What are they teaching? What are they thinking?

Brian Baxter *
August 2004

It’s hard to know exactly how many Australian children are being taught a fundamentalist curriculum. According to the website of the Australian Associations of Christian Schools (AACS), student enrolments in its 254 member schools number over 72,000 (2002). If we add the enrolments of non-member schools and allow for students being ‘homeschooled’ by fundamentalist Christian parents, we probably have a ballpark figure of around 100,000.

Am I using the term ‘fundamentalist’ too loosely? The AACS ‘Statement of Affirmation’ commences with this ringing declaration:

The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are God’s infallible and inerrant revelation to man. It is thus the supreme standard by which all things are to be judged, and the authoritative guide for all life and conduct.

Call it ‘conservative evangelical Protestantism’ if you like, but from where I stand, that’s fundamentalism, brother! Or sister!

Christian bookstore

I wanted to find out what these children are being taught, whether at school or in the homeschooling environment. My first step was to visit a local Christian bookstore and ask to see their range of primary and secondary texts. ‘You should really try Light Educational Ministries [LEM] or Kingsley Educational‘, said the friendly assistant, ‘but first have a look at these.‘

‘These‘ turned out to be four shelves full of Answers in Genesis material, interspersed with an occasional volume by Hugh Ross, a leading member of the rival ‘Old Earth’ creationist faction.

‘This should do you for Science‘, I was assured, ‘but for other subjects, try LEM. They’re probably the best distributors of Christian school texts in Australia.‘

Slightly dispirited, I went home and sat at the computer for a few hours, clicking through a large number of Religious Right and more general fundamentalist websites. My bookstore assistant was right. If you were after Christian school texts, all roads led to LEM.

The American experience

Before pursuing this lead, I dug out a couple of books on American fundamentalist schools, namely Alan Peshkin’s God’s Choice: The Total World of a Fundamentalist Christian School (1986) and Albert Menendez’ Visions of Reality: What Fundamentalist Schools Teach (1993).

Peshkin, a professor of education at the University of Illinois, spent several semesters at a fundamentalist Baptist school, visiting classes, attending services and generally immersing himself in the lifestyle. Here is part of the headmaster’s first-day address to students:

Our classes here reflect the Word of God. We believe that history, for example, is his story, the unfolding of the word of Jesus Christ on the centre stage of the world. A man trying to write a history textbook that presents Jesus Christ as just another historical figure has no concept of real truth. We don’t teach that way in our history classes …Science is an understanding of God’s handiwork. Men deny the Word of God and try to make us believe that all that we see about us has come about just through a series of events. Sometimes, the general term of evolution is used to apply to all this, but the Word of God is different on that. It clearly teaches that man was created from nothing …

The evolutionist says that the dinosaur and man were epochs of time apart, but Dr Henry Morris, a born-again man, a Christian man, has a picture in one of his books you won’t find in the average, secular high school biology book. It shows in the same petrified stream bed a footprint of a man and a footprint of a large dinosaur. So these creatures were on earth the same time as man. (50)

The headmaster goes on to explain to his students that this photograph - doubtless one of the Paluxy River fakes, now discounted even by creationists - ‘clearly shows the untruth of the evolutionary position‘, and concludes:

You’ll get that kind of information in our school; you’ll see that kind of thing emphasised.

The school librarian helps to protect the sensitive young minds of her charges:

I look for evolution … I found a double page of monkeys developing into man and, of course, we don’t approve of that at all, so I just sealed the pages together … If I find a naked person, I draw a little bathing suit on them or I put a little dress on … One of the books sort of made light of discipline and so we, instead of having a little frowning boy in there, you know, that had been punished and he didn’t accept it, we put a sticker on there with a smiling face. (262-3)

Bob Jones University Press

Peshkin’s school recommends that its students aim to attend Bob Jones University, a volubly fundamentalist South Carolina college. Menendez analyses several Bob Jones University Press (BJUP) texts in use throughout American fundamentalist schools. A senior high school Biology text attempts to relate all areas of scientific observation and knowledge to the inerrant Word of God:

As the author notes at the beginning, ‘The people who have prepared this book have tried consistently to put the Word of God first and science second.’ This negative attitude toward science pervades the text. Students are urged to disregard scientific facts and conclusions widely held in the scientific community. ‘If the conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong no matter how many scientific facts may appear to back them.’ (118)

And it’s not just Biology. Having examined BJUP History texts dealing with the Reformation, Menendez concludes that the treatment is strikingly deficient:

No attention is given to the sociological, economic, cultural, geographic or political factors which predisposed certain nations toward acceptance of Reformation theology and social organisation. Students are told that God intervened directly in history to bring about this event, and no further discussion is needed. This is a grossly unacceptable way to teach students the meaning and matter of history. (40)

Light Educational Ministries

Although I discovered a number of other Christian textbook suppliers in Australia, I am going to focus here on LEM for reasons which will become apparent.

LEM was founded in 1979 by Peter Frogley, a South Australian teacher. In 1978, Frogley had spent time in Hawaii as Principal of Youth With A Mission’s (YWAM) International Christian School. YWAM has a close association with the Religious Right in both Australia and the US, where it has developed distinct Reconstructionist tendencies (Diamond, 1989, 206). Reconstructionism is a contemporary Christian movement which aims at the eventual restructuring of society in accordance with the strictures of Old Testament law, including the death penalty (by stoning) for ‘crimes’ such as adolescent rebellion (Barron, 1992, 218)

According to LEM’s website Frogley now travels widely both nationally and internationally, ‘teaching on Christian education and promoting the organisation to schools, teachers and parents. Peter is also an ordained Minister and currently pastors Ginnindera Christian Church in Canberra.‘ In 2000, Frogley was a member of both the (Pentecostalist) Bethesda Movement Churches Executive and the anti-feminist Above Rubies magazine’s Australian Board of Reference (Above Rubies, letter to supporters, Feb. 2000, 2). His church figured briefly in the news during 2001 when it issued a leaflet claiming that Harry Potter novels had been seducing children into witchcraft and Satanism. Frogley rapidly withdrew the leaflet when he found that its information was based on a satirical article appearing in an American online humour magazine (Sibley, 2001)

LEM’s Curriculum and Library Catalogue

The March 2004 catalogue lists books designed ‘for Christian Schools and home educators‘ (1). If you come across a book with the accompanying symbol ‘NSC’, you are advised that this stands for ‘Not Specifically Christian’, which indicates that it has been selected as it ‘do[es] not contain offensive material or mention evolution‘ (2). Thus reassured, we progress through over 30 closely-typed pages of texts.

Books issued by Bob Jones University Press are featured at every grade level. Whether you’re teaching Bible Studies, Science, ‘Heritage Studies’ or the Three Rs, BJUP has a textbook for you, guaranteed evolution-free. Several other Christian curricula are offered, including the faintly disturbing ‘Rod and Staff’ collection of texts.

On p.33 we arrive at the Australian History offerings. One of these, Understanding Our Christian Heritage, is written by Graham McLennan, current Chairman of the National Alliance of Christian Leaders and a senior figure in the Australian Religious Right for many years. Another book, Southland of the Holy Spirit, is authored by Elizabeth Rogers Kotlowski. Kotlowski and McLennan are both big fans of the late Francis Schaeffer, whose ‘dominion theology’ called for society to be conformed to ‘Christian’ standards (i.e. a ’soft’ version of Reconstructionism).

Kotlowski compares her own work favourably to that of Manning Clark (described as ‘a sceptic, and a satirical pessimism pervades his writings‘), whose landmark history is merely ‘one man’s story of the coming of civilisation to Australia. [My book] is God’s story (His story) of the coming of Christianity to Australia‘ (Kotlowski, 1994, 295). In fact, her book is a long, rambling political tirade, bulging with Reconstructionist and dominionist references, and containing meaningless assertions, such as:

Wherever the Gospel has been preached, it has brought liberty in the lives of men and nations. In the context of Australian history, these landmarks of liberty can be charted thus: Creation - Moses - Christ - Paul - Bible - Columbus - Cook - Convicts - Pioneers - Federation. (59)

She rails against evolution, social welfare and modernity in general, and her book is not really a history text at all, but rather an over-long religious tract.

Politics and Government

Moving on to Civics, Peter Frogley (an art teacher by training) has produced his own senior school text entitled Government in Australia. The first few pages are pure Reconstructionism interspersed with Frogley’s folk-wisdom:

[At the time of European settlement, the Australian Aborigines] were a primitive people living a subsistence existence in fear and superstition because of their animistic religious beliefs … It is a biblically based belief that the people who left Noah’s Ark and subsequently were dispersed from Babylon were advanced people. It is further suggested that so-called primitive peoples are actually degenerate people who have rejected God and the civilising effect of His Word and Spirit. (8)As a consequence of the penal nature of [most Australian settlements] … our Christian heritage has suffered and antagonism to the Christian faith and its principles became ingrained in Australia. This is seen in the strong influence of anti-God political thought which has commonly expressed itself as socialism. (9)

[Prime Minister] Alfred Deakin was a prominent member of the spiritualist movement and was thus anti-Christian. (20)

And one for all you lawyers out there:

God has established the standard of right and wrong … God’s standards undergird Common Law and under that law it is the judge’s responsibility to declare God’s law. This system contrasts with statutory law, which is a body of law made by the parliament; that is, it is made by man. (22)

Frogley is seriously suggesting that Christian schools and parents teach these things to Year 9-12 students!

Returning to this LEM catalogue, also on p.33 are listed three books by leading American Reconstructionist Gary DeMar. I found it a little curious that other leading lights of the Reconstructionist movement such as Rousas Rushdoony, Gary North and David Chilton were not mentioned here, but as it turned out I was simply looking at the wrong catalogue. A quick glance through the companion ‘Theological and Reference’ booklist convinced me that in LEM we are confronted by one of the major Reconstructionist organisations in Australia.

LEM’s Theological and Reference Catalogue

This catalogue claims to redress a ‘void’ existing in Christian bookstores by offering the works of Rushdoony, North and a range of other ‘dominion theologians’. The range of topics dealt with is extremely wide, from The Dominion Covenant, ‘North’s economic commentary on Genesis, pointing out that sound economic policy must be founded in the doctrine of creation‘ to Donald Howard’s Burial or Cremation: Does It Matter?: ‘Howard suggests burial is the only Bible-approved method of disposing of our loved ones after death’. (8)

The ‘Science/Mathematics’ section of this catalogue contains a lot of old friends, including Duane Gish, Henry Morris and Ken Ham, all mainstays of Young Earth Creationism. There are twenty books under the Science/Maths heading, not one of which would advance your understanding of science or maths in any way. One of these works, The Cosmos, Einstein and Truth by Walter van der Kamp, ‘revives the old geocentric theory [ie. the sun and the rest of the universe revolve around the earth] with some fascinating insights which challenge Einstein’s work.‘ (18) James Nickel’s tome Mathematics - Is God Silent? ‘revolutionises the prevailing understanding and teaching of Maths [and] shows that Maths is distinctively Christian.‘ (19)

Finally, Rushdoony himself will lay your doubts to rest with his magisterial Mythology of Science: ‘This book defines the nature of the opposing religious systems of thought: Christian creationism and Darwinism. It is a call to Christians to stand firm for Biblical six-day creationism as a fundamental aspect of their faith in the Creator.’ (19)

Results

What sort of person emerges from this kind of education? Many different sorts, no doubt, but I’d like to close with three quotes from Peshkin’s American fundamentalist students:

Judy (Year 11): This is what got me saved. I’d seen a movie called ‘Burning Hell’. [This film has often been shown to church audiences in Australia.] … The movie was trying to make hell as realistic as they can. When I think of hell, I think of total darkness … In hell, the worm doesn’t die, and it’s going to be on your face. In the movie, it showed the worms were just all over and the people were just all screaming … You can’t really picture the Lord putting someone in that much pain. But he is going to because they neglected his Son … God is mightier than anybody. I mean mightier than the Communist … (208-9)

Sally (Year 11): I want to be ready to face Jesus. Oh, that scares me. When you have to look at him and to see the holes in his hands and his side and stuff and you know that he more or less got tortured for us … Getting people to heaven makes me think about hell and about my relatives, most of all, my grandpa … All the time I’d cry as I witnessed to him. I prayed, every day I’d pray for him. When I was fourteen [my grandpa died] … He lived a terrible life. I mean, he was what you would call an evil man. He drank, smoked; he’d go to nasty places, see girls … Everybody considered him an evil man, but still I loved him. (214-5)

Mary (Year 12): I’m one of those students who are always preaching. Some of the students [approve] and some of them just think, ‘Oh, man, here comes Miss Holy again’. It’s really bad. Some day they are going to pay for it, because God knows what they’re thinking and he is going to punish them. (195)

References

Above Rubies, Feb. 2000.
Australian Associations of Christian Schools - website material - www.aacs.net.au.

Barron, Bruce (1992) Heaven on Earth? The Social and Political Agendas of Dominion Theology (Zondervan, Michigan).

Diamond, Sara (1989) Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right (South End Press, Boston).

Frogley, Peter G. (1999) Government in Australia: The Nature and History of Australia’s Civil Government in a Christian Perspective (Light Educational Enterprises, ACT).

Kotlowski, Elizabeth Rogers (1994) Southland of the Holy Spirit: A Christian History of Australia (Christian History Research Institute, Orange, NSW).

Light Educational Ministries - website material - www.lem.com.au.

LEM Curriculum and Library Catalogue (Mar. 2004).

LEM Theological and Reference Catalogue (Mar. 2004).

LEM Serving You (n.d.).

Menendez, Albert J. (1993) Visions of Reality: What Fundamentalist Schools Teach (Prometheus Books, New York).

Peshkin, Alan (1986) God’s Choice: The Total World of a Fundamentalist Christian School (University of Chicago Press).

Sibley, David (2001) ‘Canberra church fooled by Harry Potter satire’, Canberra Times, 2 Feb.

(This article was originally published in The Skeptic Winter 2004 (Vol. 24, No. 2).
Republished with permission.)