Over the past few days, Doug Wilson shockingly has been involved in some controversy over a video stating that Christians sending their kids to governmental schools is sinful against God. It seems that Christians within denominational alignment differ on this seemingly complex topic. Why are Christians divided over public education? We are divided on the role of a holistic pedagogy in education. Christians who support our public schools trust in the practices of the public school system. However, Doug Wilson and others don’t trust the public school system on very foundational principles. This begs the question: Should Christians send their kids to public schools? Is it sinful for them to do so?
Is The Statement Too Strong?
Doug Wilson’s assertions aren’t left without a sound footing. If you go to your local evangelical church with young families, you’ll find dozens of parents whose rationale for sending their kids to public school is based upon them–their children–being missionaries within their public schools. As Christians, I do believe we must recognize at least the admirable desire for their children to aid in reaching the lost within the community. However, we must lovingly reject the implementation of their desires. Whether credobaptist or paedobaptist, children of Christians aren’t infantry soldiers in the fields of a spiritual battle. We don’t send out untrained soldiers to fight in the Middle East, so why should we send out untrained Christian children to be in a battle that doesn’t have their physical life but their spiritual life at stake?
Nonetheless, Doug Wilson’s statements are too strong. As Owen Strachan states, “Wilson’s counsel wrongly binds the conscience.” There isn’t an explicit command, “thou shalt not send your kids to government schools.” It would be one thing if Doug Wilson, as a local church pastor, bound a parishioner’s conscience not to send their children to governmental schools because the local school was encouraging their child with gender dysphoria to change their gender. However, the question of public education can’t be answered with blanket answers. We must have a solid biblical foundation for our counsel for parents and public education.
With all that being said, although there isn’t an explicit command in Scripture for not sending Christian children to public schools, there are implicit commands.
Deuteronomy 6:6–7 (ESV)
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children…”
Proverbs 22:6 (ESV)
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Isaiah 54:13 (ESV)
“All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children.”
Romans 12:2 (ESV)
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…”
Colossians 2:8 (ESV)
“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit…”
Matthew 18:6 (ESV)
“…whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin…”
Parents have been entrusted with a profound stewardship of their children’s souls. Christian parents must not take their children’s education lightly. Our argument for Christian education should be based on the foundation that education is of the Lord. Education isn’t something that man created but God Himself. Proverbs 2:6 states, “For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” Although education is a common grace that is enjoyed by all of God’s image-bearers, without the recognition of the Lord, education becomes an unclear guide.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reading Francis Schaeffer’s Escape from Reason. Schaeffer writes:
Today we have a weakness in our educational process in failing to understand the natural associations between the disciplines. We tend to study all our disciplines in unrelated parallel lines. This tends to be true in both Christian and secular education. This is one of the reasons why evangelical Christians have been taken by surprise at the tremendous shift that has come in our generation. We have studied our exegesis as exegesis, our theology as theology, our philosophy as philosophy; we study something about art as art; we study music as music, without understanding that these are things of man, and the things of man are not unrelated parallel lines.
Although Christian educators have failed to see the cohesiveness between the academic disciplines, public secular education will never be able to unite these disciplines together. Secularism cannot unite chaos together. How can evolved creatures from stardust behold a cohesive educational system? How can the arts, sciences, and mathematics be united in a chaotic world with no created order? It’s impossible.
Therefore, it is upon the foundation of the cohesive Christian worldview that resides in reality that any meaningful education must subject itself under. It’s upon this principle that we must guide our brothers and sisters in the education of their children. We cannot bind their conscience to remove their kids from public schools. However, we must bind their conscience to their role as parents in their children’s education, which will lead them to “get them out now.”
What Should Christians Do With Education?
So, secular public education is dead and beyond repair. What shall we do? It’s my conviction that Christians should further get involved in education within their local communities. Whether that’s running to serve on their local school board, starting a local Christian school, or simply pulling their kids out of the public school system, every Christian has a voice in the public square to cultivate real change in their communities.
First and foremost, Christians must recover the biblical conviction that parents are the primary educators of their children. Before there were institutions, God entrusted children to their mothers and fathers. Education is not first a state responsibility—it is a parental and spiritual responsibility. The home is the first school, and parents are the first teachers.
If this is true—and Scripture clearly suggests it is—then Christian parents must intentionally build their homes around formative, daily discipleship. Parents cannot forsake what God has assigned simply because the state has offered a cheaper and more convenient alternative.
Furthermore, Christian parents must discern the spiritual environment in which their children are being formed. Every school—public, private, or Christian—teaches a worldview. There is no neutrality, and there never has been. Education is discipleship, and discipleship always leads students toward a narrative of the world: either the truth of God’s created order, or the lie of secularism. Choosing Christian education is not an act of fear; it is faithful stewardship.
Truth in the Public Square and Education
As someone who was raised in public education and has witnessed its demonstrable failures, Christians must be the ones to step up and bring about change. Truth in the Public Square desires to equip Christians to engage the culture and politics around them to display God’s glory and cultivate human flourishing. It is our goal to equip Christians to bring the change necessary in education in our communities by building schools, evangelizing, and discipling those around them.
If Christians committed themselves to lay down their lives for Christ, the Church, and their communities, we would see great advancement in education. Truth in the Public Square aims to come alongside these believers by providing the training, resources, and support necessary to establish strong, theologically rooted Christian schools in their own neighborhoods. We desire to help ordinary Christians become courageous builders—people who can gather a team, articulate a vision, navigate practical hurdles, and launch institutions that will disciple future generations. As more Christians take ownership of education and work together to create alternatives grounded in Scripture, we will see communities strengthened, children formed in truth, and the light of Christ increasingly visible in the public square.
