Given recent narratives around the “evangelical” political movement in the USA, a question arises: Do America’s Christian independent schools contribute to political polarization?
David Hunt, Cardus' Education and B.C. Director has written an interesting article on this question that is published by CACE (Center for the Advancement of Christian Education). He mentions that a recent Cardus Education Study shows that churches and religious charities overcontribute to the common good, as do Christian schools and their graduates. He concludes, "More than any other graduates, those from Protestant schools show the greatest propensity to have an obligation to take action against wrong and injustice. This inclination gives me hope, not just for my dramatic neighbours to the south, but for the world."
Barna Research has consistently probed the beliefs and behavior of Christians in the US. Their analysis gives us a glimpse of what is happening in the pews—and classrooms—where Christians gather. It is sobering to see how much the worldviews of the culture that surrounds us have influenced us despite the best efforts to align the church's view of God's world with God's revelation of how He views His world that He's given us in the Bible.
The Anglosphere Project by Cardus and the Religious Freedom Institute traces the history of religious freedom in the UK, the US and Canada from 1215 to the present. It would be an interesting research project to trace the history of education over the same time period in the same countries to see how this fundamental freedom has shaped our education institutions as well as our common life as citizens.
Erdvig has written much that I'd like to have written about what I've learned in the almost 20 years since I wrote the Visual Valet. He addresses the important issue of how to develop our own worldview and that of our students. I found it much easier to change the philosophy of my students—how they view the world when they are thinking about it, rather than their worldview—how they view the world when they are not thinking about it. Roger Erdvig has a more complicated definition of worldview but still concludes that our worldview is shaped by our experience rather than instruction which shapes our philosophy. The Biblical worldview is what God has revealed about how He views His world, but our personal worldview may be quite different. Learning new knowledge about how God's word and God's world relate changes philosophy but unless we focus on the total environment of a student their "autopilot" won't be transformed even if they have all the "right answers."
You can get Beyond Biblical Integration and the Visual Valet as Kindle books.
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