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Is Your Church Teaching
Pagan Earth Worship In Sunday School?
By Tom DeWeese
Many parents have sought to protect their
children from the behavior-modification programs that have
taken the place of academic education in public schools. To
escape the assault of Outcome-Based Education (OBE), multi-culturalism,
and workforce training programs, parents in ever-increasing
numbers are placing their children in private schools or are
home-schooling.
Public schools, and even some private schools, spend valuable
classroom time engaged in "cooperative" learning (group
learning) encounter sessions and discussion groups that employ
pop psychology that teachers are simply not qualified to
apply. These programs are designed for a very specific
purpose—to change the attitudes, values and beliefs of your
children in order to prepare them to be proper environmental
citizens in the “sustainable” global village. Such
behavior-modification programs are the very root of the
destruction of America's public education system.
In spite of the "school wars," parents have felt safe taking
their children to Sunday School to help build a solid moral
foundation. But, have you looked at your church's Sunday
School curriculum lately? You may be shocked to find
tree-hugging, earth-worshipping paganism intermixed in the
Christian lessons.
Many churches are now using a Sunday School curriculum created
by an organization in Colorado called "Group." There is
nothing in Group's publications that tells who they are, what
they believe in, or anything about the backgrounds of the
creators of the materials. But Group curriculum is now sold in
most Christian bookstores. The Group material offers "Hands-on
Bible curriculum" and advocates a "new approach to learning."
However a close inspection of Group's materials and teaching
methods shows it bears a close resemblance to the
behavior-modification techniques of OBE. For example, under
the sub-head "Successful Teaching: You can do it!" the
teacher's manual asks the question - "What does active
learning mean to you as a teacher? It takes a lot of pressure
off because the spotlight shifts from you to the students.
Instead of being the principle player, you become a guide and
FACILITATOR.” This is basic OBE classroom organization where
students are not taught by a teacher, but are guided to learn
on their own, as the class FACILITATOR simply suggests and
gently directs toward a pre-programmed, psychology-driven
lesson plan.
Just as in OBE behavior-modification exercises, the Group
curriculum provides "Problem Cards" for student discussion of
personal and family issues. Some examples from the workbook
for fifth and sixth grade Sunday School classes:
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PROBLEM CARD: "It seems like my parents
fight all the time. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm
afraid they're going to split up."
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PROBLEM CARD: "The cool kids at school
treat me like a total nothing. It's like I don't even exist."
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PROBLEM CARD: "My dad is afraid he's
going to lose his job, so we don't get to go anywhere on
vacation this summer."
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PROBLEM CARD: "I got in trouble for not
cleaning up my room. Now I'm grounded for the weekend and
can't go to my friend's birthday party. Doesn't that stink?"
Each of these examples are designed for
group discussions in which the entire class takes on one
child's personal problem. Personal family business is
disclosed, parental authority is questioned and student
"self-esteem" becomes the central concern. This is
Outcome-Based Education at work in the Sunday School class—led
by a volunteer teacher (facilitator) with no qualifications to
do so. Worse, all of it is done under the authority of the
church.
And how about that pagan earth-worshipping? In a Group lesson
entitled "hug a tree" students are led outside to an area with
trees. A child is blindfolded and led to a tree where he/she
is to hug it, and then feel the tree very carefully. "Try to
learn everything about the tree that you can without looking
at it." The student is led back to the group, spun around
three times and the blindfold is removed.
The Group tree-hugging lesson goes on to instruct the
facilitator “after everyone has hugged a tree, been spun
around and sat down, remove the blindfolds and find out how
many kids can identify the trees they hugged. If it's a nice
day, sit down on the grass and discuss the experience."
Questions for the "facilitator" to ask:
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How did it feel to hug a tree?
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How did you feel when you recognized the
tree you hugged?
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What do you like about trees?
Here's another part of the lesson called
"Life Applications." Children are to be taken on a walk around
the outdoor area of the church. Once back inside "ask about
the natural surroundings and human-made sounds. Talk about
natural beauty and human-made pollution. If you want, have the
kids go back outside and pick up any trash they saw on the
walk."
Question to ask: “How do you think God feels when he sees how
people have messed up the beautiful world he created?”
Children are then given a game to play to simulate pollution.
In a Group Workbook entitled: "Sunday School Specials" a
chapter tells students that "real conservation means
remembering to turn off lights, hiking or biking instead of
hitching a car ride, and cooling off in the shade instead of
in the air conditioning. Kids are often tempted to do things
the easy way instead of the 'green' way. They need lots of
encouragement and affirmation to develop and stick to an
environment-conscious lifestyle..." That one line demonstrates
an important key to the purpose of Group's Sunday School
curriculum—to promote a political agenda based on pagan earth
worship rather than Christian values.
Are your children safe from pre-programmed,
behavior-modification processes at your church? Will they gain
the solid moral Christian values that you intend for them to
receive from a Sunday School lesson? Not if Group is in your
Sunday School.
Tom DeWeese is the publisher/editor of The DeWeese Report and
president of the American Policy Center, an activist think
tank. The Center maintains an Internet site at
www.americanpolicy.org.
© Tom DeWeese 2005
Tom DeWeese, president of the American Policy Center, takes a
look at the way Greens are seeking to infiltrate sunday
schools with their pagan philosophy. A Norton AntiVirus
protected text is attached and permission to publish is
granted.
Alan Caruba, APC Director of Communications
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