Education in jails or the schools? This could apply anywhere.
This week we are taking a vacation from comment on the changes in the teaching program of the Couple to Couple League while waiting for some research data. Of interest to people who live in Cincinnati and the rest of Hamilton County is the prospect of financing a new jail. The sheriff and most of the politicians seem agreed on the need for a new facility, but the amount and the method of financing are in dispute. The three-man Hamilton County Commission recently voted (2-1) to go ahead with the project despite the failure of the issue at the ballot box last year. There’s a movement at present to force a referendum this fall.
Most of the money is not for the physical plant but for its staffing, and that includes rehabilitation and education. Almost all of our jail inmates have been “educated” in the local public school systems, and what is proposed is “postgraduate” education in the effort to straighten out those who took too seriously what they learned in school.
That is, what they are taught implicitly and what some take literally is that what is important in life is pleasure and the money that buys it. Money buys pleasure. Money buys flashy cars that bring the pleasure of admiration and envy. Money impresses a certain kind of people. In short, money is the be-all and end-all of education. Nothing is taught about the morality of the various means to get that money. So it is hardly surprising that some students quickly realize that they can make big money doing things other than staying in school. Selling illicit drugs makes money. Getting rid of the competition makes one’s drug business easier and more profitable.
The end result is that we have a crime problem, and the proposed solution is expanded jail capacity and more in-jail education. What is not being said is that we can reasonably expect another jail expansion every five or ten years because we are now reaping the fruits of practical atheism in the public schools (and some of the private schools as well) and a penal system with high rates of recidivism.
The problem is aggravated by the atheistic twist put on evolution as it is taught all too frequently. We are supposedly just nothing more than the products of something that evolved out of the slime of the earth. It is imagined and then taught that man and women are substantially no different from any other form of life. It is just chance that we are what we are. When you die, you return to the slime of the earth, and that’s the end. Universal annihilation. Period.
For those who manage to reject the idea of universal annihilation, the problem is aggravated by a presumption of universal salvation. No matter what you do, no matter how many people you kill or harm, you are going to a better place when you die. That is not the virtue of Christian hope; it is arrogant presumption or wishful thinking, frequently by those who do not want to make any change in their behavior to follow the way of righteousness.
For some of those students and former students who have somehow heard something about Christianity, the problem can be further aggravated by a belief in eternal salvation for all those who have once declared their faith in Jesus, regardless of any behavior after that initial acceptance. This joins erroneous theology with the cultural presumption of universal salvation.
The net result is that the vast majority of students today are given no reasons not to violate the natural moral law except the fear of being caught while violating a statutory law. I suggest that the proposed postgraduate education of criminals needs to be introduced into the schools, not just the jails. Supreme Court decisions that have ousted religious education from the schools have greatly complicated this, but something needs to be done. While faith in moral principles cannot be demanded on tests, some way needs to be found to integrate the teaching of the natural moral law into school curricula all over America. We cannot cede public education to the declared atheists, practical atheists, and agnostics.
One place to start would be to ask principals and superintendents some key questions about behaviors that are vital for our life as members of a community. For example:
Where in your curricula do teachers explain the meaning of “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Where do they explain that children should honor their parents and other authorities? Where do they teach respect for others, and where do they teach that respect for others means something as simple to understand as “no littering”? Granted, the latter is not vital for community life, but it does make a difference in the quality of that life.
Where do they teach against killing, lying, and stealing? Where do they teach that the sex act is a marriage act and should take place only between two people who are married to each other? Where do they teach that life is a gift and that you have a responsibility to take care of that gift and therefore not to abuse one’s self through alcohol, illicit drugs, and smoking? Where do they teach that the Creator God has a plan for baby care and that it’s called breastfeeding, especially ecological breastfeeding.
Where do they teach that truth has to do with correct understanding of reality and that truth does not vary from one person to another?
The alternative to NOT teaching the natural moral law is the default teaching of practical atheism, and that’s what we are paying for now in an increasingly godless culture with its consequent need for ever-expanded jail space. I suspect that the problem in Hamilton County is common thoughout the United States.
John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant (Ignatius)
Natural Family Planning: the Question-Answer Book, short, free, downloadable e-book available at www.nfpandmore.org.