Quotes
Church & State Partnerships
-
Statement of Common Purpose of Religious Leaders (below)
Statement of Common Purpose of Religious Leaders
Excerpts from Brave New Schools, chapter 7:
To
win grass-roots supporters in every community, the U.S. Department of Education
prepared a report called "Organizing Your Community To Reach the National
Education Goals." Matching the
earlier definition for propaganda,
it opens with a reminder that "There is much ground to cover, and the Year
2000 seems just around the corner.... Goals 2000 calls for partnerships
across local, state and federal levels--partnerships for mustering the support
it'll take to help communities and local schools do what only they together can
do...."[1]
You
saw that education has bridged the gap between Republicans and Democrats. Both
sides agree that the ultimate goals--what communities
must accomplish in the end--are determined by the national and
international goals. To achieve
those goals, "a state panel of teachers, principals, parents and others,
including the governor and chief state school officer, would evolve a
standards-driven
reform plan" which would be communicated to each local community. After
all, explains the above report, it "wouldn't make sense for communities to
go off by themselves and create their own standards from scratch, especially if
they're to be internationally competitive
standards....[2]
(Emphasis in the original)
As
Chester Finn suggested earlier, only
the final, practical implementation is left to the local school. It
can
use its own ingenuity to find creative ways to teach the national curriculum
content required by NESIC (the National Education Standards and Improvement
Council). It can create its own corresponding curriculum and
teaching programs, but if it fails to produce the required change in its students, it
will be punished. Since the goal is a new type of student with a new set of attitudes and behaviors, the transformation of
our children will require total
community participation. And since
everyone
will apparently be tested through national assessments, there will be no hiding
place from group conformity.
To
help each community accomplish its part, Riley's report described various model
communities. Each had planned their
own programs and communication links, and "almost all of them found it
necessary" to "identify" and organize "key individuals in
the community."[3]
These vital "partnerships" were also emphasized in a list of warnings.
It encouraged local school planners to "involve
key players who could easily block what the collaborative hopes to
do. Whenever possible, try to make allies
out of adversaries."
In
order to "make allies out of adversaries", the educational
establishment has formed some surprising partnerships that bridge the
ideological chasms rarely crossed in our
separation-between-church-and-state-conscious culture. Below, you will see how
one bridge links local schools to community churches.
Considering the growing hostility toward biblical truth, it makes little
sense. Yet, it's part of the plan.
To
help communities test their rate of progress, Riley and the congressmen who
prepared the Community Action Toolkit provide questions they can ask
themselves: "Are we creating 'a whole community' partnership to improve
teaching and learning? Are we enlisting partners throughout the community...
churches
and media, social service agencies and law enforcement, and others?"[4]
Remember,
the social transformation could not succeed without general consent from the
public--however uninformed that
consent might be. And what strategy
could better win support among the opposing forces than a friendly invitation to
cooperate and seek "common ground"?
It
works because few dare even suspect what the change agents plan to do to
parents. Lured by pride or propaganda, leaders in every field are accepting the
invitation to join hands with a kind of deception few could imagine.
Many Christian leaders, who should be a parent's prime defender, have
become part of the horrendous betrayal. Left behind, are countless Christian
parents who find no church support in their attempt to raise godly children
God's way.
A
few years ago, U.S. Senator Christopher Bond, one of the Missouri leaders of
Parents as Teachers, told Laura Rogers that he was trying to recruit churches to
support the PAT program. On December 16, 1994, his dream came true.
The U.S. Department of Education issued the official "Statement of
Common Purpose of Religious Leaders."
Education Secretary Riley made the announcement: "The religious
communities standing with me represent some seventy-five percent of all
religiously affiliated Americans....
Our
meetings led to the clear recognition that our nation's religious community can
play a more active and positive role in helping parents in the education of
their children."[5]
It
sounds just as promising as Parents as Teachers, doesn't it? Would you like to
know who signed it? The "religious communities endorsing the
statement" included the Assemblies of God, Association of Christian Schools
International, Council of Jewish Federations, Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America, Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod), National Council of Churches,
National Association of Evangelicals, National Baptist Convention, National
Church of God, Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., United Methodist Church, U.S.
Catholic Conference, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and many others.
If
you are wondering who still shares
your
concern, you are not alone. Across the country, Christian parents have sought
help in their churches only to be told not to worry or rock the boat.
"But I can't let my child participate in Native American rituals or
make those occult Medicine Shields," said a heartbroken mother in Ohio.
Her pastor and church friends simply couldn't understand why
not. They had already
embraced the popular vision of the human family holding hands around the
world--a vision that mocks the gospel but approves all "other gods."
The
Statement of Common Purpose never mentions God. It ignores His
warnings about spiritual compromise.
Look at what it does mention:
It
is imperative that religious communities join together with governments,
community organizations, businesses, and public and private schools in striving
to provide families, parents, grandparents, foster parents, guardians, or
extended family members with the information, skills, tools, and opportunities
that will encourage their participation in the total education of their
children, including character education.
We are committed to working together to improve children's learning through
family involvement partnerships.
We
call upon all citizens, religious communities, community organizations to do
their share. We urge family members
to become actively involved in their children's education, religious communities
to work to better understand and meet
educational and family needs [Do you wonder who will teach them?], community
organizations to sponsor meaningful youth- and
family-oriented activities, and businesses to adopt family-friendly
policies in the workplace.[6]
Perhaps, as Jesus
said on the cross, "they do not know what they are doing."
Maybe the religious leadership simply believes the propaganda and has
joined a movement they don't understand--just as the German churches did during
the Nazi rise to power. Perhaps
they really do believe that the educational establishment wants to support, not
control, Christian parents. The vision looks so tempting--until its deceptive
claims turn to calamities that can no longer be denied.