Dangers of fundamentalist schools.

• Author: Menendez, Albert J.

America's fastest-growing educational movement during the past two decades has been the fundamentalist Christian day school and its closely related ally, home schooling. Fueled by a discontent over the increasingly multicultural and religiously pluralistic public schools, these sectarian separatist institutions aim at insulating their students from modern life and culture.

Their primary raison d'etre is a desire to protect conservative Protestant youth from the diversity of contemporary American society. This is accomplished intellectually by the textbooks used and the visions of reality they impart. The two primary textbook publishers for the "nondenominational" fundamentalist schools are Bob Jones University Press, Greenville, S.C., and Pensacola (Fla.) Christian College Press. The world view they promote is distinctive and quite unlike the values, attitudes, and historical interpretations of mainstream textbook publishers. These books promote sectarian separation, religious intolerance, anti-intellectualism, disdain for the scientific spirit, and right-wing political extremism.

William S. Pinkston, Jr.'s 1991 Biology for Christian Schools admits at he beginning, "The people who have prepared this book have tried consistently to put the Word of God first and science second." This negative attitude toward science pervades the text. Students are urged to disregard facts and conclusions widely held in the scientific community. "If the conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong no matter how many scientific facts may appear to back them."

A negative bias against science itself appears early on and is linked with the fatalism and acceptance of human imperfectability that pervades the entire Bob Jones University series. Thus, readers are told, "There will be sickness, suffering, and death until Christ returns for His thousand-year reign on the earth. Man must now earn his bread by the sweat of his brow because of God's curse upon the earth. The Bible teaches that things are getting worse and that God is the source of all that is good."

The scientific method is seen as limited. "It is important for the Christian to realize what science is and the limitations of science so that he can see the proper relationship between science, God, and His Word." Moreover, "Although some people attribute godlike capabilities to science, science is actually little more than what man can sense around him." Finally, "Not only does science have many limitations, but also man is a sinful creature and cannot perfectly rule the earth," and "It is wrong for a Christian to think that scientific achievements will replace faith in God. ... Science cannot save a man from hell."

Evolution is condemned repeatedly, and Christians are warned that they must reject it. Those who accept evolution are not true Christians because "One must believe all the Word of God or believe none of it." Further, "A person who believes that God directed evolutionary processes is a theistic evolutionist and is in error. When the Bible states one thing and, in an attempt to be scientific, a person believes something else, he is setting up scientific theory as more authoritative than the Word of God. ... A person who rejects any portion of the Bible has placed himself above the Bible. The Bible is accurate in everything ...," it states.

The book affirms, for example, that the world can be no more than 10,000 years old. In conclusion, students are told: "Biblical creationism is accepted by faith. A creationist, however, should not feel that science contradicts his faith in God's Word. Rather than being disproved by science the Scriptual concept of a young earth is actually verified by science."

Pinkston's second volume for biology courses continues in the same vein, telling students that "Satan is in control of the physical world around us." A fatalistic world view can be seen in the phrase, "War is not a desirable event, but in this world it is often necessary." Pinkston roundly condemns hypnosis, sleeping medicine, and psychology. "The Bible teaches us that...