It wasn’t all that long ago that the Bible could be found in just about any public school in the U.S. And if you want to go back even further, to the early history of the U.S., the Bible was prominently featured in the school textbooks.

The first edition of “McGuffey’s Reader” was published in 1836, and this textbook was the mainstay in public education in America until 1920.

Millions of American children learned to read and write from them. In the Preface to the Eclectic Fourth Reader, McGuffy wrote:

“From no source has the author drawn more copiously, in his selections, than from the sacred Scriptures.”  And:
“In a Christian country, that man is to be pitied, who at this day, can honestly object to imbuing the minds of youth with the language and spirit of the Word of God.”

Just glancing through the table of contents in the Fourth Reader, I see “Death of Absalom”, “The Scriptures and the Saviour”, “Benevolence of the Supreme Being”, “Christ and the Blind Man”, and “The Bible”, just to name a few of the more obviously Christian lessons, not to mention all the Biblical references generously spread throughout the book. 

Quite a different story now, especially in the USA. The First Amendment to the Constitution, which says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” was supposed to ensure religious freedom.

Notice that it’s saying what Congress shall not do, not what the people may or may not do. But the modern courts have re-interpreted it to mean that  there is to be no mention of anything religious on government property (like schools, for instance). They claim it violates the “separation of church and state”.

So the First Amendment establishes the principle of the separation of church and state, right? Yes, sure it does, except that when I re-read the actual wording of the First Amendment, I notice that the word “separation” is not there. I also notice the word “church” is missing. And I don’t see the word “state” anywhere either.

Hmmm… Well, that’s OK, we know it really means that because that’s what we’ve been told by liberal judges who have pronounced it to be so based on an “enlightened” interpretation. They took a letter written by Thomas Jefferson out of context, and used it as their excuse for mangling the original intent of the First Amendment. 

According to historian David Barton, “ Many people are surprised to learn that the United States Capitol regularly served as a church building; a practice that began even before Congress officially moved into the building and lasted until well after the Civil War”.  Guess they didn’t really understand the Constitution they had just written

This ‘new and enlightened’ interpretation of the First Amendment has resulting in some wacky pronouncements from our courts, such as the following:

“School sponsorship of a religious message is impermissible because it sends the ancillary message to members of the audience who are nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community. ” U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Santa Fe v. Doe, (2000).

In Stone v. Graham, 1980, the Court found posting of the Ten Commandments in schools to be unconstitutional.

As a home schooler, you don’t need to keep your Bible hidden as you teach your child. You have much more freedom than your unfortunate public school counterparts, who must receive all their knowledge filtered through the liberal, anti-Bible, anti-Christian world view.

It’s a shame things have gotten this bad in a nation that supposedly prides itself on the principle of free speech. If your children are still in the public schools, I urge you to waste no time in getting them out and teahing them at home. You can’t afford to continue letting them participate in this liberal social experiment.

Maybe, just maybe, if enough of us leave the public schools in large enough numbers, and pray fervently that God would restore our Christian heritage, we could begin to see some positive developments in the public schools system.

God is still in charge, and His will is that we give our children the kind of education that conforms to His Word, not man’s ideas. Until we see some drastic changes in the public school system, you have no choice but to get your kids out of there if you haven’t already.