Dear Christian Parents
An Appeal for Homeschooling
Values Clarification
Dear Christian Parents,
In the book Dear Christian Parents, I wrote briefly in Chapter 12 about the “values clarification” program adopted by the public schools in the 1970s. Here is an excerpt from the book on this subject:
Government administration of public schools also carries a significant portion of the blame for the steep decline in morality in our nation. Remember that the original purpose for public schools in America was to teach religion, morality, and knowledge.  While it may appear that the government has gotten schools out of the business of teaching religion and morality, it really hasn’t. Christian religion and Bible-based morality have been removed, but they have been replaced with the religion of humanism and the morality of relativism. Public schools now teach “values clarification,” which is a method of imparting subjective morality to students. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) explains values clarification by saying:
Values guide our decisions as to what is good, true and right. Thus, they depend as much on our feelings as on our thoughts. Values clarification is a technique for encouraging students to relate their thoughts and their feelings and thus enrich their awareness of their own values.  
The result of such teachings is a culture of people whose morality has no objective standard, for each person has been told to decide “what is good, true, and right” according to his feelings. Public schools have taught them to do what is right in their own eyes (Judges 17:6; 21:5; Proverbs 12:15). In other words, they have been told, “If it feels good, do it.” This is humanism 101, and it has resulted in an increasingly immoral society.
In the November/December issue of Early Warning Report, Richard Mayberry has an excellent article regarding values clarification and the program’s effect on the nation over the last thirty-five years. He refers to a recently published book entitled Lost in Transition, in which sociologist Christian Smith reports his findings that in general today’s young adults have virtually no moral foundation. Many of them don’t even understand the concept of morality. I encourage you to read Mayberry’s article, which is available here: Values Clarification.
The seeds of humanism have been sown in the hearts of young people for several generations now, and the harvest of godlessness is being reaped in our nation. People who have been raised with the philosophies of humanism, postmodernism, and relativism are generally unhappy, materialistic, discontented, unmotivated, immoral, and faithless. They have little motivation to work, but instead they are beset with a sense of entitlement that saps their desire to think, create, plan, achieve, and excel. All of this is attributable to the nation’s slow, evolutionary abandonment of Christianity in favor of the wisdom and philosophy of man.
What a sad turn for a nation which was once thoroughly religious in its fear of God. In 1835, the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America, Volume I and said of those early generations, “The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other…” He also made a statement that is a dire prediction for an increasingly godless America. He said:
Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot.  How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed?  And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity?
As we see the “moral tie” of our nation severely weakened, it can only lead to the proportional strengthening of the “political tie.” In other words, if individuals will not govern and restrain themselves, then civil government will. This is the reason Libertarian politics do not work in our modern culture. Our nation has simply become too immoral and rebellious to the rule of God.
Regardless of “values clarification” or any other program of godless indoctrination that is taught in government schools, be assured that your children do not have to participate. Bless your children and free them from the bondage of immorality by teaching them the ways of God in your home. With that thought in mind, I leave you with the words of Psalm 1:1-3, which speak of a man but are just as applicable for your child.
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.
May God bless you and your family.
Regards in the Lord,
Stacey



© 2011 Dear Christian Parents



Values Clarification
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