Living Lab

Our family has always been a home-schooling family. We have had the advantage of not having to undo the mind set imparted to children in government schools. Just this past June, my son finished the home schooling segment of his education and now has begun to take classes at the local college. Often in life one has to accept what is available, rather than one’s ideal circumstance.

Christian Meets Pagan

My son has found himself in politically correct, relativistic, anti-Christian, anti-human, anti-responsibility classes whereby everything we have attempted to impart is challenged and ridiculed. Rather than embrace the “Babylonian perspective,” he has had the kind of insights and responses I prayed he would have. He returned one morning from his required English class with the comment, “Without the Bible, everything is allowed.” He is taking this class as a summer student so what would normally take a number of months is being accomplished in six weeks of eight hours of instruction each week.

His first oral report was to be on the welfare system, for which report he spent the previous evening preparing. This particular assignment was to be graded by another student in the class. He had sat through others’ presentations and most were given a “B” or higher by fellow students. Right before he got up to give his presentation, the teacher informed him that she was changing his topic. He was to give his opinion as to whether or not homosexual couples should be allowed to adopt children.

He composed himself, thought a bit, and began his presentation from the standpoint that since homosexual marriages were not legal, they should not be allowed to adopt. Little did he know that the individual who was to grade him was a homosexual. Immediately my son was attacked for his views and was told by this practicing homosexual that they were offensive. As he continued on with his presentation, the rest of the class fell totally silent. He found himself with the opportunity to speak in terms of the Bible’s standards. The student grader gave him an “F” despite the fact that he backed up his positions and was articulate in his presentation. The teacher allowed the grade to stick.

Animal Wrongs

The following day the topic went to “animal rights.” The teacher had the class read an article which stated that Christians were among the worst offenders in violating the rights of animals, due to the fact that they practice animal sacrifice. When my son told the class that he was a Christian and knew that animal sacrifice wasn’t part of Christian practice, the entire discussion resulted in an open attack on Christianity. The homosexual made the comment that, “The Bible has some good stuff in it but is responsible for the ‘gay bashing’ that goes on today.”

The Educated Cannibals

The next day the teacher handed out a sheet with a proposition for ending world hunger. The article posited that eating the flesh of dead human beings (because it is so plentiful) was the answer. She asked the class to move into groups as to whether or not they “strongly agreed” or “strongly disagreed” with the idea proposed. Half the class joined the “strongly agree” section. When my son (who had placed himself in the “strongly disagree” section) spoke up on the fact that many diseases are prevalent in societies that make a practice of cannibalism, the teacher told him that he was speaking up too much and to give others a chance. Even when no one else wanted to speak and he offered up a perspective she “shut him up.” That night, he wrote an essay discussing the ethics involved in using animals in laboratory experimentation. He did some research via the Internet and discovered that vegetarians and others adamantly opposed to hunting animals and their use in laboratory experimentation, classified themselves in favor of abortion and the use of fetal tissue. As was the custom, the next day he was to give his paper to another student to do grammatical and style corrections. The girl who was given his paper got to the part about abortion and stood up and loudly cursed at him and told him that she had had an abortion when she was fifteen years old and what did he know about anything. She went up to the teacher and told her, in a very loud voice, that she absolutely refused to have anything to do with going over his paper because he was so offensive to her. The teacher told her she didn’t have to deal with him. The next day, the girl apologized to my son and gave him her paper to read. It dealt with her opinion that any man who opposes abortion should have a vasectomy!

The Grace of God

I write this soberly and realize that without God’s sustaining mercy, none of us could survive in the climate we now face. However, those of us who find ourselves without tremendous options can rejoice in the fact that our God never leaves us or forsakes us or ever lets us go. My son is getting a first-hand “education” in knowing how presuppositions are coming through loud and clear. The effect of their philosophies and perspectives are evident and speak to their depravity. In short, they are making the case that we have attempted to teach him and prayed that his home schooling would prepare him for.

To those who have younger children and who will eventually face the situations I have just described, my advice to you is to find and support those Christians who are working to reclaim higher education for the Lord Jesus Christ and assist them by your prayers and finances in achieving this very necessary goal. In the meantime, pray for us and others like us that God would empower our youthful Christian soldiers.

Note by R. J. Rushdoony:

When I asked Andrea Schwartz to jot down Anthony’s experiences at a state college, I did so because such reports to me from parents were increasingly common. Many have come from church-related colleges. Those who refuse to believe such reports are often friends and relatives, alumni, who insist that the college or university was a fine school when they were there. Some faculty members have been fired for protesting the current anti-Christian trend, or for teachings that run counter to it.

But what can you expect from the godless? Even more, and worse, what can you expect from schools that claim to be Christian but feel free to define Christianity, not by a total commitment to God’s Christ and His Law word, but by their own standards? Our Lord asks, “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” (Mt 7:16). Are we not fools, and damned fools, if we expect to do so? —R.J.R.