The Underestimated Power of Silence

 

Christianity was divorced from state schools in the U.S. during the 1960s. "Religion must be separated from education!” was the message from The Bench.

But don’t smart judges know it’s impossible to separate religion from education?

If it is a religious position to teach—or imply—that the Truths of Scripture are relevant to math, science, history and language, is it not also a religious position to teach—or imply— that these Truths are not relevant? 

If it is a religious position to say, “Jesus is Lord of all, and by Him and through Him all things exist,” is it not also a religious position to say—in so many words, or lack thereof— “Christ is not relevant to our discussion of biology, business or Macbeth?” Are not both statements religious positions?

To teach students that the Bible is irrelevant to biology, literature and math can be done very effectively without telling them this directly. A teacher does not have to stand in front of a class and say, “the biblical worldview has nothing to do with our subject” to communicate the message that the Book is irrelevant.

All they need to do is never mention how any subject relates to the Book that is above all other books, and give students the impression that the secularist worldview and postmodern paradigms of our day are true by never saying otherwise.

This is the underestimated power of silence.

For schoolchildren, this silence is far more effective than speech. Multiply it by 13 years, and in just 3 generations you'll see a much different nation come forth than Noah Webster envisioned, and Alexis de Tocqueville observed. Welcome to 2017.

If we think state education is religiously neutral, we must think again. Today, millions of children are being indoctrinated into John Dewey's self-described "Common Faith" (a non-theistic religion), under the guise of “neutrality."

How's this working out?

When teachers don't place a single academic subject into the context of a biblical frame-of-reference, are those teachers really being "neutral?"

Is it any wonder that our youth are leaving the Faith? The Book is irrelevant to anything of real importance! If it were relevant, why are its overarching Truths never mentioned in relation to a single academic subject for 13 years, and these Truths are not on any test?

They used to be self-evident. But no longer.

The underestimated power of silence.

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman 

Seeing Snails In Context

 

Last week I wrote about the problem of secularized education. What exactly does secularized education look like?

It looks like a biology class that never discusses God's purpose for living things, or how plants and animals fit into God's plan for humans to govern over creation, or how living things fit into our calling to love people, and what responsibilities (under God) we have with respect to plants and animals, or what plants and animals reveal about the character of the Creator, etc., etc. 

It is the bigger picture of reality that brings meaning to a subject, beyond the subject matter itself. Secularized education separates academic subject matter from the bigger picture of reality.

What does DE-secularized education look like?

It looks like the example below, from Lighthouse Christian School, in Gig Harbor, Washington, under the excellent leadership of my friends Stephen Roddy and Cindy Mathisen. 

For the past 3 years, Lighthouse Christian School has been working with Worldview Matters in a rigorous teacher-training program called, the WRAP [Worklife Restoration and Advancement Project]. One of the instructional tools the teachers are trained to use is the "Conversation Starter."

This tool helps teachers organize their thoughts on how they might help students understand whatever they are studying in the context of a larger frame-of-reference: the frame-of-reference provided by the biblical view of God, Creation, Humanity, Moral Order and Purpose.

In the example below, students are seeing snails in context. You might say they are "contextualizing snails." 

This is not something you'll find in secularized schools. DE-secularized education unites academic subjects with the bigger picture of reality. It brings meaning to the subject, beyond the subject matter itself. I call it “wholistic” education.

This is real education for the real world. It is putting academic subject matter into the context of the bigger picture of everything, or, the biblical worldview. In the process, it strengthens relationships with the Creator, as well as with fellow human beings.

Below are students from Mrs. Kim Tarr's 2nd grade class, "contextualizing" snails:

Mrs. Tarr had the students work in 5 small groups. Each group had 1 question to discuss. This group focused on the question: "What purpose does God see in a snail?"

This group focused on the question: "What is BEST about snails?" (No doubt these boys loved that question!)

Mrs. Tarr posted the students' finished work on the wall, and the class had a large-group discussion. 

How would you answer this question?

This is the actual graphic organizer, called the "Conversation Starter," that Mrs. Tarr used to organize her thoughts ahead of the students' conversation about snails. Click the image to enlarge it, and read Kim's comments about each of these questions. You will see thought-provoking questions related to the 5 worldview components of God, Creation, Humanity, Moral Order and Purpose. 

If you are a school principal wanting to discuss the WRAP program via telephone or an Internet video connection with me (Christian Overman), send me a note to set up a time, here.

We work with educators in any part of the world through our distance learning program. We have trained educators in Africa, Latin America, Asia, as well as the U.S.A., through the Internet successfully. 

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Secularized...Privitized...Demonized

Hurricanes are not the only storms hitting the USA. 
(Photo used by permission of NOAA.)

Is it any wonder the biblical foundations for law, government, family and gender that once provided commonly accepted harbor lights for U.S. society have been replaced? The incessant move toward the secularization of education and the privatization of Christianity over the past century has been enormously successful, expedited greatly through elementary and secondary schools.

By divorcing biblical Truths about God, Creation, Humanity, Moral Order and Purpose from the study of language, math, literature, science, history, civil government and the arts, elementary and secondary schools created a sacred-secular divide in the minds of youth that has spanned several generations. Christianity was first secularized in our schools, and this made it easy for Christianity to be privatized in society. And now it is being excluded from the public square, constricted by both public opinion and judicial pronouncements.

Strong winds are trying to confine biblical Christianity to one’s personal life and Sunday services. Our constitutional free exercise of religion is being re-defined as "freedom of worship" (in a building called “church.”) Furthermore, that which was first secularized and then privatized, is now being demonized. Bibliocentric Christians are branded “intolerant,” “bigots” and “haters.”

Secularized...privatized...demonized. 

What doesn’t make sense is why so many pastors have remained silent about secularizing education. Sending a child to a school that divorces Truth from academics, and never mentions God's purpose for learning, is nuts. Education that does not help students to see all knowledge in the context of the True Frame-of-Reference is like a church that teaches all about the Bible but makes no connections with how to live.  

Bible-believing Christians would not tolerate such a church. Yet 85 to 90 percent of evangelical parents send their children to schools where they are indoctrinated into secularized-privatism. Sending kids there to be “lights in the world” sounds good, until they come home thinking like their textbooks, making no connections whatsoever between any subject matter and the bigger picture of God, Creation, Humanity, Moral Order and Purpose. They make no connections between God and history, and they think Christianity is just for church. Not for directing a business, designing software or doing civil service.

The same pastors who would never tolerate a so-called “neutral-and-values-free” Sunday School have been silent about a so-called “neutral-and-values-free” Monday through Friday system that is anything but.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost. There's another storm in progress, more destructive than Harvey and Irma combined. 

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A Lesson That Could Change History

The Herman Miller Celle Chair won the GOOD DESIGN award from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Design and Architecture

One month ago today, on August 8, 2017, a great model of a man who knew how to live out his faith in the workplace, Max De Pree, went to be with the Lord, at the age of 93.

De Pree was the son of D. J. De Pree, founder of the Herman Miller company. Max served as its CEO from 1980-87. The company is one of the largest manufacturers of office furniture in the world.

De Pree wrote best-selling books on good business practices, and was not shy about letting his readers know where his business values came from. They were unashamedly rooted in the biblical worldview.

Last week, we looked at how a person's beliefs about God, Creation, Humanity, Moral Order and Purpose (their "worldview") shape values, which in turn shape behavior. Few business leaders have explained how this principle works in the business world better than Max De Pree.

Take some lessons from Max De Pree himself via the short (3.5 minute) video below, and discover how De Pree developed his biblical worldview. It happened in a certain place, and in a certain way. This lesson may be De Pree's most important lesson of all. A lesson that could change history:

If the video does not play, click here.

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A Divine Cure for Saddle Sores

Where do values come from?

After blogging for 7 years and then taking a 1-year rest from it, I'm back in the saddle again. Feels good!

I experienced a divine cure for saddle sores. It's something God prescribed a long time ago: stay off the horse for a while. 

Rest is a vital part of the work cycle, and it can actually result in getting more accomplished in the long run!

That's what happened to me. During my break from blogging, I turned my attention toward the development of other materials for parents, creating a small-group curriculum that can be used in churches, Christian schools and neighborhoods, called Working Wonders.

Today, I'm sharing a sample video clip from this course that addresses the question, Where do human values come from? 

This short clip addresses this important matter:

If the video does not play, click here.

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