Back to School “the Temples” by Ken Ham, President, AiG-U.S.

The summer vacation season in America is over, and millions of students are all back to school. Are you aware that statistics from various sources (including our own research through a poll we commissioned by America’s Research Group) confirm that around 90% of students from church homes attend public schools? By and large, what have public schools become in this day and age? Even though there are Christians (“missionaries,” I would call them) in the system, I believe most public schools have become temples—“temples of humanism.” Let me explain.

Most people have the erroneous idea that public schools are somehow “neutral” settings.

Most people (including in the Christian world) have the erroneous idea that public schools are somehow “neutral” settings. These same people generally believe that if public schools were to allow teachers and students to pray, have the Bible in the classroom, etc., this would be allowing religion into the schools—thus supposedly contradicting the Supreme Court’s (bad) rulings on the so-called “separation of church and state.”

In today’s public schools, the Bible and its account of creation are excluded from almost all classrooms. In most cases this is due to the fear tactics and misinformation campaigns of mainstream scientists, publishers, and left-leaning special interest groups such as the ACLU and People for the American Way.¹

For example, most educators have been trained to insist that “science” can only apply to processes involving natural causes (naturalism), but not the supernatural. As a result, many people (including some Christians) believe that to teach science you can never use the Bible or talk about God or creation in school.

But whoever made the determination that “science” can only mean “naturalism”? It’s an arbitrary definition made up, by and large, by those who do not believe in God (and by those Christians who compromise on Genesis), and this arbitrary determination of science is meant to conform to naturalism. At its root meaning, the word science is defined as “knowledge.” So why would we exclude any bit of knowledge that might touch on God?

Think about it: this is not a neutral position at all. Through policies based on intimidation and misinformation, most public schools have basically thrown God and the Bible out of schools. Educators thought that meant they were throwing religion out. But they didn’t. They just threw out Christianity—and the whole basis for morality. In the guise of “science” they replaced the Christian view with “naturalism”— the basis for the anti-God religion of secular humanism.

The Bible makes it clear that there is no such position as “neutral.” For instance, Matthew 12:30 declares: “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” Also, Romans 8:7 states: “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God.”

If your children are attending a public school, even one with Christian teachers, it’s so important that you understand that most of the system is not neutral at all. In fact, it has generally become an anti-God/anti-Christian system, and most Christian teachers are forced by curriculum committees and administrators to teach the curricular-based naturalistic view that is present in virtually every secular textbook in every government-funded school today. Your children in essence, then, are attending a temple of humanism.

I say this to shock such parents into considering three things:

1. Make sure you prepare your children at home, spending lots of time with them (and at a church that helps you train them) to learn the truth of God’s Word ... and with answers to defend their faith. Keep in mind that without very special teaching, around 70% of children from church homes will walk away from the church one day!
2. Consider homeschooling or a good, non-compromising Christian school as an alternative.
3. If you believe—due to your situation as a single parent or disagreement with your spouse, etc.—that you must utilize public schools, obtain and use lots of faith-building resources from Answers in Genesis so that you and your children will be equipped to retain and defend the Christian faith in today’s secular world.

If you are a Christian teacher in a public school, obtain our Special Report in the July edition of Answers magazine (issue 2.3). You’ll find many tips for how you can legally and wisely communicate the Bible’s history of origins to the students in your care!

As a final word, please consider this passage from God’s Word carefully: “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 2:8).