LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY blackletter)

I came across this school system a while ago, and, though initially intrigued by the general idea, was troubled once I looked at their website. Only after I joined this comm and found out about Dominionism did I realize just how troubled I should be.

First, a brief explanation of what University Model Schools (UMS) are. Contrary to their name, they are not some sort of preparatory school…or, at least not preparatory for college. Rather, they are a cross-breed between home schooling and private schooling. The idea is that the child attends classes two or three days a week and receives home schooling the rest of the week. Now, this idea alone isn’t so bad. It offers an alternative to home schooling that takes some pressure off the parents and gives socialization to the kids.

But one look at their website leaves me cold. Any school that lists “education” as number FOUR in their mission statement is automatically problematic.

Here’s a few choice quotes from their “Vision and Values” section. (Text bolded by me.)

Under their “Guiding Principles”:
1. “Love and Glorify God”
2. “Help Fulfill the Great Commission” (i.e. Proselytize and Convert)
3. “Affirm, Encourage, and Equip Parents” (Make sure the parents are properly proselytizing their children. Under this, the website says, “The vast majority of Christians come to a ‘saving faith’ in Christ when they are children, under the influence of their parents.”)
4. “Educate With Excellence” (At last, we get to the education part. Rather odd for a school to consider this to be of relatively little importance. Better righteous than educated seems to be the message here. Further look into this “guiding principle” reveals that education of character is emphasized over academic education. Academics almost seem an afterthought, important only as a tool to proselytize.)

Under “Biblical Worldview”:

“For the past several decades, Christian thinking has become increasingly secularized. A humanistic mind has supplanted the Christian mind in nearly every area of life, and the results have been catastrophic. Only able to see issues in “bits and pieces,” rather than through a comprehensive Biblical framework, many Christians today are unable to even recognize, much less solve, the serious social, political and cultural problems that confront the nation and the world. Only through the recovery of a truly Christian worldview—a mind renewed by Christ and filled with God’s wisdom—will Christians be able to influence the culture and make a difference in it.”

“When man sins and separates himself from God, he loses the good of reason—his thinking becomes “futile,” his heart is “darkened” and his mind becomes “depraved” (Romans 1). With his heart and mind no longer valuing or beholding Truth, his way of seeing and understanding the fundamental issues of life—his worldview—becomes distorted, no longer providing him with an accurate picture of reality.”

(So at best, all atheists, non-Christians, and secularized Christians are misguided and slightly insane…no longer able to accurately perceive reality. At worst, depraved. Ipod commercials and StarWars are brought up as examples of ungodliness.)

Under Reasons Leading to Development of UMS we get a reference to James Dobson and Focus on the Family and the importance of “saving” children from the godless modern culture.

Now, I’m fairly new at this, but the recruitment of children and the emphasis on political change and cultural warfare are screaming Dominionist to me.