Lipstick on a pig

The Culture Wars' New Front: U.S. History Classes in Texas

The fight over school curriculum in Texas, recently focused on biology, has entered a new arena, with a brewing debate over how much faith belongs in American history classrooms.

The Texas Board of Education, which recently approved new science standards that made room for creationist critiques of evolution, is revising the state's social studies curriculum. In early recommendations from outside experts appointed by the board, a divide has opened over how central religious theology should be to the teaching of history.

Three reviewers, appointed by social conservatives, have recommended revamping the K-12 curriculum to emphasize the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history. Two of them want to remove or de-emphasize references to several historical figures who have become liberal icons, such as César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall.

"We're in an all-out moral and spiritual civil war for the soul of America, and the record of American history is right at the heart of it," said Rev. Peter Marshall, a Christian minister and one of the reviewers appointed by the conservative camp.

Yikes. I used to hear this stuff and just nod and smile and perhaps even say "Amen!", but the more I see how injurious this blurring of the Gospel with civil religion is to the Gospel witness, the more I wish people would stop trying to “Christianize” the public schools.

Honestly, I get what these people are trying to do, I really do. But you can’t dress up a secular system with modified textbooks and “school prayer” and expect them to fulfill the mandate of raising up our kids. Whether or not the textbook mentions less about César Chávez or more about the role of the Protestant work ethic is irrelevant because it doesn’t change the essential nature of the public schools nor does it negate the responsibility of parents, not schools, to raise up our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. It is the “culture war” equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig. If we just restore school prayer or get the textbooks to speak favorably about Christianity, we will restore America and make America a “Christian nation” again! Making cosmetic changes to a system that has an entrenched secular mindset is not going to change much, if anything. Public schools are inherently contrary to the Gospel and the idea of public schooling is antithetical to Biblical commandments to parents.

Mr. Marshall, who “preaches that Watergate, the Vietnam War and Hurricane Katrina were God's judgments on the nation's sexual immorality”, seems to think that this change to the textbooks will strike a blow for Christianity and make Texas a better place. Will these efforts result in a better America? I doubt it. Will it advance the cause of the Gospel? Not at all. I fear that too many people already equate American citizenship and “membership” in a local church with salvation. I fear a lot of people are going to show up at the judgment with a U.S. passport and a “Baptism Certificate” and expect that will suffice. America is not and never has been a “Christian nation” and Americans are not Christian unless proven otherwise.