 We humans are creatures of habits and traditions. This is as unavoidable as the repetition that produces them and this repetition is essential to general productivity. After all, we do not forever reinvent how to snap green beans or what we do daily but rather rely on habit to direct our steps, which frees our mind to focus upon that thing that occupies us at any given moment. Good habits and traditions not only guide us quietly throughout the day, they can also answer many long term questions or provide solutions to life’s most significant issues. For example, in your ponderings you may wonder how you are going to provide for yourself in your old age and may decide that you will commit to the same routine for twenty years in exchange for a pension. Box checked! These habits of mind and action are a ground spring of comfort and security for we humans. But we can also be short term thinkers and inclined to keep our head in the sand if it’s comfortable there or maybe we cover our ears, squeeze our eyes closed, and cry aloud ‘nah-nah-nah-nah-nah’ if to hear and see may break the reverie of our comfort. The great problem with this inclination is that the circumstances in which we are living may be changing or have changed considerably and our commitment to our comfortable routine and expectations might be contributing to great future troubles and maybe even our own downfall. If you choose to drift happily on the river lounging on a raft, no problem. That is, until awakened by a roar and looking up you see that the river disappearing over the horizon. The Common Man’s inclination towards routine and disinclination to be challenged is a primary source of power for what we can call the Power Seeker, be he a noble statesmen, a captain of industry, or a self-serving demagogue. Now, here after 2020 it should be apparent to any thoughtful Christian over thirty years of age that we are in a cultural war between what we often refer to as the Left and the Right and that the differences are irreconcilable. If you consider yourself the Common Man you need not understand how this conflict has been raging for generations or even for hundreds of years, but you must see that it is raging now and that you are somewhere in its growing vortex. This includes Christian public school teachers. Like all of us, they can view life through the lens of their occupation or that which they are investing a sizeable portion of their adult energies which in their case is the institution of American public education in the 21st Century. It should be apparent to all Christian public school teachers that they operate within a realm whose roots in this country are wholly secular and that is led top-down by theorists and senior administrators that are now openly hostile to Christianity. Am I right about the later assertion? Could you professing teachers who operate from within, show me, who am without, the proofs of my assertion? I imagine that you could easily. It should also be apparent to Christian teachers the damage that this secularisation has done to our public schools, as well as the damage that our secularised schools have done to the traditional Christian character of the country, especially since the 1960’s. Now, and especially in the aftermath of 2020, regular Americans, be they Christians or love-it-or-leave-patriots are effectively challenging the radical American Left. Likewise the states are at last reasserting some of their original sovereignty lost in 1865. It is high time that Christian public school teachers join the fray as well. But will they? The fact is the idea that God (much less Jesus Christ) has no place within the borders of public education has been firmly established for decades, and any Christian public school teacher that would challenge that by taking his light from beneath his bushel would be David facing off with Goliath, but without a sling. It is easy for me to say, So what! After all, are you a Christian or not? If your King Jesus is actually king, you have to say so, lest you deny him, at which point you are striking at the very core of what you profess to believe. I imagine that there are many public school teachers who if tied to a stake before a howling mob, doused with gasoline, and ordered to publicly deny Christ or burn, would say ‘Light it!’ But it may be easier to be burned to death then to be fifteen years in, take a stand, and then die alone on that hill and lose your pension. But need they martyr themselves alone? I think not. Times are changing fast as are attitudes. Reason has failed to disprove God, and for 300 years Progressivism has failed to deliver its utopia. But it has produced misery, both of the flesh and more importantly the soul. It is time for Christian public school teachers in the cultural South to take a stand. Together. At the same time. Here in God’s Country I am confident the people will support them, as well as school boards generally and elected state officials. The public school establishment at the state and federal levels is not a house of cards. They are dug in like a big fat tick and ain't gonna let go without a fight. But they are breakable. And if we wish to save public education, then it is Christian public school teachers that need to lead the fight. Here in Dixie they’ll be supported, just like the Canadians are supporting their truckers. This piece was previously published on Look Away on February 18, 2022.
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