Watch Out for the Educational Snake in the Grass—Socialism!

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By the Rev. Joe Renfro, EdD

The word “social” sounds most positive in that it points to the idea of connectedness.  But socialism is another ball game, especially when it becomes a type of indoctrination of our youth and on into our colleges.  It is really not being taught as an idea, but as historical determinism. Our educational establishment applauds socialism, which comes from the root work “social,” but it really is a very divisive ideology. Socialism sounds good, but it presents major problems. It is certainly an educational snake in the grass.

Lee Edwards from the Heritage Foundation wrote an article back in December 2018 describing the dangers in socialism.  He wrote, pointing to the great dangers, that:  ”This is the reality of socialism a pseudo-religion grounded in pseudo-science and enforced by political tyranny.”  In America we removed Bible reading and prayer from our public schools, and we have been basically and are replacing it with socialism.”

It has been observed as well that: “Socialism is really a type of religion that the promoters thereof use to either replace Christianity or to re-channel it, much like what we can see evidenced in the social gospel.”  (Stirner – October 26, 1806 — June 23, 1856 –by Miguel Gimenez).   It can be called “a wolf in sheep’s clothing or a “snake in the grass.”

I have not met up with any literal wolves in my life, although I have had a few close encounters with poisonous snakes in the wild.  It is important, however, to see danger.  We need to be on the watch for the snake of socialism, especially as it has become dominant in much of our Western education!  The Bible says, “The devil walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour,” and this should be a call to vigilance.  Lions and wolves are easy to see. But socialism sleeks along, a snake in the grass, but this is just another avenue that the forces of evil use!                             

Promoting socialism creates a void that tends to erase moral fortitude and disciplined learning,  It as well tends to promote mediocrity in the sense of seeking so much to police learning and to level the achievement—example, free college for all, the plan to wipe out students debts, extra points on college entrance exams in respect to race or socioeconomic status, etc.,  things that certainly will not cultivate discipline in most instances. “Spend more money, continually set new primary and secondary standards, so the low achievers will reach excellence,” they say.  Reducing college standards, so as to accommodate slow learners is not a way for improvement, and it is not going to ultimately promote high achievement overall in education.

Children need to learn discipline in personal study and fortitude in academics. Much of this relates to attitudes dominant in the particular cultures from which the students originate.  Parents are vital in this, “to bring up a child in the way that he should go,” for this is a vital area in which to instill true cultivation of academic  discipline in the children to follow through on to more advanced learning. 

Proverbs 22:6 directs the teaching of the youth by saying:  “Start children off on the way that  they should go, and when they are old they will not turn from it.”  Here family nurture  is basic, as motivation and discipline most often find family values as a basic part.   Socialism especially in respect to academics wishes to replace the family by the state.

The state has sought to distance itself from religion, and in this process, it has lost a great resource for the development of discipline in academics.  This shows a pattern that is like sowing seeds that fail to develop properly because of a faulty foundation or other negative factors. Here is the truth shown by the parable of the sower that the Lord Jesus taught, and it is the call to responsibility, which is vital.

In contemporary education the stress is often more on monitoring teachers, rather than cultivating joy in learning in the students. This is one reason why most young educators after going to college and preparing to be teachers soon leave  the teaching profession. In American public education there is the tendency to project other cultures and to be highly critical of the Judea-Christian values once deemed important in our land.

When the development of educational discipline is neglected, when the pattern seeks to remove and/or subtract the cultivation of the development of wisdom in  learning process, something that is well instilled by spiritual avenues of commitment that tend to develop the capacity to discern between good and evil.  Without this ingredient true learning has been obliterated. When you look at much of the education in America, do you ever think about what the bible says, when it states  that: “In the last days, men shall be ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

In America we out-spend most all other nations in the world on education and get increasingly results that ultimately fall short in the overall evaluation.  To solve this problem we look more and more to technology, which can be a good, most valuable tool, but tools wrongly used can end up making real fools, developing people who can push the buttons, but who are void of real discernment and the ability to have and utilize wise judgments. The programming of much modern learning, especially that which cultivates continual development of socialism in our is not instruction in the way our students should go, but much of it actually a type that promotes class conflict in the guise of promoting equality.

Our Bill of Rights states “We are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights,” not “endowed by the state.”

The message of Christianity is one that wipes out class categorizations, but socialism which is central in the Marxian prospective makes class differences basic. Marx argued in his thinking that all history was the history of class struggles.  This is not what was basic in the establishment of our nation.

Let people be people all equal to be and become themselves, and let us forget about categorizing people by race, socioeconomic status, sex, or other means, as much of the contemporary teaching curriculum and programs have been seeking to do.

True wisdom is to see history not through the glasses of the categorization of class, race, or any other generalization, but to see all the product of individuals who all vary in respect to any classification.  Proverbs 9:9 says to “Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.”

Socialism is not wise, for ultimately it is devoid of wisdom, as had been evidenced where it has been developed, and history shows the pattern of this failure. Socialism is and has been very much romanticized in our youth, as it calls for a sharing by all, calling for the abolition of private property—where each has all to share not just the small part each would have to work for to achieve.

Karl Marx apparently was born Jewish in 1818. His father had converted to Lutheranism in 1816 or 1817; his mother converted when Karl was seven, in 1825. Karl was baptized when he was six, in 1824, but the home in which he grew up in was basically non-religious.

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, both who are central in the development of communism themselves, didn’t consistently or clearly differentiate communism from socialism, which has helped to ensure lasting confusion between the two terms.  Both socialism and communism are essentially economic philosophies advocating public rather than private ownership, especially of the means of production, distribution and exchange of goods (i.e., making money) in a society. Both aim to fix the problems they see as created by a free-market capitalist system, including the exploitation of workers and a widening gulf between rich and poor.

The beauty, however, in the life on Christ, the true riches are in relationship to God though the living Christ, riches for eternity, and it does not matter whether you are rich or poor by the world’s standards. Marx evidently missed this observation and became anti-religious.  It doesn’t matter what category the world might seem to categorize you into, something Marx failed to see.

The beauty, however, is that in the new life in Jesus Christ, the true riches are in this relationship to Christ, riches for eternity, and it does not matter whether you are rich or poor by the world’s standards

Under communism as proposed by Marx, there is no such thing as private property. All property is communally owned, and each person receives a portion based on what they need. Who determines this?

A strong central government—the state—controls all aspects of economic production, and provides citizens with their basic necessities, including food, housing, medical care, and education.

Bill Smith in Forbes magazine of January  31, 2012 wrote an article “Was Jesus A Socialist, Capitalist, Or Something Else?,” an article that should help to clarify if there is this snake in the grass and how to see whether it is poisonous or nonpoisonous.

Smith wrote: “Socialists highlight descriptions in Acts of voluntary, privately orchestrated, local and temporary commercialization to prescribe permanent, coerced communism under a distant, godless government…Like most of Christ’s ministry, Matthew 25 teaches spiritual lessons. We are to serve Christ with all our talent which entails supporting brothers and sisters being persecuted. The “least of these” in Matthew 25 are believers enduring the tribulation described in Matthew 24…

Taking these passages in an economic sense eschews their essential meaning. Christ’s mission wasn’t to elevate our physical status, but to redeem mankind. Christ came to ransom sinners, not to cure cancer and extend voting rights; nor implement free markets. He comforted temporal afflictions to authenticate his claims, so we’d believe, not for humanity’s physical comfort.”

The Forbes writer went on to state that: “Politicians expand power by sowing discontent with our worldly estates relative to others – what the Bible calls covetousness.  Demagogues encourage jealousy to justify looting taxpayers. They violate the eighth and tenth commandments through programs enabling recipients to avoid the fourth commandment’s requirement of work (Exodus 20:9)…

Redistributive “social justice” appears un-biblical even if the “poor” get part of the booty in exchange for votes… Biblical jurisprudence entails impartial application, not neo-Marxist conceptions of “social justice” enforcing equal outcomes. Nowhere in Scripture are states tasked with leveling wealth…

The Bible prescribes impartial justice, sound money and sanctions property. Scripture also advises limited government – the foundations of free markets. Christ even employed capitalist principles in several teachings. Jesus obviously understood incentives. He created us…

Capitalism began in Christendom and surged post-Reformation. Some say Calvin invented capitalism or attributed its success to the “Protestant Work Ethic.” This is exaggerated, but Calvinists did commend material progress as socially desirable and developed usury codes in keeping with the spirit rather than letter of Mosaic Law.

Although capitalism appears compatible with Christ’s teachings the Bible never specifically endorses free enterprise…As Adam Smith said of slavery, ‘A person who can acquire no property can have no other interest but to eat as much and to labor as little as possible.’

Without freedom to elevate one’s family, production falls forcing government to become oppressive. Socialism renders workers slaves to the state.” (“Was Jesus A Socialist, Capitalist, Or Something Else?” – by Bill Flax, Forbes, January 31, 2012)

It is sad to say that this pattern of indoctrinating our students to applaud socialism is but to seek to make our populace “workers slave to the state.” dependent on Uncle Sam—a dependency that truly becomes a snake in the grass, not just a snake, but a poisonous one.

Let’s hope and pray this can be overcome.  Restoring the right to practice prayer and Bible reading, which  was recently enacted by executive order, might help, if it is not too late,  but we who are reformed and evangelical Christians need to get off the politically correct bandwagon and speak up for individual responsibility against this socialistic indoctrination especially from our educational institutions.