When Dualism Reigns

By Dr. Christian Overman

Separating the Word of God from academics in school has spawned a debilitating yet popular mindset known as “SSD,” or the “Sacred-Secular Divide.” This dualism constricts the Light of Scripture to Sunday morning sermons, and does not apply it to business, law, medicine, art, civil governance or anything else outside the four walls of a church.

A secularized math class that never explores how numbers fit into God’s plan for humans to govern over all of creation, is as senseless as a secularized Sunday School. Once education becomes secularized, God’s Word can then be marginalized, privatized, and made solely personal. 

When dualism reigns, Christianity is not applicable to the public square, or to the daily workplace. It’s only good for Sunday morning services, and nothing beyond.

Regrettably, the secularization of academics can happen in Christian schools as well as state schools, because most Christian school teachers aren’t trained to teach academics in the Light of God’s Word. Few universities provide instruction in this acquired skill. Adding the trappings of chapel services, Bible verses on the wall, and “Spiritual Emphasis Week” will not fix the problem. It can actually magnify the problem, by reinforcing the Sacred-Secular Divide.

And if we think state education is religiously neutral, think again! Millions of children from Christian homes are indoctrinated daily in the tenets of Secularism while the Church remains silent. 

Indoctrinated is the correct word. Because it is indoctrination in the religion of Humanism, which, as John Dewey, the Father of so-called “Progressive Education” maintained, is a non-theistic faith. A man-centered religion.

So, if it is a religious position to teach—or to imply—that God’s Word is relevant to math, science, history and language, is it not also a religious position to teach—or to imply— that God’s Word is not relevant to these subjects? Both are religious positions, guided by one faith or another. 

A teacher does not have to stand in front of a class and say, “the Bible has nothing to do with our subject” to communicate the message that The Book is immaterial. All they need to do is never mention how any subject relates to the overarching Truth of God’s Word, and thus give students the impression that Secularism is true, by never saying otherwise. Are such teachers really being “neutral?”   

This is the underestimated power of silence! For schoolchildren, this silence is far more effective than speech.