The Puritans were a religious group in England that were not happy with the compromising doctrines of the Church of England. Most of the Puritans attempted to influence the Church of England to align their doctrines more like the churches of the reformation. However a smaller group of Puritans called the Separatists, who were more Congregationalist in their beliefs, were persecuted and eventually forced to leave England. In 1620 these “Pilgrim Separatists” eventually landed at Plymouth to start a new life. 

 

Most of us were taught that the Pilgrims came here directly from England; however a more detailed description tells us that the pilgrims came from Holland. Their congregation of Separatists left England at various times from 1607 - 1609 and settled in the town of Leiden in the Netherlands to escape religious persecution. The Netherlands was one of the few places in Europe that supported religious freedom and provided a good location for the pilgrims, or Separatists as some called them, to come out from under the control of the Anglican Church of England and start their own non-denominational church. 

 

The Pilgrims did not find the rest they were looking for in the Netherlands. One of the reasons they again decided to look for another place to live was the heavy toll life was taking upon their children. Peer pressure was strong and temptations were everywhere. Many children left the home of their parents to pursue a life without God. This brought anguish to the hearts of many Pilgrim families. In addition, the hard labor they endured daily wore heavily on the elderly, and the end of a peace treaty between Holland and Spain raised the threat of war. 

 

While re-evaluating goals and considering how they wanted to spend the remainder of their days, the congregation remembered an important reason for initially leaving England. One of their great hopes was to be able to advance the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in a remote part of the world. It seemed that somewhere along their journey they had made a wrong turn and it was again time to change course. After much deliberation, the Pilgrims decided that if they remained in the Netherlands they faced the possibility of extinction. So it was agreed that they should make arrangements to move to America.

 

The pilgrims then left Leiden for the new world. They had a vision of freedom of worship, a desire to bring the gospel to new places throughout the world, an opportunity to build a better life for themselves and their families, and a desire to pass on their faith to their children. Through much delay, hardship, and disappointments, the Pilgrims eventually were able to settle in Bristol, Plymouth, and Barnstable Counties, Massachusetts.

 

When Charles 1 became king of England in 1625, he pursued policies to eliminate the practice of the Puritans in England. As a result the Great Migration began with the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and other settlements where many of the Puritans of England came to America. One of the stated goals of the Puritans was to make their new colony a “city on a hill” with an educational system second to none. The leaders of the colony were to be the instructors since they were educated at both Oxford and Cambridge. Within 6 years of landing, colony leaders founded Harvard College.

Years later, the people of Massachusetts passed the “Old Deluder Satan Act” which required every community with 50 or more families to form a school for the purpose of teaching children to read the bible in order to keep them from being deluded by the Devil. Communities with 100 or more families were required to organize Latin Grammar Schools to “instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the University.”

 

The Pilgrim Separatists and the Puritans set a wonderful example for us to follow. America’s first schools in the Puritan community were established in the traditional one-room school house which was often held in the local church. The Pastor’s wife occasionally taught the children, or a teacher was hired to handle the daily operations of the school. Oversight and directional decisions came from the pastor and church leaders. The school day began with prayer, textbooks supported a Christian worldview, and academic instruction was the focus. So according to the practices of our forefathers, the original intention for the education of Christian children was to be under the covering of local church leadership. This oversight was important in maintaining a Christian heritage and imparting a biblical world view to the next generation. There were no other systems of education similar in the rest of the world, except for similarities found in Scotland.

 

Religious organizations began the first colleges for the training of ministers and community leaders. They knew that the education of children should always be under the care and watchful eye of the church. They also must have realized that what was taught in the church and home should also be reinforced at school. This would ensure a strong foundation in the hearts of children so that when they grew older, they would not depart from the faith.

Private school education was the standard for the first 200 years in America from the founding of Harvard University in 1638 until 1837 when Horace Mann of Massachusetts began calling for a public education system for all children. The success of private education in America led to a 97% literacy rate across the nation as revealed by the 1840 census data. [1]   Eventually the northern states adopted a public education system of common schools, and after the civil war the south followed, as a part of reconstruction, with a similar system. By 1870 every state offered a free public elementary education. Our experiment with public education for all has since been around for about 140 years.

 

We have often supported our local public schools in the past. Many of our church members were, and still are, employed as teachers, aides, support staff, and administrators. When problems developed we would respond in kind by doing our part to promote workable solutions. The Church, home and school complimented each other in meeting the needs of kids. Support groups such as Young Life, Mom’s in Touch, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Boy and Girl Scouts of America, Youth for Christ, Athletes in Action, and other Christian youth ministries provided necessary guidance and encouragement for students. Communities worked together to meet the educational and spiritual needs of their children. However as American society gradually moved away from its Christian religious traditions, public education has been forced to reflect our more secularized American society.

 

It is amazing how much our public schools have changed over the years. What we see today is nothing like your father’s public school. Because of recent court decisions, an imaginary wall of separation between the Church and local public schools has loomed large. In order to not “offend” those of other beliefs, our public schools have chosen to maintain a “neutral” stance on matters of religion. As a result, beliefs and values taught in church and home are not supported at public school. The help of God is not sought after, the testimony of the Lord is not heard in the classroom and the biblical perspective on subject matter is not taught. Our Christian teachers cannot pray, encourage in the faith, or lead someone to Jesus. They cannot even lead a Christian group of students before or after school (this varies from state to state). Their philosophical approach cannot, by law, be biblically based.

We must understand that if our public schools are not “for” Christ then they are against Him. There is no neutral ground. If we do not teach about creation, then we will teach evolution. If we do not teach about heaven and hell, then we teach that there is no such thing. If we do not bow our heads and pray for the needs of our students, their families, our teachers and administrators, our nation’s leaders and our Pastors, then we teach that there is no need to pray. It is time we face the facts. Our public schools have not just stopped teaching one of many subjects by taking a neutral stance. They have actually become faith destroying institutions. Few who enter graduate with a desire to love and serve the Lord. The blessing of God has been removed and will not return. Control has been taken out of the hands of local school boards and has become permanently entrenched in years of court cases which make up the laws that now hold our schools hostage. That is why it is time to start a Christian school.

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