Anti-Christian
Bias in Education
By Michael
J. Chapman
For more than a dozen years, I have been working
to expose anti-Christian bias within America’s popular curriculum. But it
wasn’t until I ran 
across
a copy of Curriculum Standards for Social Studies,[1] published by the National Council for the Social Studies
(NCSS) under a US Department of Education grant, that I realized the force
of law was now driving the agenda.
According to the NCSS standards, “[I]t is
clear that the dominant social, economic, cultural and scientific trends that
have defined the western world for five centuries are rapidly leading in new
directions.”[2] The dominant trends that defined Western civilization are of
course, the Judeo/Christian worldview. So what does this mean for social
studies? The NCSS explains, “The United States and its democracy are constantly
evolving and in continuous need of citizens who can adapt… to meet changing
circumstances. Meeting that need is the mission of the social studies.”[3]
Can it be any clearer? Rather than teach
America’s history and founding principles for the preservation of American
liberty and Western Civilization, the new mission of social studies is to
prepare our children to accept the transformation of America. In fact, the NCSS
are missionaries of a new religion operating in the field of American
education. Unlike Christians, these particular missionaries have government
backing, free reign with captive children, and operate under the guise of
‘education’ – and thus under the radar of most Christians.
Before building a ‘new’ structure, the ‘old’
must be torn down. Christianity, the foundation of Western Civilization, must
be bulldozed. I find three primary indoctrination methods publishers use to
undermine Christianity. The first is the censorship of America’s true
Christian heritage. The second method I call association propaganda –
the linking of negative ideas or events with Christian principles, people, or
groups. Finally contextual redefinition changes the meaning of written text
in order to support a pre-planned conclusion that is different from the
original author’s intention. There are other subtle methods, but most are
variations of these three.
All of these methods of indoctrination have
one purpose – to convince our children to reject Biblical Christianity and to
accept a secular worldview.
America’s Censored Heritage
America’s foundations are rooted in the
Judeo/Christian worldview. Even the few Founders who might not have been
doctrinally Christian regarded these principles as the best source for moral
self-government, liberty, justice, and establishing the proper function of
government. [See Michael Chapman's DVDs America's
Censored Heritage and Education for
Sustainable Tyranny.]
It was Benjamin Franklin, for example, who
on June 27, 1787, at the Constitutional Convention called for prayer to begin
each session of Congress. Quoting the Gospels several times, Franklin reasoned,
“I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing
proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a
sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an
empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred
writings, that ‘except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build
it’….”[4] Founding Father Noah Webster explained the
same idea in his History of the United States textbook for schools: “Our
citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican
principles is the Bible, particularly
the New Testament or the Christian
religion.”[5]
Today, by contrast, textbooks not only omit
such history, they purposely distort the facts in order to support a new idea
about who we are as a people. For example, under the heading “Roots of American
Government,” a popular seventh-grade Houghton Mifflin Social Studies textbook
expounds: “Enlightenment thinkers in the American Colonies were excited. Here
they were, the first people in history to have the
chance to create an entirely new government based on Enlightenment
Principles.”[6] Few
elementary-school textbooks offer source-footnotes, but this particular
textbook mentioned its source for the assertion: “A recent study looked at more
than 15,000 political writings published in America between 1760 and 1805….
[The authors] most often quoted were… all part of the Enlightenment.”[7]
Unfortunately, the textbook censored
an important fact. Besides falsely characterizing some figures as Enlightenment
thinkers, the textbook 
fails
to mention that the study actually proved that the Founders quoted the Bible
nearly twice as often as the top three individual sources combined.[8]
Facts that get in the way of an agenda to
convince our citizens of a secular basis for government are simply ignored.
Association Propaganda
A powerful method of indoctrination is to
link Christian principles with negative events in order to divert thinking from
the truth. Examples of association propaganda in the classroom follow, with the
associated words underlined:
“Understanding Imperialism: [Defined as]
economic and political control of other nations. …Many imperialists believed
that they had a God-given mission to spread Christianity.”[9]
“A total of 160,000 Spanish inhabitants,
mostly men, had subjugated some 5 million Indians – all in the name of the
gentle Jesus.”[10]
“Among [the conquistadors] were
missionaries…. At times the goal to convert Indians was achieved by force.
Many were forced to work on haciendas owned by Spaniards of the Catholic
Church. Life for Indians in Spanish America was shaped by missionaries.…
Millions died from disease and overwork.”[11]
The textbook’s goal is to associate
Christianity with negative connotations of force and control. In the last
example above, Christian missions and the Church are made interchangeable with
the Spanish and conquest. Absent is the truth that missions protected Indians
against both Spanish and slave-trading Indian tribes, and often were welcomed
by the Indians – facts that do not conform to the preconception that
Christianity is equated to destructiveness.
Even during lessons on the Roman Empire, the
tables are cleverly turned against the Christians. For example, in one textbook
lesson on the Roman Coliseum, “persecution” is simply defined as “the act of
being harassed for differing beliefs.”[12] The lesson plan instructs the
teacher to “Tell the students that persecution of Christians in the
early days was occasional and local…” but makes no mention that Christians were
martyred for their faith. Instead, students are to “discuss why minorities…
face persecution in times of trouble.” In the teacher’s margin, “background
information” helps make the discussion question “relevant” by identifying
Christians as the true persecutors: “[In early times] Christians made fun of
[rural people and their old beliefs in gods and goddesses] by calling them pagani, meaning ‘country people’ or ‘hicks.’ This is
the origin of the word pagan.”
Obviously, the lesson’s motivation is not
the teaching of accurate history (or accurate Latin), but a social agenda: to
build sympathy for politically favored groups today that might think they are
under persecution by Christians. The lesson ends with a Role-Playing
exercise (another form of association propaganda); students are directed to
“take the role of a traditional Roman disturbed by the rise of Christianity,
and write a letter explaining why he or she is opposed to the new religion.”
One very powerful form of association
propaganda is to accurately list Christian ideals and then associate those
ideals with a group such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Textbook publisher D.C.
Heath has been especially good at this. In the middle of a lesson on the Scopes
“Monkey Trial”[13] in Dayton, Tennessee (where “Fundamentalist Christians” are
painted in a negative light), a sidebar highlights “another fundamentalist
group” – the KKK. A quotation, not dissimilar to complaints of Christians
today, is presented: “One by one all our traditional moral standards… were
disregarded. The sacredness of our Sabbath, our homes, chastity, even our right
to teach our own children in our own schools fundamental facts and truths, were
torn away from us.” The attribution is to “Hiram Wesley Evans, Imperial Wizard
of the KKK, in 1926 describing
the cultural grievances that inspired the Klan…”[14]
Whether or not Evans actually said this is
irrelevant; four minutes of research will prove these were not the grievances
that inspired the Klan to form. A textbook publisher that knowingly repeats a
lie is party to it. The point, again, is not accurate history; rather it is to
teach children to distrust or reject Christians who make similar complaints.
Contextual Redefinition
When censorship is impossible or association
propaganda too obvious, publishers simply change the meaning of texts to fit
the desired outcome, even for well-known documents like the Declaration of Independence. For example,
Houghton Mifflin teaches, “When Jefferson wrote ‘all men’ are equal, he really
meant ‘all citizens,’ women and blacks were not included.”[15]
Nonsense! First of all, Jefferson wrote all
men are “created” equal, suggesting that all people are equal in God’s sight.
Second, the term “men” was often used to denote ‘man-kind,’ not a specific
gender, in Jefferson’s day. Finally, Jefferson did make clear his views
on slavery; his words on the wall of the Jefferson Memorial, written in
reference to slavery, proclaim, “God who gave us life, gave us liberty! And can
the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these
liberties are the gift of God….”
Historians have access to facts, but “facts”
aren’t the point of social outcome-based studies. Undermining our Founders
is necessary in order 
to
bulldoze the Founding Christian principles – the true source of liberty.
According to the text, Luther’s only
complaint was how the indulgence money was spent. While pretending to explain
Christian doctrine, this same textbook demotes Jesus to a “teacher who learned
the Jewish religion and then started his own religion.” Notice what is missing
from these examples: “…the Bible says, Mary gave birth to a son, Jesus.” [Missing: Virgin Birth];
“According to Jewish belief, the Messiah is a special leader to be sent by
God…to set up God’s rule on Earth.” [Missing: He came to save us from our sin
and said, “My Kingdom is not of this Earth.” Instead, the emphasis is on
politics, building a fear of Christian involvement.]; “The apostles helped
spread Jesus’ teachings after he died.” [Missing: The
apostles hid after he died and only found confidence after witnessing His
resurrection.] [17]
In six pages that pertain to Christianity,
there is not one mention that Christians believe Jesus was the Son of God, came
to die in our place, nor that He is said to have fulfilled Jewish prophecy.
I gave this same book to a Muslim friend of
mine and asked him to assess the segment on Islam. He nearly wept with happiness
telling me, “school children are finally learning the
deep truths of Islam.” In fact, the questions and assignments following Islam
and Hinduism do require a deep understanding of their doctrines – always
presented as fact. But the questions following Christianity are trivial at best
and have nothing to do with even basic doctrine.
Building A Post-Christian Society
Once the Christian consensus is bulldozed,
the building of secular society is possible. Humanist Manifesto II,
signed in 1973 by a virtual Who’s Who in academia, explains the goal: “We
deplore the division of humankind on nationalistic grounds.… The best option is
to transcend the limits of national sovereignty and to move toward the building
of a world community.… Thus we look to the development of a system of world law
and world order based upon transnational federal government.”[18]
The future vision of a world society based
upon Humanistic principles is now fully imbedded in the public school
curriculum. The goal to divorce America from our Christian roots carries with
it the force of federal law. This should not surprise anyone, since it was
announced openly in 1989. Dr. Shirley
McCune, a US. Department of Education official in charge of the national
standards in 1989, was the keynote speaker that year
at the National Governor’s Association Conference on Education held in Wichita,
Kansas. McCune explained: “What we’re into is the total transformation of
society…what it means for education is that we no longer see the teaching of
facts and information as the primary purpose of education…. We must prepare
children not for today’s society, but for a society that’s 20, 30, or 50 years
down the road. That’s called anticipatory socialization, or the social change
function of schools.”[19]
What Can We Do?
Christian patriots need to realize that
their children are being stolen from under their noses. Most won’t realize it
until it’s too late. The textbook examples offered here represent just a tiny
sample of anti-Christian bias. Unfortunately, the government provides these
textbooks free to Christian schools willing to take them – and many do!
Beware of any school that builds its house
on sand simply because the sand is free! Put your children in schools that
understand how a Biblical worldview impacts every aspect of life, and therefore
every subject. Theology is just one aspect. Not all Christians hold a biblical
understanding in economics, mathematics, sociology, history, and civics.
Parents alone hold the responsibility to
train their children in the way they should go, regardless of who is hired to
carry out that duty.
Footnotes:
1.
Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies
(Silver Spring, MD: National Council for the Social Studies, 1994).
2. Op. cit., Preface, xix.
3. Op. cit., Executive Summary, vii.
4. From James Madison's diary. Documents Illustrative of the Formation
of the Union of the American States (Washington DC: Government Printing
Office, 1927), 295-296.
5. Noah Webster, History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1835, 1.
6. A More Perfect Union, Houghton Mifflin Social
Studies, 1991, 82.
7. Ibid, 109.
8. Donald S Lutz, The Origins of American
Constitutionalism (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press 1988),
141.
9. A More Perfect Union, op. cit., 534.
10. Thomas Bailey, David M. Kennedy, Lizabeth Cohen,
The American Pageant: A History of the Republic
(Lexington MA: D.C. Heath, 1991), 13.
11. My World - Adventures In Time and Place
(New York: Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, 1997), 470-471.
12. Discover Our Heritage, Teachers Edition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1997). Sixth-grade textbook. All references to Christians
in Rome, martyrdom, and persecution, are from page 245.
13. The legendary courtroom showdown in rural Tennessee in 1925, deciding
whether a schoolteacher properly was dismissed for teaching Evolution (as
prohibited by the Butler Act, Tennessee Ch 27, HB 185, 1925).
14. Bailey et al., American Pageant, op. cit., 740-742.
15. Beverly J. Armento, J. Jorge Klor
De Alva, Gary B. Nash, Christopher L. Salter, Louis E. Wilson and Karen K
Wixson. America Will Be: Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
Teachers Edition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin School, 1994), 264.
16. My World - Adventures In Time and Place
op. cit., 343.
17. Ibid., 246-250.
18. Humanist Manifesto I & II (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1973),
21.
19. Governor's conference on education.
Michael J. Chapman is an author,
education researcher, and founder of American Heritage Research. Comparing
his unique rare-books collection with current curriculum, Michael proves how
widespread the censorship of American Heritage really is! Michael has spoken
at various state and national education conferences from Maine to California
- including the Education Policy Conference in St. Louis, the Council on National
Policy in Washington D.C, and National Eagle Forum Leadership Conference with
Phyllis Schlafly; He has given workshops to staff
at Focus on the Family, The Association of Christian Schools International
(ACSI), The Minnesota Association of Christian Home Educators (MACHE), and
The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod in Minnesota. Michael has lately
been sounding the alarm regarding the true agenda behind the so-called "Education
for Sustainable Tyranny" declared by the United Nations in 2005. For
more information visit http://www.americanheritageresearch.com and www.EdWatch.org.
You can also email Michael at rah98@hotmail.com.
