Accelerated Christian Education: Raising political activists.
Today I’m going to show you an ACE Wisdom Pack. I’ve mentioned them before, but just to put you in the loop: Every senior level English PACE contains a pull-out Wisdom Pack, which is a brief comic book. In these Wisdom Packs, the PACE characters (who are role models for Godly living) discuss pressing issues facing teens today with their teachers and pastors. Relationships with the opposite sex and general Christian living are covered, but the emphasis is on politics.
Most accurately, the emphasis is on the responsibility of all Christians to participate in government, to ensure that taxes are low, abortion is illegal, welfare programs are reduced or abolished, homosexuality is punished, and Biblical principles are enshrined in law.
If you do not think ACE poses a threat to liberal, pluralist democracy, you have not read enough Wisdom Packs.
Each Wisdom Pack ends with the usual ACE fill-in-the-blank comprehension questions. In the one I’m looking at today, here are some sample questions:
(1) We are not good citizens if we do not __participate_ in our government.
(9) Oppressive governments are used of God to bring His people to _repentance_.
And, let it be said – I’m all in favour of participation in democracy. I’m just not sure how democratic it is to teach kids that there is One True Way in politics, that any dissent from this way is ungodly, and that it is their duty to bring about this True Way. Actually, let’s lose my my false equivocating here – I’m convinced that it’s powerfully undemocratic.
I’ll scan bits and pieces for you, but here are some choice quotes from the material. It begins by explaining how bad things are when non-Christians are in control:
“We have allowed humanists to make laws that have restricted the exercise of our Biblical faith. We have not been good caretakers of the freedoms God has given us by refraining from participating in our representative government.”
“I have recently learned that culture deteriorates whenever believers allow humanists to influence government.”
“God established three institutions: home, church, and government. He expects His people to apply Biblical principles in all three institutions.”
“Every believer has a responsibility to add his ‘salty’ influence to government.”
That last sentence is a reference to Matthew 5:13, “Ye are the salt of the earth.”
“There has been very little Biblical influence in government and in our communities in the past 30 to 40 years. We suffer from a lack of salt – the preserving and healing power of God. Divorce is breaking up almost half of our families, and thousands are destroyed by alcohol, drugs, suicide, and AIDS.”
The problem? That non-Christians cannot know right from wrong because our moral compass comes exclusively from the Bible.
“How does government know what is evil and what is good?”
“Good question, Booker. I think that is the very basis for Bro. Lovejoy’s running for a place on our city council. As a believer, he knows the Word of God and applies Biblical principles to every question brought before the council for a decision.”
“They [Daniel, David, Solomon] understood that the best government is limited government, which is possible only when God’s laws are written on people’s hearts so they act responsibly and with a sense of accountability to God.”
“That’s true. People who practice God’s absolute laws do not need to be controlled by government regulations.”
This argument is made again in another Wisdom Pack: Sinners need Big Government, because they cannot control their sinful impulses. Whereas Christians don’t need laws, because they have the Holy Spirit inside them so they are able to do right. This raises two questions for me:
1) So what about, say, Pastors that sexually abuse children? Was the Holy Spirit on holiday?
2) Surely, then, since fundamentalists are convinced their country is overrun with sinners, they ought to be in favour of Big Government?
Next, the Wisdom Pack explains why today’s governments are so terrible (compared with Solomon and David, et al):
“When people fail to live by God’s laws, God raises up an oppressive government that forces the people to cry out to God for relief.”
“And with these humanistic regulations applied to our churches, they limit our freedom to worship God publicly and fulfill the Great Commandment to teach our children to obey God’s Word.”
“That’s why believers should lead the way in government. If believers do not provide Godly leadership, then humanists will fill the void and enact oppressive regulations or allow evils such as abortion, pornography, and drugs to go unopposed.”
“History shows that the only way oppressed people were ever able to throw off abusive government and evil was for God’s people to put Biblical absolutes back into culture.”
And, just so that our hearts truly overflow with joy, questions from Wisdom Packs are included in ACE English tests. Which means that a student has to learn this stuff, or suffer lower grades.
So, here’s a page from the comic. I’d like to show you the whole thing, but I want to remain within fair use guidelines. This is the 1996 revision. Copyright 1989 Accelerated Christian Education, Inc.
Click to enlarge
So while there’s not much of a Christian Right presence in the UK at the moment, if they educate their children like this, there soon will be.
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Posted on August 29, 2012, in Accelerated Christian Education, Christianity, Education, Faith Schools, Fundamentalism, School of Tomorrow and tagged Christian Right, politics, School of Tomorrow. Bookmark the permalink. 17 Comments.
Leaving Fundamentalism 
I don’t mean to lower the tone of the post but “Every believer has a responsibility to add his ‘salty’ influence to government.” made me giggle.
This comment made me giggle.
“Oppressive governments are used of God to bring His people to repentance”. Is there not a grammatical error here, or just some miscopying? Or, I guess, I just don’t get it!
No, that’s what it says. Try replacing “of” with “by”. And putting it in active voice. Then it says:
“God uses oppressive governments to bring His people to repentance.”
It’s a similar line of thinking to when Jerry Falwell said 9/11 was God’s judgement for America tolerating homosexuality.
That what is mentioned in these above comment are the typos I am talking about.
Oh I see. Well that wasn’t a typo. It’s just a kind of old fashioned way of speaking.
I think it would be a good idea as an exercise to look at how prosperous, healthy, educated, equal, crime free, etc. we were when Christianity ruled over England during the dark ages. Compare that to how violent, poor, ignorant and foolish backward secular countries like Iceland, Japan and Sweden are today.
“Every believer has a responsibility to add his ‘salty’ influence to government.” 😀 This line makes me so happy, the apostrophes emphasising the salty is amazing.
Does anyone else think that the black guy in the comic looks a bit like a young Barack Obama?
Impossible. He was still in Kenya at the time.
Thank you so much, Johnny, for continuing to expose the treachery of A.C.E..
Families and faith-based schools have used these materials to the detriment of our youth, and that is why we are having the threat of theocracy today.
And that is my salty opinion!
“…pornographers, drug pushers, and other humanists…”
Sigh.
Quite scary the way that sinful activity is attributed only to non-Christians – by inference anyone who is a Christian doesn’t possess any sinful tendencies. No wonder fundamentalism can lead to such incredibly entrenched self-righteousness.
Not to be a troll, but it is obivous A.C.E.’s writing has minor errors. It is not like they would do this on purpose.
Since the conception of 4th edition in 2009, A.C.E. has corrected their writing mistakes in the brand new versions of Social Studies/Science. When I compare the old with the crisp, new edition, I notice the draft changes though all of it is new and not a minor revision.
What upsets me is why would they not be cafeful in checking for errors they teach to avoid in the English/ Literature-Creative Writing(Critical Thinking) courses? It is such like the “Do as I say, not what I do” action being pulled that many criticize A.C.E. They’re not accountable to education for doing that in the 80’s.
Wait, what here do you think is a minor error Thomas? The entire Wisdom Pack reads entirely consistently with ACE’s position throughout the PACEs. I don’t see any typos being discussed.
Can you just imagine ACE adopting a ‘Viz’ approach in outlining wisdom???
Hey Johnny. Been reading your blog, great stuff. Can you tell me what pace this is from and if it’s still available to purchase online? My ex-wife is taking me to court in the hopes that she can get our child placed in an ACE school against my will. Your scans have been a big help but I’m looking for the actual paces to have on-hand as evidence.
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