The political right and conservatives accuse the left and Liberals of indoctrination; and they do a good job of indoctrination. The left and Liberals accuse the Right and Conservatives of indoctrination, and we need to be doing a better job. The purpose of the magazine Issachar is to indoctrinate in the archaic meaning.
Dictionary— indoctrinate:
To teach (a person or group) to accept a set of beliefs; modern meaning, uncritically.
“Broadcasting was a vehicle for indoctrinating the masses.”
Dictionary— indoctrinate:
The process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs; modern meaning, uncritically.
Archaic:
The manner of teaching: this is how doctrine and the idea of indoctrination, or to indoctrinate, is used in the Bible (NIV84).
Jesus told us to teach—indoctrinate—those we baptize (Matthew 28:20ff).
WHEN WE WANT TO ATTACK A PERSON OR A GROUP, WE USE THE MODERN MEANING. When we want to compliment ourselves or others we use the archaic meaning.
I am going to refer to an article, “Dangers seen in faith-based Education”, in Sunday’s Albuquerque Journal (February 24, 2019, section C, pages 1 and 2).
The basis of this article is the Left accusing the Right of the modern meaning of indoctrination, and the Right accusing the Left of the modern meaning of indoctrination. The writer, David Crary, misses the point. The Left and the Right are both doing their best to accomplish the archaic meaning to the word indoctrination. They are both seeking to teach their epistemological basis of faith and reason to their own group and to all that will listen. That is where civil discourse can begin.
For an explanation of where all this began, you need to refer to where V.P. Mike Pence’s troubles began; read my article, “No Apology Needed” (page 20 of the FebruaryIssacharmagazine, or page 5 inOur Sunday Epistle of 24 February, 2019).
Upon hearing that Karen Pence signed a pledge to live a life of moral purity in order to volunteer to teach art at Immanuel Christian School in Virginia, the left has gone wild in accusing the Pence family of being against a dozen sins unlisted that attribute to marital unfaithfulness.
Also, I am guilty because I have preached hundreds of weddings in the U.S.A. and I had the audacity to believe that those wedding vows were included in the vows to love and be faithful to that moral pledge of purity that was an intricate part to the vows said to each other as husband and wife.
The charge that Christian schools indoctrinate, rather than educate, was leveled by Professor Julie Ingersoil of the University of North Florida. Included are the ideas that they teach creation rather than geological ages of survival-of-the-fittest evolution, that the Christian Schools reject history and are intolerant of people with different opinions. We are nearly guilty as charged with the following caveat.
Christian schools do teach creation as presented in the Bible and true science. I do not know of a school that is called Christian that does not mention in their studies the theory of evolution.
As to history, they all teach world and national history without the revisions and the metaphysical philosophies.
As to being intolerant to people of different opinions, it is the public universities and colleges that bar Intelligent Design people and Creationists from speaking in their forum.
Joining Julie as critic of Christian schools and their indoctrination of Christian students with Biblical and conservative ideas was Chris Stoop, an Indiana writer that calls himself an ex-evangelical that grew up attending Christian schools through high school. “He recalls pervasive messaging that demeaned LBGT [sic] people and the empowerment of woman.” Again, he did not provide a direct quote.
The charge is true. Christian School education is based on the educational epistemological base of a divinely inspired SIXTY-SIX books of the Bible as God’s Holy Word. The public education is based on human opinions about the Bible and all subjects. These opinions change over time and are often not consistent with known fact.
In the 1950s I was a student of geology at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Not a single one of my textbooks from the 1950s are relevant today. In the 1960s I was a student of education, ministry, and history at Ozark Christian College; my Bible is as relevant today as it was in the 1960s. My textbooks with a few additions are as relevant today as they were in 1960. The word indoctrination as charged against Christian schools and public schools as used in the archaic and modern sense is true against both philosophies of education. They both indoctrinate their students by education and require acceptance without critical thinking of some presented facts. They both need to improve.
I expect both schools to do their best to indoctrinate their students to their way of thinking. It is the job of the apologist to teach (indoctrinate) their students to their point of view. It is also the job of the apologist to give a clear, critical thinking critique of the opposites thinking.
The first job of the student then the teacher is to determine that your doctrine is correct, then set out to indoctrinate—teach—others your doctrine. That will obviously bring in opposition from opposing points of view. This is where true learning begins.
Dr. Chris Stoop went on to earn his Ph.D at Stanford, and he states he doesn’t believe that indoctrination as education is right. Since now he believes in relativity, there is no true right or wrong, thus there are no doctrines to teach as fact; there should be no indoctrination, no right and wrong education.
One critic of Christian Education was required not to listen to worldly music while in a Christian school. This is a matter of opinion, and should be left up to the student. When I applied to a Christian graduate school for a master’s degree in Cultural Anthropology, I was at first rejected since I would not sign the Calvinistic statement of faith they required for admission. I wrote them a six-page letter as to why as a Christian I could not sign their statement of faith. They wrote right back that my letter was the clearest statement by a non-Calvinist that explained my scriptural reasoning. I was accepted into the Seminary at once.
The truth of the matter, the public, secular schools are winning the indoctrination war. They are doing a better job of indoctrination. Home schools and Christian schools pay too close attention to what they are against rather than what they are for, often failing to educate—indoctrinate—their students with all the truth they need, teaching their students what they believed, not entirely why they believed. The student needs to know both.
John Gehring, a catholic program director stated we need both… “I’m frustrated by the over-heated commentary where Christian and public schools are seen as enemy combatants in the culture wars; like any institution they have strengths and weaknesses. Like the Catholic schools I attended as a youth, they taught me to think critically, to understand my decisions; they help me understand my teachings on justice and cultivated a spiritually that frames my life today, even if they seemed a little strict at the time.”
The truth is we are a society drowning in information and starving for wisdom. The answer is that home schools, Christian schools, charter schools, and public schools need to be doing a better job of traditionally indoctrinating, teaching them to observe the truths of their basic doctrines. Everyone needs to know why they believe, not just what they believe then be “ready to give a reason for the hope they have within them.”