March 25, 2025 • 37 mins
"The most important part of teaching is not relaying data points to a brain. It is giving them the context in which that data will make meaning to them." ~ Dr. Renton Rathbun
Watch this full interview on Spotify or on our YouTube Channel.
Join Yvette Hampton and Renton Rathbun for the second part of their compelling discussion on deconstruction and its impact on today’s youth. Discover insights into how education systems, including secular and Christian institutions, play a role in this trend. Explore practical strategies for parents to fortify their children’s faith and confidence in God's word. Listen now to understand the hidden influences within curriculum choices and the powerful role of prayer in guiding your child’s spiritual journey.
Join us next week on the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast, as Zan Tyler joins new host, Kristi Clover, to share her heart-moving story of weathering doubt and challenges to build a life-giving homeschool.
Support the Schoolhouse Rocked Ministry
Has the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast been a blessing to you? Support from our listeners allows us provide resources, support, and encouragement to homeschooling families around the world. Would you please consider a year-end gift to support the Schoolhouse Rocked ministry?
Recommended Resources:
📚📖 Ready to start homeschooling? 🏠📓
🍿 Stream Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution 🍿 for FREE today and get the 📖 Homeschool Survival Kit 📖 delivered to your inbox immediately!
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ Are you in need of a fresh vision for your homeschool? Join us for 4 days of Homeschool Encouragement at the Homegrown Generation Family Expo. Use the coupon code PODCAST to save 25% on registration today!
Be the most popular mom in your co-op. Get your Schoolhouse Rocked merch here.
SPONSORS:
Apologia is a Christ-centered, award-winning homeschool curriculum provider. Our mission is to help homeschooling students and families learn, live, and defend the Christian faith through our print and digital curriculum and online classes.
BJU Press Homeschool is dedicated to providing homeschool families with academically strong curriculum rooted in a biblical worldview. They offer a complete curriculum from preschool through 12th grade, available in both traditional textbooks and video courses. By teaching through the lens of Christ’s power, they help students view the world through the transformative story of God’s creation
CTCMath specializes in providing online video tutorials that take a multi-sensory approach to learning. Creative graphics and animation, synchronized with the friendly voice of internationally acclaimed teacher, Pat Murray, make learning math easy and effective. Start your free trial today.
The Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast is a member of the Biblical Family Network
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You are directing them towards aworld view and that at the heart
is what teaching is all about. Because data doesn't matter.
Data is is is points of of of knowledge that without a context
(00:20):
you have nothing. You have to develop a context
for kids to take data and then make meaning of it for
themselves. Hey everyone, this is Yvette
Hampton. Welcome back to the Schoolhouse
Rock podcast. I am so glad you are back with
me in Renton this week. Or Renton Is it Renton and I?
Which is the proper way to say that I always?
(00:42):
When it comes to the beginning of a sentence, it's Renton and
I. At the end of a sentence, it's
Renton and me. That's the only thing I know.
OK, well and I said, I think I said me in Renton.
So Renton and me. OK.
Thank you for being back with Renton and me.
All these things grammar anyway,I love writing, but some I don't
(01:02):
know. That's why I use spell check and
grammar checks and all that for those things.
I'm not writing it, I'm saying it.
Anyway, welcome back. I'm glad you guys are back with
us this week. And we're talking about are kids
deconstructing their faith and this this generation of young
people who it's become like thiscool popular thing for them to
deconstruct their faith and justsay, yeah, I don't really
believe what I believe anymore. So if you missed the first part
(01:25):
of our conversation, go back andlisten to last week's episode
with Renton. And we talk about deconstruction
and what that really means and the four conditions of
deconstruction. And, and man, it's, it's a tough
thing. It's a tough place that we're at
with our generation of kids today.
But there's always hope because we have hope in the Lord.
(01:45):
And so we're going to talk a little bit more about that
today. And then we're going to talk
about how we as parents can helpour kids to really hold strong
and hold tight to truth, to the truth of God's word.
And so I'm excited about today'sconversation.
But before we get into it, I want to say thank you to our
sponsor, BJU Press Homeschool, who ironically, Renton works for
(02:08):
VGU Press Homeschool. And so we're excited to have him
with us and we are excited to have VGU Press Homeschool as one
of our sponsors. We are so grateful for them.
They are truly dedicated to providing homeschool families
with academically strong curriculum that's rooted in a
strong biblical worldview. And they offer complete
curriculum from preschool through 12th grade that's
available in both traditional textbooks and video courses.
(02:30):
We've, we have been to their facility where they film these
video courses and it's super cool.
I mean, it's amazing it, it's cool that they do it, but it's
really cool because they have such a strong biblical worldview
and a commitment to that. And they teach everything
through a lens of scripture and,and God's word.
So their materials won't equip you just for a successful
(02:52):
homeschool journey, but they will truly prepare your child
for a future full of possibilities that your kids can
confidently move beyond homeschool.
Imagine that one of these days they're going to be out of
homeschooling and be ready for whatever God has next for them.
Check him out at bjupresshomeschool.com.
That's bjupresshomeschool.com. Well, Renton, I know that part
(03:12):
of your world. You know, it's so funny when you
look at adult life and adult careers, most adults, they,
they, most of them, I don't knowif I would say most, many adults
never stick with one specific career through their entire
life, their entire adult life, right.
(03:32):
I do have a brother-in-law who went to college to become an
engineer and he has been an engineer his whole adult life
and he will be an engineer probably his entire adult life.
And he loves it and he's very good at it.
But most people kind of jump from thing to thing and one
thing seems to connect to the thing that they did before and
the thing that they did before that.
(03:53):
And the Lord just grows us in different ways as adults.
And so you, I know you've taughtat different levels of
education. You've taught in the high school
level, you've taught in the at the college level, you've taught
in public, you've taught in private.
You've kind of been around kids for a long time in the teaching
aspect. You're a parent, you're a
homeschool parent. And so you've seen first hand in
(04:16):
your home how education really does impact our kids.
So I want you to talk from your,you know, put on your professor
hat and talk really quickly about education because whether
it's high school or college, public or private, I know that
often times the education systemthat our kids are in really does
(04:37):
contribute to their desire to deconstruct their faith.
You know, when I when I started teaching back in the back in the
90s? Wow.
That's old. You know, there was a, a way of
educating that I think was, was different in that we had, we had
a very different way of approaching education.
(04:59):
I think the, the students were different.
But as I started teaching throughout the years, all, you
know, throughout 25 years of teaching in the classroom, the
student changed quite a bit. And I think that's because of
what we talked about last last time we spoke.
Yeah, but what I found was this,this collecting, you know,
(05:22):
you're collecting all these kidsfrom all these different
backgrounds, and especially in the college level, you bring
them in and you find that you are directing them towards a
world view. And that at the heart is what
teaching is all about, because data doesn't matter.
(05:45):
Data is, is, is points of of of knowledge that without a context
you have nothing. You have to develop a context
for kids to take data and then make meaning of it for
themselves. And that is at the heart of
learning. When we're talking about kids
(06:06):
learning something, you're saying, OK, I'm going to, I have
all these points of data that that's covered in these, you
know, in these books and what, you know, what's expected of you
in this classroom. But it's up to me, the teacher,
to present to you the world viewthat this data will make sense
in. That's what makes homeschooling
(06:28):
so vitally important to have to have the most important part of
teaching. The most important part of
teaching is not relaying data points to a brain.
It is giving them the context inwhich that data will make
meaning to them. And so when we, you know, when
you, when kids go off to school,you know, if you send your kids
(06:51):
to a Christian School, you are trusting every teacher they
have. When they get to high school,
they have maybe 5-6 teachers to teach them all the different
stuff that's going on. And you're placing a lot of
responsibility in each of those people's hands because they are
directing a world view that these data points will make
(07:12):
sense in. Now imagine you're sending them
to unbelievers. And I think, you know this, you
know, COVID woke a lot of peopleup.
They started to pay attention tothe world view that these data
points were going to make sense in.
And it terrified them. It terrified unbelievers.
Not just. Believers so.
(07:34):
So then, you know, homeschoolingexplodes 'cause people finally
see what learning is. Learning is not to transmission
of data points. Learning is what worldview will
make these data points create meaning for this child.
And so that's why when when we talk about, you know, sending
your kid to college after after homeschooling, or we're talking
(07:56):
about what homeschooling's all about, you have to think of all
these things. Because how these things work
could lead your kid right to thedesire to deconstruct if the
world view that these data points make sense in is leading
them there. Yeah, yeah.
It's so interesting that you talk about that because even in
the homeschool world, what we see happening a lot of Times Now
(08:18):
today, especially since COVID, is that many parents are like,
well, I've got my kids at home and I will teach them my
biblical worldview, but we'll use whatever curriculum is free
or whatever curriculum is easy to teach from.
And oftentimes homeschool families today are bringing in
secular curriculum. And it's a very subtle, that
secular worldview is very, very subtle.
(08:40):
And so we have to be careful as Christian homeschool parents,
because that's what we're talking about and that's who
we're talking to today is Christian homeschool parents,
parents who are really intentional about teaching from
a strong biblical worldview. And so we've got to be aware of
what the worldview is of the curriculum that we're teaching
in our own homes and not just assume that just because you are
(09:02):
a Christian home teaching your kids at home that it is a
Christian, which is why, you know, we we promote BJU Press
homeschool and apologia because those, those two ministries are
so dedicated to a solid biblicalChristian worldview.
And I don't worry about it. I don't worry about opening up
the book and reading something that is going to be totally off
(09:24):
the cuff and unbiblical. And, and so that's important for
homeschool families to keep in mind.
Yeah, you want. You know, it's interesting.
I've worked with secular textbooks for a long time
working in secular teaching. And I will tell you this.
What people don't understand about secular textbooks is that
they're not designed merely to teach the student.
(09:44):
They're also designed to steer the teacher.
A lot of work goes into these and the subtleties are so are so
subtle. I mean, there's, there's parts
that you would agree with it, but if you look closely, what
you're agreeing with is actuallya road to deconstructionism in
the book. I mean, how many homeschool
(10:06):
parents would say, well, I want a team teach my child with an
atheist? Very few people do that.
Like, you know, I'm, I'm going to go to the local university,
we're going to ask an atheist tocome and we're going to team
teach my child. But that's exactly what you're
doing when you take on a seculartextbook, because they are that
textbook. Everything about it is working
(10:27):
very hard to teach your kid thatfaith is nice and cute, but
reality works this way. The world view I want to teach
you is here. And so you're absolutely right.
It's it's not a matter of just having a an aura of Christianity
around your house. It's about intentionality on
every single step of the way when you educate.
(10:49):
Yeah, Yeah. OK.
So let me ask you another reallydeep question on this note,
because you have taught in the Christian university level and
at the secular university level.But oftentimes, and we're seeing
this over and over again, where there are Christian
universities, Christian colleges, Christian high schools
that are really helping to contribute to the mindset of
(11:10):
deconstruction. Mm Hmm.
Have you seen that? And, and if so, I mean, we're
seeing this in the churches today as well.
We're it's everywhere within Christianity.
So how are one, I guess, is, I want to say, are you seeing
that? I'm sure you are, because it's
impossible to not see that. If you're seeing that, why do
(11:30):
you think that is? Why is Christianity kind of
pointing sometimes, often times to to this mindset?
Yeah, you know, a lot of parentswant to believe and because I'm
I'm a parent, I'm going to be a grandparent in a few.
Months so. Yeah, so I get it.
(11:52):
I, I want to believe that when auniversity says it's a Christian
university or a conservative, you know, whatever any of that
means that I can trust them because it's easier to trust
them than to do the work to findout if they really are doing
what they're saying they're doing.
Because nowadays, you know, the university, the university world
is a really hard world to stay in.
(12:14):
You have a better chance of, of keeping a restaurant going than
you do at university these days.And so you know what they're,
what they, what they're doing totry and get kids to come in.
They'll, they'll tell you anything.
I mean, it's like Army recruiting, you know, And I say
that as someone who is a veteran.
I've been, so I'm not trying to make fun of the military, but my
(12:36):
point is, is that when you look into what Christians think, they
can redeem you start finding outhow these ideas are getting into
the Christian universities and Christian schools.
Because what I found is that Marxism, you know, maybe some of
(12:58):
your audience remembers back when back, I think it was when
Biden was running the first timewith Trump.
And the big, the big thing was we, you know, we're not, we're
not being socialists, We're we're democratic socialists or
democratic Marxism. I mean, they throw, you know,
(13:18):
it's in other words, it's the promise we'll do it better this
time. You know, we know that it caused
genocide in the past, but this time, you know, it'll be better.
I think Christians start gettingthat idea because in the end,
Marxist teaching does not look at the student as someone that
must be instructed. They're looking at the student
(13:38):
as someone that joins in the theteacher is no longer a an
authority in the room. The teacher is a facilitator.
The teacher has to be careful, you know, because although he
might have some knowledge of thetopic, he doesn't know the
student that has the real knowledge, which is their
personal experiences. And you would be surprised how
(14:01):
many Christian schools are falling into the idea of our
students are victims. We have to, we have to treat
their personal experiences as just as valuable as the content
that I am teaching in the room. And I, I, I mean, I hope I'm
not, I'm not getting too technical, but this is important
(14:22):
because what we have found is that there's a reason why kids
have changed so much. Kids have changed because the
classroom has changed, because kids are coming in thinking I
have superior knowledge than theprofessor, because I have my
personal experiences. The world has told me, my
personal experiences can tell mewhat's true or false about the
(14:42):
universe. And this guy doesn't know those
personal experiences. He knows all that stuff about
his topic. And so the teacher is now
instructed to say, I'm not the authority in the room.
We're going to learn together. I'm going to learn from you.
You're going to learn from me a little bit.
And Rob, I'm just going to facilitate.
I'm going to use this this content I have to facilitate
(15:05):
learning in the room and we'll all learn together.
No one is higher than the other.It's all the socialistic way.
And you can imagine how a Christian could take something
like that and you just take awayMarxism, say this isn't Marxism.
This is loving your neighbor. I just want to love my neighbor
more. And how else can I love my
neighbor than valuing their experiences?
(15:28):
And you can see that this is this is taking root because the
kids love it, unsurprisingly. Have you tried CTC math yet with
your child? Here's a testimonial from
another happy homeschool mom. Amber said.
I'm absolutely thrilled with CTCMath.
It's a rare find that I've used with my children for more than
five years now. I have six children using CTC
(15:50):
Math, and each child has found it easy to navigate and very
applicable. Thank you so much for all that
you are doing and providing quality math lessons for my
children. If you're looking for a great
online math program, visit ctcmath.com.
That's ctcmath.com. Join Apologia for the Homeschool
Boot Camp, a free video series that provides practical guidance
(16:14):
and wisdom from experienced homeschool parents.
You'll discover how to equip your family for academic,
social, and spiritual success. Plus, you'll discover how to
build deeper and stronger familyrelationships.
Homeschool Boot Camp covers how to break free from the public
school mindset, daily planning, supporting students with
learning challenges, homeschooling as a working
parent, navigating the high school years, and much more.
(16:37):
Find this incredible, The Homeschool
resource@apologia.com/bootcamp We are back with Renton.
Let's talk about the consequences of deconstructing
because you know as as I I said earlier and I've said this many,
many times before, is that sin causes pain.
There are consequences to sin and deconstructing is one of
(17:02):
those things that is leading people into a life of sin.
Again, going back to it's, it's justifying whatever sinful life
it is that they want to be living.
So talk through the consequencesof a generation that is is
deconstructing. And then I want to really hit
hard on like what we as parents can do to help our kids hold
(17:24):
tight to their faith. I don't know if you've read the
Book of Judges lately. But it's.
It's awful. It is.
It is inspired by the Holy Spirit and it's inerrant,
infallible, and it's God's word,but it is just horrendous.
Throughout the book of of Judges, you have, you know, God
(17:46):
raises a judge because the people have rebelled and they
they've done all these awful, awful things.
And then a judge comes up, savesthem, but he has to do it in
some kind of gruesome way. I mean, there's one point where
a guy stabs a, a another, you know, a king and the fat is so
the king so fat it goes over hishand.
(18:07):
He can't even pull the sword out.
There's people being chopped up into bits and sent in all
different directions. There's horrible.
It's awful. OK, I'm saying all that because
the book of Judges starts out and chapter 2, all the horrible
stuff doesn't start until chapter 2.
Chapter 2, verse 10 says a generation rose up that didn't
(18:31):
know the Lord. Now, of course they knew of the
Lord. You know, the old generation
would tell them of it. They knew of the Lord, but they
didn't know the Lord. They were not intimate with the
Lord. They did not believe.
Yeah, and I, I look around at what's going on in this world.
I look around at how simple it is to lose your child.
(18:56):
I am watching parent after parent who has worked so hard
raising their child and they go away for one year at A at a
secular college and they come back and they have for they have
completely walked away from the Lord.
I have heard that story over andover.
I'm looking around and the president of the United States
(19:17):
had to had to decree that we're going to have just two genders.
It's insane that he has to do that.
But this is the world we live inwhere where Pornhub is is known
much more quickly to our kids than any other site.
And I feel that we are in the book of judges.
(19:39):
We might not be at the end of the chapter yet, or you know,
the end of the book yet. We might be just a few chapters
in, but this is the result of deconstruction.
This is what this is what deconstruction leads you to.
It leads you to a generation that is aware of the Lord but
said no. The world will tell me how I
will assess the Lord. The world will tell me how I
(20:00):
judge the Lord. And you cannot know the Lord and
feel you can stand somewhere to judge him.
And that's what the world has done.
And the result is the chaos we see around us today.
Yeah, yeah. Kids are saying thanks, but no
thanks. What you have sounds nice, but
(20:20):
no thank you. We've got a better way.
And man, it's hard. It's, it's hard this generation
of kids because they like said, they, they think that they know
all of the things that there is to know instead of listening to
their parents, instead of listening to the Christian
mentors that God has put in their lives.
And so, so that's, that's tough.So what, as we look at all of
(20:40):
this, what is the antidote to deconstruction?
And I want to talk about that just for a minute before we get
into what we as parents can do to help our kids.
Yeah. You know, one thing you said
that kind of stuck out to me wasthat, you know, we have kids
these days that kind of act likethey already know everything.
And you were telling me that your kids are still asking you
(21:02):
questions. And that is so important because
I feel that kids nowadays ask less and less questions because
Google will tell them the answer.
One of the most important thingsparents can do to help their
kids is get them off the screen.Yeah, get them off the screen.
(21:23):
There is a false and and this isthis is something that we've
seen in AI. You can go to AI, you can go to
ChatGPT and you can tell it to write you a, you know, a paper
on whatever and you can give it all these instructions and it
will write it out. But if you really read that
thing closely, it's hollow. It's like has no soul, right?
(21:45):
It's like, it's like cookies without sugar.
I mean, it's a it's just, it's saying the things you told it to
say. Right, it's just data.
Yeah. But yeah, it's just a it's
copying off of a bunch of the things to try and get this
before you. And it's this false.
It's a false way of trying to understand the world.
(22:10):
And kids have that today throughtheir through their screens.
Their screens are giving them a false sense of security in that
they know something. Yeah.
And, and if we could get them away from those screens and some
of those screens come in the form of a phone.
I know of some families that have decided their kids are
going to have flip phones and it's going to be embarrassing
(22:32):
for them and they will not be cool with their friends because
as their friends pull out their phones to check something out or
get directions, they're going tohave a flip phone.
They might even have to get an actual physical map because
their flip phone won't tell themwhere to go.
And and they'll know who Rand McNally is, because this
generation does not know who that is.
(22:54):
You know, our young listeners are like, who's Rand?
Google it, you'll see. So, you know, that's, that's a,
that's something that is, that'sdoable.
It will not make you popular with your kids.
The sooner you, you start weaning them off video games,
(23:14):
the better. And I'm a giant hypocrite with
this. You know, I have, I have a 24
year old. I made so many mistakes with
him. We would, we would play video
games together and that would beour together time.
It's not together time. It's, it's, it's foolish to
think that my son learned anything from me as we played
video games together. We, I taught him how to escape.
(23:38):
I taught him a terrible, terrible habit, habit.
And so, you know, now I have a, you know, a nine year old and a
10 year old, you know, have I learned from my mistakes?
Am I sitting here before you saying, you know, they don't
play video games? No, but they do play video
games. So how do I, you know, how do we
manage that? How do we how do we make, you
(24:00):
know, screen time intentional and rare, because screen time
makes life easy. It really does.
It is so nice to put a screen infront of their little faces and
it's quiet. Oh, the relief.
I'll tell you it's, it's it's beautiful.
(24:21):
But at the same time, the longerthey're with that, they are
drifting into fantasy and the reality looks less and less
real, right? What what becomes real to your
kid is that, you know, is the little person on that screen
that they've been staring at forfive hours.
What becomes less real to them is sitting in church and
(24:42):
listening to that old guy talk about stuff.
And that seems so far from them.Right.
Right. The second thing that that
parents can do as an antidote todeconstructionism is get the get
those kids in front of God's word.
And I know there's a million things out there to make it fun.
(25:02):
If you can't find those things, then you know it doesn't have to
be fun. But they need to know mom and
dad take this seriously and that, you know, when the evening
comes and right before bed, or maybe it's at supper at the
supper table, or maybe it's first thing in the morning, we
get the Bible out and we start talking about it.
And, and that that's important to mom and dad.
(25:25):
Have I done that every night andbeen super consistent at it?
Absolutely not. I'm terrible at it.
I'm filled with, I'm racked withguilt as I'm talking to you
about it now. But we have tried to make that
happen. And I, you know, you, you, you
do really well on it for a few weeks and then you're like, you
know, life happens, right? But you got to keep going back
(25:46):
on it no matter how many times you have to go back to it.
And you think you're a giant hypocrite because you can't get
it consistent. Be a hypocrite.
Go back and make it happen again.
Another thing we can do, it's a 2.
It's a two way process. We've got to get our kids
(26:08):
thinking about the supernatural.Your kids need this modeled.
How do they start relying on thesupernatural?
You've got to model it for them.They need to see stress in your
life that has been conquered because you prayed.
We have underestimated prayer inthe Christian life because we
want some grand exciting thing because that's we think that's
(26:30):
what will, you know, speak to our kids.
The most powerful thing, if you look at Ephesians 6, when it
goes through all the armor of God, the, you know, the
breastplate of righteousness, you know, the shield of faith,
all that stuff, it goes to a participle.
It says all this stuff you should, you should put on, and
then it says praying. That's the participle.
(26:53):
All that is to arm yourself for the most powerful thing you
could possibly do, which is pray.
And you need to teach your kids how to pray.
You need to show them how to pray.
You need to tell them what your stresses are in this world and
that now we're going to pray about it.
And when the Lord gives an answer, even if it's one we
don't like, we have got to show them this is what prayer did,
(27:16):
kids. This is supernatural work.
And eventually you teach them, OK, now here's something that's
stressing you out. This usually happens when they
hit the double digits. Life starts stressing them out
because they actually have some kind of responsibility in the
world. And we say, now it's your turn.
I want you to pray and we'll pray together and I'll make us
(27:37):
pray together. You're not going to want to
pray. I'm going to make you pray and
we're going to do it together and you're going to and we're
going to watch to see how God takes care of this.
And they start relying on the supernatural work of God and
that becomes way more real than than all the apologetic stuff
out there that that on YouTube that makes them believe better.
(27:58):
Yeah, for sure. And I'm going to add one more to
that, which is Scripture memory.I think that's so important to
be memorizing Scripture. You know, the Bible says, you
know, to hide God's word in yourheart so that you don't sin
against him. And it's so true.
When our kids know Scripture, we're right now, well, we do our
family Bible time in the evening.
But for Laci, my youngest and I,when we're doing our, our, our
(28:20):
morning basket time, we're reading through Proverbs and we
read and, and for our listeners who don't do this, this is such
a great way to just just get wisdom into your, the hearts of
your kids. Read the proverb of the day.
There's 31 proverbs, there's about 31 ish days of the month
every month. And so read whatever day of the
month it is, read that proverb. And so sometimes we'll skip, you
(28:43):
know, on the weekends or if we're, you know, doing something
during the day, we'll skip that proverb.
But we'll just do whatever the day is of the week or of the
month. And I mean, there's been times
where, you know, my daughter is like, you know something, I'm
doing the same thing. I'm like, you know, man, I
really needed to hear that today, but it's so full of
wisdom. So read a proverb of the day,
(29:04):
but also memorize God's word with your kids.
Kids have an incredible ability to memorize.
Our family right now is going through Psalm 139 and memorizing
it. And, and our daughter, I mean,
she, she can, both of our girls can memorize so much faster than
we can. And you know, Lacey's like, man,
I'm so much better at this. I'm like, yeah, that's because
I'm old and my brain has a wholelot more stuff shoved inside of
(29:26):
it. I can't memorize as quickly as
you, but memorizing scripture isso important for our kids to do.
Let me ask one more question, 'cause we are just about out of
time. We are out of time, but we're,
we're going to go a couple minutes over because I really do
want to ask you this one last question before we close out.
How, if, if our, if we have children or maybe even family
(29:48):
members who have quote UN quote deconstructed their faith.
They've gone through this process of just saying, I don't
believe it anymore. I I no longer hold tight to the
biblical world view that you taught me and to the truth of
God's Word. How do we approach young people
who have gone through this process?
(30:09):
Our first temptation as as adults, when we come across kids
that have gone through the process of deconstruction is we
think, OK, I know there's an answer to their questions, and
so we try to answer all their questions.
The problem with that is the questions they're asking are
based on the premise of the world standard of how to become
(30:31):
certain about something. Always remember that.
So what you need to do is start,stop answering their questions
and start asking them questions.Why do you think that's true?
OK, you seem pretty certain about that.
What made you think that's true?And I, what I call it, I, I did
this with my students in my philosophy classes in secular
(30:51):
schools. I would play The Who said game.
They would, you know, they wouldsay something, you know, that
they were very sure about. And I'd say, oh really?
Who says? And, and trying to trace back.
Where are you getting this? Why do you feel so secure about
this? The more questions you ask, the
more unsure they will be of, of their position.
(31:11):
The next thing you can do is go to war with them through prayer.
Prayer is going to be one of your most powerful tools that
you're going to have because again, supernatural work is
what's going to change their heart.
Not a really good argument. We think a really good argument
is going to get them one day. And they go, oh, but that's not
(31:34):
what Romans one says. Roman one says that they're
going to suppress the truth withtheir sin or unrighteousness.
It takes a miracle for them to believe, and that miracle comes
from the Holy Spirit that opens their heart.
And I would say sequester them if you have any authority over
them, sequester their technology, take it away and say
(31:56):
stop dumbing yourself down with this stuff and start thinking
with me and and mentor them through through the extra time
they will have away from their technology.
Yeah, yeah. Good stuff.
Well, Renton, thank you so much for being with us last week and
this week. It's been such a great
conversation. This is a hard topic to tackle,
(32:17):
but one that I think is so important and, and one that I
think we as parents need to be really aware of keeping our eyes
open because I think there's often times little signs of our
kids starting to deconstruct their faith, starting to ask
now. Now I, I do want to clarify,
it's good for our kids to ask questions.
They have to ask questions to understand what they believe and
(32:37):
why they believe it. And hopefully they're asking
those questions to their parents.
And if the parents don't have the answers, find someone who
does, someone who's who is really biblically sound, you
know, hopefully a pastor or a close friend or a family member
or somebody go, it's OK to go tothose people and ask them to
help guide you as the parent to answer these questions for your
kids. But it's good for our kids to
(32:57):
ask questions. It's not good for them to just
give it all up and say, yeah, I don't believe it anymore.
I'm going to just go on my merryway.
And so, so I really appreciate your encouragement and just
opening your eyes to what this is.
I mean, I, I, I, I know I didn'teven know the word
deconstruction until a couple ofyears.
I mean, I knew the word deconstruction, but not in this
(33:18):
context. Yeah, I remember when I started
hearing about it and I thought deconstructing.
But what in the world, you know?And it's just a new word for, of
course, you know, Satan messing with people's minds and pulling
them away from from the faith. So thank you for your
encouragement. Tell our listeners one more time
where they can find you and yournew podcast.
Yes, a new podcast is called TheRent and Rathbun Show, as we're
(33:41):
on all the podcast places that you can imagine, as well as
YouTube. You can go to rentonrathbun.com
and find a lot of good resourcesfor parents to help them with
these kinds of things. And so I hope it's helpful to
you. Awesome, we will put those links
in the show notes. Thank you guys so much for being
with us this week. We love you so much.
(34:02):
Stay tuned in the very end to hear what's coming up next week
on the podcast. And again, you can find
everything at our website, schoolhouserock.com.
And one more, one more to you guys.
If you have not left a review for the Schoolhouse Rock
podcast, would you take just a minute, whatever platform you're
listening to it on and leave a review, leave a hopefully a five
star review. I, I hope if it's not a five
(34:24):
star review, let us know what wecan do to serve you to you and
to make this podcast even more meaningful for you.
And if you're watching on YouTube, we would love it if you
would comment underneath and send it to your friends.
Send them links to the podcast so that they can be encouraged
as well. Have a great rest of your week
and we will see you back here next time.
Bye. What can poison dart frogs,
(34:48):
monarch butterflies, and jellyfish teach us about God's
truth and love? It's time to return nature study
to its rightful place as theology, the study of God.
That's exactly what we do on NatTheo, Nature Lessons Rooted in
the Bible, a podcast for kids which recently ranked #4 for
education for children in the USA.
(35:10):
I'm Aaron Lynam, host of Nat Theo and a certified master
naturalist, Bible teacher, author, and educator.
Join thousands of families listening to Nat Theo for their
science and Bible lessons. Listen today on your favorite
podcast platform or at aaronlynam.com.
That's ERYNLY n-um.com. Reconnect the dots between
(35:33):
creation and Creator as your children learn real, fun science
from a biblical worldview. OK, I'm obviously an abysmal
failure at this, and so I'm going to try to do homeschooling
the right way. So I take the kids downstairs.
It's like I put on my Army Sergeant drill hat and I blew
(35:55):
this whistle. And I read them these directions
and I say, this is what you willdo today.
And you are going to be still intime.
You're going to raise your hand when you have something to say.
You're not going to interrupt me.
You're not going to color while I'm talking.
You're not going to play with your heart and for heaven's
sakes, you're not going to bounce that ball that's always
going over here. And so, you know, this just
(36:18):
shows I just didn't know. And so it was so miserable.
Now John, my 4 year old just hadthis amazing gift of
concentration even at 4, but he was, Ty was upset.
I mean, Ty never said 2 words. Ty talked all day long and we
enjoyed being together, not engaged at all.
(36:39):
John, the four year old was a mess because he didn't, his
brother was a mess. You know, he just wanted
everybody to be happy. And so I just I said OK Lord if
this is homeschooling I can't doit and I need to quit.
And I'm thinking Ford, you made tie, you made him an auditory
kinesthetic learner. You made him to learn by moving
(37:02):
and talking. And that explains why he
couldn't say 2 words to me the day I met.
I made him sit still and quiet. And so really, I call that
Independence Day in our home school because I was free to be
who God made him to be, not who I made him to be.
But I had felt so much guilt forthat because I felt like it was
(37:25):
my fault.
You are directing them towards aworld view and that at the heart
is what teaching is all about. Because data doesn't matter.
Data is is is points of of of knowledge that without a context
(00:20):
you have nothing. You have to develop a context
for kids to take data and then make meaning of it for
themselves. Hey everyone, this is Yvette
Hampton. Welcome back to the Schoolhouse
Rock podcast. I am so glad you are back with
me in Renton this week. Or Renton Is it Renton and I?
Which is the proper way to say that I always?
(00:42):
When it comes to the beginning of a sentence, it's Renton and
I. At the end of a sentence, it's
Renton and me. That's the only thing I know.
OK, well and I said, I think I said me in Renton.
So Renton and me. OK.
Thank you for being back with Renton and me.
All these things grammar anyway,I love writing, but some I don't
(01:02):
know. That's why I use spell check and
grammar checks and all that for those things.
I'm not writing it, I'm saying it.
Anyway, welcome back. I'm glad you guys are back with
us this week. And we're talking about are kids
deconstructing their faith and this this generation of young
people who it's become like thiscool popular thing for them to
deconstruct their faith and justsay, yeah, I don't really
believe what I believe anymore. So if you missed the first part
(01:25):
of our conversation, go back andlisten to last week's episode
with Renton. And we talk about deconstruction
and what that really means and the four conditions of
deconstruction. And, and man, it's, it's a tough
thing. It's a tough place that we're at
with our generation of kids today.
But there's always hope because we have hope in the Lord.
(01:45):
And so we're going to talk a little bit more about that
today. And then we're going to talk
about how we as parents can helpour kids to really hold strong
and hold tight to truth, to the truth of God's word.
And so I'm excited about today'sconversation.
But before we get into it, I want to say thank you to our
sponsor, BJU Press Homeschool, who ironically, Renton works for
(02:08):
VGU Press Homeschool. And so we're excited to have him
with us and we are excited to have VGU Press Homeschool as one
of our sponsors. We are so grateful for them.
They are truly dedicated to providing homeschool families
with academically strong curriculum that's rooted in a
strong biblical worldview. And they offer complete
curriculum from preschool through 12th grade that's
available in both traditional textbooks and video courses.
(02:30):
We've, we have been to their facility where they film these
video courses and it's super cool.
I mean, it's amazing it, it's cool that they do it, but it's
really cool because they have such a strong biblical worldview
and a commitment to that. And they teach everything
through a lens of scripture and,and God's word.
So their materials won't equip you just for a successful
(02:52):
homeschool journey, but they will truly prepare your child
for a future full of possibilities that your kids can
confidently move beyond homeschool.
Imagine that one of these days they're going to be out of
homeschooling and be ready for whatever God has next for them.
Check him out at bjupresshomeschool.com.
That's bjupresshomeschool.com. Well, Renton, I know that part
(03:12):
of your world. You know, it's so funny when you
look at adult life and adult careers, most adults, they,
they, most of them, I don't knowif I would say most, many adults
never stick with one specific career through their entire
life, their entire adult life, right.
(03:32):
I do have a brother-in-law who went to college to become an
engineer and he has been an engineer his whole adult life
and he will be an engineer probably his entire adult life.
And he loves it and he's very good at it.
But most people kind of jump from thing to thing and one
thing seems to connect to the thing that they did before and
the thing that they did before that.
(03:53):
And the Lord just grows us in different ways as adults.
And so you, I know you've taughtat different levels of
education. You've taught in the high school
level, you've taught in the at the college level, you've taught
in public, you've taught in private.
You've kind of been around kids for a long time in the teaching
aspect. You're a parent, you're a
homeschool parent. And so you've seen first hand in
(04:16):
your home how education really does impact our kids.
So I want you to talk from your,you know, put on your professor
hat and talk really quickly about education because whether
it's high school or college, public or private, I know that
often times the education systemthat our kids are in really does
(04:37):
contribute to their desire to deconstruct their faith.
You know, when I when I started teaching back in the back in the
90s? Wow.
That's old. You know, there was a, a way of
educating that I think was, was different in that we had, we had
a very different way of approaching education.
(04:59):
I think the, the students were different.
But as I started teaching throughout the years, all, you
know, throughout 25 years of teaching in the classroom, the
student changed quite a bit. And I think that's because of
what we talked about last last time we spoke.
Yeah, but what I found was this,this collecting, you know,
(05:22):
you're collecting all these kidsfrom all these different
backgrounds, and especially in the college level, you bring
them in and you find that you are directing them towards a
world view. And that at the heart is what
teaching is all about, because data doesn't matter.
(05:45):
Data is, is, is points of of of knowledge that without a context
you have nothing. You have to develop a context
for kids to take data and then make meaning of it for
themselves. And that is at the heart of
learning. When we're talking about kids
(06:06):
learning something, you're saying, OK, I'm going to, I have
all these points of data that that's covered in these, you
know, in these books and what, you know, what's expected of you
in this classroom. But it's up to me, the teacher,
to present to you the world viewthat this data will make sense
in. That's what makes homeschooling
(06:28):
so vitally important to have to have the most important part of
teaching. The most important part of
teaching is not relaying data points to a brain.
It is giving them the context inwhich that data will make
meaning to them. And so when we, you know, when
you, when kids go off to school,you know, if you send your kids
(06:51):
to a Christian School, you are trusting every teacher they
have. When they get to high school,
they have maybe 5-6 teachers to teach them all the different
stuff that's going on. And you're placing a lot of
responsibility in each of those people's hands because they are
directing a world view that these data points will make
(07:12):
sense in. Now imagine you're sending them
to unbelievers. And I think, you know this, you
know, COVID woke a lot of peopleup.
They started to pay attention tothe world view that these data
points were going to make sense in.
And it terrified them. It terrified unbelievers.
Not just. Believers so.
(07:34):
So then, you know, homeschoolingexplodes 'cause people finally
see what learning is. Learning is not to transmission
of data points. Learning is what worldview will
make these data points create meaning for this child.
And so that's why when when we talk about, you know, sending
your kid to college after after homeschooling, or we're talking
(07:56):
about what homeschooling's all about, you have to think of all
these things. Because how these things work
could lead your kid right to thedesire to deconstruct if the
world view that these data points make sense in is leading
them there. Yeah, yeah.
It's so interesting that you talk about that because even in
the homeschool world, what we see happening a lot of Times Now
(08:18):
today, especially since COVID, is that many parents are like,
well, I've got my kids at home and I will teach them my
biblical worldview, but we'll use whatever curriculum is free
or whatever curriculum is easy to teach from.
And oftentimes homeschool families today are bringing in
secular curriculum. And it's a very subtle, that
secular worldview is very, very subtle.
(08:40):
And so we have to be careful as Christian homeschool parents,
because that's what we're talking about and that's who
we're talking to today is Christian homeschool parents,
parents who are really intentional about teaching from
a strong biblical worldview. And so we've got to be aware of
what the worldview is of the curriculum that we're teaching
in our own homes and not just assume that just because you are
(09:02):
a Christian home teaching your kids at home that it is a
Christian, which is why, you know, we we promote BJU Press
homeschool and apologia because those, those two ministries are
so dedicated to a solid biblicalChristian worldview.
And I don't worry about it. I don't worry about opening up
the book and reading something that is going to be totally off
(09:24):
the cuff and unbiblical. And, and so that's important for
homeschool families to keep in mind.
Yeah, you want. You know, it's interesting.
I've worked with secular textbooks for a long time
working in secular teaching. And I will tell you this.
What people don't understand about secular textbooks is that
they're not designed merely to teach the student.
(09:44):
They're also designed to steer the teacher.
A lot of work goes into these and the subtleties are so are so
subtle. I mean, there's, there's parts
that you would agree with it, but if you look closely, what
you're agreeing with is actuallya road to deconstructionism in
the book. I mean, how many homeschool
(10:06):
parents would say, well, I want a team teach my child with an
atheist? Very few people do that.
Like, you know, I'm, I'm going to go to the local university,
we're going to ask an atheist tocome and we're going to team
teach my child. But that's exactly what you're
doing when you take on a seculartextbook, because they are that
textbook. Everything about it is working
(10:27):
very hard to teach your kid thatfaith is nice and cute, but
reality works this way. The world view I want to teach
you is here. And so you're absolutely right.
It's it's not a matter of just having a an aura of Christianity
around your house. It's about intentionality on
every single step of the way when you educate.
(10:49):
Yeah, Yeah. OK.
So let me ask you another reallydeep question on this note,
because you have taught in the Christian university level and
at the secular university level.But oftentimes, and we're seeing
this over and over again, where there are Christian
universities, Christian colleges, Christian high schools
that are really helping to contribute to the mindset of
(11:10):
deconstruction. Mm Hmm.
Have you seen that? And, and if so, I mean, we're
seeing this in the churches today as well.
We're it's everywhere within Christianity.
So how are one, I guess, is, I want to say, are you seeing
that? I'm sure you are, because it's
impossible to not see that. If you're seeing that, why do
(11:30):
you think that is? Why is Christianity kind of
pointing sometimes, often times to to this mindset?
Yeah, you know, a lot of parentswant to believe and because I'm
I'm a parent, I'm going to be a grandparent in a few.
Months so. Yeah, so I get it.
(11:52):
I, I want to believe that when auniversity says it's a Christian
university or a conservative, you know, whatever any of that
means that I can trust them because it's easier to trust
them than to do the work to findout if they really are doing
what they're saying they're doing.
Because nowadays, you know, the university, the university world
is a really hard world to stay in.
(12:14):
You have a better chance of, of keeping a restaurant going than
you do at university these days.And so you know what they're,
what they, what they're doing totry and get kids to come in.
They'll, they'll tell you anything.
I mean, it's like Army recruiting, you know, And I say
that as someone who is a veteran.
I've been, so I'm not trying to make fun of the military, but my
(12:36):
point is, is that when you look into what Christians think, they
can redeem you start finding outhow these ideas are getting into
the Christian universities and Christian schools.
Because what I found is that Marxism, you know, maybe some of
(12:58):
your audience remembers back when back, I think it was when
Biden was running the first timewith Trump.
And the big, the big thing was we, you know, we're not, we're
not being socialists, We're we're democratic socialists or
democratic Marxism. I mean, they throw, you know,
(13:18):
it's in other words, it's the promise we'll do it better this
time. You know, we know that it caused
genocide in the past, but this time, you know, it'll be better.
I think Christians start gettingthat idea because in the end,
Marxist teaching does not look at the student as someone that
must be instructed. They're looking at the student
(13:38):
as someone that joins in the theteacher is no longer a an
authority in the room. The teacher is a facilitator.
The teacher has to be careful, you know, because although he
might have some knowledge of thetopic, he doesn't know the
student that has the real knowledge, which is their
personal experiences. And you would be surprised how
(14:01):
many Christian schools are falling into the idea of our
students are victims. We have to, we have to treat
their personal experiences as just as valuable as the content
that I am teaching in the room. And I, I, I mean, I hope I'm
not, I'm not getting too technical, but this is important
(14:22):
because what we have found is that there's a reason why kids
have changed so much. Kids have changed because the
classroom has changed, because kids are coming in thinking I
have superior knowledge than theprofessor, because I have my
personal experiences. The world has told me, my
personal experiences can tell mewhat's true or false about the
(14:42):
universe. And this guy doesn't know those
personal experiences. He knows all that stuff about
his topic. And so the teacher is now
instructed to say, I'm not the authority in the room.
We're going to learn together. I'm going to learn from you.
You're going to learn from me a little bit.
And Rob, I'm just going to facilitate.
I'm going to use this this content I have to facilitate
(15:05):
learning in the room and we'll all learn together.
No one is higher than the other.It's all the socialistic way.
And you can imagine how a Christian could take something
like that and you just take awayMarxism, say this isn't Marxism.
This is loving your neighbor. I just want to love my neighbor
more. And how else can I love my
neighbor than valuing their experiences?
(15:28):
And you can see that this is this is taking root because the
kids love it, unsurprisingly. Have you tried CTC math yet with
your child? Here's a testimonial from
another happy homeschool mom. Amber said.
I'm absolutely thrilled with CTCMath.
It's a rare find that I've used with my children for more than
five years now. I have six children using CTC
(15:50):
Math, and each child has found it easy to navigate and very
applicable. Thank you so much for all that
you are doing and providing quality math lessons for my
children. If you're looking for a great
online math program, visit ctcmath.com.
That's ctcmath.com. Join Apologia for the Homeschool
Boot Camp, a free video series that provides practical guidance
(16:14):
and wisdom from experienced homeschool parents.
You'll discover how to equip your family for academic,
social, and spiritual success. Plus, you'll discover how to
build deeper and stronger familyrelationships.
Homeschool Boot Camp covers how to break free from the public
school mindset, daily planning, supporting students with
learning challenges, homeschooling as a working
parent, navigating the high school years, and much more.
(16:37):
Find this incredible, The Homeschool
resource@apologia.com/bootcamp We are back with Renton.
Let's talk about the consequences of deconstructing
because you know as as I I said earlier and I've said this many,
many times before, is that sin causes pain.
There are consequences to sin and deconstructing is one of
(17:02):
those things that is leading people into a life of sin.
Again, going back to it's, it's justifying whatever sinful life
it is that they want to be living.
So talk through the consequencesof a generation that is is
deconstructing. And then I want to really hit
hard on like what we as parents can do to help our kids hold
(17:24):
tight to their faith. I don't know if you've read the
Book of Judges lately. But it's.
It's awful. It is.
It is inspired by the Holy Spirit and it's inerrant,
infallible, and it's God's word,but it is just horrendous.
Throughout the book of of Judges, you have, you know, God
(17:46):
raises a judge because the people have rebelled and they
they've done all these awful, awful things.
And then a judge comes up, savesthem, but he has to do it in
some kind of gruesome way. I mean, there's one point where
a guy stabs a, a another, you know, a king and the fat is so
the king so fat it goes over hishand.
(18:07):
He can't even pull the sword out.
There's people being chopped up into bits and sent in all
different directions. There's horrible.
It's awful. OK, I'm saying all that because
the book of Judges starts out and chapter 2, all the horrible
stuff doesn't start until chapter 2.
Chapter 2, verse 10 says a generation rose up that didn't
(18:31):
know the Lord. Now, of course they knew of the
Lord. You know, the old generation
would tell them of it. They knew of the Lord, but they
didn't know the Lord. They were not intimate with the
Lord. They did not believe.
Yeah, and I, I look around at what's going on in this world.
I look around at how simple it is to lose your child.
(18:56):
I am watching parent after parent who has worked so hard
raising their child and they go away for one year at A at a
secular college and they come back and they have for they have
completely walked away from the Lord.
I have heard that story over andover.
I'm looking around and the president of the United States
(19:17):
had to had to decree that we're going to have just two genders.
It's insane that he has to do that.
But this is the world we live inwhere where Pornhub is is known
much more quickly to our kids than any other site.
And I feel that we are in the book of judges.
(19:39):
We might not be at the end of the chapter yet, or you know,
the end of the book yet. We might be just a few chapters
in, but this is the result of deconstruction.
This is what this is what deconstruction leads you to.
It leads you to a generation that is aware of the Lord but
said no. The world will tell me how I
will assess the Lord. The world will tell me how I
(20:00):
judge the Lord. And you cannot know the Lord and
feel you can stand somewhere to judge him.
And that's what the world has done.
And the result is the chaos we see around us today.
Yeah, yeah. Kids are saying thanks, but no
thanks. What you have sounds nice, but
(20:20):
no thank you. We've got a better way.
And man, it's hard. It's, it's hard this generation
of kids because they like said, they, they think that they know
all of the things that there is to know instead of listening to
their parents, instead of listening to the Christian
mentors that God has put in their lives.
And so, so that's, that's tough.So what, as we look at all of
(20:40):
this, what is the antidote to deconstruction?
And I want to talk about that just for a minute before we get
into what we as parents can do to help our kids.
Yeah. You know, one thing you said
that kind of stuck out to me wasthat, you know, we have kids
these days that kind of act likethey already know everything.
And you were telling me that your kids are still asking you
(21:02):
questions. And that is so important because
I feel that kids nowadays ask less and less questions because
Google will tell them the answer.
One of the most important thingsparents can do to help their
kids is get them off the screen.Yeah, get them off the screen.
(21:23):
There is a false and and this isthis is something that we've
seen in AI. You can go to AI, you can go to
ChatGPT and you can tell it to write you a, you know, a paper
on whatever and you can give it all these instructions and it
will write it out. But if you really read that
thing closely, it's hollow. It's like has no soul, right?
(21:45):
It's like, it's like cookies without sugar.
I mean, it's a it's just, it's saying the things you told it to
say. Right, it's just data.
Yeah. But yeah, it's just a it's
copying off of a bunch of the things to try and get this
before you. And it's this false.
It's a false way of trying to understand the world.
(22:10):
And kids have that today throughtheir through their screens.
Their screens are giving them a false sense of security in that
they know something. Yeah.
And, and if we could get them away from those screens and some
of those screens come in the form of a phone.
I know of some families that have decided their kids are
going to have flip phones and it's going to be embarrassing
(22:32):
for them and they will not be cool with their friends because
as their friends pull out their phones to check something out or
get directions, they're going tohave a flip phone.
They might even have to get an actual physical map because
their flip phone won't tell themwhere to go.
And and they'll know who Rand McNally is, because this
generation does not know who that is.
(22:54):
You know, our young listeners are like, who's Rand?
Google it, you'll see. So, you know, that's, that's a,
that's something that is, that'sdoable.
It will not make you popular with your kids.
The sooner you, you start weaning them off video games,
(23:14):
the better. And I'm a giant hypocrite with
this. You know, I have, I have a 24
year old. I made so many mistakes with
him. We would, we would play video
games together and that would beour together time.
It's not together time. It's, it's, it's foolish to
think that my son learned anything from me as we played
video games together. We, I taught him how to escape.
(23:38):
I taught him a terrible, terrible habit, habit.
And so, you know, now I have a, you know, a nine year old and a
10 year old, you know, have I learned from my mistakes?
Am I sitting here before you saying, you know, they don't
play video games? No, but they do play video
games. So how do I, you know, how do we
manage that? How do we how do we make, you
(24:00):
know, screen time intentional and rare, because screen time
makes life easy. It really does.
It is so nice to put a screen infront of their little faces and
it's quiet. Oh, the relief.
I'll tell you it's, it's it's beautiful.
(24:21):
But at the same time, the longerthey're with that, they are
drifting into fantasy and the reality looks less and less
real, right? What what becomes real to your
kid is that, you know, is the little person on that screen
that they've been staring at forfive hours.
What becomes less real to them is sitting in church and
(24:42):
listening to that old guy talk about stuff.
And that seems so far from them.Right.
Right. The second thing that that
parents can do as an antidote todeconstructionism is get the get
those kids in front of God's word.
And I know there's a million things out there to make it fun.
(25:02):
If you can't find those things, then you know it doesn't have to
be fun. But they need to know mom and
dad take this seriously and that, you know, when the evening
comes and right before bed, or maybe it's at supper at the
supper table, or maybe it's first thing in the morning, we
get the Bible out and we start talking about it.
And, and that that's important to mom and dad.
(25:25):
Have I done that every night andbeen super consistent at it?
Absolutely not. I'm terrible at it.
I'm filled with, I'm racked withguilt as I'm talking to you
about it now. But we have tried to make that
happen. And I, you know, you, you, you
do really well on it for a few weeks and then you're like, you
know, life happens, right? But you got to keep going back
(25:46):
on it no matter how many times you have to go back to it.
And you think you're a giant hypocrite because you can't get
it consistent. Be a hypocrite.
Go back and make it happen again.
Another thing we can do, it's a 2.
It's a two way process. We've got to get our kids
(26:08):
thinking about the supernatural.Your kids need this modeled.
How do they start relying on thesupernatural?
You've got to model it for them.They need to see stress in your
life that has been conquered because you prayed.
We have underestimated prayer inthe Christian life because we
want some grand exciting thing because that's we think that's
(26:30):
what will, you know, speak to our kids.
The most powerful thing, if you look at Ephesians 6, when it
goes through all the armor of God, the, you know, the
breastplate of righteousness, you know, the shield of faith,
all that stuff, it goes to a participle.
It says all this stuff you should, you should put on, and
then it says praying. That's the participle.
(26:53):
All that is to arm yourself for the most powerful thing you
could possibly do, which is pray.
And you need to teach your kids how to pray.
You need to show them how to pray.
You need to tell them what your stresses are in this world and
that now we're going to pray about it.
And when the Lord gives an answer, even if it's one we
don't like, we have got to show them this is what prayer did,
(27:16):
kids. This is supernatural work.
And eventually you teach them, OK, now here's something that's
stressing you out. This usually happens when they
hit the double digits. Life starts stressing them out
because they actually have some kind of responsibility in the
world. And we say, now it's your turn.
I want you to pray and we'll pray together and I'll make us
(27:37):
pray together. You're not going to want to
pray. I'm going to make you pray and
we're going to do it together and you're going to and we're
going to watch to see how God takes care of this.
And they start relying on the supernatural work of God and
that becomes way more real than than all the apologetic stuff
out there that that on YouTube that makes them believe better.
(27:58):
Yeah, for sure. And I'm going to add one more to
that, which is Scripture memory.I think that's so important to
be memorizing Scripture. You know, the Bible says, you
know, to hide God's word in yourheart so that you don't sin
against him. And it's so true.
When our kids know Scripture, we're right now, well, we do our
family Bible time in the evening.
But for Laci, my youngest and I,when we're doing our, our, our
(28:20):
morning basket time, we're reading through Proverbs and we
read and, and for our listeners who don't do this, this is such
a great way to just just get wisdom into your, the hearts of
your kids. Read the proverb of the day.
There's 31 proverbs, there's about 31 ish days of the month
every month. And so read whatever day of the
month it is, read that proverb. And so sometimes we'll skip, you
(28:43):
know, on the weekends or if we're, you know, doing something
during the day, we'll skip that proverb.
But we'll just do whatever the day is of the week or of the
month. And I mean, there's been times
where, you know, my daughter is like, you know something, I'm
doing the same thing. I'm like, you know, man, I
really needed to hear that today, but it's so full of
wisdom. So read a proverb of the day,
(29:04):
but also memorize God's word with your kids.
Kids have an incredible ability to memorize.
Our family right now is going through Psalm 139 and memorizing
it. And, and our daughter, I mean,
she, she can, both of our girls can memorize so much faster than
we can. And you know, Lacey's like, man,
I'm so much better at this. I'm like, yeah, that's because
I'm old and my brain has a wholelot more stuff shoved inside of
(29:26):
it. I can't memorize as quickly as
you, but memorizing scripture isso important for our kids to do.
Let me ask one more question, 'cause we are just about out of
time. We are out of time, but we're,
we're going to go a couple minutes over because I really do
want to ask you this one last question before we close out.
How, if, if our, if we have children or maybe even family
(29:48):
members who have quote UN quote deconstructed their faith.
They've gone through this process of just saying, I don't
believe it anymore. I I no longer hold tight to the
biblical world view that you taught me and to the truth of
God's Word. How do we approach young people
who have gone through this process?
(30:09):
Our first temptation as as adults, when we come across kids
that have gone through the process of deconstruction is we
think, OK, I know there's an answer to their questions, and
so we try to answer all their questions.
The problem with that is the questions they're asking are
based on the premise of the world standard of how to become
(30:31):
certain about something. Always remember that.
So what you need to do is start,stop answering their questions
and start asking them questions.Why do you think that's true?
OK, you seem pretty certain about that.
What made you think that's true?And I, what I call it, I, I did
this with my students in my philosophy classes in secular
(30:51):
schools. I would play The Who said game.
They would, you know, they wouldsay something, you know, that
they were very sure about. And I'd say, oh really?
Who says? And, and trying to trace back.
Where are you getting this? Why do you feel so secure about
this? The more questions you ask, the
more unsure they will be of, of their position.
(31:11):
The next thing you can do is go to war with them through prayer.
Prayer is going to be one of your most powerful tools that
you're going to have because again, supernatural work is
what's going to change their heart.
Not a really good argument. We think a really good argument
is going to get them one day. And they go, oh, but that's not
(31:34):
what Romans one says. Roman one says that they're
going to suppress the truth withtheir sin or unrighteousness.
It takes a miracle for them to believe, and that miracle comes
from the Holy Spirit that opens their heart.
And I would say sequester them if you have any authority over
them, sequester their technology, take it away and say
(31:56):
stop dumbing yourself down with this stuff and start thinking
with me and and mentor them through through the extra time
they will have away from their technology.
Yeah, yeah. Good stuff.
Well, Renton, thank you so much for being with us last week and
this week. It's been such a great
conversation. This is a hard topic to tackle,
(32:17):
but one that I think is so important and, and one that I
think we as parents need to be really aware of keeping our eyes
open because I think there's often times little signs of our
kids starting to deconstruct their faith, starting to ask
now. Now I, I do want to clarify,
it's good for our kids to ask questions.
They have to ask questions to understand what they believe and
(32:37):
why they believe it. And hopefully they're asking
those questions to their parents.
And if the parents don't have the answers, find someone who
does, someone who's who is really biblically sound, you
know, hopefully a pastor or a close friend or a family member
or somebody go, it's OK to go tothose people and ask them to
help guide you as the parent to answer these questions for your
kids. But it's good for our kids to
(32:57):
ask questions. It's not good for them to just
give it all up and say, yeah, I don't believe it anymore.
I'm going to just go on my merryway.
And so, so I really appreciate your encouragement and just
opening your eyes to what this is.
I mean, I, I, I, I know I didn'teven know the word
deconstruction until a couple ofyears.
I mean, I knew the word deconstruction, but not in this
(33:18):
context. Yeah, I remember when I started
hearing about it and I thought deconstructing.
But what in the world, you know?And it's just a new word for, of
course, you know, Satan messing with people's minds and pulling
them away from from the faith. So thank you for your
encouragement. Tell our listeners one more time
where they can find you and yournew podcast.
Yes, a new podcast is called TheRent and Rathbun Show, as we're
(33:41):
on all the podcast places that you can imagine, as well as
YouTube. You can go to rentonrathbun.com
and find a lot of good resourcesfor parents to help them with
these kinds of things. And so I hope it's helpful to
you. Awesome, we will put those links
in the show notes. Thank you guys so much for being
with us this week. We love you so much.
(34:02):
Stay tuned in the very end to hear what's coming up next week
on the podcast. And again, you can find
everything at our website, schoolhouserock.com.
And one more, one more to you guys.
If you have not left a review for the Schoolhouse Rock
podcast, would you take just a minute, whatever platform you're
listening to it on and leave a review, leave a hopefully a five
star review. I, I hope if it's not a five
(34:24):
star review, let us know what wecan do to serve you to you and
to make this podcast even more meaningful for you.
And if you're watching on YouTube, we would love it if you
would comment underneath and send it to your friends.
Send them links to the podcast so that they can be encouraged
as well. Have a great rest of your week
and we will see you back here next time.
Bye. What can poison dart frogs,
(34:48):
monarch butterflies, and jellyfish teach us about God's
truth and love? It's time to return nature study
to its rightful place as theology, the study of God.
That's exactly what we do on NatTheo, Nature Lessons Rooted in
the Bible, a podcast for kids which recently ranked #4 for
education for children in the USA.
(35:10):
I'm Aaron Lynam, host of Nat Theo and a certified master
naturalist, Bible teacher, author, and educator.
Join thousands of families listening to Nat Theo for their
science and Bible lessons. Listen today on your favorite
podcast platform or at aaronlynam.com.
That's ERYNLY n-um.com. Reconnect the dots between
(35:33):
creation and Creator as your children learn real, fun science
from a biblical worldview. OK, I'm obviously an abysmal
failure at this, and so I'm going to try to do homeschooling
the right way. So I take the kids downstairs.
It's like I put on my Army Sergeant drill hat and I blew
(35:55):
this whistle. And I read them these directions
and I say, this is what you willdo today.
And you are going to be still intime.
You're going to raise your hand when you have something to say.
You're not going to interrupt me.
You're not going to color while I'm talking.
You're not going to play with your heart and for heaven's
sakes, you're not going to bounce that ball that's always
going over here. And so, you know, this just
(36:18):
shows I just didn't know. And so it was so miserable.
Now John, my 4 year old just hadthis amazing gift of
concentration even at 4, but he was, Ty was upset.
I mean, Ty never said 2 words. Ty talked all day long and we
enjoyed being together, not engaged at all.
(36:39):
John, the four year old was a mess because he didn't, his
brother was a mess. You know, he just wanted
everybody to be happy. And so I just I said OK Lord if
this is homeschooling I can't doit and I need to quit.
And I'm thinking Ford, you made tie, you made him an auditory
kinesthetic learner. You made him to learn by moving
(37:02):
and talking. And that explains why he
couldn't say 2 words to me the day I met.
I made him sit still and quiet. And so really, I call that
Independence Day in our home school because I was free to be
who God made him to be, not who I made him to be.
But I had felt so much guilt forthat because I felt like it was
(37:25):
my fault.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com