As pandemics go, the recent outbreak was/is of minimal historic importance. The condition that has spread – uncontrollably – among the American population is far more deadly: the incidence of foundational ignorance is widespread and appears to have no reversal in sight.

No generation in history has received more education – at more expense – than today’s Americans. Boomers are highly educated; Busters more so; Millennials have run up the numbers even more. How can such academic pursuit deliver such abysmal results?

In simplest terms, each generation of adults was made responsible by God for the education of the next: “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). Societies benefit from that effort: “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

The curriculum for each ongoing generation would have a consistent and reliable core: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

By God’s design, the parents of intact families were made responsible for the education of their children, with biblical faith at the core. Historically, churches and schools were established to assist families in that task. In America, 106 of the first 108 colleges were founded by Christians; in its origin, Harvard declared that “students should be instructed in knowing God and that Christ is the only foundation for all sound knowledge and learning.” Of those first 106 Christian institutions that continue today, all have abandoned their original Christian mission.

Hopes for the Church to mitigate the effects of that erosion are not faring well. In research conducted by George Barna through the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, a biblical worldview is no longer a foundation for the majority of self-identified Christians in the USA: only 9% exhibit that basis for their values. Narrow that to those who describe themselves as “born-again;” the result climbs to 19%. Among Senior Pastors, 41% have a biblical worldview; Teaching Pastors register at 13%, and Executive Pastors lag at 4%. Only 12% of Pastors leading Children and Youth ministries in church share that set of convictions.

Why is that crucial? One’s world view involves adopting basic biblical principles and teachings that form the filter through which we experience, interpret and respond to the world.

“When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3).

In America today, people are marching to make demands of government that confirm their ignorance of the Constitution. In American churches today, congregants are equally misinformed regarding their role in God’s historic plan for mankind. Each generation is tasked with conveying the timeless truth of God to the next through education and example. How can we help reverse the slide?

In most states, public education policy requires including the Bible in the core curriculum. Most parents and educators are unaware of those provisions; our friends at Gateways to Better Education (gogateways.org) are helping concerned Christian citizens to exercise influence in their local schools. For some, creating or supporting private Christian schools where the Bible is woven into every subject is a strategy with high potential for passing legitimate faith to the next generation.

Within the church movements in America, many individual congregations and denominations have parted ways with biblical truth as their unquestioned basis for the answers to life’s ultimate issues. Replacing unchanging biblical standards with paradigms that reflect cultural alternatives has welcomed compromise that is fracturing churches and removing the power of God from their ministries. How confident are you that the leaders in your midst are holding fast to the timeless Word of God?

Ignorance is a pandemic in need of a dramatic response. That inoculation begins at the family table and requires faithfulness over a course of years. Are you ensuring that your family is insulated against the erosion of truth that is underway around us?