The RenewaNation Review 2018 Volume 10 Issue 1 | Page 19

Hurricanes: Not the Only Storms to Hit the USA By Dr. Christian Overman IS IT ANY WONDER the biblical foundations for law, government, family, and gender that once provided commonly accepted harbor lights for American society have been replaced? The incessant move toward the seculariza- tion of education and the privatization of Christianity over the past century has been enormously successful, expedited greatly through elementary and secondary schools.   By divorcing biblical truths about God, Creation, Human- ity, Moral Order, and Purpose from the study of language, math, literature, science, history, civil government, and the arts, elementary and secondary schools created a sacred- secular divide in the minds of youth that has spanned several generations. Christianity was first secularized in our schools, and this made it easy for Christianity to be priva- tized in society. And now Christianity is being excluded from the public square, constricted by both public opinion and judicial pronouncements.   Strong winds are trying to confine biblical Christianity to one’s personal life and Sunday services. Our constitutional free exercise of religion is being re-defined as “freedom of worship” in a building called “church.” Furthermore, that which was first secularized and then privatized is now being demonized. Bibliocentric Christians are branded “intoler- ant,” “bigots,” and “haters.” Secularized… Privatized… Demonized What doesn’t make sense is why so many pastors have remained silent about secularizing education. Sending a child to a school that divorces truth from academics and never mentions God’s purpose for learning is not wise. Education that does not help students to see all knowledge in the context of the true frame-of-reference is like a church that teaches all about the Bible but makes no connections with how to live.   Bible-believing Christians would not tolerate such a church. Yet 85 to 90 percent of evangelical parents send their children to schools where they are indoctrinated into secularized-privatism. Sending kids there to be “lights in the world” sounds good, until they come home thinking like their textbooks, making no connections whatsoever between any subject matter and the bigger picture of God, Creation, Humanity, Moral Order, and Purpose. They make no connections between God and history, and they think Christianity is just for church, not for directing a business, designing software, or doing civil service.   The same pastors who would never tolerate a so-called “neutral-and-values-free” Sunday School have been silent about a so-called “neutral-and-values-free” Monday through Friday system that is anything but.   Now the chickens are coming home to roost. There’s another storm in progress, more destructive than recent hurricanes Harvey and Irma combined. Will the light of our faith be blown out completely?  Dr. Christian Overman is the Founding Director of Worldview Matters® (biblicalworldview.com). He is the author of Assump- tions That Affect Our Lives and God’s Pleasure At Work & The Difference One Life Can Make. Dr. Overman has taught on the topic of biblical worldview and Christian education across America, as well as abroad. He and his wife, Kathy, have four adult children and twelve grandchildren. Contact Dr. Overman at [email protected]. 19