Public Schools vs. Home Schooling For Religious Liberty

Public schools have become increasingly brazen in the nature of some of their social teachings, which conflict with the Catholic faith. Undertaking Catholic homeschooling can be a powerful countermeasure and an overt act of religious freedom. A dire situation has been or will soon be thrust upon Catholic families. The education system hasn’t been nipping at the heels of Catholic doctrine. I see it as having been transformed into a pack of hungry wolves circling, waiting to devour the faith. What I believe ‘they’ are hungry for is to make Catholics jettison their nettlesome teachings on human sexuality, life, and family.

Provocative Education

The National Educational Association (NEA) has endorsed the group, Black Lives Matter (separate and distinct from the simple legitimate protest slogan ‘black lives matter.’) The NEA coordinated with BLM and is rolling out a K-12 curriculum nationwide. The topical areas include much more than civil rights studies.

For decades public sex education was controversial and now it has become more explicit than ever. Although there is content overlap between sex ed and the BLM curriculum, the comprehensive and detailed sex ed that is being taught has taken on a life of its own.

What Schools Teach

So, what are the public schools teaching kids that is incompatible with Catholic teaching? The subject matter includes highly objectionable subjects: explicit sex ed, promoting LBGT identity and vocabulary, contraception, abortion, and more. What may be happening only in California today, is likely to seep into all the states’ public schools. (Fasten your seatbelts for the next 2 links and keep the smelling salts nearby.) California has approved sex educational materials that have been called pornographic. This year, the Family Research Council has published a comprehensive, shocking but helpful guide for Christian parents about what is included in sex education in the nation’s public schools.

Conducting numerous searches for the incoming NEA/BLM curriculum, it appears it may have been scrubbed from the internet. However, a Seattle BLM curriculum is still available. It is a 5-day series of lessons for all grades which is likely similar to or the same as the missing curricula. Lesson plans show presentations on trans and queer identity from kindergarten through grade 12. The material references white supremacy, civil rights leaders/history, biographies, immigration, queer affirmation, globalization, racial social justice, mass incarceration, globalism, environmental justice, analysis of police statistics on excessive force and stop and frisk. It incorporates much of BLM’s beliefs such as celebrating differences, seeking freedom from male-centeredness, disrupting the nuclear family. The lessons are spread over math, humanities, and science classes. There is a link to a teacher’s tolerance guide prepared by the Southern Poverty Law Center, summarizing LBGT movement literature for students. Among the issues addressed in it are bathroom/locker room access, inclusive sports policies, use of inclusive pronouns, advice for teachers on how to handle parent and community “pushback” and a vocabulary glossary.

There’s an expression which is incredibly apropos to the current situation: ‘Give ’em, an inch and they’ll take a mile.’ Even the most cursory skimming of these resources shows they go far, far beyond basic academic instruction.

Distrust

The BLM organization’s own declared beliefs state multiple points which undermine Catholic teaching. It claims to be guided by black lives matter (concept) regardless of religious beliefs or disbeliefs. It seeks to “dismantle cisgender privilege” and “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.” It is “queer-affirming,” etc., (see the link to the group’s 13 guiding principles in this article.) The founders of BLM are self-described trained Marxists. Historically speaking, with that affiliation, how can anyone feel assured that their ultimate goal is not the removal of citizens’ rights to own homes and businesses, to earn a living in a capitalist economy and the complete stamping-out of religion? One publication raised so much concern as to proclaim that the BLM lessons in schools are turning kids into “little Marxists”.  Another article reports how California parents “discovered” the BLM “propaganda” in schools and complained vociferously. There is no is wiggle room for principles of this kind within Catholic thought. The Church’s catechism at [CCC 2425] expressly rejects totalitarian and atheistic ideologies, e.g., communism and socialism.

The Church’s Teaching

These sex education and BLM social justice teachings invade the dominion of faith and the Catholic family. If parents do not have the ability to begin homeschooling, I strongly suggest they prepare at-home, Catholic counter-teaching resources on sex ed and racism/civil rights. Communicating the faith’s foundations on these important subjects may well be key in preventing future young adults from falling away. My belief is that it is a Catholic parent’s moral duty to teach the faith’s view on these sensitive issues. Doing so is a civil act of religious liberty expression. The Church’s rich history in faith and reason has already developed sound teachings on sex education and social justice issues:

Catholic Sex/Gender Education – Theology of the Body has generated Catholic school curricula which include the appropriate treatment of sexuality, same-sex attraction.

Catholic Teaching on Gender – Issues surrounding LBGT prompted the Vatican to publish an educational guide in 2019. Titled, “Male and Female He Created Them,” the guide specifically addresses transgenderism as a distortion of reality but encourages dialogue.

Homosexuality – Scripture indicates that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. They close the act to the gift of life and do not proceed from a sexual complementarity [CCC 2357]. Catholics are bound to accept homosexual persons with respect, compassion, and sensitivity and to avoid any unjust discrimination toward them [CCC 2358].

Racism – [CCC 1935] proclaims that

Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God’s design.

[CCC 1938] also recognizes that

racial discrimination involves sinful inequalities affecting millions of people, which is in open contradiction of the Gospel. . . . Excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and people of the one human race is a source of scandal and militates against social justice, equity, human dignity, as well as social and international peace.

Environment – In 2015, Pope Francis’ issued his encyclical on Caring for Our Common Home, which recounted the duties and cares Catholics are expected to fulfill in safeguarding the environment. It thoroughly reiterates teachings and wisdom from the Bible to St. Francis of Assisi, to prior popes’ teachings.