Christians and Culture #5

Based on the two definitions I have presented (sectarianism and syncretism), I would like to frame our overall question of how Christians should relate to culture in terms of balancing ideas of sectarianism and syncretism to avoid both sins.

Since we are talking about “balance,” we will likely run into areas that appear to be grey areas.  In reality, I believe that the issue is more black and white than one might think; and these grey areas are mostly, if not entirely, founded in the differing worldviews introduced earlier.  If you did not read the post introducing worldviews, I suggest you do so now as we are about to expand on that topic now.

LINK TO WORLDVIEW POST

As mentioned, these worldviews are simply a set of preconceived ideas and “core” assumptions.  I consider core assumptions to be those that we don’t realize that we have and so never even think to challenge.  Our worldview acts as a filter through which we see and judge everything subconsciously.  Acceptance or rejection of human evolution over millions of years by equally intelligent individuals is largely dependent upon worldview.  A person that views the world from a Biblical perspective starts with an assumption that the Bible is true and sees the flaws of evolutionary science.  A person with a secular Humanist (note:  I would be very interested in your comments regarding how worldview may have influenced this definition) worldview starts with an assumption that man-made science can explain everything, and he cannot accept the concept of a creator.  I suspect that you have studied this concept in a psychology class but in that setting, it was probably called a paradigm.  Basically, a worldview is one form of a paradigm.

I am convinced that, for the typical American, core assumptions (and hence worldview) are based more on culture than on Scripture.  Daily exposure to secular Humanism, especially in the form of public education, shapes our worldview without our being aware.  Worldviews are taught more by modeling than direct teaching.  Few of us have been TAUGHT that public schooling is the best method for education – we have simply accepted that because it was the method that was MODELED for us.

Anti-Christian models of reality are pervasive in American culture at the shopping mall, in the books and on the movie screens.  At a minimum, these models desensitize us.  For many, they become the definition of what is acceptable and even to be embraced as progressive.

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Next:  What if the Bible were our ONLY source of information…

A Fresh Start

As our understanding of the principles regarding education was solidifying, Heidi finished high school and headed off to college. At the same time, Morgan was coming of “school age” and Peyton was a toddler. An outsider would likely look at our situation and assume we only had two children. Lori and I were left with only Morgan and Peyton at home. In many ways, it was a fresh start for us; we had a clean slate for Morgan and Peyton. From the beginning, we have homeschooled them and will do so through the high school curriculum. Neither child has ever been in a public school setting and exposed to that environment.

As long as I have breath in me, neither ever will.

I have deep regrets for my choices in the past for the two older children. As a non-custodial parent, I had no meaningful input in the directing Sean’s education path. I don’t have that excuse for Heidi, but I still felt as though precedent and inertia had prevented me from directing her education as I should have. In practice, the situation for the two older children was similar. The challenges for the two younger children are much different than for Heidi and Sean, but I will not abdicate the responsibility to educate them in accordance with Ephesians 6:4…

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” (ESV)

Based on that scripture, my older children have every right to be angry with me for failing in that duty in regard to their education; but by God’s grace, I do not think they are. We don’t always see things the same way, but both of my older children have grown to love and fear God in spite of my failures.

Next…Moving away from the subject of homeschooling…

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Another Move…

 

Picking up where we left off before the flashback, Heidi returned to public school after 2 years of homeschooling.  Before the year was over, however, we were moving to a new state once again – from Wisconsin to southern Ohio.

 

This time, Heidi had matured emotionally and was not influenced by the fear of fitting in with a new group of peers.  Lori and I still did not have the conviction necessary to reject public schooling out of principle.

 

For the remainder of that year and the entirety of the next, we were not what most people would consider a homeschooling family.  Sean, who was living with his mother, attended public school; Heidi attended public school; and Morgan was pre-school age at four.  Peyton arrived on the scene during the summer between the two school years.

 

In spite of not actually homeschooling during this time, it was then that we (by God’s grace) became functionally aware of one of the great truths of education – that education is not something that only occurs between bells ringing in hallways.  We are learning during every waking moment.  Education is something that occurs from the time you rise up to the time you lie down. 

 

“You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”  Deu 6:7 (ESV)

 

I say “functionally” to distinguish our awareness from that to which all people would agree.  In conversation, all parents would acknowledge and agree that from the moment they are born, children begin learning.  Indeed, it is within the care of parents that children learn to walk, talk, eat, etc.  Proactive Americans have even been known to begin training their children in the womb with things such as soothing music.  In spite of this awareness, there is a sense that parents are not directly responsible for certain fields of learning.  Mathematics, science, grammar, history and such are left to “professionals.”  This belief will be the topic of several upcoming posts.  For now, I will summarize this functional awareness as the recognition of education as a life-long lifestyle as opposed to a season of life.  It is a walk-along, talk-along method of training that is holistic in that all areas of education support, rely on and overlap other areas.  It is the acknowledgement that education serves a purpose other than merely preparing for the next step in education – there is an end goal toward which education is aimed that is beyond the pursuit of “personal peace and affluence.”

 

Failure to grasp this distinction leads to parents becoming disconnected from the learning processes that their children are experiencing and comatose in their own ability to continue learning.  In our nanny-state mentality – in which we increasingly rely on government to provide all our needs – it has resulted in a virtual abdication of parental responsibility in the academic training of our children.  If our children can’t read or write (and many of them cannot), the schools are at fault.  Poor ACT and SAT scores are the result of under funded school districts.

 

A second aspect of this awareness was the realization that learning consists of much more than academic subjects.  Our presuppositions are formed by the constant exposure we have to our environment.  What constitutes “normal” behavior?  What is the model for family life?  What is my place in the family?  How do I balance my place as an individual with my role as a member of a group?  How do I respond to authority?  What is truth?  All of these questions are answered by our daily interactions with people, not in a classroom.  The underlying assumptions about life are formed subconsciously moment by moment and become a set of “absolutes” that are much more difficult to reshape if necessary.  This “sacred” nature of our presuppositions is firm in our thinking largely because we are seldom aware that they even exist!  They are the subconscious framework through which we evaluate everything around us.  They are the foundations of our worldview.

 

This realization has been the key for us.  An understanding of presuppositions and the establishment of a Christian worldview automatically excludes public school as an option.  Regardless of how well the government system might be able teach the mechanics of mathematics, it does so using a model that explicitly excludes God.  The presupposition is that God is irrelevant and has no place in education.  It teaches anti-Christian values by ostensibly excluding our Creator from the process.  True education cannot be achieved because “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” Proverbs 1:7a (ESV).  There is no fear of the Lord in the public school system, therefore true knowledge cannot even begin in that setting.

 

It was during this time and for these reasons that the homeschooling option became less preference and more conviction.  We began to realize our desire was rooted in more than the obvious issues of carrying guns, distributing drugs, teaching evolution, and applying peer pressure.  My resolve was still inadequate to address Heidi’s schooling, but this was when I knew that I would do anything within my power to retake the responsibility and the authority that God granted parents to train our younger children for His purposes.

 

David