All Men Are Religious

Pastor Randy Booth

Religion directs and controls our lives. It is not a question of whether people are religious; it is only a matter of which religion a person serves. This religious orientation is often not acknowledged in our day, yet God’s creatures cannot escape this fundamental truth of their nature. They may worship false gods, or they may worship the true God, but they will worship someone or something. Every religion vies for power and control of our culture.

One of the most useful tools in the quest for this power over the lives of men is found in the educational system. Kenneth Galbraith regards it as the successor to land and capital as the most important determinant of who controls whom. George Orwell observed in his novel, 1984, “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.” Understanding that whoever has power over the mind has power over the culture, Orwell had one of his characters declare, “The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them.” This is an excellent explanation for the increased centralization of government education.

By the time the Roman Empire ended, its extensive system of local public schools was firmly under the control of the emperors. In our day we see the control of education being placed more and more into the hands of the civil government. Even though the most enthusiastic opposition to any blending of religion and education comes from the supporters of government schools, no school of any kind can maintain such separation. Value-free education is a contradiction of terms, and any hierarchy of values constitutes a religious system. Remember, it is not a matter of whether our children will be taught religion in school; it is only a matter of which religion they will be taught.

[Advent]