Secular education now imparts a worldview that is, in deeply important ways, contrary to Christian belief and which diverges dramatically from the education that is part of the heritage of Scotland, the wider United Kingdom and the entire Anglosphere. This presents a dilemma for Christians and indeed for anyone who considers the contemporary woke ideology to be confusing, harmful or simply flawed.
Pastor John-William Noble of Grace Baptist Church, Aberdeen, joins David Scott to dissect this issue and look at the history of education, identifying how this situation arose. Their discussion specifically examines education in Scotland, but similar patterns are present elsewhere in the English-speaking world and beyond.
Noble outlines the history of education, including the influence of reformers such as the American Horace Mann, who moved responsibility for education from parents and the church to the state. Subsequently, incremental changes to the education system eventually resulted in a system unrecognisable in its aims and values from the one which the state took over.
Is the end of education godliness or material success? If absolute standards based on Scripture have been replaced by relativism, what effect does that have on the children? If the rules for life can no longer be stated—if the lines can no longer be drawn—are children now being failed by an education system that no longer educates in those areas that are of most vital importance to the development of their character and to their preparation for adulthood?
Noble expounds on his view that a combination of the wicked trajectory of the state and the loss of authority of the church is leaving children bereft of sound knowledge to navigate through life. Instead, they are fed with shifting definitions, Gnostic religious beliefs and cultural Marxism. This is all done surreptitiously, with no admitting the nature of the beliefs being imparted and with the worth of these tenets never critically examined.
David and John-William discuss the foundation of a new school in Aberdeen. It was formed against the backdrop of the lockdown and Covid restrictions and is based on a Biblical worldview that was once common, almost universal, in Scotland, but that is now very radical. So radical, in fact, that the pastor, examining the cultural conflict that is unfolding, concluded that "we are in a war here".
In the end, this interview is a call for a fightback against the wickedness of the state; for intellectual and spiritual resistance. The pressing question is, will people stand against state education; will they act to adopt alternative provision? Or will caution and uncertainty, inertia and languor see to it that the state remains unchallenged?
In short, the people can see the problem, but will they cross the line into seeking alternatives? Will people abandon their faith in the state?
Pastor Noble discusses in this passage of another talk how little support he has received from churches.