Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6
As the twig is bent, so grows the tree. Old English Proverb Tra
A Battle for the Minds of Preschoolers How the Culture Impacts Your Children
Shaping the Worldview of the Next Generation
If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God EXCEPT precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. Martin Luther
Key Warning See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. Colossians 2:4,8
It is easier to be traditional than it is to be biblical!
Truths About Captivity It is subtle and you are not aware of it until it is sometimes too late.
Truths About Captivity It is subtle and you are not aware of it until it is sometimes too late. You always end up getting more than you asked for or wanted.
Actions Values Beliefs
Actions Values Beliefs TRUTH
Freedom From Captivity John 14:6 I am the way, the TRUTH and the life, no man comes to the Father but through Me. Isaiah 61:2 He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners. Luke 4:18 He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives. John 8:31-32 If you continue in My word then you are truly disciples of Mine and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
Today s Culture War Understanding the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Next Generation
A new civil war is raging in America and this civil war is a war of values. Whoever wins this war will get our children. Drs. James Dobson & Gary Bauer Children at Risk
Characteristics of All Culture Wars They are fought over two questions: What is Real? What is Truth? It is a war of ideas Two sides are in total opposition to each other
The huge gulf between the Christian and the secular view of man is sometimes underestimated because there are so many people with a Christian veneer. Many of our neighbors and co-workers don t seem so different from us - on the surface. But their worldview is utterly in conflict with Christian values, and their relativism is dominating a culture that was, until recently, at least nominally Christian. Chuck Colson The Body: Being Light in Darkness
Be Taken Captive By Ideas It is subtle We don t know that it is happening An Example Carl Sagan s Cosmos video
What Are The Ideas? Cosmos All there is All there ever was All there ever will be Pursue the truth no matter where it leads To find the truth we need imagination and skepticism both Be careful to distinguish speculation from fact
What Are The Ideas? Some part of our being knows this is where we came from We long to return Cosmos is within us We are made of star stuff We are a way for the cosmos to know itself
Be Taken Captive By Ideas It is subtle We don t know that it is happening Another Example see if you can pick out the subtle ideas presented here
Characteristics of All Culture Wars They are fought over two questions: What is Real? What is Truth? It is a war of ideas Two sides are in total opposition to each other The main target is the next generation (our children)
If we do our jobs right, we are going to raise a generation of kids who don t believe the claims of the religious right. WHEN When we capture the kids, we will own the world and the future. Gay & Lesbian Education Network Educational Goals
Characteristics of All Culture Wars They are fought over two questions: What is Real? What is Truth? It is a war of ideas Two sides are in total opposition to each other The main target is the next generation (our children) The main front will be fought on educational turf
The enemies of Christian faith learned a long time ago where to wage war in the education of our youth. They understood the influence they could gain by this daily captive audience. Ken Ham & Greg Hall Already Compromised
The atheist strategy can be described in this way: let the religious people breed them, and we will educate them to despise their parents beliefs. So the secularization of the minds of your young people is not, as many think, the inevitable consequence of learning and maturing. Rather, it is to a large degree orchestrated by teachers and professors to promote anti-religious agendas. Dinesh D Souza What s So Great About Christianity
Secular professors in the universities ought to arrange things so that students who enter as bigoted, homophobic religious fundamentalists will leave college with views more like our own. Students are fortunate to find themselves under the benevolent Herrschaft of people like me, and to have escaped the grip of their frightening, vicious, dangerous parents. We are going to go right on trying to discredit you [parents] in the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly rather than discussable. Dr. Richard Rorty, University of Virginia What s So Great About Christianity
Today s Culture War Understanding the Current State of the War
State of Today s Culture War There is no such thing as absolute truth American Public 1991-67% 1994-72% Born Again 1991-52% 1994-62% 2000-80%
State of Today s Culture War There are moral absolutes Barna: November 2001 Born Again Teens 9% Only 7% of born again teens based moral absolutes on the Bible
History Is Repeating Itself They have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals [false gods], as their fathers have taught them. Jeremiah 9:14
The Impact of Education A Major Influence in Today s Culture War
The major business of education is the communication of ideas/worldviews!
One of the first actions taken by revolutionary governments is to place all educational agencies under the direct control of the state, giving schools a central hand in building a new society. Chuck Colson How Now Shall We Live?
Historical Views of Education The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother's care, shall be in state institutions. Karl Marx
Historical Views of Education Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted. Vladimir Lenin
Historical Views of Education Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed. Joseph Stalin
Historical Views of Education Let me control the textbooks, and I will control the state Adolph Hitler
Historical Views of Education We who are engaged in the sacred cause of education are entitled to look upon all parents as having given hostages to our cause. Horace Mann
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. Abraham Lincoln
If we do our jobs right, we are going to raise a generation of kids who don t believe the claims of the religious right. WHEN we capture the kids, we will own the world and the future. Gay & Lesbian Education Network Educational Goals