What's A "Micro School?"

Since the Coronavirus outbreak, Renewanation has seen an increasingly strong interest from churches desiring to launch Christian schools. It isn’t just the Coronavirus, however, that is driving this interest.

In response, Renewanation is currently working on a “Micro School Start-up Program" that will help hundreds of churches (hopefully thousands of them) to get God-honoring micro schools up and running quickly and efficiently for their communities. It's Renewanation's own "operation warp-speed."

What’s a “micro school?”

Micro schools are not a new concept. Bill Gates has been involved in launching them around the world, and many see this approach as the “wave of the future” for education. Micro schools have been described as a “reinvention of the one-room school house.” Class sizes are typically under 10-15 students. The term “Pandemic Pod” has also been used to describe this phenomenon. One is reminded of that old saying, “necessity is the mother of invention.”

Renewanation strongly believes the micro school format provides a legitimate and effective means for churches of all sizes to get involved in educating children with relatively little financial outlay. The current plan is for Renewanation’s Micro School Start-Up Program to work hand in hand with the new virtual school Renewanation launched last September, called, iLumenEd Academy.

Renewanation has a vision for thousands (hopefully hundreds of thousands) of children to receive a True education through Christ-centered micro schools offered via churches across the country over the coming decade. 

Renewanation sees micro schools in which math, science, history and literature are all viewed in the context of something much bigger than math, science, history and literature: the context of the Bigger Picture of True Reality called a "Biblical Worldview." Our nation must get back to this kind of education.  

To assist in getting the Micro School Start-up Program going, Renewanation brought a veteran school startup specialist onto their development team to help put together a package which will allow any church, large of small, from A-Z, to start a micro school as easily and effectively as possible.

For this vision, Renewanation has launched a $100,000 fund-raising effort to get things off the launching pad. It is the hope and goal of Renewanation to provide this service and package to churches at almost no cost.

To direct a financial gift to the Renewanation Micro School project, contact Chuck Robb, Director of Ministry Partnerships, at crobb@renewanation.org.

This blog is a service of  RenewaNation www.renewanation.org 

Why Christian Education?

 

This week, let's focus on the question, "Why Christian education?"

Few issues are more important today for parents who have sons or daughters in K-12 education.  

Some 85%-90% of Christian parents do not provide a biblio-centric education for their children. The reasons are varied.

Many pastors are silent on the issue. Some may feel it is best for children from Christian homes to attend the public schools to be "lights in the world," rather than separate themselves from "the mainstream of culture." 

But do we really want our children to be swimming in the mainstream of today's culture? They'll get plenty of this without subjecting them to more during 6 prime hours of the day. If it is evangelism that's the idea, invite the neighbors over.

Please read, "Debunking the 8 Most Popular Myths about Christian Education." Click here. 

Then watch a short (1:40 minute) video, here:

If this video does not play, click here: https://youtu.be/MNaMJFjdpGE

Many brick-and-mortar Christian schools are offering at-home services due to Coved-19 issues. Check this out with your local Christian school, or consider an on-line Christian school. More on this next week.  

This blog is a service of  RenewaNation www.renewanation.org 

Perhaps You Missed All The Fanfare

Last Wednesday, November 11, was the 400^th anniversary of something truly unique and amazing in all of history. It was a remarkable occasion that has greatly affected all Americans, even to the present hour.

Perhaps you missed all the fanfare in the media.

The occasion that occurred 400 years ago this week set into motion an extraordinary approach to human governance based upon the idea that a group of people could actually be self-governed under God through the rule of law with the consent of the governed.

Wednesday marked the 400^th anniversary of the signing of the Mayflower Compact. 

The Mayflower Compact was created by the Pilgrim Fathers, signed aboard the ship that carried 102 Pilgrims (in families with children, including three pregnant women), to the New World in 1620. Within 3 months, half of this group was dead.

The Mayflower Compact established a remarkable form of human government. It got the ball rolling toward the establishment of a new nation’s way of governance, whereby the players in governmental roles would be held in check by the rule of law with the consent of the governed, and no human King on hand to direct and control things. 

But the Pilgrims clearly had a King in mind. 

Self-governance under God through the rule of law with the consent of the governed was a radical idea in 1620, and it is still a radical idea today. 

It is clearly an idea we need to recover.

 This blog is a service of  RenewaNation www.renewanation.org 

Soft Totalitarianism

 

A friend of Renewanation, who is alerting his community to the prejudicial effects of CRT [Critical Race Theory] in public schools, informed us he was “doxed,” and had received threatening phone calls to his home.

“When you fight back against equity/CRT, it gets ugly,” he wrote. “There are groups out there who target people who speak out against CRT. One such group sent a letter to the employer of an individual who worked with me, telling this man’s employer about his 'anti-equity rhetoric,' and claiming he was 'attacking' a community group 'that was supporting racial diversity and inclusion.'"

In that letter, this man’s adversaries wrote: “We share this with you because we are concerned that Mr. ________ might also be bringing a biased attitude—implicitly or explicitly—into his work for your company…We felt that you should know.”

Our friend continued: “These are the tactics they use. They try to get people fired, and ruin their name and life. It is dirty. Other people self-censor because they fear these attacks.”

This is what Rod Dreher calls “soft totalitarianism.”

In his book, Live Not by Lies, Dreher helps Followers of Christ to not be surprised when “soft totalitarianism” reveals its ugly face. It has been increasing in recent years, with cake decorators being sued for not making cakes for same-sex weddings, and the like.

“Hard totalitarianism” took place in Russia following the Bolshevik revolution. Freedom of speech disappeared, and people were afraid to express their thoughts, lest they be reported by a neighbor and disciplined by the State. Freedom of religious expression (other than State-approved expression), disappeared. Prison time resulted for some. Many Christ-Followers gathered in secret. 

Dreher traveled to former "Eastern Block" countries of the now-defunct Soviet Union to interview Christ-Followers who lived through the totalitarianism of “the Soviet days.” He wanted to learn how these people navigated those rough waters, so he could help Christ-Followers in America to deal with the increasing “soft totalitarianism” of today’s 'cancel culture.'

You, too, may become a target. Perhaps you've already been one.

You don't have to write a letter to the editor to become a target. All you have to do is not wear a rainbow pin on your collar when the rest of your co-workers do. 

The State will not send you to prison, but many “Social Justice Warriors” will see to it that you pay—one way or another. 

This book may be the survival guide you never thought you'd need in the United States.  

To order, click here.

 This blog is a service of  RenewaNation www.renewanation.org 

Debunking Howard Zinn

It is difficult to name a single person more effective in shaping the "oppressed v. oppressor" view of American history than Howard Zinn. The U.S. history text he crafted 40 years ago (which is popular at both high school and college levels) is Critical Theory on steroids.

In 2019, when a newly elected Oklahoma City council member, JoBeth Hamon, was sworn into office, she placed her hand not upon a Bible, but upon Howard Zinn’s book, A People’s History of the United States. 

Hamon's action illustrates the continuing prevalent influence that Zinn’s book has upon the thinking of many Americans—and the loss of the Bible’s place of honor.

A People’s History of the United States first appeared in 1980. Even in its 32nd year, it was identified as the bestselling American history survey book, both as a trade book and a textbook.  

Stanford University education professor Sam Wineburg referred to the book as having a “preternatural shelf life.” To say Zinn’s book is “trendy” is an understatement. Few history books can touch its record.

Yet, A People’s History of the United States has been perhaps the single most influential text in shaping negative views of the United States. It epitomizes Critical Theory applied to history.

From Christopher Columbus, to the treatment of Native Americans, to the practice of slavery and the motivation for the Civil War, to World War II and the Cold War that followed, Zinn’s book is one relentless criticism after another. It is nearly impossible to read Zinn’s book without concluding the United States is an evil empire, and has been evil from the start. A nation worthy to be brought down.   

But is Zinn’s criticism historically sound? Is it accurate?

That question has been answered with a resounding “No!” by Mary Grabar, in her long overdue 2019 book, Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America.

Garbar goes into meticulous detail, with extensive documentation, pointing out multiple specifics of Zinn’s “fundamentally and grossly dishonest” work.

It is the specificity of Grabar’s book that is so impressive. She doesn’t just make general observations about Zinn’s dishonesty, but takes a thorough look at Zinn’s specific claims throughout his book. Time after time, Grabar proves Zinn to be anything but an authentic historian. 

Zinn was a shrewd storyteller, with a nefarious agenda.

Rather than buying a copy of Zinn’s book, get a copy of Garbar’s book, which contains so many quotes from Zinn’s book, you will in essence have read both books at once.

To understand why so many people today are anti-Western, anti-capitalist, anti-Columbus, and anti-statues, Debunking Howard Zinn is essential reading.

 This blog is a service of  RenewaNation www.renewanation.org 

To Rescind The Pulitzer Prize

Nikole Hannah-Jones’ Pulitzer Prize-winning essay "The 1619 Project," was published by the New York Times in August, 2019. The National Association of Scholars says the essay is “profoundly flawed,” and is blowing the whistle on its author. If you think "The 1619 Project" is of little import, think again. You can get your 1619 T-shirt on Amazon.

On October 6, 2020, the National Association of Scholars called on the Pulitzer Prize Board to rescind the Pulitzer Prize awarded to Nikole Hannah-Jones for her essay, “The 1619 Project.” 

Hannah-Jones claimed that a primary motive for the American Revolution was to protect the institution of slavery. (Good for capitalism.) The National Association of Scholars points out this is “a claim for which there is simply no evidence.”

Hannah-Jones asserted that the “true founding” of the United States was in 1619, when the first ship arrived at Jamestown with about 20 slaves from Africa. She maintained that “our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written,” since at the center of our founding was slavery. 

Historians have called out the falsehoods of "The 1619 Project" since its publication. Even the World Socialist Web Site denounced “The 1619 Project” early on as a “racialist falsification of American and world history.”

The National Association of Scholars, in their October 6 letter to the Pulitzer Prize Board, declared the essay is “disfigured by unfounded conjectures and patently false assertions.”

Why should this fabricated "new version" of history concern us? Because "The 1619 Project" is used in public schools. 

Newsweek magazine reported September 7 that “every high school in the [Chicago] district will receive 200–400 copies” of “The 1619 Project” as a "resource to help reframe the institution of slavery, and how we're still influenced by it today." Other public schools share Chicago’s enthusiasm. Click here.

Are public schools in your area using “The 1619 Project?”

Check it out. If the answer is, “yes,” let the Superintendent and School Board know about the action of the National Association of Scholars. Send them this link to the NAS letter: 

https://www.nas.org/blogs/article/pulitzer-board-must-revoke-nikole-hannah-jones-prize#_ftn3

Urge them to pull "The 1619 Project" from the curriculum, so our public schools are not passing on false information to unsuspecting, trusting students. It leaves lasting bad impressions when teachers present false "history" as truth. 

Passing on a knowingly apocryphal story to students as legitimate history is, frankly, immoral.  

Another re-write of U.S. history used in public schools and universities is Howard Zinn's, A People’s History of the United States. It’s the “bible” of U.S. revisionist history. It’s a Critical Theory "gem" that helps explain why so many young people hate the United States and see it an evil empire needing to be brought down. 

It explains a lot.  

More next week.  

Click HERE, and you will be taken to a short photo essay published by The New York Times based on "The 1619 Project." You will see the "power narrative" of Critical Theory in living color (the oppressed v. the oppressors). This photo essay will help you understand why so many young people hate capitalism, "Western civilization" and the U.S.A.

"The 1619 Project" will also help you understand what is driving a serious wedge between fellow Americans like nothing we have seen since the 1950s, through racial accusation and stereotyping. This time it's directed against white Europeans and "Western culture."

People of European descent who deny their guilt only prove it, and demonstrate their "white fragility." To salve their guilt, and to demonstrate whose "side" they are on, some will throw Molotov cocktails through storefront windows. 

At the end of the photo essay, you will see a message directed to teachers:

"Looking for ways to use this issue in your classroom? You can find curriculums, guides and activities for students developed by the Pulitzer Center at pulitzercenter.org/1619. And it's all free!" 

Pass this post on if you care about what's happening to our nation and you want to help others understand why statues are being desecrated (including Abraham Lincoln), why all "white" people are considered "racists," why businesses are being burned (whether owned by "blacks" or "whites"), and why President Trump issued an Executive Order to withhold federal funding from any organization that propagates Critical Race Theory (CRT). 

CRT is now dividing businesses, churches, and communities. It could split an entire nation at the seams. 

If you have not viewed the short, animated video "P + CT = X (A Formula for Collapse)," please do so here. 

This blog is a service of  RenewaNation www.renewanation.org 

Frog's Rainy-Day Story and Other Fables

WORLD Magazine designated Frog's Rainy-Day Story and Other Fables as one of the 6 most outstanding Christian-themed picture books of the 21st century for good reason. 

A husband and wife team, Michael James Dowling (author) and Sarah Buell Dowling (illustrator), have co-created an award-winning book we want you all to know about.

This is not just a fun book of entertaining "kid's stories," although these stories are indeed entertaining. Here are eight fables for the whole family, that show how crazy things can get when any culture or social group departs from Truth, with a capital T. If we ever needed to be reminded of this, and to remind our kids of this, it is now.  

Frog’s Rainy-Day Story and Other Fables is a book rich in content that provides opportunities for the most important conversations parents, grandparents and teachers can have with children today. These creative fables contain essential, biblically-informed Truth necessary for knowing how to live as God intends. 

These fables were created with the goal of teaching the next generation what a biblical worldview is, and why it is so important. These tales illustrate True Truths necessary for the thriving of any civilization or society. To put it another way, they illustrate Truths that, when violated, result in the disruption or decay of any social group. 

These fables open up valuable opportunities to talk with the next generation about things that really matter. Jesus taught through parables that got people talking. Here are eight parables that can get significant conversations going in families, church groups and educational groups. 

Michael James Dowling has written more than two dozen books. He worked as a business executive, and spent twelve years on the staff of Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Charlottesville, VA. He also holds an engineering degree from the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Sarah Buell Dowling has illustrated books and children's toys. One of the toys she illustrated was awarded the Toys of the Year Award from Parenting Magazine. 

Frog’s Rainy-Day Story and Other Fables is a hardcover book, with 72 pages and 56 full-color illustrations. Order your copy here.

To hear the first fable, click the video below:

If this video does not play, click 

https://youtu.be/j644mO8F0wM

This blog is a service of  RenewaNation www.renewanation.org