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How Do You Grade a Student's Spirituality?
Jan 3 2012 - 12:57pm

by Brent Glossinger

This has been a question that I have been wrestling with for a couple of years now.

I realize the importance of all the checks and balances we as educators have set up to ensure the progress of our students. We need assessments, objectives, lesson plans, scope & sequences, standards, etc to ensure the growth of our students but how does that apply in the area of Bible?

Having taught in and out of the Bible department, I can totally see the importance of the above mentioned in disciplines such as Language Arts, Science, Math, History, etc. These are measurable and needed. But in the area of Bible?

This brings me to some questions: What should we be "measuring" in Bible? Knowledge? Isn't it more than knowledge that we want our kids to experience in their Bible classes here? Don't we want them to have a vibrant and passionate relationship with Christ? So how do you measure someone's relationship with God?

Is it by how much time they spend in God's word? Prayer? Worshipping? Fellowshipping? Meditating? Certainly these can be indicators but I think we all know that all of these can be "done" and one's relationship with God can still suffer. They can be a significant part of our relationship with God but when they become required for assessment, doesn't the Older Brother Syndrome and Pharisaical shadow loom a little closer?

When Christ narrows all the commands to love God and others, how do we measure that in the classroom? Really, how?

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Hinduism, Cheetah Girls, and Rango
Apr 5 2011 - 12:45pm

Hinduism, The Cheetah Girls, and the Mysticism of Rango

by Dan Sarian

When my daughter turns on the TV or goes to a movie I’m interested in the subtle (or not so subtle) infiltration of a worldview that’s woven into the plot, the character’s words, the symbolism, etc. I can’t help myself, I’m a pastor and I teach Apologetics! This past week I watched two movies with her. The first was “The Cheetah Girls, One World”. The title gives it away, that this is going to be heavily laced with Eastern religious thought. I wasn’t disappointed. The movie was blatantly Hindu and most of it was filmed in India. The 3 girls pursue their dream of being film stars and end up shooting a Bollywood film. In order to find their way successfully in film and in love they look to the blessings of the many Hindu gods and goddesses, even asking a tree for a blessing. One of the girls seeks guidance from an elephant and throughout the film there is the strong message that we (humanity) are all “one,” which was another way of communicating that we are all good, finding God in our own way, on our own path, and perpetuating this lie through 3 adorable tween stars. Innocent, right?

Then there’s Rango. A cute lizard with the voice of Johnny Depp. My daughter and I went to see it over Spring Break. Again, Rango is seeking answers to his struggle to provide life-sustaining water to a dried up town called “Dirt” in the Nevada desert inhabited by rodents. His quest is to find the “spirit of the west” who later becomes incarnated in a vision as none other than Clint Eastwood driving a golf cart. But within the movie there are brief references to Christianity. As usual there’s a Bible-toting woman who comes off as out of touch and judgmental. There’s a moment when the sign of the cross is created through a water faucet wheel as it’s lifted up against the harsh desert sun. But the water wheel when placed on the spigot fails to deliver the water so desperately needed. Then there’s the gratuitous language thrown into this Nickelodeon film when an evil snake appears to execute justice on Rango. The snake announces that he is from “hell” and that’s where he’s about to send Rango. Perhaps this is the clearest reference to Christianity’s view of sin’s penalty, but it’s indiscriminate and without reference to falling short of the glory of God. But overall the message is clear. You can’t look to traditional, dusty old Biblical theism to deliver you. It’s a religion fit only for old women and children. You must seek other spirits. Reminds me of what Isaiah preached to the southern kingdom of Judah prior to their captivity:

“I will confound their strategy so that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead and to mediums and spiritists.” (Isaiah 19:3)

So what’s the big deal? The big deal is that our children are being spoon-fed this stuff through the billion dollar companies that market these films to their demographic and we swallow it as good entertainment. Now more than ever we must train our children to discern, to test the spirits and think critically (1 John 4:1-4). A lizard is cute, funny and charming, but he is the delivery boy for a much more sinister message. The evil one knows his trade well. The Cheetah Girls dance, sing and have summer romances with cute Indian boys and oh yes, they occasionally dabble in Eastern religion, but it works for them because in the end they get the film job, the cute boys and the last scene has them beautifully dressed, singing, waving to the crowds atop an elephant while singing “One World”. Our youth have redefined truth as that which works for them. Truth is truth for you if it works. So why not hang a string on a tree and make a wish hoping that the tree will grant it? Why not look to an elephant for guidance? If your chosen path results in a fairly tale, then it must be true. But that’s not the nature of truth. Our culture’s infatuation with tolerance makes kids films like these acceptable and we leave feeling entertained. But there is no such thing as neutral media. Snakes used to be charming and could walk upright, but they’re cursed to slither on their belly which makes them cunning and stealthy. Let’s be vigilant.

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Education is Never Neutral
Feb 28 2011 - 4:18pm

by Dan Sarian

When I was a child, one of the toys I enjoyed playing with involved the creation of little army men by pouring liquid rubber into a heated metal mold, adding thin wire to the “goop” to make the little army man flexible and then cooking him. After a few minutes, out popped a miniature green soldier whom I could bend and pose any way I desired. Perhaps this was a delightful experience because I bear God’s image and therefore creating is in my DNA.

As a father, I often wish I could shape and flex my daughter’s beliefs, her will and affections like those little army men, but such is not the case. My daughter was created with a will of her own and as she grows up I am acutely aware (and sometimes fearful) of how many influences are vying for her heart. As Christians, we call the process of conforming to the image and likeness of Jesus, Spiritual Formation. In essence, Spiritual Formation is the lifelong process where all of the elements of who we are as persons are effectively organized around God as our center.

Front Range Christian School is unique in that we recognize a child’s education isn’t complete unless that education goes beyond academics. According to Scripture our children are the result of a deliberate designer who fashioned them to find their way back to Him. “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thoughts from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways” (Psalm 139:1-4).

Saint Augustine reflected on this as well when he wrote, “God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.”

We call this perspective of personhood a Theistic Worldview, and that is the foundation for all that we do and teach as FRCS. When you enroll your child in any school you are committing them to learn under the influence of men and women who communicate or advocate a particular worldview. Everyone has a worldview whether stated or not. The average student spends 35 hours a week in school. When multiplied over the course of a year that equals thousands of hours of adult influence both formal and informal.

God has made me a steward of my daughter’s education during the most formidable years of her development, when she’s asking questions like, “who am I,” why do I matter,” “what is my purpose,” and “am I loved?” The answers my daughter comes up with form her view of the world and most importantly of her Creator. We have somehow abdicated the role of our children’s education to the state, which purports to be religiously neutral when in fact it isn’t. Every teacher, administrator and school board advocates and endorses a worldview.

At Front Range we teach all academic subjects with the foundational understanding that all truth is God’s truth. All is sacred, and God’s fingerprints can be seen through all disciplines. We study math and observe that our world operates according to mathematical principals, timetables and calculations. Science is all about listening to the language of God from what has been made on the molecular level to the vastness of space. “The heavens are telling of the glory of God” (Psalm 19).

But beyond the weaving of a Biblical Worldview through the tapestry of our course catalog we also provide ongoing opportunities for our students to serve in the name of Jesus. We offer D-Groups (discipleship groups), weekly chapels, practicum experiences and other means by which our students can get outside the comfortable walls of our school and see, hear, and touch the needs in their own Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.

So although I cannot form my daughter’s heart, I can certainly form around her an environment that assists me in leading her to drink from the well of Living Water so she will thirst no more for that which was never intended to satisfy.

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