Lincoln Samuelsen, 8, from left, Alex Blair, 8, Michael Vukich, 8, Sophia Rygiol, 8 and Sarah Powers, 8 sing a song to end Bible class in Kim Kihm’s classroom at Capistrano Valley Christian School at San Juan Capistrano. Ana Venegas, staff photographer.
Some religious schools in southern California are using technology to prepare students to defend their faith against the scourge of “secular roommates” they might encounter in college.
Two Orange County families who wish to remain anonymous have donated $1.5 million to set up an Internet-based program to teach Christian apologetics — a field of theology that uses logic to defend faith — starting in elementary school, reported The Orange County Register.
“Our goal is to revolutionize the way the Bible is taught in Christian schools so kids will be firm in their faith,” said Kim Van Vlear, director of Bible curriculum development at Capistrano Valley Christian Schools. “We want to show why the Bible is true with proven evidence like science, archeology and history.”
They are worried about kids meeting an evil secular student in college. Is ‘paranoid’ an adequate description here? Serious shades of the notorious Jesus Camp here.
The program uses a variety of activities to teach students about scripture and biblical philosophies, including salvation, truth and knowledge, and the origins of the universe.
“The curriculum will give students the opportunity to learn, understand and compare and contrast the claims of Neo-Darwinism and the claims of the intelligent design thesis,” said program editor Catherine Waller. “We invite students to follow the evidence where it leads.”
Christian teens are becoming less engaged with their faith as they grow older and encounter tough questions about their beliefs, studies have shown.
“There are so many kids going to college and having their faith rocked by a secular roommate,” Van Vlear said.
[…]
The theology depends on confirmation bias, the tendency to seek out or interpret evidence to confirm a particular worldview, but school officials say the curriculum is necessary “to maintain cultural relevance.”
♫ YMCA♬
Strange fixation on roommates. I would think they’d be more concerned about literally any science or statistics or philosophy class where you learn how knowledge works.
Why are the boys doing different salutes than the girls and, more importantly, why are the boys doing the traditional “Hail Hydra” salute from the comics?
@Siobhan #2 -- At a guess, there is an inherent assumption that these kids will go to a religious college where science, statistics and philosophy are taught only insofar as they conform to a Talibangelical worldview. So the threat is not from the “education,” but from secular infiltrators.
They are worried about kids meeting an evil secular student in college.
I know a couple young people whose parents hit on the strategy of making sure their kids weren’t able to get into college, so they wouldn’t encounter evil secularism.
We’ve got a lot of social justice issues to sort out, but I hope that parents “rights” over how their children are raised gets more aligned with childrens’ rights to a decent education, good nourishment, non woo-woo medical care, etc. Parents have way too much authority over what happens to their kids.
busterggi, the girls have by this age internalized the idea that they must limit their expression, not take up more space than absolutely necessary, and never outdo the boys.
You can “want” it all day, but actual science, archeology, and history will not support that premise.
As long as the “evidence” goes through an approved editor to scrub it of any evil secular knowledge.
Apparently, one of the drawings behind those kids is covered up with a sheet of paper citing, I think, Georgia O’Keeffe. (None of the 11 photos in the slideshow accompanying the linked article shows more.)
Even if one of the pupils had achieved an O’Keeffe-ian style, why would it not have been removed and destroyed, the kid expelled, and the teacher fired for even knowing anything at all about G. O’K?
Perhaps, but I’m thinking projection (on their part): “They” would be pestering their reality-attached roommates to bother teh magic sky faeries, and so presume the roommates would be pestering “them” to stop being a faerie-botherer…
That last bit gives away the game. If they were seriously interested in teaching apologetics, they wouldn’t do it in elementary school. Targeting kids that young shows clearly that this is about indoctrination, not education.
Apologetics has demonstrably failed for over 1,000 years. Next?