Christianity and Liberalism - Introduction

When one considers what the public schools of America in many places already are--their materialism, their discouragement of any sustained intellectual effort, their encouragement of the dangerous pseudoscientific fads of experimental psychology--one can only be appalled by the thought of a commonwealth in which there is no escape from such a soul-killing system. But the principle of such laws and their ultimate tendency are far worse than the immediate results.  A public school system, in itself, is indeed of enormous benefit to the race. But it is of benefit only if it is kept healthy at every moment by the absolutely free possibility of the competition of private schools. A public school system, if it means the providing of free education for those who desire it, is a noteworthy and beneficent achievement of modern times; but when once it becomes monopolistic it is the most perfect instrument of tyranny which has yet been devised. Freedom of thought in the middle ages was combated by the Inquisition, but the modern method is far more effective. Place the lives of children in their formative years, despite the convictions of their parents, under the intimate control of experts appointed by the state, force them then to attend schools where the higher aspirations of humanity are crushed out, and where the mind is filled with the materialism of the day, and it is difficult to see how even the remnants of liberty can subsist. Such a tyranny, supported as it is by a perverse technique used as the instrument in destroying human souls, is certainly far more dangerous than the crude tyrannies of the past, which despite their weapons of fire and sword permitted thought at least to be free.

I was listening to the Introduction of J. Gresham Machen's Christianity and Liberalism last night.  I nearly pulled over on I-64 to listen to this section again.

I wondered what Machen would think of our education systems now compared to 1923?  But even more than debating the relative merits of homeschooling vs. private vs. public, what are our kid's learning?  I'm not just talking about the 3 R's, but what is the framework through which they see life?  What are they are thinking and more importantly how are thinking?

Methinks a lot of liberalism has crept in unawares and is shaping our attitudes unbeknownst to us.  I'm looking forward to more of what Machen has to say.