The other day, I was looking up some information on one of the baptist catechisms, and one of the things it said about why we catechize our children was: “…What a difference will be seen if we ourselves reverse this sad departure from the scriptural practice and begin to systematically, lovingly and patiently instruct and indoctrinate this generation! Would not this in itself be a true revival?” (emphasis mine).
And the dirty word of the day is…
Indoctrination, would you agree? So it was interesting that this word was used in the reason for catechizing our children. I think it’s always wise to go back to definitions. Sometimes we can get tripped up when we’re having a conversation with someone. We may be saying the same word, but meaning completely different things. I did a quick duckduckgo search and came up with: “the act of indoctrinating, or teaching or inculcating a doctrine, principle, or ideology, especially one with a specific point of view” from dictionary.com. And just to be thorough, I looked up inculcate, which again, according to dictionary.com means: “to implant by repeated statement or admonition; teach persistently and earnestly.”
Therefore, to indoctrinate essentially means, “to persistently teach.” That sounds fairly benign. But the word indoctrination has notoriously been used recently in more of a negative way with reference to, for example, public schools, Hollywood, and social media. And what exactly is this ideology that is “persistently taught” to our children? Oh LORD, where to begin?
The indoctrination efforts all around us
To put it succinctly, the world wants to make your kids and mine, woke. Of course, this manifests itself in many different ways, but essentially, it’s a feelings based ideology. If someone feels they are not born in the correct body, then they are transgender. It doesn’t matter if you’re 5, 25, or 50. And it doesn’t matter what biology may indicate. All that matters is how you feel. So take life altering hormones into your body that are not fully reversible and surgeries that mutilate your body, in order to worship your feelings. Since that makes sense, evidently.
Do you feel oppressed? That must mean you do not fall under the category of white, able-bodied, cis-gendered, Christian male. As long as that’s the case, you must be oppressed and affirmed of that reality, no matter what statistics or facts there are which may refute your claims. Again, feelings or lived experiences reign supreme.
And of course, if you are unfortunate enough to be an American, you must virtue signal by telling others how ashamed you are of being American or how awful America is. The social justice warriors of our day tell us how America was founded on racism, and therefore it must be destroyed and rebuilt from the ground up. So we must take down those pesky statues of our country’s heros and heroines, and re-tell history according to the (ahem, debunked) 1619 project.
Don’t know much about history
Who cares that the great majority of Americans are not racist nor do they want to be known as such. But many stir up America’s ugly racist past and make the assumption that nothing has changed in the past 50+ years. Apparently, we have made no strides towards justice. Again, people feel as if there’s systemic racism since not everyone is the same (i.e. equity), painting our history in black and white and ignoring the complicated and nuanced history we have here in America.
Saying the quiet part out loud
There was even a song that was released and then quickly pulled from the San Francisco Gay Men’s Choir. The song, “We’ll convert your children,” blatantly outlined this secular agenda. I know that according to them, it was intended to be satirical. However check out the video and see for yourself if you agree. Some of the lyrics include, “whatever your religious beliefs, we are going to steal the hearts and minds of your children, and there is nothing you hicks can do to stop us,” and “You think that we’ll corrupt your kids; Fine — just this once, you’re correct. We’ll convert your children, happens bit by bit. Quietly and suddenly and you will barely notice it.”
What do we do?
But you know what? They’re right. It does happen “bit by bit.” Little by little, the great majority of the public schools, social media, and Hollywood are attempting to influence our youth towards an ideology that is completely at odds with Scripture. But the good thing is, this faux pas can be the wake up call for specifically the Church, but also, generally, America. The song is a great reminder to all of us who have children. If we don’t indoctrinate our children, the world is ready, willing, and anxious to do it themselves. We must consistently and repeatedly teach our children about our faith, our country, and our history. Never to hide the truth, but by contrast, to expose it. All of it. The only way to avoid repeating history is to know history. We must understand where we came from and who we are. And we must be grounded by our faith and Scripture, which does not change according to culture or the time in which we live.
So let’s make indoctrination great again, by indoctrinating our children by affirming biblical convictions and standing on objective truth. This is not meant to ignore feelings, but to put them in their proper place. Our feelings will change depending on the situation, but we must always hold fast to what we know is true, despite what we may feel.
Unashamedly indoctrinate your children, friends. It’s either you or the culture. The choice is up to each of us. You can start with great books that teach godly character and biblical truths, such as those that are offered at MHM books! But whatever you do, start. And stay consistent and firmly grounded in Scripture.
