and there was “constant omission of reference to the large
role that religion has always played in American life.” 12 This
was true for elementary texts as well. In one second-grade
history book, thirty pages were given to the Pilgrims, but
they were “described entirely without any reference to reli-
gion.” 13 At the end of the first year, they observed a day of
Thanksgiving, but no mention is made of the fact that they
gave thanks to God.
Christian bias via exclusion continues in current text-
books. For example, one recent history text quotes the
Mayflower Compact: “We whose names are underwritten ...
do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence
of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves
together into a civil body politick.” What was omitted from
this important historical document? Their clear Christian
motive: “for the glory of God, and advancement of the
Christian faith and honor of our king and country, a voyage
to plant the first colonie in the Northern parts of Virginia.” 14
Bias is not only expressed by exclusion but also by chang-
ing the meaning of a text or writing. One U.S. History
Advanced Placement textbook summarizes the Second
Amendment as, “The people have the right to keep and bear
arms in a state militia,” which is an inaccurate meaning of
the amendment which clearly states, “the right of the people
to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” 15 This same
text says the First Amendment gives us a “separation of
church and state,” failing to explain this amendment does
not separate God from government or religious ideas from
public life. Rather, it acknowledges a jurisdictional sepa-
ration between the institution of civil government and the
institution of the church.
Misrepresenting motives is another means of bias. Under
the heading “Roots of American Government,” a popular
seventh-grade Houghton Mifflin social studies textbook
expounds, “Enlightenment thinkers in the American Colo-
nies were excited. Here they were, the first people in histo-
ry to have the chance to create an entirely new government
based on Enlightenment Principles.” 16
However, America was not created by Enlightenment
thinkers with Enlightenment ideas but, according to John
Adams, “The general principles on which the fathers
achieved independence were ... the general principles of
Christianity.” 17 This is confirmed in a study done on the
influence of Enlightenment thinkers on the political ideas
of the Founding Fathers. Professor Donald Lutz conduct-
ed an exhaustive ten-year research of about 15,000 political
documents of the Founders’ Era, recording every reference
our Founders made to other sources. By far, the most quoted
source of their political ideas was the Bible, 34% of citations,
and about 50% of the other citations came from men with a
biblical worldview. 18
Some texts teach direct lies, such as a high school histo-
ry textbook published by Pearson that teaches President
Trump is mentally ill and that his supporters are racists. 19
In other texts, the Founders of America are often presented
as atheists, agnostics, or secularists who wanted no religious
influence in public life, when, in fact, all but a couple of the
signers of the Declaration and two or three members of the
Constitutional Convention were orthodox Christians who
believed the foundation of free nations rests on the Chris-
tian faith. 20
To counter the bias in textbooks and the secularization of
American education, we must provide our children with an
education rooted in truth, having a philosophy, method-
ology, and curriculum that is Christian. Private or home-
schools are the best means to do so. For those who have
no option but government schools, a diligent supplemental
teaching of truth should occur at home. For the good of the
nation, we must also work to transform our current world-
ly system of education, which brings bondage, to a Chris-
tian system, which will liberate individuals and in turn the
nation at large. ■
Stephen McDowell is the co-founder and president of the Providence Foundation (provi-
dencefoundation.com). He has aided in starting Christian schools and biblical worldview
training centers. He has authored and co-authored over 30 books, videos, and training
courses. They have been translated into 18 languages and distributed to millions of people.
ENDNOTES
1. Stephen McDowell, Restoring America’s Christian Education (Charlottesville: Providence
Foundation, 1999), 1.
2. Ralph Henry Gabriel, editor, The Pageant of America (New Haven: Yale University Press,
Vol. 10, 1928), 258.
3. The New England Primer (Boston: Printed by Edward Draper, 1777. Reprinted by Wall-
Builders, 1991).
4. Noah Webster, The Elementary Spelling-Book (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1880), 101,
121.
5. William McGuffey, The Eclectic Fourth Reader (originally printed in 1838, republished by
Mott Media, 1982), x.
6. Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828, republished in
facsimile edition by Foundation for American Christian Education, San Francisco, 1980).
7. David B. Guralnik, editor, Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language
(Nashville: The Southwestern Company, 1969).
8. Paul C. Vitz, Censorship, Evidence of Bias in Our Children’s Textbooks (Ann Arbor, MI:
Servant Books, 1986), 1.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid., 3.
13. Ibid., 18.
14. “Revisionism: How to Identify It In Your Children’s Textbooks,” WallBuilders, December
31, 2016, https://wallbuilders.com/revisionism-identify-childrens-textbooks/#.
15. Joe Wolverton II, J.D., “Common Core-Approved Textbooks Rewrite Second Amend-
ment,” The New American, April 5, 2014, https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/edu-
cation/item/17991-common-core-approved-textbooks-rewrite-second-amendment.
16. A More Perfect Union (Houghton Mifflin Social Studies, 1991), 82.
17. John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles
Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1850-1856, Vol. X, to
Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813), 45-46.
18. Donald Lutz, “The Relative Influence of European Writers on Late 18th Century Amer-
ican Political Thought,” American Political Science Review, LXXVIII (1984), 189–97. See also
Stephen McDowell, The Bible: America’s Source of Law and Liberty Chapter 8, “The Changing
Nature of Law in America (Charlottesville: Providence Foundation, 2015).
19. Teri Webster, “Pearson high school history textbook teaches Trump is mentally ill
and his supporters are racists,” TheBlaze, April 15, 2018, https://www.theblaze.com/
news/2018/04/15/pearson-high-school-history-textbook-teaches-trump-is-mentally-ill-
and-his-supporters-are-racists.
20. For more about the Christian faith of the Founders see David Barton, Original Intent; M.
E. Bradford, A Worthy Company; John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution; Stephen
McDowell, The Bible: America’s Source of Law and Liberty; William Federer, America’s God
and Country.
23