Following the war, the government “thinkers” and humanistic “educators” knew that in order to prevent a future war where the people would again take up arms to fight against government tyranny, they needed to weed out the spirit of truth and justice, and to replace it with submission and passivity in the people.
The way they set out to accomplish this was through a compulsory state education system. You see, up until a little while before that time, our country did not have any state sponsored public schools.
In the 1620’s, when the Pilgrims and Puritans came to this country seeking religious freedom, they were products of the Protestant Reformation. So, for the roughly 220 years from 1620 to 1840, American education had a distinct moral character, and stemmed from an almost entirely Christian and Calvinistic orientation.
In America, education was seen as always including religious principals, as we find plainly stated in the definition of the word education as found in the first American dictionary, Noah Webster’s 1828 edition:
Education: The bringing up,
as of a child; instruction; formation of manners. Education comprehends all
that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the
understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth,
and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education
in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education
is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and
guardians who neglect these duties.
The Reformed Martin Luther, even back in his time and country plainly stated:
I am much afraid that schools will prove to be
great gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy
Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his
child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution, in which
men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God, must become corrupt.
Luther’s sentiment is what the early American settlers held to in their thoughts on education. Even the early American colleges, like Harvard, were started and based upon orthodox Christian principals. Harvard’s original mission statement was:
Let
every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the
main end of life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal
life (John 17:3) and therefore to lay Christ at the bottom as the only
foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.
Even Daniel Webster (not to be confused with Noah Webster mentioned above), an admired politician for 40 years in the early 1800’s stated:
In what age, by what
sect, where, when, by whom, has religious truth been excluded from the
education of youth? Nowhere; never.
Every-where, and at all times, it has been and is regarded as essential. It
is of the essence, the vitality of useful instruction.
The great Southern Presbyterian theologian Robert Lewis Dabney, who had served as chaplain to the armies under Stonewall Jackson for a time, said this at the time when the public education was beginning to rear its ugly head in the states:
The Yankees have had this “nostrum” of free
school education, in full force, for two generations.
Nostrum – for those not
familiar with the term, is usually used to mean a medicine sold with false or exaggerated claims and
with no demonstrable value; quack medicine.
Did not this very system rear us that very
generation, which, in its blind ignorance and brutal passion, has recently
wrecked the institutions of America; has filled our country with destitution,
woe and murder; and, with a stupid blindness, only equaled by its wickedness,
has stripped its own Commonwealths, in order to wreak its mad spite on ours, of
the whole safeguards for their own freedom and peace? These are the fruits of this Yankee
system of State primary education… I have not yet learned enough of that type
of “intelligence” which this system seems to foster, to repudiate my Savior’s
infallible maxim, “the tree is known by its fruits.”
So, Dabney sees that because of the state education system, which had already been in place in many northern states, a whole generation of people rose up to fight the war that destroyed much of the foundational values of America. Of course, this sentiment is further enforced when we consider a conversation that was had between the aforementioned Senator Daniel Webster and two Virginians, years before the war. The story is related by Dabney after the war had ended:
Webster’s return towards an impartial course
had then gained him some respect in the South, and my two friends paid their
respects to him. While conversing with them he fixed his dark eyes on them, and
with great earnestness asked: “Can’t you Southern gentlemen consent,
upon some sort of inducement or plan, to surrender slavery?” They replied
firmly: “Not to the interference or dictation of the Federal Government. And
this not on account of mercenary or motives, but because to allow outside
interference in this vital matter would forfeit the liberties and other rights
of the South.”
“Are you fixed in that?” asked Webster.
“Yes, unalterably.”
“Well,” he said, with an awful solemnity, “I
cannot say you are wrong, but if you are fixed in that, go home and get ready
for weapons.” They asked him what on earth he meant. He replied that the parson
and common-school teachers and school-marms had diligently educated a whole
Northern generation into a passionate, hatred of slavery, who would, as
certainly as destiny, attack Southern institutions. So that if Southern men
were determined not to surrender their institutions they had better prepare for
war. Thus, according to Mr. Webster, the crimes, woes, and horrors of the last
fifteen years (the War Between the States) are all partly due to this school
system.
Many of those “great minds” behind this “indoctrination” system felt that it was the differences in the education between classes of men that caused such evil in the world, and that if the education of the masses was more leveled, it could remove evil from society.
European scholar
George Hagel and Scotsman Robert Dale Owen, often referred to as the father of
socialism, came in with a whole new idea for education. They believed that the
basic tenants of the Christian religion hindered man’s evolution. Some in this
camp believed that with the proper education, and the eradication of religion,
man could evolve to eliminate the evil in the world. A colleague of Owen’s
states the following:
The great object was to get rid of
Christianity and to convert our churches to halls of science... the plan was
not to make open attacks upon religion — although we might belabor the clergy
and bring them into contempt where we could — but to establish a system of
state — we said national — schools; from which all religion would be excluded
and to which all parents were to be compelled by law to send their children.
By the turn of this
century, these fellows had heavily influenced American educators like John
Dewey and his colleagues. They sought to change America through public education. Knowing
they could not sway the mature adults from their views, they sought instead to
change the future generation by re-educating the children.
They sought to
change the nation, once high in literacy, by shifting the education system from
emphasizing intellectual and academic skills, to rather emphasizing social
skills. Get them to deal with activities, rather than the mind. This leads to
the eventual addition of psychology to the school system, which has happened in
our life time.
Socialist H.G.
Wells stated it truthfully in his 1933 book The
Shape of Things to Come when he said “no revolution could be a real and assured revolution until it has
completely altered the educational system of the community.”
In 1918, the book
The Science of Power by Benjamin Kidd is printed, in which he declares:
The main cause of those deep dividing
differences which separate peoples and nationalities and classes from each
other and which prevent or stultify (to render futile) collective effort in all
its most powerful forms... could all be swept away if civilization put before
itself the will to impose on the young, the
ideal of subordination to the common aims of organized humanity... it can
only be imposed in all its strength through the young. So to impose it has become the chief end of education in the future.
Oh, you blind leaders who seek to convert the
world by labored disputations! Step out of the way or the world must fling you
aside. Give us the young. Give us the young and we will create a new mind and
new earth in a single generation.
Kidd quotes
Masonic Carbonari leader Giuseppe Mazzini (1805‑1872) in this regard, who
stated:
Your task is to form the universal family.... Education, this is the
great word that sums up our whole doctrine. (Giuseppe Mazzinis, On the
Duties of Man)
Kidd refers to
Mazzini's distinction that “education is addressed through emotion to the moral
faculties in the young and instruction to the intellectual (faculties),” and
Kidd claims “Power centers in emotion.”
Well, it has been
just over a hundred years since all of these things were planned and said, and
if you look back, you can see the radical changes in this nation over that time
period. Little by little, generation by generation, the inner desire for truth
and justice, and that inner fight, has slowly dwindled just as they expected it
to with their education system. Through a series of indoctrination methods, and
in stripping the Lord out of the classroom, they churn out more and more
students of the state.
Well, without turning this into a expose’ of the education system, let me begin to close by saying that hopefully you can see the connection between how in times past, the fear of the Lord, which included bravery and the understanding and responding to duty, was more prevalent, and how that has slowly been on the spiral downward for the past hundred years or so.
This can be seen to coincide with a concerted effort to educate it out of people if you simply read the history of this education system’s founding. And for all intents and purposes, it is fair to say that they have succeeded in their goal, turning more and more American’s into sheep that can be led around, never questioning the moves or motives of the leaders, never calling them into account, and never rebelling or taking action against them.
This education has also removed the words of God from the lives of men, and instead of being an integral part of education, has been stripped totally from it. With kids spending the majority of their daytime hours under this education system, and parents pending less and less time providing religious training in the off hours; it is no wonder why the fear of God is gone.
Add to that the modern church’s fascination with health, wealth and the love of God, while ignoring the deeper things like the fear of the Lord and the doctrine of total sovereignty. Add to that a faulty view of eschatology, and an escapist attitude in that realm, and is it a surprise that the church has become pretty much stagnant and obsolete today?
Most churches have an average sermon length of twenty minutes, so the people get pep-talks devoid of any substance or teaching, and with less and less people engaging in reading of great theological works, or even their own bibles, it is no wonder the church is in the state it is in.
Reports show that more and more people who have been regular attendees in church for many years, are leaving the organized church each year; and more and more children brought up in Christian homes, leave the faith entirely by their college years.
All of that combined, produces a generation more ignorant and fearful than the last, creating more people who are easily herded where needed, and rarely question of push back against injustice and wickedness in our lives, society, or government.
This was all by design, and as long as Christians support this free education system, it will continue to be the case.
As long as Christians refuse to read their Bible and dig into it – this will continue to happen.
As long as Christians put up with mediocre churches that teach little to nothing about the depths of the whole Bible message – this will continue to be the case.
As long as Christian parents leave it solely up to the school or church to provide their children with religious training – this will continue to be the case.
So, in closing, we need to consider first that as Christians who follow a living God, we have not been given a spirit of fear, but one of security and reliance in our sovereign Lord. Our duty is to stand up against whatever Goliath comes forth in our life, standing for truth, justice, and in love for others, and make sure that we teach that to our children, for they will get it nowhere else.
When we come up against an obstacle, we are not to turn in fear, but we are to do our duty, and to rest assured that whatever the outcome, it was all we can do – because the battle is not ours – the battle is the Lords!
Now then, let the fear of the LORD be upon you. (2 Chron. 19:7)
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
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