“WE LIVE IN AN AGE AND SOCIETY THAT HAS GREATLY DEVALUED HUMAN LIFE. PART OF THIS DEVALUATION IS SEEN IN AN ATTITUDE THAT HAS ALLOWED TERRIBLE ABUSE, PARTICULARLY TO OUR CHILDREN. HOWEVER, ONE GREAT ABUSE OF CHILDREN IS OFTEN OVERLOOKED.”

 I’m Dennis Finnan, host and speaker on the World, the Word & You! Broadcast and in a moment we’ll talk about an abuse of children being tolerated in our society, especially in of all places, our public schools. Stay tuned, for what I’m about to share should shock you, and open your eyes to consider doing something about it…

...Friends, if present statistics are correct, the horrible truth is every 60 seconds a child is abused in the USA ! That’s an average of one victim every minute, or more than HALF A MILLION annually! Indeed, thousands of children die each year from actual physical abuse. Furthermore, more than 70% are killed by their own parents. However, when we hear the term child abuse, most of us usually confine our thoughts to such physical abuse. Yet child abuse experts tell us it goes even deeper than that. Child abuse also covers things like physical neglect, sexual abuse, emotional deprivation, and even verbal abuse. Of course, this is where the majority of educators and psychologists stop. Yet, is this all there is to abusing a child?

The answer is no according to God’s Word. Accordingly today, I do not want to touch on any of these well documented abuses. Facts, figures and life plainly tell of their horrible reality. However, I believe millions of children are further abused, and sadly, this particular abuse is of little concern for most Americans. Well, in a moment after our second musical pause, I’ll return to tell you about an awful child abuse that goes on every day in our nation. So, don’t go away, this message may well concern you, your children or grandchildren!

Recently, a tremendous stir was created in the news when a prominent Southern Baptist asked the national convention to consider a resolution recommending parents remove their children from what he called ''godless'' and ''anti-Christian'' public schools. The resolution, co-authored urges parents to home-school their children or send them to Christian schools. The resolution makers said, “God gives the responsibility for education of children to the parents, not to the government, and parents should be taking responsibility, primarily through home-schooling or Christian schools.'' The 16.2 million member denomination will consider this resolution mid June 2004, and if it doesn’t make it to the floor of the convention, it will be presented publicly. At that time, a two-thirds vote of the assembly will be needed for it to pass.

Now why has such a provocative proposal been made? The answer is public education has reached an all time low that for many Christians has become philosophically dangerous and spiritually deadly. The proposal, which also was written by Texas attorney Bruce Shortt, says “the public school system claims to be neutral but is actually opposed to Christianity and provides an education that is 'godless’.'' He further stated, ''Just as it would be foolish for the warrior to give his arrows to his enemies, it is foolish for Christians to give their children to be trained in schools run by the enemies of God,'' the resolution states. The resolution also says public schools are now even  ''adopting curricula and policies teaching that the homosexual lifestyle is acceptable.''

Now know doubt, all of us are appalled at the growing child abuse we see surfacing nationwide. Many of us wonder why it is happening, where did it all begin, why has it multiplied so rapidly in these last days? Well the answer lies in the fact that, child abuse seen today, which is physical, sexual and verbal abuse has arisen from one common ancestor. Yes, we need to rethink this truth. What abuse is this? It is the spiritual abuse of the soul of our children, perpetrated by the “monster of spiritual neglect and apostasy.”

Now the word abuse in the dictionary means: “TO WRONGLY USE, MISUSE, OR TO CORRUPT BY AN IMPROPER PRACTICE OR TEACHING.” In this sense, I believe much abuse has gone unnoticed, and as a result it has spawned the resultant deadly abuses we publicly see and hear of today. Yes, the monster abuse of SPIRITUAL NEGLECT AND APOSTASY is rapidly becoming the death knell of tomorrow’s children and ultimately society as we know it. Now think about it, all life must obviously be based on some ideology for living. Some may call it religion, others simply a philosophy. But whatever name you call it, it is the same thing! It is a set of beliefs to live by, that explain the cause, nature and purpose of all life. Today there is an untold abuse of children found in the majority of America ’s homes, where God is absent, and worse, this tragedy of neglect is further found being reinforced in our government schools of education. Yes, this spiritual neglect is a real “CHILD ABUSE” of the worst kind, because often unseen or undetected, it grows there and roots to blossom forth its evil fruit seen in all other forms of abuse noted today.

Now let’s get down to basics. What I’m talking specifically about is “spiritual neglect and apostasy.” What do I mean? Well, let God tell us from His Word. In the Bible God says to all mankind, that the entire human race is the “creative product” of the sovereign, eternal God found in the pages of Scripture. God says we, His creation, all of us, therefore belong totally to Him.

Psa 24:1 (NIV)  “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

Furthermore, the Scriptures tell us that all children born to mankind are also God’s possession.

Ezek 18:4 (NIV)  For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son--both alike belong to me…”.

As such, all parents are but stewards for God, to rear His newly born creatures for His pleasure and glory. Parents are commanded in the Bible to nurture, strengthen, discipline and teach their children to grow up loving the God of the Bible and hungering to live according to His commands and precepts for life.

Prov 22:6 (NIV)  Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

In society, God tells us many things such as how to live and relate to others. We find these teachings in the 10 Commandments which are not suggestions, but absolute commands, and like all commands in the Bible, disobedience carries with it both punishments and consequences.

In the Biblical commandments, God forbids, establishing any authority other than God Himself to rule, teach and guide men. Moreover, God demands respect for His Name and His creation. Furthermore, God directs how we are to worship and work; and, how we are to run our homes; to learn to treat all life as sacred; to establish permanent marriage relationships; to respect the rights of personal ownership; to watch our speech and tongues; and, most of all to watch and curb our physical desires and relationships! Yes, God gives explicit and clear instructions, on how to establish life and to continue to pass it on to each succeeding generation. Now, in the failure and rejection of these Commands, is the greatest abuse our humanity has ever known!

For instance, in most homes today, parents today assume that the responsibility of rearing their children is a shared one. Meaning that the government and society are chiefly responsible to rear children for the life they are to live. Million of homes operate on this basis. Fathers and mothers send their children off to the government approved Day Care centers and other public schools of learning. There parents expect their children to be taught and trained in the finer art of living. The sad truth most often is, there in these godless centers for training, little children become the spiritually abused and neglected.

Yes my friend, I say this boldly and correctly. There in the public schools and the godless federally funded Day Care centers, children receive the greatest abuse of their humanity!

For instance, from early training such as HEAD START programs to PRE-SCHOOLS, on through KINDERGARTEN and up to graduate schooling, our children learn a number of things and also fail to learn a number of things too. Let’s summarize what they do learn, that in God’s eyes, is indeed child abuse.

First of all, according to godless secular educators and their teaching, children come to learn that,

#1 LIFE IS A BUT COSMIC ACCIDENT, AND WE ARE ALL HERE IN A MEANINGLESS EXISTENCE - as such, children learn to believe life is a product of blind chance and has no purpose whatsoever. Through evolutionary teaching that says the world and universe are all here by accident, educators imply and worse, reinforce the thinking, that there is no God of Creation, and thus no God or higher power to be accountable to for their actions and living. This has led our children to great depression, confusion and worse anger that in truth, brought us the Columbine School murder tragedy years ago. This raw child abuse goes on in every secular government house of education mandated by false and corrupt law of separation of Church and State. Secondly all children, in our Bible absent homes and schooling, learn through instruction material, group peer pressure, and through manipulative training of atheist curriculums, that,

#2 WE EACH MUST CHOOSE OUR OWN PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE FOR LIVING AND NONE ARE WRONG OR DANGEROUS -  Through Multi-culturalism teaching that all philosophies and cultures are good, every child is taught they must adopt their own philosophy of life which by the way, never includes Christianity. This godless philosophical view of life includes specific sexual orientation, moral and social concepts, and anti-Christian religious orientation as well.  Recently on January 6, 2004 , the ACLU won a lawsuit against the Morgan Hill California School District over its alleged failure to protect six homosexual students from harassment. As a result, the school district was ordered by California courts to indoctrinate every employee in the school system to take pro-homosexual sensitivity training courses. Even the students now are forcibly and intimately taught that homosexuality is an equal and good way of life to consider. Shockingly, Santa Rosa Schools in California now celebrate “Gay Days.”  Yes, for 12 to 16 years of schooling outside the home, children across the nation grow up within a system of learning that has simply cast God and His teachings out. But, an educational system that relies purely on fallen human reason and offers personal deity to all students, greatly corrupts and ruins the lives of those who embrace this false and damning teaching!

Now the Word of God warns specifically about such types of child abuse. Paul the apostle said:

Col 2:8 (NIV)  See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

Yes, God’s Word tells us what teaching we must shun and avoid in the training of our minds and our youth. But then we must ask, is there a standard to measure acceptable teaching today by, that would not be a form of child abuse? Well God’s Word answers again,

2 John 1:7 (NIV)  Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.

Now God’s Word plainly tells us that any educator or system of education that denies the God of the Bible; His sovereign right and rule; that denies Christ’s deity and ridicules His Word for life and living, is indeed the enemy and abuser of mankind! Think about that! God says that to you and me!

In fact, every day, five days a week, our public school systems all across America teach our children that God does not exist, and that every young person is his own sovereign lord of their own lives. Moreover, they learn there is no right or wrong decisions one can make. “Antinomianism,” “Situational ethics” and “Generalism” are the unethical philosophies of all public education today. If you do not believe this, then you my friend are deceived too.

Samuel Hayakawa, once president of San Francisco State College and a U.S senator correctly said: “Our schools have become vehicles for a heresy that rejects the idea of education as the acquisition of knowledge and skills, and instead regards the fundamental task in education as therapy.”

Indeed, he was right. This heresy is what has resulted when the school systems rejected God and His Word as the foundational philosophy of training and replaced it with the alien philosophy of Secular Humanism. Such replacement changed education from addressing the child’s intellect of teaching knowledge and skills, and replaced it with education which addresses feelings, attitude, and behavioral changes. Today public education, without God as its basis of life, graduates annually, 23 million illiterate adults, and launches the rest with a degenerate social immorality and an apostate spirituality that sets them adrift on the sea of life.

Child abuse in schools and homes, where spiritual neglect and apostasy has ruined the souls of our young people, is perhaps the greatest cause of all the aliments our nation suffers today. Look at the growing suicide rate among young people, the crippling depression and loneliness they suffer, their rampant drug abuse, their gross immorality, their growing fascination with homosexuality, unrestrained premarital sex, their increased violence and our national unabated abortion killings our young people are heavily engaged in – all is the rotten fruit of godless education!!

Today’s youth are spiritually, emotionally, and morally confused as they aimlessly search for identity in the wrong places. In the classroom, for almost 12-16 years of life, a child learns to become a practicing atheists, or an illegal drug user, a haters of parents, an impotent stunted, and an immoral and anti-social dropout void of responsible moral life and living. Yes, through anti-god training, psychological manipulation, corrupted morals of homosexual training, and godless peer pressure - our children have been emotionally, morally and intellectually abused by psychological and behavioral experiments, fads, and dangerous false learning experiences.

As a pastor and preacher, it is my job to help people find meaningful lives in obedience to God and His laws of life. I find, time and time again, so many young people today need training to realize that God is their Creator, and that He has established absolute moral, social and spiritual laws and boundaries, that if violated, carry heavy consequences in this life and possibly the life to come. In fact, every atrocity of life I have seen in our societies today, I believe can be traced in some manner, back to the time homes and families and our centers of education veered away from a world that learned and respected life through the truths of God’s Word.

Yes, child abuse becomes reality when parents and leaders in our schools systems believe children can grow up in a spiritual and moral vacuum. Friend, God’s Word says we are to train children by the Word of God. Refusal or neglect to do this, will not exempt the price of judgment. Without a doubt, one day God is going to hold all parents accountable, Christian and non-Christian for their spiritual neglect and apostasy better known as the real child abuse.

God will judge every parent and teacher, for their part in developing in children a corrupt value system that rejects God and leaves out His righteous truths for life and living.

Yes my friend, think about it, absolutely no child develops his own value system. Values and lifestyles are a learned acquisition. Your child, my child, all children will learn values somewhere and from someone. As such, today’s children are either the product of spiritual neglect or proper training in the Word of God. In the now godless anti-Christian public education environment, they learn a value system that makes man the center of life. They teach man is in effect divine, potentially good and under no higher authority than oneself. With such teaching, our young people are learning that they must have total freedom in life to live and express themselves as they please. Why? Because to them life is nothing more than an accident; therefore, they “are” their own authority. And, once having been so wrongly trained and defectively equipped, they go out to live and die like beasts of the field. God help us and them!

Child abuse! Yes, God is going to hold every man, woman and young person accountable for neglecting God and so great salvation He offers. So remember now what real “child abuse is. The dictionary says it is: “TO WRONGFULLY USE OR IMPROPERLY TEACH SOMEONE TO THEIR PERIL AND HARM!” Friend, honestly where does this message find you? Are you a product of a godless upbringing and such public education? Are you morally, spiritually and socially adrift in life, wondering why you are here at all? Are you one who has broken God’s laws for life and living, and now labor under its crushing consequences? Don’t despair for there is “Good News.” God promises us, our sins will surely find us out, yes, but He also promises us there is forgiveness and healing. Even if we fail to know or believe God’s laws, the truth is when we violate them, we will pay the consequences. Today everyone knows that whatever seeds one plants in the soil, that is what will in time surface and grow. Well, today’s social crises that are plaguing our nation, are the fruited harvest of sowing such deadly and godless social seeds. These wrong seeds are Humanism, Atheism, godless Hedonism, Materialism and the like. All these philosophical lifestyles are the real “abuse” found in most homes and public educational systems today.

The fact is, only when we realize it and turn from it, and get back to God and His Word, will our lives and nation be redeemed. Yes, America must get back to its first love - a love for the sovereign Creator God of the Bible, and then to desire to reestablish His laws for American life, living and teaching. We must get back to the “better life” we all know America once knew under obedience to God and His Word. We must get back to the Bible, as our only source of right living; And, we must get back to faithfully being a part of a local Bible believing Church, actively serving there, faithfully training our children there, and most of all we must get back to searching for that salvation experience that only comes through personal acceptance and invitation of Jesus Christ into our heart and life.

Today friend, are you far away from God? If so, God is calling you to come close, and to learn about Him through His Son Jesus Christ. All need to receive Him into their hearts and lives. Remember God has a plan, and that plan can include you. Won’t you receive Christ right now, by a prayer of commitment and faith? It’s the only way to go, and it alone can give meaning to your life.  And best of all, regardless of how bad off you are, or what’ve you done or failed to do, God can heal the terrible “abuse” suffered by our children today. May God grant blessing and grace to all to seek Jesus Christ. He alone is the answer to all of life’s perils and problems...

... From Multi-Culturalism to Homosexuality; from Atheism to Hedonism; from Evolutionism to Secularism our public schools today are a hotbed of corrupt ideologies that are the root cause of the present ruination of America . The Southern Baptist Convention’s resolution before them is indeed a radical proposal to abandon the public school system, but that my friend I think is the only hope for tomorrow. Public education’s moral and spiritual corruption as measured by the Bible, makes it unworthy for Christians or anyone for that matter to send their children there to be prepared for life. And, sadly the results are just beginning to surface in American culture. I’m sure the resolution will have been turned down by now, but the truth is out and it is my prayer many Christians will move to educate their children God’s way with God’s Word as the basis of all life, learning and living.