Attacks on Christian Schools Reveal Hostility to Christianity Itself

A number of days ago, the Courier-Journal wrote a series of negative pieces on a prominent Louisville private school, Highlands Latin School. Highlands is a classical Christian school that has found great success not only in Louisville, but also around the country. The pieces, designated as “investigative journalism,” contain stories from numerous anonymous sources, and have been refuted by many previous students and their families. While more could be said about the piece’s overt claims, what deserves greater attention is its attack on Christian education in general, and how those attacks reveal a greater hostility to the Christian worldview itself.            

Education is an essential aspect of individual flourishing. To learn and be immersed in truth is, in one sense, a way to know God more fully. Learning is also not a one-time task; it is a life-long pursuit that takes great training and discipline. For much of human history, that training—at least at the equivalent of a K-12 level—was accomplished within the home. In the modern age, that task has been “outsourced” to the schoolhouse.

Each and every group that pursues the task of teaching—whether a parent, a private school, a public school, etc.—directs their teaching in line with underlying epistemological (the study of truth and knowledge) and teleological (the study of purpose and function) assumptions that color every lesson taught. However, it is quite common that the assumptions found within the schoolhouse are in great conflict with the assumptions of one’s home life. Going back to the illustration of training, it would not do much good to go to the gym if you binge on junk food once you leave. These two actions are contradictory to each other, and for true change of the individual, one must be weeded out.

So too with education, the assumptions of expressive individualism, which are present in the public education system will necessarily conflict with the assumptions that lay the foundation for a Christian home. A system that believes everyone lives their own subjective truth, and life is all about the primacy of the individual is fundamentally at odds with the Christian worldview as expressed in John 17:17 and Mark 12:30-31.

Why did the Courier-Journal, in their attempt to dissuade voters from supporting Amendment 2, write a multi-part hit piece on one of the most successful Christian schools in the nation, Highlands Latin School in Louisville? Not because they care about those they supposedly cite (indeed many of whom are anonymous), but because they understand that the existence of public schools in their current form and trajectory is the only way to maintain some semblance of control over Christian families who spend their time seeking true transformation of the self.

And why did they attack one of Highland Latin’s leaders, Martin Cothran, for his longtime work with The Family Foundation in support of protecting the unborn, defending marriage, and ending the gender mutilation of children? Not only because they care about defeating Amendment 2 per se, but because what they truly care about is the destruction of pro-family conservatism and Christianity more broadly.

It is important to recognize that public education has not always been this way. I myself am a product of a public education. However, I was also present within that system during the time that the tide was beginning to turn, and today it is hard to ignore the fact that public schools have become captive to ideologies that have no place in the pursuit of truth.

Supporting Amendment 2 is a means to push back on this anti-Christian worldview that is antithetical to the gospel in two ways. First, supporting Amendment 2 would allow for the state to consider funding mechanisms that provide Christian parents a possibility to send their children to a school that aligns with their worldview. This is, of course, the most obvious direct result. However, Amendment 2 and its immediate effects also send the message to public school boards and administrators that it is time to let go of these harmful ideologies.

It is, in a sense, a call for reformation within the public school system. A reformation that can benefit not only the children you know, but generations to come.