Guest post by Karen Testerman
What Happened?
I have been pondering a question recently posed to me asking what happened to my state? What is happening to our nation? I was reminded – "My people perish for a lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6 But what knowledge?
Do you wonder why the polls of our youth today show a leaning in favor of homosexuality? Perhaps we can find a glimpse of an answer here. Just recently the National Education Association (NEA) passed an action item that amounts to an endorsement of same-sex marriage – as well as a call to oppose national laws protecting one man, one woman marriage.
The NEA is described as the largest professional organization and largest labor union in the United States,[1][2] representing public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college students preparing to become teachers. And they the people who teach at our public schools, have just passed an action item to endorse same-sex marriage.
Jeralee Smith is the founder of the NEA Conservative Educators Caucus. Jeralee declared that the resolution will not stop at just endorsing gay unions.
The NEA, financially supported the attempt to defeat Proposition 8 in California last year. Voters passed Prop. 8, which defines marriage as between one man, one woman.
The teachers have two alternatives. . . Teachers who do not want their money being used to support the organization’s liberal agenda can attempt to become a religious objector – someone who can show that their faith puts them in conflict with what the union is doing. They can file to have at least some of their dues redirected to causes that do not conflict with their faith. Oh really? What about the recent legal cases challenging the teachers for religious expression?
A better alternative for these teachers is to join an alternative union that does not support causes that conflict with their deeply held beliefs and values. Tracey Bailey, director of education policy with Association of American Educators, said he wants teachers to know his group can also help with any legal issues.
But what can we as parents do? How do we combat the "tolerance" mantra when we ask as did David Parker and Rob Wirthlin to opt our children out of these instructions? Is it really legal to displace parents?
Do you wonder what changed in the last 40-50 years to alter our national opinions and actions on moral issues? In the 50’s and 60’s God was still honored in our schools, our homes and our government. So just how did the secularization of church and state occur?
It has been a gradual change. Precept upon precept. First the seed of the much touted phrase separation of church and state was planted. Then authority after authority repeated and referenced this phrase incorrectly until it became a reality.
As a result we have little by little removed God from his place of authority and honor until our students were no longer taught to search for the truth. No longer are we taught to question the information we hear or read. Instead we treat all sources as authoritative, we regurgitate it.
Former President Ronald Reagan warned us to trust but verify. Analyze and question. "Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see." advised Benjamin Franklin.
Prior to the change of philosophy by John Dewey in the 1920’s students were taught to question and test what they were being taught against biblical standards as the Bereans did. In Acts 17:11 we find. . . "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."
It was Abraham Lincoln who said "The philosophy of the classroom today will be the philosophy of government tomorrow."
So when the majority of our teachers belong to the NEA, is it any wonder that the majority of the young people today believe that homosexuality is acceptable and just another way of life. Is it any wonder the truth is being distorted? Is it any wonder with the secularization of church and state that our basic building block of marriage is being distorted and undermined.
When public schools were established during the early years of this land of the free, the stated purpose of public education was to train the general public to read the Bible. In fact in the early years of our nation, schooling was quite the opposite of today, in that if you did not want your child to learn to read the Bible you sent your children to private school. God and the Bible were the foundations our public schools.
Considering the relinquishing of our schools to secular humanism is it any wonder that we see the secularization of church and state? "The philosophy of the classroom today will be the philosophy of government tomorrow."
Karen Testerman currently serves as the Director of Social Policy at Eligere Strategies. The radio host of the weekly NH Policy and People, Karen been the guest on national and local radio and TV including NH Taxpayer Radio, Against the Grain, Family News in Focus, Citizen Link, Meet the New Press, The Morning Show, Drop the Gloves, The Exchange, Calvary Outreach, and On the Air with Jennifer Horn.