Christian education will sustain America, preserve founding principles, advocates say 

Christian education is the “last stand” and “greatest hope” to preserve and pass American values to the next generation, Herzog Foundation Institute Director Sadie Elliott said at an event honoring America’s 250th birthday in the country’s original capital, Philadelphia.

“So, this week we gather not merely to talk about education,” Elliott said during her opening remarks at America250: National Convention for Christian Education. “We gather to reflect on the ideas that built a nation, the truths that sustain freedom, and the responsibility we carry to pass them faithfully to the next generation.” 

The Herzog Foundation, which publishes The Lion, hosted more than 150 Christian teachers and partners from across the country at the Union League in Philadelphia March 8-10, to commemorate America’s founding and its significance to education today. The three-day event offered tours of the historic city and numerous speaker sessions from various Christian organizations, including the Center for Christian Virtue (CCV), Hillsdale College K-12 Education, The Colson Center and Turning Point Education.

CCV President Aaron Baer said Christian educators are operating a “full-on rescue mission” to reimplement the values of the American founding, which requires an “offensive” position, not merely a defensive one.

“This is the moment for Christian education to expand like never before,” he said.

Children look to adults to guide them in thinking about issues of the day, Turning Point Education Association Director Scott Polender said, adding, “scripture must be the foundation of all education.” He warned that a society’s destruction of its own children historically indicates the culture “has turned against the natural moral order and is quickly approaching collapse,” citing numerous biblical examples.

“Every human being has a right to life. It’s what built the West,” Polender said, quoting Turning Point USA’s founder, Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September at a public campus event.

The Declaration of Independence, which recognizes this right to life, asserts not merely a political claim but also a theological one, Polender said.

Christian education preserves America’s founding values naturally since such values derived from Christian principles, pastor and author Cole Feix said.

“It was Christian virtues – more than that: Christian people – who caused this nation to rise, and it will be these Christian virtues that cause the nation to continue as long as God sees fit,” he said.

Feix encouraged teachers to train their students to be citizens of heaven, and they will naturally be “great citizens of the United States.”

“Teach your kids Christian virtues and the values of the Founding will be theirs,” he said.

He paralleled classical education’s values of truth, beauty and goodness with the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love, saying that “our faith guarantees the rights we cherish.”

“Our faith leads us to another resource the world desperately needs – love,” he said, referencing the city of Philadelphia, which translated means “brotherly love,” a biblical reference.

The virtue of love sustained the young nation even through the brutal and bloody Civil War, for “the one who forgives much, loves much,” Feix said, quoting President Abraham Lincoln. He referenced Lincoln’s Second Inaugural address, which called on the United States to “bind up the nation’s wounds with malice toward none,” for “the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous all together.”

Feix recounted a story of the Lincoln’s leadership during the divisive era, as he called soldiers to “sing again” a verse from The Battle Hymn of the Republic – sung to the melody of “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory.”

“As Christ died to make men holy, let us then die to make men free,” the verse exhorts.

“Our song is the song of the Lamb – and we will sing his song for all eternity,” Feix said, referencing the patriotic hymn. “Until all our students know the love of God and their purpose on this earth – Sing it again! Until the earth is filled with the glory of the Lord – sing it again!”

Feix praised the foresight of the Founders, who planted founding seeds to bloom into large, mighty oaks. This foresight matched that of other wise men, who founded New College in the 14^th century, and planted oak trees in a cemetery to preserve the college when its wooden beams inevitably began to decay.

“The seeds planted in our Declaration 250 years ago are ready to come to our aid today,” Feix said. “The beams that will hold this vision up for the next 250 years are sitting in your classrooms.”