Therefore the Christian should have nothing to do with government (schools).

Bret responds,

You’re first premise is faulty. There is no such thing as secular. That means your 1st conclusion is faulty since unless schools are explicitly Christian they will by default be anti-Christian. There is no such thing as neutrality.

However, per the 1st commandment your conclusion is true.

The anabaptists believed that anything outside of their community (“the world”) was evil. I’m not arguing that. I’m arguing that what is not Christian is evil to one degree or another and government schools are not Christian … nor are they neutral (secular). They are hopelessly religious and the religion that they advocate and teach is NOT the Christian religion. Our current Christian schools are not the “secular” schools that Dabney would’ve attended. They are the kind of schools that the Marquis de Sade would’ve built.

Can you understand that distinction?

Joshua writes,

But if government, Christian or not, is a divine institution, then it can provide good things. Its secular nature does not mean everything it does will be harmful. This includes education. Texas University Professor Dabney would agree.

Bret responds,

Governments that are not Christian are by definition anti-Christian. Neutrality is a myth. There is no such thing as secular. That is a classical liberal mindset. One that I do not share.

If Dabney were alive today he would agree with me. Read his stuff on Education as can be found in his “Secular Writings.”

Look Joshua, you strike me as a bright chap with a sharp blade but your blade is set at the wrong angle and though sharp, is cutting wrong with every cut.

Thanks for the conversation. I don’t think we are going to make much progress though as we are each beginning at very different starting points.

Cheers

Christian Churches, Universities/Colleges, Clergy Should Not be Entrusted with Your Children

“One study by Samuel Abrams found an astonishing 12:1 ratio of liberals to conservatives among administrators on University Campuses (71 percent identified as “liberal” or “very liberal”; only 6 percent identified as conservative)….

For faculty in the humanities, the ratio was 32 Democrats for every one Republican.”

Jonathan Barth

It’s Time To Upend the Modern University

Real Clear Politics

“The fundamentalist parents of our fundamentalist students think that the entire ‘American liberal establishment’ is engaged in a conspiracy. The parents have a point. We do our best to convince these students of the benefits of secularization. So we are going to go right on trying to discredit you in the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly rather than discussable.”

Prof. Richard Rorty

Philosophers and Their Critics – pp.21-22

As Biblical Christians (as opposed to those who masquerade as Christians) we must realize that the Universities/Colleges (hereafter U/C) are utterly lost to us. This is especially true to those U/C that adopt the adjective of “Christian.” Christian U/C are merely 10 or 15 years behind the “secular” U/C in worldview treason and moral turpitude. At best Christian U/C will give a Christian coating to this or that subject, or maybe they will open class with a prayer or maybe even still have chapel three times a week, but the substance of what they teach and what they model smells of sulfur.

I am reminded of a Mother who contacted me a few years ago, asking for advice about her son who had attended both of our Alma Mater (Indiana Wesleyan University). She was weeping that her son had lost his faith while there and that the reason for that was the teaching he had received from the IWU (formerly Marion College) professoriate.

A couple of years following that I had a student contact me who had been bounced from his honors track at Indiana Wesleyan University for simply wearing a Halloween costume that was not accepted as politically correct. I don’t remember if he was wearing an Indian (Feather, not Dot) costume or exactly what it was, but I do remember the young man was turned into an example for future students who wouldn’t kowtow to the DEI agenda of the University.

Similarly, Calvin University (formerly Calvin College) strives to be left of Chairman Mao. Grove City college, as another example, finds Dr. Karl Falseman, who supports socialized health-care, teaching students, while misrepresenting the Reformed faith to his students. There may be one or two exceptions out there but on the whole it really doesn’t matter which Christian U/C you name, as the general lot of them have been infected with one form or another of humanism.

But why should the Christian U/C be any different though, given the state of the Christian church? Most Christian Churches, along with the clergy, don’t object to their Christian U/C because they are themselves bollixed up in the same manner. The PCA couldn’t discipline Greg Johnson. The OPC lost some fine ministers over the whole Aimee Byrd/feminism fiasco where the clergy of the OPC decided to turn on the young clergy as opposed to turning on Byrd’s feminism. The OPC also had the ghost racism General Assembly where they were flailing and flinging about denouncing “racists” in their midst before they realized they really didn’t have racists in their midst, and it all was a case of clergy going in circles chasing their Geneva gowns.

All this to say to Biblical Christian parents… “You can’t entrust your children to the clergy. You can’t entrust your children to the Churches. You can’t entrust your children to the Christian U/C. You have to do all that work yourself.” Parents could get away with trusting these Christian Institutions and men once upon a time but in this climate if parents turn their children over to these Institutions their children are not likely to hit 18 or 22 and remain Biblical Christians.

Caveat Emptor

 

The Canker Work of Political Correctness

Political Correctness is the anti-standard standard, a negative device designed to overthrow traditional (Christian) mores and Institutions. It does so by arguing that the previous standards were arbitrary, oppressive and characteristic of those who colonize. The PC crowd then masqueraded their anti-standard standard in the guise of the demand that academic freedom and tolerance must be allowed to “enlarge” beyond the previous constraining standard that limited the teaching context to the traditional mores.

All of this explains much of the reason behind the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s grandstanding on January 15, 1987,  at Stanford University’s grand main entrance, chanting with 500 Stanford Students the uber poetic,

“Hey hey, ho ho,
Western Civ has got to go.”

Jackson and company were protesting Stanford University’s introductory humanities program known as “Western Culture.” For Jackson and the protesters, the problem was its lack of “diversity.” As a consequence to this romper room protest Stanford’s faculty and administration raced to appease the protesters, and Stanford’s course of “Western Culture” was formally replaced with a new course labeled, “Cultures, Ideas, and Values.”

The new program included works on race, class, and gender and works by ethnic minority and women authors. Western culture gave way to multi-culture. The study of Western civilization succumbed to the Left’s new dogma, multiculturalism.

Notice here that the Stanford’s previous standards here were not expanded so much as they were replaced. The demand of the students most certainly did not lead to more diversity. Instead, the demand of the students eventuated in a remaining narrow curriculum except as channeled in a different direction.

Once the standards were expanded so that for example, students in the University were reading Black Rappers, Native American Hieroglyphics and Lesbian Literature  as being equivalent in value to reading Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton the West was in principle finished as Universities around the country moved to being Multi-diversities finding their “Uni” in the lack of “Uni”. By “expanding the standards,” the old Christian standards were tossed and new standards were introduced and codified since at the end of the day the idea of absolute standards is limited to the time available for what is seeking to be accomplished by the University.

By hiding their demands and this agenda behind the full throated enlightenment cry for academic freedom the Politically correct crowd tore down the previous standards implemented new PC standards and forced the Institutions that built the West to become the Institutions that would now tear down the West.

And conservatives were party to this because they did not know how to answer this demand for “free speech” rooted as they were in the classical liberal worldview.

The proper response should have been “Your expansion of standards can go bugger themselves.”

Hey Indiana Wesleyan University Bureaucrats … Leave Those Kids Alone

I grew up Wesleyan and so there will always be a place in my heart for Wesleyans. When I say I grew up Wesleyan, I don’t mean merely that I attended a Wesleyan Church. I mean that Wesleyans were my best friends. I mean Wesleyans shepherded me through some pretty tough adolescent times. I mean Wesleyans took me in as a foster child at age 17 and helped me finish high school. I mean Wesleyans educated me on the first leg of the higher education journey.  I mean the first sermon I preached was in a Wesleyan pulpit. I attended their summer camps, I dated their daughters, and I studied their theology.   Because of all this and more, I will never cease being grateful to God for the Wesleyans.

I think (at least I hope) that it is this gratitude that every once in a while finds me dipping into their culture to see what is going on as well as prompting me to go after the same kind of stupidity they are pursuing as you find in spades in the “Reformed” world. Recently, that stupidity was brought before me as my wife directed my attention to the Alumni magazine that we receive (and which I almost never look at).

The stupidity of this June 2020 edition of “Triangle” is so jejune that I just had to write something here on Iron Ink. Below find III Roman numerals and my engagement with them.

I.) “Under Vice President Diane McDaniel’s leadership within the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, many important initiatives began or have strengthened in the last six years.”

BLMc responds,

I comment here in order to put into the absolutely ridiculous nature of the titles these people are holding. We are looking at three people here and here are the offices/titles they are associated with putting back to back;

1.) Office of Diversity and Inclusion
2.) Intercultural and Global Office
3.) Executive Director for Inclusive Excellence and International Education
4.) Executive Director of Multicultural Learning & Engagement

The least egregious sin of #1 is that it is redundant. If you have an office of Diversity doesn’t that automatically mean you’re chasing down Inclusion? I mean, how can an Office of Diversity be exclusive at the same time?

All of these offices and Titles are sucking off the Worldview teat of Cultural Marxism and Critical Race Theory. Having an Office of Diversity and Inclusion is just another way of saying, “Office of We Need Fewer White People.” Think about it … How many Universities in Peking, China have an “Office of Diversity and Inclusion?”  No… it is only stupid white people swigging away at Marxist hooch who create an “Office of Diversity and Inclusion.”

All of these Offices/Titles suffer from Job Title Inflation. What a resume enhancer it must be to have once been the Executive Director of Multicultural Learning & Engagement of some backwater Wesleyan University who was a Critical Race Theory wannabee.

Next, consider the money that is being bored into the budgets of these nonsensical (make-work) offices and positions. Every year I have my Alma Mater — Indiana Wesleyan University — calling me or sending me junk mail begging me for money. Never once have I called them or sent them junk mail asking them to support the Church I serve. Yet, were I to send them money they would pour it down the rat-hole that is “The Office of Diversity & Inclusion,” or give it to some feminists working in the “Intercultural and Global” Office. You know these people with the titles of “Executive Director” are making 6 figures easy. And yet despite the fact that Indiana Wesleyan University is pursuing an anti-Christian Worldview as part of their University culture (Critical Race Theory), they want the working blue-collar people of the Denomination to send them money to fill their blood money coffers. This goes beyond being criminal to become sacrilege since it is all being done in the name of Jesus.

If you’re a Wesleyan, and you’re sending money to support Indiana Wesleyan University you’re doing the Devil’s work.

II.) “Dr. Joel Olufowote joined IWU Marion’s Intercultural and Global Office in 2018. He serves as the executive director for inclusive excellence and international education.” During his first two years, Dr. Olufowote laid a conceptual foundation for inclusive work that is Kingdom-focused. He helped to systematize aspects of our protocols and culture that reflect the Lord’s color-blind love.

BLMc

The “Lord” is color blind? The “Lord” doesn’t know the color of the people He calls to Himself? Certainly, when it comes to salvation, the “Lord” is no respecter of persons, but to suggest that he’s color blind would suggest some imperfection in the “Lord,” and that I find quite curious.

Alternately, maybe they are saying that God doesn’t care about the color of one’s skin when building the Kingdom. But if God is color blind on these matters shouldn’t His people be as well and so not emphasize color by having an Executive Director of Inclusive Excellence? I mean, what else is the University doing but emphasizing that God does see color by having an office that is all about seeing color and making sure that the color quota on campus is met every year? It seems to me that God indeed is color blind but all the University is seeing is color everywhere.

I mean … understand that Olufowote’s work is to make sure the Campus is not too White. The man was hired to see color … to be “Inclusive.” God may not see color but I guaran-damn-tee you that Olufowote does. If nobody was seeing color nobody would notice that color was lacking and needed to be pursued.

II. B) With the events of this past summer, Joel’s work quickly moved to action. “Because of COVID-19, our students were not here [on campus],” said Dr. Olufowote. “Still, we wanted them to know that we are always here for them. We knew our students were being impacted but they did not have a community to process with, to lament with. At the same time, they were being overwhelmed by the media. We thought ‘we should reach out and listen.’” Through “I Can’t Breathe” forums for students and employees, Dr. Olufowote fostered an opportunity for the residential community to lament, to listen, and to learn. It gave him the chance to arm IWU’s commitment to move along the spectrum of inclusion…. The outflow of these conversations will manifest themselves during this 2020-2021 academic year; one of note is the formation of the Black Student Union.

BLMc responds,

a.) Let me get this straight … students were doing school online at home because of COVID and so not on campus but the poor tender darlings couldn’t cope with the stress of it all?  The students — now off-campus — needed some “lament outlet” because the media was bruising them so badly and Joel was there to rescue them by providing a “I Can’t Breath” forum? This is the stuff of a stand-up comedy routine. Who comes up with this drivel? Indiana Wesleyan University is paying this guy six figures to be a hand-holder and wet nurse for adults who can’t find the intestinal fortitude to go on with life because of the pain coming from TV media anchors?

I can only speak for myself but I found myself constantly thinking when I was a student at IWU, “I wish the bureaucrats would just leave me the hell alone.” Apparently, now the students need bureaucrats to help them get through life even when the students are not on campus.

b.) I’m sure it is just coincidental that Dr. Olufowote, who is black, is forming a Black Student Union. I’m wondering which Latino IWU is going to hire now so that he can justify his salary by forming a “Hispanic Student Union.”

III.) Dr. Karen A. Dowling, executive director of multicultural learning &
engagement, collaborated with IWU National & Global leaders to address these same missional interests. As a team, they organized two “Hoping Together” forums for online students and another ten “Growing Together” sessions for employees as a response to the “Sharing Our Hearts” employee forum….move forward in this important work. One faculty member took the initiative to form a task force to evaluate program curricula for more integration of inclusion and equity content.

When is the work done? When Biblical justice and equity is the common culture of our communities, and specifically IWU…

BLMc

a.) I’d bet my retirement that Dr. Karen A. Dowling is a full-blown feminist.

b.) Hoping Together/Growing Together/Sharing Our Hearts? Is this University or is this pre-school? Did she put on her sweater and tennis shoes before getting started like Mr. Rogers used to do?

Honestly, if students really do need this kind of stuff we are in more troubled waters than I even thought we were.

C.) Twice in #3 the word “equity” is used. This is the main tip that we are talking about Critical Race Theory in this whole agenda. Keep in mind that equity is a step beyond equality. (And equality the way Progressives define it is already a step too far.) Equity is about redressing past grievances. Equity says that since perverts, women, and minorities were (allegedly) discriminated against in the past, therefore, it is fitting, proper, and necessary for white people (especially white males) to be discriminated against today. Equity is about settling old scores against the putative way white people treated minorities, perverts, and feminists. When the word “equity” is used it means payback.

Indiana Wesleyan University has now become an arm of the Cultural Marxist movement to marginalize white Christians by reinterpreting Christianity through the prism of Critical Race Theory. I would guess that many of the Professors there who are contributing to this worldview shift are just useful idiots who don’t know what they are doing. I suspect even President David Wright falls into this category. However, you can be sure that there are some people on that campus who know exactly what they are doing. You can also be sure that some people are on campus who are against this but who are too fearful for their professional careers to speak out against this nonsense.

All of this is ubiquitous on Christian campuses of every Denominational stripe.