Is Your Church Teaching Pagan
Earth Worship in Sunday School?
By Tom
DeWeese
Many parents have sought to protect their children
from the behavior-modification programs that have taken the place of academic
education in public schools. To escape the assault of Outcome-Based Education
(OBE), multi-culturalism, and workforce training programs, parents in ever-increasing
numbers are placing their children in private schools or are homeschooling.
Public schools, and even some private
schools, spend valuable classroom time engaged in “cooperative” learning (group
learning) encounter sessions and discussion groups that employ pop psychology
that teachers are simply not qualified to apply. These programs are designed
for a very specific purpose—to change the attitudes, values and beliefs of
your children in order to prepare them to be proper environmental citizens
in the “sustainable” global village. Such behavior-modification programs are
the very root of the destruction of America’s public education system.
In spite of the “school wars,” parents
have felt safe taking their children to Sunday School to help build a solid
moral foundation. But, have you looked at your
church’s Sunday School curriculum lately? You may be shocked to find tree-hugging,
earth-worshipping paganism intermixed in the Christian lessons.
Many churches are now using a Sunday
School curriculum created by an organization in Colorado called “Group.” There
is nothing in Group’s publications that tells who they are, what they believe
in, or anything about the backgrounds of the creators of the materials. But
Group curriculum is now sold in most Christian bookstores. The Group material
offers “Hands-on Bible curriculum” and advocates a “new approach to learning.”
However a close inspection of Group’s
materials and teaching methods shows it bears a close resemblance to the behavior-modification
techniques of OBE. For example, under the sub-head “Successful Teaching: You
can do it!” the teacher’s manual asks the question - “What does active
learning mean to you as a teacher? It takes a lot of pressure off because
the spotlight shifts from you to the students. Instead of being the principle
player, you become a guide and FACILITATOR.” This is basic OBE classroom organization
where students are not taught by a teacher, but are guided to learn on their
own, as the class FACILITATOR simply suggests and gently directs toward a
pre-programmed, psychology-driven lesson plan.
Just as in OBE behavior-modification
exercises, the Group curriculum provides “Problem Cards” for student discussion
of personal and family issues. Some examples from the workbook for fifth and
sixth grade Sunday School classes:
1. PROBLEM CARD: “It seems like my parents
fight all the time. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m afraid they’re
going to split up.”
2. PROBLEM CARD: “The cool kids at school
treat me like a total nothing. It’s like I don’t even exist.”
3. PROBLEM CARD: “My dad is afraid he’s
going to lose his job, so we don’t get to go anywhere on vacation this summer.”
4. PROBLEM CARD: “I got in trouble for not
cleaning up my room. Now I’m grounded for the weekend and can’t go to my friend’s
birthday party. Doesn’t that stink?”
Each of these examples are designed for
group discussions in which the entire class takes on one child’s personal
problem. Personal family business is disclosed, parental authority is
questioned and student “self-esteem” becomes the central concern. This is
Outcome-Based Education at work in the Sunday School class -- led by a volunteer
teacher (facilitator) with no qualifications to do so. Worse, all of it is done
under the authority of the church.
And how about that pagan
earth-worshipping? In a Group lesson entitled “Hug a Tree” students are led
outside to an area with trees. A child is blindfolded and led to a tree where
he/she is to hug it, and then feel the tree very carefully. “Try to learn
everything about the tree that you can without looking at it.” The student is
led back to the group, spun around three times and the blindfold is removed.
The Group tree-hugging lesson goes on
to instruct the facilitator “after everyone has hugged a tree, been spun around
and sat down, remove the blindfolds and find out how many kids can identify the
trees they hugged. If it’s a nice day, sit down on the grass and discuss the
experience.”
Questions for the “facilitator” to ask:
·
How did it feel to hug
a tree?
·
How did you feel when
you recognized the tree you hugged?
·
What do you like about
trees?
Here’s another part of the lesson called “Life
Applications.” Children are to be taken on a walk around the outdoor area of
the church. Once back inside “ask about the natural surroundings and
human-made sounds. Talk about natural beauty and human-made pollution. If you
want, have the kids go back outside and pick up any trash they saw on the walk.”
Question to ask: “How do you think
God feels when he sees how people have messed up the beautiful world he
created?” Children are then given a game to play to simulate pollution.
In a Group
Workbook entitled: “Sunday School Specials,” a chapter tells students that “real
conservation means remembering to turn off lights, hiking or biking instead of
hitching a car ride, and cooling off in the shade instead of in the air
conditioning. Kids are often tempted to do things the easy way instead of the ‘green’
way. They need lots of encouragement and affirmation to develop and stick to an
environment-conscious lifestyle....” That one line demonstrates an
important key to the purpose of Group’s Sunday School curriculum -- to promote
a political agenda based on pagan earth worship rather than Christian values.
Are your children safe from pre-programmed,
behavior-modification processes at your church? Will they gain the solid moral
Christian values that you intend for them to receive from a Sunday School
lesson? Not if Group is in your Sunday School.
Tom DeWeese is the President of the American
Policy Center located in Warrenton, VA. For more information regarding the
