When the city officials of Flint, Michigan made the fatal decision to change the source of their water, there were concerns as to the wisdom of this decision. Some residents were leery about this move, wondering about the quality of the water. For the next several months a major cover-up took place by city and state officials. To ease the residents concerns, city officials issued several statements.
Even with a proven track record of providing perfectly good water for Flint, there still remains lingering uncertainty of the quality of the water. In an effort to dispel myths and promote the truth about the Flint River and its viability as a residential water resource, there have been numerous studies and tests conducted on its water by several independent organizations…Michael Prysby of the Michigan DEQ Office of Drinking Water verified that ‘the quality of the water being put out meets all of our drinking water standards and Flint water is safe to drink.’
Mayor, Dayne Walling went on to state:
It’s regular, good, pure drinking water, and it’s right in our backyard…this is the first step forward in controlling the future of our community’s most precious resource.
Even with the city officials’ assurances that the water was safe, it did not take long before the citizens of Flint made complaints. These complaints centered on the smell, color and hardness of the water. In August of 2014 fecal coliform bacteria was detected in Flint’s water that led to advisories for residents to boil their water.
Again, in September of 2014 another positive test for coliform bacteria caused another advisory to boil water before using. The city’s steps to correct this serious problem were to flush the pipes. Four days later residents were told that the water was safe to drink from the tap.
What took place in early 2015 baffles one’s mind. Here are a couple of critical decisions that were made.
- January 2, 2015 – Flint officials warn residents that there are byproducts of disinfectants in the water that may cause health issues including an increase in cancer. However, residents are told that the water is safe for the general population but cautioned the elderly and young children about its consumption.
- January 12, 2015 – The DWSD (Flint’s original provider of water) offers to reconnect the city with Lake Huron water, waiving a $4 million restoration fee. City officials decline the offer stating “economic” concerns.
With a major health and safety crisis looming, officials from the city and state continue to pump contaminated water to the residents and businesses of Flint. Consider the following events that took place.
- March 23, 2015 – Flint City Council votes to stop using Flint River water and reconnect to Detroit. However, this vote is overruled by state-appointed officials calling the vote “incomprehensible,” and claiming that the cost would be too high and that water from Detroit is no safer than water from Flint.
- June 5, 2015 – A group of clergymen and other activists file a lawsuit against the city because the river water is a health risk. The city attorney declares the lawsuit is baselessand the case is dismissed in September.
Even with all of the evidence pointing to the contaminated water that was pouring into the homes and businesses of the city, city and state officials continued with the mantra that the water is perfectly safe.
- On July 9, 2015 – Flint Mayor, Walling, drinks a cup of tap water on local television in an effort to ensure residents that the water is safe.
- July 13, 2015 – a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality states, Anyone concerned about lead in the drinking water in Flint can relax. His reasoning was that the problem was not widespread and limited to a few isolated places.
When the decision was made to change the source from where American children and youth would receive their education, it was considered a “safe” move. After all the home and church would still teach their children about faith and values. And the school would be teaching children the facts and knowledge that would be needed for them to be successful citizens.
It wasn’t long before some individuals became concerned that the “waters” from this new educational source were contaminated. One such individual was Dr. Robert Lewis Dabney, Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Texas. In 1897, Dabney published a book on secularism in which he predicted,
If the State in America becomes the educator, education must be secularized totally…If the State assumes responsibility for education, there is therefore a great risk that the education of youth will be perverted to serve an ideological faction. This will occur by the hateful means of filling their minds with error and passion in place of truth and right.
Another voice that sounded forth a warning about what would happen when children would drink contaminated water from a government run, secular education system was Daniel Webster. He wrote,
In what age, by what sect, where, when, by whom, has religious truth been excluded from education? Nowhere, Never! Everywhere, and at all times, it has been regarded as essential. It is of essence, the vitality of useful instruction.
Dabney also predicted that turning to the State as the children’s educational source would result in certain things being removed from a child’s education.
But nearly all public men and preachers declare that the public schools are the glory of America. They are a finality, and in no event to be surrendered. We have seen that their complete secularization is logically inevitable. Christians must prepare themselves then, for the following results: All prayers, catechisms, and Bibles will ultimately be driven out of the schools.
Slowly but surely signs of contamination from the new source of knowledge and wisdom started to be seen. Some Christian leaders boldly addressed the poisoning of the children and youth. Once such voice was that of Charles Clayton Morrison. He was the editor of the The Christian Century. In a 1940 address to 10,000 public school teachers in Kansas City, Morrison stated,
The public school is confessedly and deliberately secular. I am bound, therefore, to lay on the doorstep of our educational system the prime responsibility for the decline of religion and the steady advance of secularism, another name for atheism. In American society…Protestant children in public schools are under an influence which the churches cannot counteract. The pubic school presents the church with a generation of youth whose minds have been cast in a secular world.
Later in 1951, Frank Gaebelein authored a report for the National Association of Evangelicals for United Action titled, Christian Education in a Democracy. In this report Gaebelein explained what Christian parents and church leaders were doing in allowing their children to “drink” from this new secular source of knowledge and wisdom.
The fact is that, as both home and church have lost grip on American youth, the people of this country have looked to education to fill the gap. With a confidence that would be touching if not based on evasion of responsibility, they have turned their youth – body, mind, and soul – over to the most extensive and highly organized system of education this world has ever known.
Unfortunately, the warnings that several people voiced about the danger of changing the source of our children’s education went unheeded. Educators, politicians and, even, church leaders lauded the benefits of this new source of education. Not only did pastors and church leaders vocally support this new educational source but they also showed their church members that the waters of secular education were perfectly safe by enrolling their own children in these schools. Every child would receive a “free” education and this education would be right in a family’s backyard.
The cover-up of the danger of drinking contaminated water was an effort to keep the citizens of Flint comfortable about drinking water from the Flint River. The cover-up of the danger of allowing children and youth to drink the contaminated waters of secular education was both intentional and comprehensive in its scope. The result was that the majority of Christian parents willingly turned the formal education of their children over to the state believing that drinking the new water was completely harmless.
Next week I want to look at what steps people took when there was no doubt that the water was poisonous and dangerous to the health of children and youth. Be sure to leave your comments below.
On April 25, 2014 a city in Michigan made a decision that would end up devastating the city’s entire population. The city was Flint, Michigan and the disaster is known as The Flint Water Crisis. The decision that was made by the leaders of Flint, Michigan on that dreadful day actually started a couple of years earlier.
Last week I shared how the majority of parents, church leaders and teachers believe that the main purpose of schooling is to prepare students for more schooling! They may not articulate this as the main purpose of schooling but in practice this is the reality. As a new school year begins, I believe it is important that Christians develop a few key objectives that should drive the education we give our children at home, church and school. It is essential that these objectives are achieved if we are going to fulfill God’s purpose for education and correctly prepare our children for the future.
Over the past 2.5 weeks, I have had the privilege of conducting professional development seminars for nearly 700 administrators, teachers and parents from 15 different schools around the country. During these sessions I asked a series of questions to which I received nearly unanimous answers. As we discussed the purpose of education, I asked each group a simple question. What does preschool education prepare the children for? Without hardly any hesitation everyone in the session replied, Preschool education prepares children for kindergarten. From this response, I concluded that parents and educators believe that all education is an effort to prepare children for something that they see as important in the future. With everyone in agreement on this answer, I proceeded to ask a progression of additional questions. Here are the questions and the answers I received.
get a good education, you will always get a strong YES. However, when you ask them why they want their children to have the best education possible, the most common answer you will receive is so that they can get into a good college. In other words, schooling has become an unending process of preparing our children for more schooling. It is no wonder that so many graduates leave high school with no real purpose for their lives — other than to go to college.
I am amazed at how every person desires to live as long as possible. Even the atheist wants to go on living though he says that he doesn’t fear death. Whenever some disaster takes place such as hurricanes, earthquakes, or a terrorist bombing, every news station gives full coverage to the rescue efforts and the search for survivors. Just recently there was daily news broadcasts that chronicled the rescue efforts of a boys’ soccer team that was trapped in a cave due to a flash flood. This striving for life from when a newborn gasps for his/her first breath to when someone takes his/her last breath, the desire to live forever is a part of what it means to be human.
Man has the amazing ability to create pictures in the mind and then bring into reality what was imagined. We see man’s creativity in manufacturing, art, literature, music, humor and the common activities of everyday life. Every parent has probably experienced what happens when he/she purchases a nice gift for a child only to find the gift set aside and the child playing with the box the gift came in.
important fact to keep in mind because the education we give our children will play a big role in determining what type of culture our children and youth will create. Miller explains it this way.
Today there are two dangerous extremes that people exhibit when it comes to looking at the topic of “work.” One extreme is to view work as something evil and, thus, something to avoid as much as possible. This view of work can be seen in how people dread Monday mornings, get some relief when “hump day” (Wednesday) comes and celebrate Friday’s with a shout of TGIF. When work if viewed as something that is a burden, the goal of work becomes making enough money to retire comfortably as soon as possible.
One of the most important aspects of understanding what it means to be human is to grasp the reality that God created man to worship. When we hear the word worship today, many Christians immediately think of a style of music in the church. However, worship has a much deeper meaning than just one part of a church service. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines worship as to adore; to pay divine honor to; to reverence with supreme respect; to honor with extravagant love and extreme submission. Another definition that combines all of these aspects of worship together states,
It is hard to comprehend how mixed up society is today. A major point of controversy is being battled over one’s gender. It has even gotten to the point that some “experts” claim that one’s sex is biological but one’s gender is a choice. One’s gender is determined by one’s feelings. In fact, some parents have even chosen not to identify the gender of a newborn baby because they want the child to be able to choose whatever gender he/she wants to be. Again, the issue at the bottom of all this craziness is determined by what it means to be a human being.
In order to fully grasp what it means to be created in the image of God, we must understand that God created man for relationship. The doctrine of the Trinity is a crucial foundation stone of Christianity. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three separate persons in the Godhead. I cannot fully understand this reality with my finite mind. However, I can understand that God is a relational God. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit have always and will always be in perfect fellowship with one another. In Genesis 1:26, the Father tells the Son and the Holy Spirit let us make man in OUR image. Since God is a relational God and man is created in His image, then man was created to relate!
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