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.

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Meet the Man Who Nailed Jesus to the Cross
By Jim Day

    When James Likens, former parish pastor in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, gives his presentation of Canceled: The story of Jesus, St. Paul, and Julius, a Centurion, it is not uncommon to see members of the audience wiping tears from their eyes.  As one Illinois farmer said, “I've been a Christian for 80 years.  This was the first time I think I really experienced the forgiveness of Jesus Christ in my heart.” And what is this presentation?  It is the powerful story of the man who nailed Jesus to the cross.
    Likens, a former newspaper reporter and publisher, television reporter, and owner of JDL Video Productions in St. Louis, has created the story of Julius, the Centurion mentioned in Acts 27:1. (“When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment.”)
    His first presentation of this Centurion was done for Family Shield Ministries two years ago. Kay Meyer, a columnist for the MetroVoice, asked Likens to do a presentation at the ministries' annual fund raising dinner.  After seeing the response of the audience, Likens set out to further develop this character and his story.
    “I found it extremely interesting that in the first verse of Acts 27 a centurion was ordered to take prisoners to Rome.  If a Roman soldier lost a prisoner he was executed without a trial,” Likens recalled. “In verse three it says, ‘The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs’  I asked myself, ‘Why would he have done this ‘in kindness to Paul?’”
    “The Bible is like a lace table cloth,” Likens says. “It's held together by a finely woven network of thread and it's full of many holes.  I've simply chosen to fill one of those holes.”
    And how does he fill that hole?  This story, as told by Julius, reveals that St. Paul asked him that first night on the ship if he had ever heard of Jesus of Nazareth.  Paul tells Julius that he was on his way to Damascus to persecute the followers of Jesus when Jesus confronted him on the road and asked, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
    Julius says to Paul, “Sir, you might have persecuted His followers but before I was a Centurion I was a soldier in Jerusalem and it was my hand that held the hammer that nailed Him to the tree.”

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