“Catechesis” means to teach by “echoing back and forth.” Luther’s Small Catechism contains questions to be spoken by a parent, pastor, or teacher as children are taught to respond with answers that echo God’s Word. Catechesis—repetition and memorization until the message becomes second nature—is a very effective teaching method. The world uses this method as much as the church does.
The world’s catechism is printed on posters in hallways at public schools. The world’s catechism is shared in memes via social media. The world’s catechism is taught during HR training sessions in the corporate world. The world’s catechism creeps into Christian schools, too, such as when church-affiliated schools, colleges, or seminaries move away from their Biblical confession by adopting practices or slogans from the spiritually wayward culture around them.
The latest edition of the world’s catechism teaches a body of doctrine known as Cultural Marxism. Karl Marx (1818–1883) was more than an economic theorist who critiqued capitalism. He was a theologian of sorts, making theological assertions about God (whom he said does not exist), about man (whom he said is made merely of body, not of soul), ethics (which he said were invented by the ruling class to oppress the poor), and about many other deeper issues. Marx might have accurately recognized some economic abuses in the free market, but the theology that underpinned his entire system of thought was completely contrary to God’s Word. Marx was a heretic.
“Religion,” wrote Marx, “is the opium of the people,” a deceptive drug that prevents people from discovering their true condition. “The social principles of Christianity preach cowardice, self-contempt, abasement, submission, humility, in a word all the qualities of vulgar people.”
Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) took Marx’s economic theory to a new level, weaving it into a broad philosophy known as “Cultural Marxism.” Not only should capitalism give way to socialism, but all institutions in the culture—especially education and the arts—should reject objective truth in general and Christianity in particular. “Socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity,” wrote Gramsci. “In the new order, socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches and the media by transforming the consciousness of society.”
Paolo Freire (1921–1997) brought Cultural Marxism into the mainstream of social science with his best-selling book Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968). The “critical education theory” he promoted summoned teachers and students alike to become “co-creators of knowledge”: school would no longer be a place to learn facts, but now a “revolutionary” space for “constructing facts” through a social process of “dialogue.”
Transgenderism in today’s public schools represents yet another version of this same Cultural Marxist tactic: male and female are not true sexes created by God—facts of the universe—but instead are social constructs that can be transformed into a “gender spectrum,” with the pharmacy and the surgical knife “empowering” children to “choose” a new gender.
Numerous teachers and parents have contacted the Center for Apologetics and Worldviews to express their concerns over the sweeping changes occurring in public schools when it comes to how gender, marriage, parenthood, and traditional God-given authorities are treated across the curriculum and throughout the school culture. They have shared photos of posters on the wall and copies of books and worksheets distributed in class that clearly run contrary to the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Commandments. The trend toward Cultural Marxism is not a random happenstance, but an organized and intentional process. For example, education agencies in New York, Illinois, and Minnesota have released new licensure standards requiring that teachers catechize public school students in Cultural Marxism.
Lutherans are committed to evaluating all doctrine and practice on the basis of God’s Word. This is the “Sola Scriptura” principle that we find emphasized at the beginning of the Formula of Concord. The Formula continues by addressing various topics and then listing “affirmativa” (statements that should be affirmed as sound doctrine) and “negativa” (statements that should be rejected as heresy). Scripture, not man, is the standard for making those evaluations.
Lutherans today need to take the very same approach toward evaluating the world’s new catechism. A helpful exercise when confronting any worldview is to chart it out in comparison with Holy Scripture. Where do the two intersect? Do they agree, or do they contradict? What must the church affirm and what must the church reject in order to teach clearly on such matters?
For example, when new education policies require more than just informing or teaching about sexual perversion, but actually require that teachers “affirm,” “incorporate,” “foster,” “support,” “plan,” “feature,” and otherwise actively showcase beliefs and behaviors that contradict the Bible and natural law, then one must conclude that the world’s new catechism constitutes what St. Paul called a false and deceptive philosophy (Colossians 2:8).
Upon realizing that the new state standards for public schools directly attack the souls of students and teachers alike, what is a Christian to do? What is a Christian college—like Bethany Lutheran College—that has a teacher-training program to do? Bethany’s education department expressed concerns when the new policies were still in draft form. Bethany’s president bravely submitted written testimony to an administrative judge during the public comment period, objecting to an aspect in conflict with our confession of faith. Recently, some lawyers in Minnesota have announced an intention to challenge the new policy in court.
How will this all play out, especially regarding future teachers (graduating from Bethany and elsewhere) who receive state certification? We do not yet know. We do know the great need to pray for our college, her students, and secular authorities. We also must pray for our synodical leaders, theologians, pastors, fathers, teachers, and laymen—that God would grant wisdom and courage, to “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Our confession in these confusing and evil times must be clear. In matters where God has spoken, anything less than clarity is the ploy of Satan: “Did God really say?” he asked Eve (Genesis 3:1).
In times of trial and persecution, Christians do well to remember their Good Shepherd. His love and protection stay with them in all of life’s storms. He calls them to be faithful and promises never to leave them nor forsake them. Lutheran confirmands take a vow in God’s name to be willing to die rather than to abandon the chief doctrines of the Christian church as presented in Luther’s Small Catechism. How, exactly, that vow becomes fulfilled may hinge upon the details of a judge’s ruling, but God’s faithfulness to the remnant church is unconditional. In Christ alone, the saints find their confidence in these last days. May God grant wisdom and courage to those in our synod with the responsibility to lead the way.
Dr. Ryan MacPherson