
“[N]o subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping God in the manner most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; or for his religious profession or sentiments; provided he doth not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship.” -John Adams
It is hardly going unnoticed that religious and moral values are being threatened today by radicals in high political offices, but they are not the only problem. Radical leftist educators are making their mark in every aspect of society. Now, they are getting children and young adults to doubt America’s religious beginnings, challenge the faith of our Founding Fathers, deny America’s place as a bastion of religious freedom, slander Christianity, and pervert the beliefs of religions themselves.
Facing History, a highly popular resource for teachers, has taken it upon themselves to attack the religious beliefs and moral values of our Founding Fathers with subliminal slander. In their project, Give Bigotry No Sanction, their intention is contradicted by their misrepresentation of generalizing religious practices in early America that students will undoubtedly use to challenge the values of our Founding Fathers and our nation. Though it may not be explicitly stated, students are taught to make inferences from the text, and connect that information to what they already know, allowing them to draw conclusions about people and places they already know based on newly acquired information. Inquiry based learning will encourage students to question everything, and lessons like this from Facing History will have students questioning what secular school teachers have no business answering.
In their reading, Religion in Colonial America: Trends, Regulations, and Beliefs, which focuses on the time period between 1600-1776, Facing History writes, “Despite the effort to govern society on Christian (and more specifically Protestant) principles, the first decades of colonial era in most colonies were marked by irregular religious practices, minimal communication between remote settlers, and a population of ‘Murtherers, Theeves, Adulterers, [and] idle persons.'” Some student interpretations of this will likely lead them to the conclusion that our Founders would have fallen under these categories. They would argue that the institution of slavery and elements of capitalism would be two examples that fit the context of being “murderers and thieves”. (Interesting enough, Give Bigotry No Sanction excludes the key words of some of our Founding Fathers that reveal their motives to end slavery. Though some struggled with manumission during their lifetime, evidence suggests that our Founders knew emancipation would need to succeed in order for America to live up to its promise of being the land of the free. Our lesson, Early Emancipation Efforts (Before 1830), has highlighted these important and ignored texts.)
In this same essay, Facing History goes on to compare Christianity to witchcraft. They write: “Christianity was further complicated by the widespread practice of astrology, alchemy and forms of witchcraft. The fear of such practices can be gauged by the famous trials held in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 and 1693. Surprisingly, alchemy and other magical practices were not altogether divorced from Christianity in the minds of many “natural philosophers” (the precursors of scientists), who sometimes thought of them as experiments that could unlock the secrets of Scripture. As we might expect, established clergy discouraged these explorations.” First, Christianity is not the same as witchcraft or Satanism. Second, Scripture must not be categorized as a truth of witchcraft or Satanism. Third, it is true that Christians feared such practices, but the Salem witch trials came down to hysteria; historians agree that evidence suggests that most of the women accused were not actually practicing witchcraft. Therefore, discussing the Salem witch trials as evidence of America’s religious intolerance towards a practicing belief system is an attempt to disparage America’s reputation in this regard on an erroneous claim.
The problem with teachers attempting to explain Christianity solely in this way purposefully undermines the faith and paints it with a picture of intolerance and irrational beliefs. If a student is taught within their families to believe that America was founded on Christian values, then they could conclude that the Founders were irrational, intolerant, and unjust based on this study of history. This undermines religion through subliminal messages, but anyone able to anticipate classroom discussions centering around background knowledge and new questions will see the message to our children loud and clear. Students are taught to build a skill set that includes drawing conclusions based on inquiry into multiple aspects of a topic; so the study of our Founding Fathers will be implicated by this interpretation of religion in early America.
The problem not only lies with organizations that are disseminating slanderous teaching materials, but with the people who use Jesus Christ and who corrupt belief systems to further their own political agenda.
An article from the Daily Wire effectively describes Ibram X. Kendi’s baseless claim that Jesus Christ was a “‘radical revolutionary’ dedicated to the destruction of ‘the American empire,’ and every church should be a ‘home of revolutionaries.'” Kendi further declares that antiracists reject what they have created and defined as “white evangelical theology” that “projects Jesus as not only white…but a white savior,” and is the idea that “Jesus came, apparently, to save humanity, particularly to save black people…” In his interview, Kendi goes on to explain that “liberation theology” must replace what Christians already believe about their religion and that “the job of the Christian is to revolutionize society.” Twisting the beliefs of a religion to serve one’s political agenda is the most dangerous corruption of education thus far. Tearing apart the belief systems of children is severely damaging to families, communities, and our country.
When a student combines the messages they learned from Facing History with the message from Ibram X. Kendi, it all fits together like one big puzzle. The radical left knows how to infiltrate the mind to guide someone’s thoughts into believing that they have drawn incredible conclusions after being “enlightened” by new “information”. This sense of empowerment fuels a certainty that gives children and young adults the confidence to go against their parents, families, and communities who they will deem ignorant and uneducated. Now, we are entering an even scarier phase of the radical left’s takeover of education.
Though the fight to save America is getting harder, we are not backing down. Please support The Locke Society to turn this tide that is threatening our country. Once conservative and moderate teachers have a presence in all types of classrooms across America, education will be restored to its rightful place and purpose.