Friday, March 22, 2019

Dumbing down of America and the church

Schools are much different today that when I attended them back in the Stone Age. That's understandable. Young people today need to learn different things that we did. The world has changed making these changes necessary. However, there are some things that are no longer being taught that is leading our nation down a dangerous path. One of these is Civics.

I still remember taking Civics and my teacher in that class. Don't ask me why I remember that teacher because I don't remember most of them, but I can still see her standing in front of the class teaching us valuable information about how our nation is structured and why it is important. I do not believe that many, if any, schools teach Civics today. This means today's graduates do not understand why there are two separate houses of Congress, how bills are passed, the separation of powers, the importance of voting and many other things that we were taught in Civics.

Why is this dangerous? We have people today in Congress, many running in 2020 for the office of President, advocating eliminating the Electoral College. They claim that doing this will make every vote equal. No, there is a reason the Founding Fathers created the Electoral College. It ensured that the entire nation was equally represented in the Presidential election. Eliminate the Electoral College and the East Coast and West Coast states, along with Texas, will elect the President making the votes of the rest of the nation of no value.

The same people want to allow non-Americans the right to vote. Voting is a privilege for the citizens of this country. It is the means by which we select the persons who will represent our wishes. I know of no other nation on the face of the earth that allows non-citizens to vote in their elections. Any introductory Civics class would point out the fallacy of even considering doing such a thing.

Speaking of voting, many of these same individuals want to lower the voting age to 16. They insist these young people have the maturity to vote in national elections. However, one must be 18 to purchase a long gun in America and 21 to purchase a handgun from a licensed dealer. The legal drinking age is 21. Why these higher age limits? Because our nation has determined that persons younger than this lack the maturity to purchase weapons and alcohol. I wonder if our presidential hopefuls would be in favor of lowering the age to purchase guns and alcohol to 16 as well.

The same people also want to enlarge the Supreme Court, what some are calling "packing the court." There's no valid reason for doing so except they aren't happy with the recent justices who have been named to the court. They have no idea of the importance or the role of the Supreme Court. They just want to make sure there are enough justices to get what they want.

These are just four dangerous ideas being floated by some Presidential hopefuls. Again, a class in Civics 101 would show how dangerous they are. They all go against the desire of our Founding Fathers to limit the control the government has over the people. Some are unconstitutional, but they don't care about that.

What makes them even more dangerous is that many young people today do not know what makes them dangerous because they've been deprived of an education that teaches what it means to live in a Republic governed by a Constitution. They've had zero education in the founding of this nation and how it was set up and why it was set up the way it was.

BTW - The same thing is happening in our churches. When we fail to adequately teach our young people what Christians believe and why we believe it we set them up for failure. Unable to defend their faith many choose to abandon it once they leave home. When all we do is entertain them we and teach them cute little Bible stories we send them out into a world filled with dangerous beliefs that many of them will find attractive.

If the schools are not going to teach Civics, perhaps the church needs to. We certainly need to do a better job of teaching our young people sound theology that includes both the what we believe and why we believe it.

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