It Was All Said Hundreds Of Years Ago — Dangers Of Government Schools

“To commit our children to the care of irreligious people is to commit lambs to the superintendency of wolves.”

Timothy Dwight
President of Yale University (1795-1817)
Grandson of Jonathan Edwards

“…where the Holy Scriptures do not rule, there I advise no one to send his son. Everyone not unceasingly busy with the Word of God must become corrupt; that is why t…he people who are in the universities and who are trained there are the kind of people they are. For this no one is to blame with the training of the youth. For the universities ought to turn out only men who are experts in the Holy Scriptures, who can become bishops and priests, leaders in the fight against heretics, the devil and all the world. But where do you find this true? I greatly fear that the universities are wide gates of hell, if they do not diligently teach the Holy Scriptures and impress them on the youth.”

— Martin Luther

“Keep your children as much as may be from ill company, especially of ungodly playfellows. It is one of the greatest dangers for the undoing of children in the world; especially when they are sent to common schools: for there is scarce any of those schools so good, but hath many rude and ungodly ill-taught children in it.”

~Richard Baxter (1615-1691)
Puritan Minister / Theologian
Author — “The Reformed Pastor”

“If I demanded you give up your television to an anonymous, itinerant repairman who needed work you’d think I was crazy; if I came with a policeman who forced you to pay that repairman even after he broke your set, you would be outraged. Why are you so docile when you give up your child to a government agent called a teacher?”

John Taylor Gatto
The Underground History Of American Education

“The statist school is a citizen-producing factory designed to manufacture people whose every loyalty is eroded. No family ties bind the well-taught statist school product…. Thus, all competing institutions… or loyalties of family, faith, and heritage are eliminated. The result is a mass man; such a man is easily a rebel, a malcontent, or a drone, but he is not capable of anything but a statist answer to problems, because for him no other agency has any stature or viability. He is a factory product with standardized reactions and responses.”

R. J. Rushdoony
American Reformed Theologian

“We who are engaged in the sacred cause of education are entitled to look upon all parents as having given hostages to our cause.” ~ Horace Mann

“The purpose of state schooling is not intellectual training but the conditioning of children ‘to Obedience, Subordination, and collective life.’” ~ John Taylor Gatto

“We must focus on creating citizens for the good of society. Public schools promote civic rather than individual pursuits. Each child belongs to the state.” ~ William H. Seawell, Professor of Education at the University of Virginia, 1981

“Plans are underway to replace family, community and church with propaganda, mass-media and education. People are only little lumps of dough”. ~ John Dewey

“We want one class of persons to have a liberal education and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class of necessity in every society, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks.”

~ Woodrow Wilson at the address to the Federation of High School Teachers.

“”The aim of public education is not ‘to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. … Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim … is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States.'” -H.L. Mencken

“It is the teaching of the Bible and of sound Political ethics that the education of children belongs to the sphere of the family and is the duty of the parents. The theory that the children of the Commonwealth are the charge of the Commonwealth is a pagan one, derived from heathen Sparta and Plato’s heathen republic”

– Robert L. Dabney

Of course we must take slight issue with Dr. Dwight for it is literally impossible to commit the care of our children to irreligious people since all people are by definition hopelessly religious. So, whenever we commit the care of our children to strangers we are at the same time committing our children to the religious. Dr. Dwight’s point was the dangers of committing our children to those who embrace a pagan wolf religion. To commit our children to those who practice a pagan religion is to commit lambs to the superintendency of wolves. Yet, American Christian Parents do so every day — day after day, year after year — until their children, because their belief system has been shaped by the wolves, no longer belong to them and are strangers to God.

Glen Beck & The American Rorschach Rally

Well, we are coming up on a week since the Glen Beck “American Rorschach Rally,” held in Washington DC last week. I offer a few observations below.

1.) I call Beck’s rally the “American Rorschach Rally” because like the Rorschach test it is a ink blot that has not objective meaning. No one knows what the rally really means — not even Beck — but each and every member of the punditocracy is convinced that it means whatever they see in it.

2.) So, what I am about to say, does not presume to suggest that I have the inside skinny on what the ink blot rally objectively means. I’m just one more patient telling what I see in the ink blot rally.

3.) What I see first is classical Americans — those Americans who still retain a shadow of a remnant of a memory of original Americanism — coming together to articulate some primeval instinct that something is wrong with their nation. However, though the primeval instinct remains, it is a instinct that is both unformed and uninformed, and as such, is easily led astray by the vacuous Beck and the silly Palin.

4.) The fact that the instinct of many of these rally goers is unformed is seen in the ridiculous contradictions. Here we have people gathered who have been energized largely by the passage of socialized health care who would and so are demanding their “country back.” And yet … many of those attending doubtless would be outraged if their socialized Medicare, or Social Security were deleted in order to remove the stain of socialism from their country. Doubtless many of them with the deepest desire to have their country back would have kittens if it were suggested that government schools be abolished since government schools are the very essence of state socialism.

5.) The fact that the instincts of many of Beck rally cheerleaders is uninformed is seen in the people they keep cheer leading and voting into office. These rally goers want their nation back and yet this November all indications are that they are going to vote into office a party that is pro-war, pro-Empire, pro-mega Corporations, and pro New World Order. The American electorate wants their country back and yet they do not realize that the very people they are looking to in order to get their country back are the people who are in bed with the people they hate. The current contest in American party politics is between two parties who desire to sustain the incestuous relationship between the Big Money interest (Corportism) and the Big Government interest (State run socialism). The only disagreement between these two interests is who gets to be on top. Neither of these interests gives a tinker’s damn about America as a unique sovereign nation. Beck is a cheer-leader for the Big Money interest and he is serving to channel the frustrations of many Americans in a direction that is against their interests.

6.) The Rally was, at its heart, a rally to support multiculturalism, which is the very cultural philosophy that is killing America. There are a couple ways in which this reality could be clearly seen. First, that the rally was given to the advance of multiculturalism could be seen by the countless numbers of Faith leaders that Beck paraded before the rally. Beck’s message was clearly the necessity to turn to god, regardless of which god one turns to. Clearly this is an example of multi-faithism. Now, as faith is one major component that creates culture, it simply is not possible to throw your passion behind multi-faithism without at the same time throwing your support behind the multi-cutluralism that multi-faithism always inevitably creates. As long as Americans continue to believe the elite created myth that there is something uniquely Christian about allowing other faiths to have equal standing in the public square the whole notion of “getting their country back” will be just an inconvenient fiction.

The second indicator that the rally was in support of multiculturalism was the “in your face” support of multiculturalism. First there was the unthinking homage to Martin Luther King who was a man who was instrumental in continuing the work of moving America’s cultural identity from an already diluted Christian base to a country torn between cultures that would forever be at war with itself. The success of King, both in life and in death, guaranteed that America would struggle with multiculturalism. Only the removal of King from the American pantheon of heroes will make it possible for Americans to take their country back. Second, there was the unthinking homage of Abraham Lincoln, the man who is responsible for beginning the work that King continued. The problem with Lincoln and King is not their advocacy for black people but their advocacy against black people. Both of them, guaranteed that a parasite culture, characterized by socialism, supported by the belief system necessary for socialism to thrive, and employing and abusing American blacks as the pawns to overthrow classical Americanism, would become part of the American identity that the original American identity would be at war with. Lincoln, like King, must be removed from the American Pantheon of heroes before anybody living gets their country back, for Lincoln marks the beginning of multiculturalism just as King represents the most recent successful purveyor of multiculturalism.

Until the well intentioned, but misled, minions of Beck completely turn their backs on multiculturalism, and the multi-fiathism that drives it, as well as the heroes of multiculturalism, the flag waving, “God” fearing, country loving Rorschach rally roadies will die wondering what happened to America.

And as a kind of post-script lets be clear and say that the God of the Bible does not honor a movement that desires that He be only one of the gods of the people. God is a jealous God and does not take kindly to sharing a pantheon or platform with any other god. I don’t doubt that there are many Christ loving Christians who were a part of the Beck rally, but I can promise them that no long term good thing will come in any success of this movement.

Now What Am I Supposed To Make Of This Prayer?

The below prayer is the invocation given by Rev. Paul Jehle at the Glen Beck Rally held last week in Washington DC. I’ve had an opportunity to hear Jehle speak several times in a close setting and I was impressed with the man’s knowledge on our founding era, though his Charismatic – pentecostal lean gave me pause.

This prayer at this event has my Spidey sense tingling overtime and has raised a multitude of questions in my mind about just exactly Dr. Jehle was doing in this prayer.

The prayer can be accessed at,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47V-dpiLM78

I have transcribed it word for word from Dr. Jehle’s mouth. I’ll give the prayer first and I’ll offer some analysis and questions.

Lord God, Sovereign Almighty, Ruler of the Nations, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, The Holy One, The Righteous One

You are the King of the Earth

All nations belong to you and you are the one addressed in the first 1606 charter that opened English settlements to these shores. It was you that was addressed, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ should be the central focus of every settlement. It was you our forefathers knelt too erecting a wooden cross on the sandy shores of Virginia. It was you that was addressed in the Mayflower Compact whose first words were, ‘In the name of God, AMEN.’ It was you who the pilgrims knelt too and blessed the God of heaven. It was you that Governor Winthrop wrote, ‘We shall be a city set upon a hill.’ It is you lord gods that brought William Penn and modeled peace with the first peoples. It was you lord gods that brought the black regiment of preachers to all across the continents to preach your words to prepare your people to be able to stand for liberty and it was you who was addressed in the Declaration of Independence as the, ‘Creator,’ — ‘as the Author of all inalienable rights.’ It was you lord gods that was declared as the one who created all equal and it was you lord gods who called us to account when we broke the treaties with the first peoples. You called us to repentance and you O gods called us to repentance when we did not live up to our creed and we did not treat everyone as equal. But Lord we found out that you are a God of forgiveness, you are a God of covenants, you are a God of restoration, you are a God of healing, and you have healed us and you are healing us.

And we come now to the mall in Washington. And we come now to you now in humble repentance for the shedding of innocent bloods. And we come to you in repentance for not modeling marriage among your people. And we come to you once again asking for healing, for restoration, for recovery and for reconciliation and we know you’ll do it because you’re gods and your Son Jesus Christ is the eternal Redeemer, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords and so we honor you for your word declares, ‘you will honor those who honor you.’

We come back to you today and we see you — the restoring gods, the King of Kings. And in Christ’s name and for the advance of your Kingdom, we once again say, ‘May you God bless America.’ May we be one nation under gods.

In Christ’s name — AMEN

1.) I find it hard to believe (though not impossible) that the flip flopping that Jehle has done here between “God,” / “Lord God” and “gods” / “lord gods” is accidental or coincidental. Though I have conceded it is possible that this is accidental, I again say that there is so much flipping back and forth between deities that is not unreasonable for someone to want an explanation. This is especially so since the gathering was an ecumenical gathering.

2.) I can not discern any pattern or reasons for the ongoing switching in Dr. Jehle’s prayer from God to gods. We have the singular God through Winthrop’s desire that Plymouth colony would be a “city set on a hill.” Suddenly with the arrival of William Penn (an anabaptist) we go to lord gods, and we stay with lord gods through the breaking of treaties and the lord gods call to repentance for previous generations not treating everyone equally.

Suddenly though, we revert back to God when it is ascribed to Him that He is a God of forgiveness, covenants, restoration and healing. However, a few sentences later it is gods who are ascribed with the power of healing, recovery, restoration and reconciliation. These (this?) gods apparently have a singular Son named Jesus Christ.

3.) Dr. Jehle finds peroration with an attribution to the “restoring gods” followed by a plea that the singular God would bless America finishing with the desire that we would be “one nation under “gods.”

Look, I understand that the man was praying before 500,000 people. I understand that can make a man nervous, and maybe all the plurals sprinkled throughout this prayer can be attributed to the guy being nervous. Or maybe it can be attributed to something else?

How about this for an explanation beyond being nervous. Given the ecumenical nature of this event (Christian Ministers, Mormon Elders, Jewish Rabbis, Muslim Imams, etc.) it is not beyond belief that some kind of concession was made for the invocation to use language that would satisfy everyone there. Such language, in order to satisfy everyone there would have to be both inclusive (hence the use of “gods) and exclusive (hence the use of “God”). The invocation thus becomes a least common denominator invocation that satisfies all the different religions and offends nobody.

Postscript,

A person called Dr. Jehle’s church and the secretary told him that Dr. Jehle could not hear himself and he was trying to project his voice and the result was that he could not hear himself speak and that led to the added “s’s,” on his words.

Dr. Jehle has not changed his theology. Dr. Jehle’s added “s’s” were accidental.

Arrogance & The Vision Of The Anointed

“They (the White House) just kept telling us how good it (the 2010 midterm election) was going to be. The president himself, when that (the disaster of the 1994 congressional mid-term election) was brought up in one group, said, ‘Well, the big difference here and in ’94 was you’ve got me.’

Rep. Marion Berry
Retiring Arkansas US Congressman

“The vision of the anointed begins with entirely different premises. Here is not the innate limitations of human beings, or the inherent limitations of resources, which create unhappiness but the fact that social institutions and social policies are not as wisely crafted as the anointed would have crafted them.’

Thomas Sowell
The Vision Of The Anointed

The current administration is awash in the vision of the anointed which the first quote above reveals. The problem in ’94’ according to Obama is that in ’94’ they didn’t have someone as smart and capable as himself running the midterm campaign. You see this arrogance that is consistent with the vision of the anointed run throughout this White House and the current Democratic party.

Our Battle Between The Seed of the Serpent & The Seed of the Woman

““Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”

Sir Winston Churchill

At the heart of Marxism has always existed the drive for “equality.” Now, this equality, as it worked itself out beyond theory, ended up being redefined as “sameness,” as equality became redefined to mean “the destruction of economic distinctions.” The Marxist theory has always been that with the final dissolution of all economic classes and distinctions there would result the Utopian highlands where all men are both perfectly equal in abundant wealth and perfectly happy. The Marxist economic reality instead has always been that with the increasing dissolution of bourgeois class and economic distinctions the result has been a Dystopian nightmare where all men are perfectly the same in poverty and perfectly miserable. So, we see that in economic Marxism, whenever it has been pursued, the results, as Churchill put it, has been “the equal sharing of misery.” Marxism has, without fail, destroyed economic distinctions and delivered “equality” to the population but it has always been the equality of the damned.

However, this Marxist drive for economic equality that leads to the same economic misery for everyone wherever it is implemented has set up franchises in other disciplines. With the rise of Antonia Gramsci and then later the Frankfort school, Marxism has taken its equality show on the road. Gramsci insisted that the Utopia that all Marxist were reaching for would not be gained merely by the means of economic leveling. Gramsci insisted on, and the Frankfort school later implemented, a leveling effort that was to take place not only in the economic realm but in the broader culture as well.

And just as wherever economic Marxism has been pursued with vigor has resulted in the loss of economic distinctions and the reality of economic leveling so it has been the case that wherever cultural Marxism has been pursued there has been a loss in preexisting distinctions and a discovery of a leveling that leads to a miserable sameness.

Take the application of Gramscian Marxism as it has been brought to the realm of education. What we currently have in our government schools is basically the working out of economic Marxism as it applies to education. Just as with economic Marxism where there is the insistence that all distinctions of wealth must be eliminated so that people can be economically “equal” so there is, in our educational Marxism, the insistence that all intelligence distinctions are not fair and the demand is that everyone must be equally “smart.” And just as it is the case wherever economic Marxism is implemented the result is that everyone is equally poor so it is the case wherever educational Marxism is pursued, as it is in our government schools, the result is that everyone becomes equally dumb. The inherent virtue of Marxism, whether in economics or education, is the equal sharing of misery.

Now extend the example from the effects of methodological Marxism on economics and education to Western culture in general and you begin to understand why Western Culture is deteriorating so rapidly. Just as with economic and educational Marxism, which are subsets of cultural Marxism, cultural Marxism as a whole seeks to destroy distinctions, characterizing those distinctions as an “unequal sharing of blessings.” Cultural Marxism then markets fairness with unexamined 60 second sound bites and convinces a dumb people (see previous paragraph) that cultural distinctions are not fair. The result is the destruction of all distinctions which yields the happy highlands of a equal sharing of misery.

However we need to push and see the consequences of cultural Marxism as they work themselves out with an terrorizing consistency.

Remember, that what Cultural Marxism does is that it eliminates all distinctions in pursuit of its promise of Utopia. Also keep in mind that culture is defined as what a people believe as that belief is poured over their ethnicity. So, if Cultural Marxism must eliminate all distinctions in pursuit of its promise of Utopia distinctions that cultural Marxism must eliminate not only distinctions that one finds in economic status or intelligence strata but also Cultural Marxism must seek to eliminate the created order distinctions that exist between different faith systems, different ethnicity and even different sexuality. If economic Marxism ends up working to make everyone share in a equal and miserable impoverishment, and if educational Marxism ends up working to make everyone share in a equal and miserable stupidity, then Cultural Marxism, taken in it’s macro effect, seeks to make everyone share in a equal and miserable belief system (faith), works to make everyone share in a equal and miserable ethnicity, and works to make everyone share a equal and miserable sexuality. In order for cultural Marxism to be successful it must destroy distinctions in every aspect of mankind’s existence.

Given that this is the context that the Church of Jesus Christ now exists, her battle as the Church militant, is to stand against the cultural Marxist attempt to eliminate the God ordained distinctions and hierarchy. For those who need an explicit tie in to the Gospel we must keep before us that this drive to eliminate distinctions is at the same time a drive to take from the Lord Jesus Christ His distinction as the reigning sovereign of the Universe. For those who need an explicit tie in to the Gospel we must keep before us that this drive to eliminate distinctions is at the same time a drive to take from the Lord Jesus Christ his sui generis reality as the alone mediator between God and man. In the reality that cultural Marxism is trying to create all Messiahs, as well as all religions are equal because all Messiah and all religions are the same.

Because cultural Marxism is the false belief system that our age has embraced to oppose cultural Marxism involves us in the latest incarnation of the Battle between the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the woman. As such, for any expression of the Church to cast its lot with those who would erase God ordained distinctions (i.e. — Women Elders, Allah & God are the same, denial that people groups differ, etc.) puts them on the wrong side of the battle.