3.5 million years ago.” 8 When historians use numbers in the
millions, how much leeway does the word around grant?
There is no reference here to controversies regarding Lucy
and how much we don’t know (in fact cannot know) about a
creature that (supposedly) lived millions of years ago.
Indeed, the phrase “unusually complete skeleton” can
mislead students. From Doug Henderson of the Creation
Museum, “Even though Lucy is fairly complete for a
mammal fossil (47 of 207 bones found), the bones are most-
ly small fragments with many pieces missing. Other speci-
mens have been found, but they are far more fragmentary.
No matter how complete, all fossils must be interpreted.
Some interpretation is always left to the imagination of the
person doing the reconstruction.” 9
LITERATURE
So far we’ve looked at one “ultimate question”—where do
we come from? Answering two others—Why are we here?
Where are we going?—is sometimes attempted in secular
textbooks as well, but they cannot answer them scripturally.
When using selections from the Bible in literature text-
books, secular works cannot treat them in the same way
as a Christian text could. Thus, in Holt McDougal’s Liter-
ature: Grade 12 Teacher’s Edition, instructional strategies
include comparing Christ’s parable of the prodigal son with
parables by Aesop and the “teachings of Confucius,” which
“[offer] guidance in human affairs.” 10 Students are “[invit-
ed] ... to share proverbs, parables, fables, or other wisdom
literature” 11 in class—an unspoken assumption that all such
literature is as valid as are the words of Christ.
A secular text may be lauded for including portions of
a Christian work such as Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, but
coming from a secular worldview, its writers fail to get crit-
ical details correct.
• “Eventually, with the guidance of the charismatic
Calvinist preacher, John Gifford, Bunyan ‘experienced
God’s light.’” 12 (What, exactly, does that mean? The text
does not explain further. A Christian text would explain
more clearly Bunyan’s salvation experience.)
• “The Celestial City is defined as ‘the heavenly reward
for living a just life.’” 13 (Any true believer and, indeed,
Bunyan himself, could tell you this is a complete
misrepresentation of salvation.)
Perhaps at the other end of the literary spectrum from
Pilgrim’s Progress is Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself. Even
here, when the poet touches on the afterlife, “[The dead] are
alive and well somewhere, The smallest sprout shows there
is really no death,” the Christian (true) perspective is not
given place. “In lines 38–45, the speaker presents a view of
death and the afterlife. Many cultures have beliefs about the
afterlife; for example, Hindus believe in reincarnation, based
18
upon the good and bad actions of a person in earlier lives.
Have students compare and contrast the view presented in
these lines with beliefs in their culture and other beliefs with
which they may be familiar.” 14 A Christian text would take
the discussion one step further and have students discuss
how biblical views of death, heaven, and hell differ from
those of all other belief systems.
When dealing with the works of Emily Dickinson, the
same text reads, “Love, loss. Joy, death. When you focus
on life’s real meaning, you explore its essential truths.
These truths, of course, are the natural focus of poets. For
instance, in the poems that follow, Emily Dickinson has a
great deal to say about death and dying. But does she—or
any other poet—speak for you? What do you think about
such weighty matters as death, success, and solitude? What
is your truth?” 15 [emphasis mine]
CONCLUSION
Of course, such examples could go on and on, but I believe
the point is made that secular texts, even when they do
not include egregiously offensive material or blatantly
anti-Christian philosophies, by their very nature must omit
or misrepresent the Christian perspective. They leave things
undone. But because we are responsible for passing scrip-
tural truth on to the next generation, Christian educators,
parents, and pastors must not be guilty of having little to say
about things left undone. ■
NOTE: The author is grateful for the use of research materials provided by Rachel Santopiet-
ro, MEd, and Margaret Wooten, PhD.
Steve Skaggs, MEd, serves as Content Director at BJU Press in Greenville, South Carolina. He
has been involved in Christian education for over thirty years.
ENDNOTES
1. This example is not intended to be taken as a blanket endorsement of the film. Vertigo
must be viewed with biblical discernment, which is the same point I am making about
textbooks.
2. Ken Ham, “Creation: ‘Where’s the Proof?’” accessed April 16, 2018. https://answersingen-
esis.org/creationism/creation-myths/creation-wheres-the-proof. Emphases in original.
3. American Museum of Natural History, et al., Life Science (Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill
Education, 2017), 186. Please note that texts used as examples in this article were chosen
more or less at random, not because they are egregiously “bad” but because they are
typical of nearly all secular textbooks.
4. Ibid., 195. Emphasis in original.
5. Ibid., 831.
6. Roger B. Beck, et al., World History: Patterns of Interaction (Orlando, FL: Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt Publishing Company, 2012), 5.
7. Moses’ writings date back to ca. 1550–1400 BC.
8. Beck, 7.
9. Doug Henderson, “Bringing Lucy to Life,” accessed April 18, 2018. https://answersingen-
esis.org/human-evolution/lucy/bringing-lucy-to-life. See also http://www.creationwiki.
org/Australopithecus_afarensis.
10. Janet Allen, et al., Literature: Grade 12 (Orlando, FL: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publish-
ing Company, 2012), 485.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid., 504.
13. Ibid., 511.
14. Janet Allen, et al., Literature: Grade 11 (Orlando, FL: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publish-
ing Company, 2012), 536.
15. Ibid., 547. Emphasis mine.