Teaching Rights over Righteousness Is Not Right

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In the United States of America over the past fifty years we have observed a great shift of opinion in what is regarded as right and what is wrong.  Rights are the focus. But teaching rights over righteousness is not right!  Promoting situational ethics has become dominant, and much of this is evidenced by political decisions in respect to education.  We have powerful influences in our government, media, and educational establishment that are very much seeking to indoctrinate the new morality of rights over righteousness!

Change has come, but it not good change.  The focus has been encompassing–not only in the schools, but in many mainline churches like the PCUSA, as it has moved to the left.   In the national tone we can see how the politically correct crew became dominant.  And central to this thinking is the focus on “rights,” minority group rights—be they according to religious focuses, gender factors, race, sexual mores, socio-economic status, etc.   However, should minority groups get special privileges at the expense of the majority or when the teaching is in mass contradiction to the guidance of the Bible, the book that was basic to the foundation of our nation?

The shift has been to teach rights over righteousness, and it is not right.  It is a sad picture, as Bible reading and prayer have been removed from the public schools.  The display of the Ten Commandments has been discounted in public places.   And the faith of our forefathers that is basic to the foundation of our nation has been classified, as just another ideology of no more valid than any other. The majority by far in our land ascribe at least generally to the Judeo-Christian worldview, so why do certain forces in our land continue to attack this often under the guise of “rights”.

The nation hit a high in church attendance in the fifties, but then in the mid-sixties there started a shift downward.  It is interesting to see that in the sixties the school achievement also began to drop, declining every year in comparison with the achievement of other nations.  Could this not relate to the shift of public education’s concern more with rights than with righteousness?  The focus on rights neglects the cultivation of discipline, where the focus on righteousness does build discipline.

We have gone from near the top to moving downward every year in comparison with other industrialized countries.   America leads the world by far in the expenses used to run our government, and one of the greatest expenses has been dedicated to education, but it is not doing the job.

Debt as a share of the U.S. economy reached a maximum during Harry Truman‘s first presidential term. Public debt as a percentage of GDP fell rapidly in the post-World War II period, and reached a low in 1973 under President Richard Nixon. The debt burden has consistently increased since then, except during the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.  (“GAO at a Glance”. Government Accountability Office. Retrieved 27 January 2011).  The debt increased under George Bush, but it has exploded under Barrack Obama with education being one of the largest ever-increasing expenses.

The teaching of rights, much of it inspired from the civil rights issue of the fifties and sixties took a good cause and profaned it.  The civil rights issue was very important, as blacks in America were given a secondary position and very limited in respect to their academic achievement.    The separate, but equal understanding in respect to the schooling was a farce.  For just think of the bright black minds that were stifled!  But in the process, our education profaned itself in the sense of lowering standards, establishing reverse discrimination, and promoting rights over righteousness, all which hurt public schooling. Civil rights are valid, but when civil rights are misconstrued, which is easy to do, when they ignore righteousness and responsibility, it is not right.

I am using the concept “righteousness” here as a focus on moral, responsible behavior.  As you notice, the generation gap developed during the sixties and has ever increased.  Drug addiction and crime has exploded among the youth.  Teen pregnancy grew rampant, and abortions exploded in number all over our land, which has slowed teen pregnancy, but certainly not in the right way.   Attitudes of the youth in respect to the more elderly changed. Change has been and is in the wind, but it is not the right kind of change!

There are political forces very much seeking to change American education or Western education toward one of being more encompassing, particularly in respect to the Islamic world.  The concept of “Islomophobia”, just as that of “homophobia” and other types of phobia are classified as examples of what the world esteems to be immoral thinking and that from which the educational establishment seek to remove from the developing minds that are entrusted to them.

The Islamic worldview is to conquer the world so as to subject it all to the teachings of the Koran, and the homosexual focus is promote homosexuality as a fully moral act and to encourage our children to experiment in homosexual activities—both which are totally unrighteous.  There are good Muslims, many fine people, but Islamic teaching has within it the route to complete subjugation of all to the Islamic order, and is confining to intellectual growth.   So far as homosexuality, a homosexual is not necessarily a bad person, but their life style is not righteous; and it is not right to educate, teach or promote it as a desirable way of life in our public schools.

A person has the right to be a Muslim in our nation.  A person has the right to be a homosexual in our nation.  This has nothing to do with righteousness.

But what certain groups call “Islomophobia” and “homophobia” are not moral evils, but rather just good common sense.  Look objectively at the Islamic faith and see how it speaks conflict, subjection of minority groups, rampant inequality, etc.  Look objectively at homosexuality and see the increased suicide rates, the diseases particularly dominant in this group and psychological problems often involved.  It is not right to overlook negative factors and to do so by labeling them some form of “phobia”.  When educators teach about subjects such as this, they should bring out these negative factors and not just sugar coat it all.

We are living at time when every little group is calling for their rights, but there is very little being said about responsible or righteous living.  Proverbs 1:7 well says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

The wisdom and instruction that the foolish people reject is that which affirms faith in God or at least in the teaching of his ways—the Judeo-Christian worldview.  It is not right, and as we are seeing our land increasing look to rights instead of righteousness or at least true responsibility in the education of the American minds, not just in the schools; but in the over all learning process—we are going to find we are not going the end up at the right place with the right answers.

Teaching rights over righteousness is not right!

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by Joe Renfro, Ed.D., Educational Columnist, Radio Evangelist, Retired Teacher and Pastor, 5931 West Avenue, Lavonia, Georgia 30553,  706-356-4173, joerenfro@windstream.net

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