A project known as Exodus Mandate has, for several years, been actively and openly encouraging Christians to pull their children from public schools to either homeschool them or to enroll them in faith-based private schools.
EM's reasoning is that public schools are so hostile to anything related to Christianity that they undermine whatever religious training takes place in the home, perhaps to the point of turning children away from their family's faith altogether.
To this end, EM has recently begun advancing its agenda through a documentary and accompanying PR campaign titled "Call to Dunkirk," referring to the famously heroic episode during WWII when several hundred thousand British and Allied troops were rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk as they faced being mowed down by the Nazi war machine. Civilians rounded up boats of every sort and voluntarily ferried the troops to safety.
The goal of EM is to have all Christians "rescue" their children from the government schools.
I've been reading reader comments on this topic posted to various U.S. newspaper sites. Some of the writers seem to understand and sympathize with the frustrations so many Christians feel towards school districts that will not allow traditional Christmas symbols, music, or even the use of the word Christmas, but do seem to promote other ideologies through their choices of reading material, classroom projects, or, for example, the removal of posters such as the "In God We Trust" motto that's found on all U.S. currency.
But the vast majority of the newspaper readers who bother to comment on the Exodus Mandate article are quite gleeful in their parting shots. "Don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out, " one reader remarked. And another wrote, "Whoo hoo! Just leaves more room for teachers to teach real science while the Christians go off to study creationism."
It would seem, dear readers, that many in the public schools WANT us to go away. The only hitch is, they probably don't want us to take our property tax money when we leave.
Pesky financial matters aside, the question remains. Should Christians remove their children from the secular schools? If the schools cannot accomodate us, and the secular among us want us gone anyway, perhaps Exodus Mandate has tapped into a legitimate dynamic after all.
What do you think?
2 comments:
I think it is silly that some Christians in the world think that the world is just for them. You can believe in Christianity and still believe that we don't have all the answers. I work in public education and I have never felt like any religion has been promoted. I have traveled the county and never seen what you talk about in your post. When you open the doors to Christianity in schools then you open the doors to every religion, including those you don't like or even knew existed. It is hard enough for schools as it, unfunded mandates are the norm. Our school are getting better, far more students graduate high school than ever before. If we didnt spend the billions rebuilding Iraq then we would be far better off.
Tetley, thanks for taking the time to read my 'blog! I always appreciate thoughtful and well-worded remarks such as yours. I agree that those of the Christian faith who think the world is just for them are missing the mark. Not knowing how long you've worked in public ed. I have to wonder if you are newer to the field, say within the past 20 years or so? When I was in public school back in the, ahem, 1970s, it was not uncommon at all for the schools to openly display Christmas trees at Christmas and to host musical programs that included religious songs such as "Silent Night" or "Little Town of Bethlehem." Schools in our city's more predominantly Jewish areas openly acknowledged Hanukkah with no protest from parents, either. I can only assume one of two things -- either secularists weren't feeling as empowered 30 years ago as they do now, ergo they didn't speak up, or else the culture was actually more tolerant of traditional Christian/Jewish/religious themes in general. I don't advocate opening the doors to Christianity in the schools, as you imply. On the contrary, I think it's important for the religiously devoted to be clear in their own minds about what their children will and will not be exposed to if they are sent to public schools. I suspesct too many parents are making their choices with very little information OR are basing their choices on their own public school histories (like I would have been tempted to do had I not started researching the methodical removal of all things religious that has been happening the past 20 years or so.)
I think public schools would have been better off form the beginning if they'd never allowed religious instruction or mention. However, they evolved out of a culture that highly and openly valued a Judeo-Christian foundation and sought to incorporate religious instruction into academics, i.e. teaching kids to read so they could learn to read the Bible as the Pilgrims and Puritans did way back when.
With that said, I do question your assertion that schools are getting better and that far m ore students are graduating than ever before. Sheer quantity of graduates does not accurately indicate they've rec'd a QUALITY education, as witnessed by the fact that many h.s. graduates in Texas must take remedial reading and math courses their freshmen year in college -- subjects they were supposed to have mastered in high school. The war in Iraq also has little bearing on the quality of U.S. public ed. The notion that more $$$ would solve our problems has already been debunked by educational experts much more well-versed in the matter than this writer claims to be. Until and unless our culture's fundamental perspective on what education is,what it should accomplish and how it is best meted out has been defined, all the money in the world won't solve the problem.
Thanks again for contributing to the discussion. Hope you'll continue to check back and chime in.
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