It’s time to make Christian indoctrination in education great again.

In light of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, we must re-evaluate the role of explicit Christian truth and even “Right-Wing” ideology in education. By that I mean, we must unapologetically bring it back. It’s time to make Christian indoctrination in education great again.

Education has a tangible purpose, and we never should have allowed the Left to capture our national education system, from kindergarten to college, in the way that they have. In fact, it is through their subversion of our education system that the Left has slowly and systematically destroyed what was once a great Protestant Christian nation.

Of course, “education” itself is not at fault. The fault rests with the public school system and institutions of higher education. So, I do not mean to blame actual education for anything. Neither do I mean to say no deeper root cause for evil exists. 

Rather, I want to focus here on the medium through which most young people today are radicalized to love the lies, appreciate the ugly, and rejoice with evil. In that case, what better candidate to encapsulate the biblical word “world” than our approach to education in America? Public schools, colleges, and universities exist to promote the dynamic zeitgeist – a social media-fueled derivative of the collective deceitful human heart – known in Scripture as the “world.”

Charlie Kirk understood this. Turning Point USA understands this. Every conservative and/or Christian college student understands this. But sadly, so many other Christians don’t. Christians who should know better. Let the events of this last week and the terrible assassination of Charlie be a wake-up call: Education is not and cannot ever be “neutral.” The problem isn’t that “students are being indoctrinated.” The problem is that they are being indoctrinated by the Left with lies.

Education is indoctrination, simple as. The question, then, is not whether students will be indoctrinated, but which doctrines will be imprinted on the minds and hearts of the next generation?

For a time, Christians were content, if not comfortable, resting peacefully beside their unregenerate neighbors within the confines of classical liberalism. Liberalism was thought to be the very essence of education, and because nothing can compete with Christianity in the marketplace of ideas, we let a lot slide. Liberalism was never Christian and was always doomed to fail. Still, it was able to operate effectively, for all practical purposes, while it ran on the classical Christian learning endemic to our Western tradition.

When I look back on my own educational background, I remember my Christian parents could select the teachers I had. These teachers were, at minimum, cultural Christians, even though I went to public school. This was not an ideal situation, but more or less, it worked, and I came out Christian. Later on, I did not have the luxury of attending somewhere like Liberty University or Boyce College, but I would not have wanted to do so anyway. Nine generations of my fathers before me never went to college, and when I tried, I went on academic probation, becoming the family’s first college dropout. 

It was only after beginning to take my faith seriously that I wanted to walk back on campus, not only to better myself, but to better the world around me as well. I am conscious of this Millennial proclivity of mine. Nevertheless, my primary motivation for returning to school was a desire for ministry. Everything else, including academics, took a backseat to that. Only then did I fall for the academy.

Academics are not about learning for the sake of learning. Academics engender an all-encompassing philosophy that serves as a handmaiden to Christ. So as much as I loved university-level learning, I never truly believed the Leftists with whom I interacted had any insight into truth or were otherwise well-intentioned actors. Rather, the playing field was ideal, both for filling out my worldview and for Christian witness.

I loved college ministry. I sat beside agnostics, atheists, and card-carrying Satanists every single day at school, and taught the Bible to Christian students on select days on campus and every Sunday. I did all I could to coax them into conversations about those topics that really matter in an eternal sense. Apologetic lectures and public debates worked well. Pizza was even better.

My hope, both in receiving an education and also in having an impact on campus, whether interpersonally or through student organizations, was to take advantage of that aforementioned classical liberal approach to higher learning, where we were able to at least nod at “neutrality” even though the Leftists hated it and thoughtful Christians always knew it was a farce. Nothing about this approach was ever overly risky or brave – insults from others and opening oneself up for charges of folly from professors notwithstanding – although at times it was a lot of fun. 

Times have changed. 

Referring to the murder of Charlie Kirk, campus evangelist Keith Darrell puts it like this:

If you’ve been on a college campus, you’re not surprised by his murder. If I had a dollar every time someone wished me dead or said, ‘I can’t wait for you to die,’ I’d be well-funded. The malaise and brain rot runs deep. The constructivist ideology that dominates the political, sexual, and humanistic ideology on campus can only cause you to want to murder those that disagree. The mindset of the average Leftist on campus is, ‘If only the world loved like I do, then there’d be no problems. Everyone that disagrees with me is a Nazi!’ They dress it up with ‘fascism’ and ‘Nazism,’ but it’s all self-righteousness. I’m not surprised Charlie was murdered. I’m surprised it wasn’t sooner and doesn’t happen more often. The darkness over the land is so deep and fools think a little empathy and compassion will solve the problem!

‘We wrestle not against flesh and blood…’

The demonic underpinnings of our pagan culture impressed themselves upon us during the COVID years, while evil forces we do not want to believe exist manifested themselves in the most overt fashion. We had rest for a time, but the events of the past several weeks have brought these spiritual powers back to light.

Some of you think you are safe from having to consider these words because you homeschool your children. You will pay extra to send your young adults to some “Christian” college where they will not have to face the barbarians on the Left. But you should not automatically feel safe sitting under the preaching and teaching of graduates from Southern Baptist seminaries. You cannot necessarily trust that your Christian college is actually Christian. You should not immediately give credence to homeschool co-ops run by well-meaning but overmothering feminist headmistresses. 

Here’s why: The same Leftists who control accreditation and curriculum and methodologies in secular settings will not stop their slow march through our institutions. Institutions as such are inherently left-leaning for the purpose of promoting liberal thought, coddling dangerous ideas, preserving funding, and most importantly, looking “elite.” 

Secularism wears many masks as a subversive means to anti-Christian ends. Once upon a time, that cover was the “science” of theistic evolution. Now, it’s wokeism. Black Liberation Theology. Social justice ideology. The myth of neutrality. Pelagianism. And egalitarianism is everywhere.

Yes, the Leftists still have their self-imploding ideological echo-chambers in higher education, but you shouldn’t let them have your kids. Most importantly, don’t let them take your soul. 

What this means is that you must fight. The answer to this quandary is not retreat. The answer is not trying to achieve yet another new form of impotent neutrality. The answer is a Christian Right-Wing ideological capture of the church and our institutions of education through true discipleship and the academy. 

We tried civil discussion. That worked for a time. But it died with Charlie Kirk the other day. Now, we must wrest every lever of institutional and political power from the Left, beginning with our own homeschool co-ops, private Christian schools, colleges, universities, and of course, seminaries. 

We must mock and marginalize those who coddle evil in any way under the banner of apologetics by accommodation. Power is not a bad thing. Power is a good thing when used rightly. And only the Right can use power rightly. “The Right must win” because it is representative of those categories of natural law the Lord has sewn into all creation. Give no quarter to parasitic pacifists posing as leaders while taking advantage of everything available to them through the dirty work their Christian predecessors put in to build our awesome institutions.

As a pastor, I’ve been known to call out ideology once or twice. But now I think I was wrong to do so. The problem is not that Christians are becoming ideological. The problem is that we are not nearly ideological enough. The problem is that Christians don’t understand the ideological and activist impetus that a truly Christian education should be. Our battle cry should not sound like a whimper of defeat.

In the death of Christian martyr Charlie Kirk, we collectively feel with overwhelmingly acute force that which we already knew all along. If the root is bad, then the fruit will also be bad. You cannot paper over a divide that runs down into the very depths of our souls in relation to reality. 

People with such radically different understandings of fundamental beliefs cannot peacefully coexist in civil society together. This is common sense, but sense is no longer common. We must push the antithesis. Classical liberalism and good faith disagreement are dead, and they should be, when enemies of the cross seek to unravel the Lord’s creation itself.

We know in the Bible some cried, “Peace, peace!” when there was no peace, but now we must understand this in a metaphysical sense. Peace, for the Christian, is not the same thing as peace for the pagan. As my co-pastor pointed out, we are not dealing with bad people doing bad things. We are dealing with bad people calling good, “evil,” and evil, “good.” 

You have nothing in common with someone who denies creational binaries. Take the “healthiest” would-be transgender individual you can conceive of, and realize that by that person’s own reckoning, he or she is physically or mentally ill on the most fundamental level and thus in desperate need of psychological, chemical, and surgical “treatment.” You have nothing in common with someone who redefines what “marriage” means. The family is the very building block of society, and our Supreme Court stands in violation of the civil government’s God-ordained contract with the American people. 

You certainly have nothing in common with bloodthirsty demons. The kind that kill kids at Catholic schools, murder innocent young women on subways, and assassinate Charlie Kirk. 

The climax for the Christian is resurrection. But for the Leftist, everything can only lead to death. That’s why they love it so much. You have nothing in common with someone who wants “peace” provided by anything outside of Christ. Don’t believe their calls for peace. The only “peace” they want is the “peace” of never having to hear again from the prophets of the Prince of Peace, like Charlie Kirk.

The practical elements of your faith must be as prominent as the theoretical ones. You are not only an ideologue, but you are not less than that, either. Honor the life of Charlie Kirk by remembering this.

Most of all, honor your Savior by doing your biblical devotions, praying, seeking a wife, having children, and educating them – yes – but more importantly, indoctrinating them in the ideological activism of the Lord Jesus Christ that not only touches all areas of life, but also tears down every idol, especially those espoused by the American public school teacher and college professor. 

And if you are one of those reading this now, wondering what hope we can find in the sinful darkness that surrounds you, remember Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life, died on the cross for sins, and was raised again victoriously, just as you will be, if you turn from your sins and trust in Him for your righteousness, not the warped perversions of His enemies.