In the first post in this series, The Latest Iteration In Bigotry, we saw how bigotry is making a comeback. In the second post, What Kind Of Bigotry Does The Loudoun County School Board Want Children Taught?, we examined the nature of this latest form of bigotry. Here we will consider why we have this problem.

When The Foundations Are Destroyed

Consider the picture above. It is simple foundation. Nevertheless, the frame of the building does rest upon solid rock. Why is that important? When we build a structure, what do we have to do first? Don’t we have to prepare a foundation? What happens when we don’t prepare a proper foundation? Didn’t Jesus tell us?

Our government is not a building. Nevertheless, our government is a structure. Instead of steel or lumber, the structure made up of men and women who promise to obey certain rules and laws. Like any structure, to avoid collapse, our government must also be built upon a solid foundation, and the founders of our nation knew that. So what was the foundation they chose?

Remember these words?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, 

Declaration of Independence: A Transcription | National Archives

Fine words? Right? Solid, like rock? In the mouths of men and women? No. Because men are imperfect, even the men who founded the United States, we argue over whether or not the United States was founded as Christian nation. There is no question as to whether or not the people who founded this country believed in God. Nevertheless, even though many of the founders wanted the government to be impartial, to protect everyone’s rights and to treat everyone as equal before the Law, the Constitution they wrote was a compromise. That Constitution did not end slavery. Hence, at its beginning the government of United States rested in part upon a sand foundation, the enslavement of blacks.

Therefore, as the years passed, the South began to slip away upon. Eventually, the South threatened the collapse of the entire structure. Hence, during the Civil War, the North nearly destroyed South so that the South’s governmental structure could be rebuilt upon a foundation that eliminated slavery. Unfortunately, the North did not entirely succeed. The racism that undergirded slavery in the United States persisted. So, the Jim Crow laws that the South erected to replace slavery took decades to eliminate.

Today we have a different problem. Instead of racial bias, we contend against special interests. In the 1830’s, because they were enthusiastic about educating the young, Americans began using the resources of local governments to build public schools. Unfortunately, there have been unintended consequences.

• Government now promotes a religious belief. Traditionally, Americans do not want their government to promote one religious belief over another. Because government runs the public school system, however, it is nearly impossible to keep government from promoting a religious belief. Supposedly, the public schools should be secular (etymonline.com). However, when educational instruction is thoroughly secularized (etymonline.com), what results is the teaching of a religious belief, secularism (etymonline.com). We often refer to this as Secular Humanism | Definition of Secular Humanism by Merriam-Webster.
• Government has become our nation’s largest employer. Because our public schools are by definition socialist institutions, they must almost inevitably promote Socialism. Any institution will justify itself, and our government-run schools have justified themselves to the children they instruct. Because those children have grown up and voted, we now have powerful special interest groups, especially government employee unions, that promote the continuing growth of government and government spending. Consider that many of our nation’s richest counties surround Washington DC, The 20 wealthiest counties in the U.S., including these Washington, DC, suburbs: Report | Fox Business.
• Government-run schools dumb down students. This is an inevitable result of economics. When politicians took over the education of children, they did so by assuming control of how we spend the funds we use to educate children. That means the special interest groups that politicians cater to, not parents, control what children learn and who teaches them. That means politics, not what is in the best interest of children, drives decision-making in the public schools.

What does it mean when we say politics drives decision making? Because it can be such a thankless, unrewarding and unpleasant job for an honest soul, we have to respect those who serve in public office. Nonetheless, the bar for elected office is not very high. Politicians assume office just because we elect them. All getting elected requires is name recognition and a reputation that most of the electorate finds relatively inoffensive. Therefore, when a politician gets elected, that does not means he knows how to get the job done well. All it may mean is that he knows how to shift blame, negatively portray his opponents as foul fiends, and please those who donate to his election campaign. That is why putting politicians, instead of parents, in charge of the education of children is almost inexplicably dumb. When almost no one trusts politicians, why are we doing that?

So, we have a new problem. Whereas the founders of this country knew the words in the Declaration of Independence: A Transcription | National Archives and wanted to believe them, many Americans don’t have much use for our nation’s foundational principles. What we can about that?

When he was fleeing King Saul, David had a similar problem. He wrote this psalm because of it.

King Saul was a king who did not trust and put his faith in God. He ruled with little regard for foundational principles. Instead, he feared and wanted to kill a man who had served him well. Saul’s wrath destroyed the foundations of David’s life. If the foundations are destroyed, what can we do? We can do what David did. God is still in Heaven. We can still turn to Him.