On a Columbia River cruise in 2019, we were treated to a side trip through the beautiful Western Oregon countryside. One stop was at an outdoor educational facility for elementary school students. As a former teacher, I was interested in what Oregon students were taught here.
Large concentric circles had been cut into the land, 10 or so of them. Our guide explained that students were to walk from the outer circle, which represented the modern period of history, through all the other circles, until they got to a concrete monument in the center. The guide proudly explained to us that the monument represent the Big Bang that created life billions of years ago. From there outward, she said, each ring represented an era of evolution, from slime to animals to humans.
“So that’s where they learn where they came from,” she concluded.
I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it: schools were actually teaching children that they came from an accidental explosion of matter and evolved from that to monkeys to humans.
That is an example of secular education, which goes beyond allowing students to believe anything they want to about their origin and enforces the fact that their existence has nothing to do with a Creator or any plan.
If you aren’t a Christian, you may agree totally with Oregon’s teaching of life’s origin. And you won’t be able to make much sense of the book I’m recommending this week, Saving Our Children in a World Gone Crazy by Jeff Keaton, who is the founder of RenewaNation.
But if you can see that the world has indeed gone crazy, and if you suspect that our children do need saving from it, read on.
I got this book at a conference I attended in Gatlinburg, Tenn. A family with means to do it was so impressed with Keaton’s book that they bought 30,000 copies and donated them to be distributed free at Christian conferences, so I grabbed what I could to give to parents and church workers I know and kept one to read.
We’ve all seen what’s going on with young people all over the world— rejoicing over the murder of Turning Point’s Charlie Kirk, standing up for the “right” to same-sex marriage and gender-altering surgery, supporting Hamas’s murder of Israeli citizens.
Keaton’s book offers some of the explanation, pointing out that our kids are addicted to screens, porn and video games, and that today’s generations are more anxious, depressed and suicidal than ever before. Positive life-affirming inspirations are few for them.
But the author says that the main problem is our children’s worldview, which has been thrown out of whack by their learning experiences.
Keaton defines “worldview” as “the core set of beliefs a person has accepted as true that guides his or her thoughts and actions in life.” Research shows that this worldview is set by the age of 13 and that only about 5 percent of youth today have a biblical worldview that guides their morals, their aspirations and their behavior.
Perhaps you’ve heard the term “biblical worldview,” meaning that a person views life according to God’s design for it as expressed in the Bible.
But that’s not the worldview that’s being pushed by media, entertainment, our culture or our educational systems.
Keaton points out that many schools—like those in Oregon— push a secular education that leaves God out of creation and anything that has happened since. Children are taught in many schools that creation was an accident, evolution was a disorganized process that brought them to whatever level they have reached, and that since they only live briefly and meaninglessly, they have the right to do as they please and get what they can from the time they have before dying.
That’s one reason we’ve seen the world almost literally “going crazy,” as the book title suggests. If you’re just an animal living on an animal’s instinct, how can you be blamed for what you do? Anyone then has the right to behave as he chooses and shouldn’t be punished for it.
I don’t think overt anti-Christian teaching is common in the schools of our state or county, but sometimes the secular worldview can slip through in a textbook or a simple story book. I’ve talked to parents and grandparents who were disturbed by some things their kids were taught. Keaton suggests that we keep a close eye on what is being presented to our children to keep secularization out of our schools.
The book is available from Amazon for $25 as a paperback or on Kindle for $9.99. Or go to the website renewanation.org, or call them to see about getting a copy, 540-890-8900.
Christian families should definitely put this one under their reading lamps. You’ll find practical information and truth about how America got where it is spiritually and how to keep your kids on a sane, productive and biblical path.
