Keeping Them Out of the Hands of Satan

Evangelical Schooling in America

Susan Rose

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780415785464
• eBook ISBN: 9781351855518
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

First published in 1988, this work was the product of extensive fieldwork in two evangelical communities. This in-depth ethnographic study focuses on the meaning systems, organizational structures and the daily lives of the people Susan D. Rose encountered.

The study is centred around Christian schooling as a method of socialisation. Tracing the rise of evangelicalism and the development of the Christian School Movement in the latter half of the twentieth century, it examines the kinds of educational alternatives evangelicals have structured for their children. Moving beyond the issue of schooling itself, it analyses the interactions among schooling, ideology, economic structures and the nature of work in contemporary American society, and explores how people relate to one another within the church-family-school network.

It addresses the provocative question of why evangelicalism, a self-proclaimed conservative, reactionary movement, held so much appeal for so many Americans at the time of publication. This work will be of particular interest to those studying education and religion and education in the U. S. A.

1

A Search for Coherence

Believing with Max Weber, that man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning.¹

The tool-making, laughing, or lying animal, man is also the incomplete animal—or, more accurately, self-completing animal. [He is] the agent of his own realization.²

People often turn to religion in their search for coherence, feeling the need to make sense of the world and their relationship to it. As discriminating creatures, we strive to feel at home in a world that becomes ours through definition.

As parents and educators, our search for coherence becomes an even more complicated and imperative task as we attempt to prepare our children for the world and fashion the world for our children. In socializing our children, we are helping them to construct a meaningful world, “a world in which rules, discipline, and ordinary activities make sense.”³ An important part of that socialization process is helping our children to “become at home in the world,” however we may define the parameters.

Socialization is the process by which people and institutions transmit the values, beliefs, and behaviors necessary for appropriate functioning in their particular culture to others. It is a recruitment process—whether recruiting children into adult worlds or resocializing adults into different roles or a new subculture. Socialization involves “the whole process by which an individual born with behavioral potentialities of enormously wide range is confined within a much narrower range—the range of what is customary and acceptable for him according to the standards of his group.”⁴ When the culture is relatively clear in its expectations, the task of socializing agents is more straightforward and less self-conscious. When consensus about standards and roles, and therefore, about what should be transmitted does not exist, the integration of the individual and the cultural system becomes more problematic. Both lack of clarity at the cultural level and competition among socializing agents tend to cloud definitions of socialization goals and processes. As society becomes more complex, the desire to become more “at home” with oneself as a social and cultural being becomes all the more salient, for the sense of self is intimately connected to one’s sense of coherence about the world.⁵

During the life course of individuals and societies, some periods are characterized by smooth progressions; other times are disrupted by crisis and turmoil.⁶ Periods of cultural discontinuity reflect the gap between normative expectations and reality. They both threaten and reflect individual crises:

We can think of culture in its most abstract and mythical level as a paradigm that selects, interprets, and powerfully affects our impression and feelings and desires. When culture begins to leave many questions unanswered and many needs unfilled, then individuals suspect that their own emotions and experience are only a blurred identity, and the cultural system may be pushed aside.⁷

Many people today feel as though they are caught in “a world turned upside down.”⁸ The rapid rate of social change and the competing demands of families, work, church, education, and peers take their toll on individuals who are trying to find their way in the world. Furthermore, the weakening of extensive ties among neighbors and kin has weakened many people’s sense of belonging and identity.

Numerous books, including The Lonely Crowd by David Riesman, The Pursuit of Loneliness by Philip Slater, and Habits of the Heart by Robert Bellah et al., tangle with the contemporary problems of loneliness, meaninglessness, and anomie. Habits of the Heart, for instance, deals with the malaise of middle-class moral limbo and the loss of a coherent moral language through which people can express themselves and communicate effectively with one another. Indeed, the apathy that so many decry may result more from people feeling overwhelmed and impotent than from disinterest. The paradox of too many decisions but too few real choices can entrap as well as exhaust us. For example, a recent commercial for Wendy’s (a fast food restaurant) proclaimed the glories of American society wherein people have the freedom of choice (hamburgers with or without cheese, with or without onions, with or without pickles, and so on). In the background, they used a Russian fashion show to present a stark and humorous contrast. Displaying the latest fashions of evening, sports, and housewear, the Russian model wore the same dress for each occasion. Such commercialized and celebrated “freedom of choice” parodies the very values of freedom and individualism in our culture. We are a people caught between a strong ethic of individualism and a culture of conformity. Not only are we encumbered by many trivial choices, but as individuals and communities, we are often left with no real decision-making power.

Today, the family, school, church, peer group, and media contend with one another for influence over the adult as well as the child. The degree of coordination, consensus, and consistency, as well as the relative influence among socializing agents, is open to question and investigation. Moreover, the mass homogenization of culture confuses the issues. While people blame the media, especially television, for corrupting young people and exposing them to adult secrets too early, the American populace continues to turn to the media for advice. As “cultural reality” becomes increasingly defined at a corporate, consumer level, the ability of family, educational, and religious groups to define cultural meaning and direction becomes all the more difficult.

As cultural pluralism becomes more diffuse in American society, the more numerous and varied the reference points in the socialization process become.⁹ People are often unsure of what their goals are or “should be” for themselves and their children. For some whose goals are clear, the process of how to secure them is uncertain.

But while people respond in a variety of ways—from avoidance to rebellion—they do not give up the search for coherence. They continue to struggle to find some relief, some understanding of the cosmos, the world, the self—and their intermingling relationships. This quest is primarily philosophical and religious, for these are existential endeavors. Therefore, it is no surprise that in the midst of cultural disorientation, we are witnessing a resurgence of religious interest.

Today, evangelical churches have increased in number as mainstream Protestant churches have lost members; the New Religious Right exercises a major political influence; the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is one of the largest television networks; and the Christian School Movement is the fastest growing sector of private education. Why?

For a significant number of Americans, evangelicalism provides a perspective that makes sense of their world, as well as provides role models and guidelines for living in it. For many who have converted, it offers a greater sense of social and personal coherence.¹⁰ It offers people assurance that their lives will be meaningful and that things will “turn out O.K.” One need only trust in the Lord. As Aaron Antonovsky defines it, a sense of coherence is

a global orientation that expresses the extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring though dynamic feeling of confidence that one’s internal and external environments are predictable and that there is a high probability that things will work out as well as can be expected.¹¹

Antonovsky emphasizes that this does not mean that things always work out well, but that given the circumstances, they work out as well as possible. In evangelical terms, “the road may not be all smooth but the bumps provide good testing grounds.” One’s world is reasonable in the sense of being comprehensible—through reason, faith, and/or intuition. Furthermore, people do not need to feel as though they are personally in control, as traditional Western measures of locus of control have stressed.¹² They may be willing to relinquish control to the expert, or the Ultimate Authority, without feeling that their sense of coherence is being threatened.¹³ The sense of coherence is generalized; it is a fundamental part of one’s personality and the cultural ambience. The search for coherence, then, is both personal and communal.

The rate of technological and social change has contributed to people’s sense of uncertainty and uneasiness, for it makes it more difficult to anticipate future roles. This diminishes parents’ power and confidence since their primary purpose is to socialize children into society, that is, to prepare them to conform adequately to accepted standards and perform anticipated roles. When standards are ambiguous and the projection of roles untenable, parents will experience frustration in trying to fulfill a role that places impossible demands upon them.

Likewise, other socializing institutions will be caught in a net of contradictory and often ambiguous expectations that render them impotent. Consequently, it is not surprising that the socializing institutions, originally designed to serve complementary roles, blame each other for their incompetency: schools blame the family, families blame the schools, and the community and church struggle with each other to arrive at a more satisfying consensus regarding relevant goals and guidelines.

The situation becomes all the more debilitating for parents when one considers that increasing ambiguity about the goals and means of institutional socialization is concomitant with a greater emphasis on socialization as the primary task of the family. Given the greater insulation of the nuclear family, parents are more isolated in their parenting roles; less likely to have had opportunities to observe and help their own parents bring up siblings; and more often confronted by contradictory advice on how to raise their children.

Responses to feelings of parenting inadequacy vary from abdication of responsibility to a redefinition of the task. It is no coincidence that the proliferation of Christian schools with their emphasis on character building rather than vocational training, and on complementary relationships among the primary socializing institutions of church, family, and school has occurred during a time of cultural ambiguity about socialization goals and means. Rather than focusing on specific roles, evangelicals stress general, “universal,” timeless qualities that represent to them the “good man,” that is, the “Christian man.” Dependent upon a high degree of ideological consensus, the church, family, and schools join together to clarify and reinforce one another in their socializing roles. Their responsibility is to “bring their children up in the Lord”; the heavenly Father will direct their children’s lives: what job they will hold, whom and when they will marry, how many and what kind of children they will have.

Such a belief and reliance on a Superior Being who is willing and able to take the responsibility not only for their own lives but also for the lives of their children can reassure and encourage parents and teachers in their socializing roles. Many of these parents and educators, especially in the charismatic fellowship, speak of a time, before conversion, when they were confused, uncertain, and lost. They are now quick to tell you that they do not have all the answers, but they have the essential one. By surrendering their lives to Christ and faithfully following the Scriptures, they find themselves much more secure in their parenting.

This reported change in perceptions of their ability to parent raises the issue of control. Built into evangelical ideology is the sanction to admit weakness and failure. It is acceptable to be confused and to make mistakes, for man is acknowledged as weak; he can “do all things only by the grace and power of God.” Furthermore, much of man’s failure can be attributed to the work of the devil. Therefore, elders can “call up a person” (confront them) on parenting techniques or their relationships with their children, while allowing both parties to save face. They agree to join together against the evil forces that are trying to tear them asunder.¹⁴

In this sense, evangelicalism offers absolution for those who believe in absolutes; it provides a way for people to free themselves of rigid, immobilizing standards without sacrificing their belief in those standards. Cognitive dissonance is reduced because the gap between beliefs, values, and behavior is acknowledged, explained, and dealt with in two crucial ways: 1) through the radical conversion experience which makes “the old man new,” and 2) through the recognition of change and development as a gradual process whose ultimate goal is perfection—either in this life or the after-life. Those who view themselves in dichotomous terms as being good or bad, as successes or failures are encouraged to view development from a different perspective.

For these evangelicals, the belief that God will work things out does not absolve them of responsibility. To the contrary, if a person enters into the “Covenant,” establishing a personal relationship and alliance with God, then he or she is expected to “pay a price.” Being “chosen” by God and accepting Him implies a system of reciprocity whereby parents, teachers, and elders agree to bring their children up under guidelines which are specified in the Scriptures. Believing that Christianity is only one generation away from extinction, since each individual must choose salvation, the adult leadership is desperate for their children to understand the importance of the decision and desire to follow Christ: “it is a matter of life or death—eternal life or death.”

The relevance of religion

The power of religion stems from its ability to offer a sense of coherence; it presents a particular worldview complete with characters, plot, theme, setting, and history. The power of religion, as Clifford Geertz puts it,

lies in its capacity to serve, for an individual or for a group, as a source of general, yet distinctive, conceptions of the world, the self, and the relations between them…. The religious perspective … moves beyond the realities of everyday life to wider ones which correct and complete them, and its defining concern is not action upon those wider realities but acceptance of them, faith in them. Rather than detachment, its watchword is commitment; rather than analysis, encounter.¹⁵

Religion is a system of nonempirical beliefs, rituals, and organizations that deals with the ultimate concerns of human existence. Some people, unable to explain the troublesome daily occurrences of ill health, death, misfor...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Series Editor’s Introduction
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 A Search for Coherence
• 2 Morals and Quarrels: Christian Schools and Social Change
• 3 To Live in Fellowship: Covenant Community
• 4 School Life: Covenant School
• 5 To Live in Fellowship: Lakehaven Community
• 6 School Life: The Academy
• 7 Spheres of Influence
• 8 Rhetoric and Reality: Two Views of the World
• 9 Teaching Discipline: Socializing Disciples
• 10 Re-creation or Re-production? A Critique of Christian Schools
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index