Charlie Kirk Exposes the Greatest Failure of Modern Education and How Christians Can Fix It

[00:00] I want to talk about two things in

[00:01] particular. The first of which is the

[00:03] greatest failure of modern education and

[00:06] what we should do to fix it and how far

[00:08] too often Christians fall into the trap.

[00:10] Now, I know you won't fall into the trap

[00:12] because you heard from our wonderful

[00:13] Turning Point education uh gang and then

[00:15] I'm going to talk to us about some other

[00:17] real life implications. If you had to

[00:19] distill the biggest problem in modern

[00:21] education, it goes like this. It's that

[00:24] I do not want to impose upon my kid

[00:27] anything specific. We're going to have

[00:29] valuesene neutral education

[00:32] and we're just going to kind of raise

[00:34] them with reading, writing and

[00:36] arithmetic. We'll give them skills but

[00:38] not values.

[00:40] This has penetrated so many schools

[00:42] including supposed Christian schools in

[00:44] this country and itself is actually a

[00:47] contradiction

[00:49] because saying that you will not teach

[00:51] values is a statement of value. There is

[00:54] no such thing as a valueless statement.

[00:57] Everything has values laced into it. So

[00:59] to say that we're not going to do

[01:01] morality or ethics is basically saying

[01:05] that itself is a statement of morality

[01:07] and ethics. Now understand how silly

[01:09] this is.

[01:11] And any environment when you're raising

[01:13] children, any environment when you have

[01:14] human beings, morals will always come

[01:16] through. So imagine if you're running a

[01:18] fourth grade classroom and a kid steals

[01:19] a pencil. Does the teacher say that's

[01:22] perfectly fine. We don't do moral

[01:23] judgments around here. If the kid starts

[01:25] bullying somebody else, you know, we

[01:27] have anti-bullying campaigns across the

[01:29] country while simultaneously we're told

[01:31] that the education system is only about

[01:34] reading, writing, and arithmetic. Now,

[01:36] here's the problem is that we have

[01:38] successfully pushed back on the left and

[01:41] the secular movement on DEI and wokeism

[01:44] and transgenderism mainly because when

[01:46] you when you create a vacuum, when you

[01:49] get rid of God, Christianity, biblical

[01:51] truth, Western values and you say we're

[01:53] just going to be a value agnostic

[01:56] education system. That's how you get DEI

[01:58] and you get CRT because some viewpoint

[02:01] is going to fill that vacuum. Nature

[02:04] abhores a vacuum. And so we have we have

[02:07] been led by the you know the whole idea

[02:09] of modernity that these kids are just

[02:11] going to kind of figure it out for

[02:13] themselves. And so then this this other

[02:15] side fills uh fills the void rather

[02:18] quickly. How did this happen? It

[02:20] happened because in the modern world

[02:24] God is just a guess. Judgment is the

[02:27] greatest sin and self is God. So think

[02:31] about it. Judgment is the greatest sin

[02:33] of the modern world. and incorporated in

[02:36] biblical Christian moral teaching is an

[02:39] idea that there is a right or a wrong

[02:41] and a good and an evil and a standard of

[02:43] ethical and moral behavior. That bothers

[02:46] some people because they're saying,

[02:47] "Well, who are you to tell a fourth

[02:48] grader how to act?" That is the purpose

[02:50] of education, which is to tell a fourth

[02:52] grader how to act. It's not a byproduct.

[02:55] It is the mission statement. It is the

[02:57] primary thing. And so what you found in

[02:59] the secular west and it's finally

[03:01] changing is we have skilled graduates

[03:07] with no values.

[03:10] We have graduates that can write codes

[03:12] of AI but they have no character. They

[03:15] they some of whom not all of them know

[03:18] stuff

[03:19] but they have no idea why they're

[03:21] actually here. They went through

[03:23] education and they can tell you how but

[03:27] they can't tell you why.

[03:29] They can tell you what they can do but

[03:32] they don't tell you any of the

[03:33] implications behind it. That is not

[03:36] education everybody. That is something

[03:38] completely different. And far too often

[03:40] we as Christians get very apprehensive

[03:43] because we feel as if we do not want to

[03:45] be judgy or we don't want to tell other

[03:49] people how to live. Everybody. We should

[03:51] bring everybody to the truth of the

[03:53] gospel. We should bring everybody to the

[03:55] scriptures and that starts in Christian

[03:58] education. So the three questions and

[04:01] you guys know all of these questions and

[04:02] education should be talking about them

[04:04] all the time. How did I get here? Why am

[04:08] I here? And where am I going? That's it.

[04:12] If you accomplish those three questions,

[04:14] it doesn't matter if they are struggling

[04:17] to be able to, you know, do the

[04:20] quadratic equation. It's fine. We could

[04:22] teach them that eventually. But if they

[04:24] know how did I get here, why am I here,

[04:28] and where am I going? You have done a

[04:31] phenomenal job as an instructor, as a

[04:34] parent. What I find on campus is they

[04:37] can't answer any of those questions. and

[04:40] each one leads to the other. So what the

[04:42] modern world has tried to do is they've

[04:45] tried to just only ask answer the middle

[04:48] question and ignore the first and the

[04:50] third question. So they'll say well

[04:53] you're here just to kind of serve

[04:54] yourself. You're here to e the most

[04:58] generous interpretation of the western

[04:59] secular world is well you're here to do

[05:01] good. Really? What is good? By what

[05:03] standard is it good? You're apply you're

[05:05] appealing to some transcendent standard.

[05:07] What is good? Oh, it's just common

[05:09] sense. Actually, no, it's not. Tell me,

[05:11] what is the good you're talking about?

[05:12] When in reality, you must say, how did I

[05:15] get here? Well, we know how we got here.

[05:17] We're created in the image of God. We

[05:19] know that that God created the heavens

[05:21] and the earth. We know why we are here,

[05:23] which is to love God and love people,

[05:25] create disciples of all nation, and to

[05:27] know Jesus, and to make him known. And

[05:29] hopefully, we know where we're going.

[05:30] So, we answer all three rather easily.

[05:34] The problem is is that in a in the

[05:38] modern secular environment, number one

[05:40] and number three, they say that is far

[05:42] too judgy. You're not allowed to talk

[05:44] about it. Now, my life's work is mostly

[05:47] in the second question,

[05:50] not the third. I talk about the third a

[05:52] lot. I'm bringing people to Jesus. By

[05:54] the way, just this morning, you know, we

[05:55] had over 25 students give their life to

[05:57] the Lord during the worship and praise

[05:58] concert this morning. It's amazing. 25

[06:01] students went straight to the altar

[06:02] call. Isn't that amazing? So, we do

[06:05] plenty of that, but the majority of my

[06:07] life's work is actually the purpose

[06:09] question. Why are you here? What do we

[06:12] do? And why do we do it? Now, part of

[06:15] the problem is that far too often, and

[06:18] this is a good faith critique. Modern

[06:20] evangelicalism spends way too much time

[06:23] on the third question. Where am I going?

[06:26] That's important. But if you're only

[06:28] heaven focused and not earth focused,

[06:32] then you're actually not fulfilling what

[06:34] Jesus told us to do. Now, separately, if

[06:36] you're only earth focused and not heaven

[06:38] focused, that is not at all what Jesus

[06:40] wants us to do because his kingdom is

[06:42] not of this world. This is one of the

[06:44] reasons why we as evangelicals have

[06:47] struggled to build institutions that

[06:49] last. It's why that Catholics have more

[06:52] primary schools. It's why that you know

[06:54] and I'm I'm you know I have a soft spot

[06:56] for Catholics but I'm not Catholic more

[06:57] K through2 education is Catholic

[06:59] theology talks a lot more about number

[07:02] two where in evangelical world they'll

[07:05] talk more about number three and this

[07:07] you know especially now when things get

[07:09] kind of crazy in the news cycle

[07:10] especially in the Middle East number

[07:12] three becomes almost the only thing that

[07:13] is talked about right things are not

[07:16] falling apart they're falling into place

[07:17] Jesus is coming back next Thursday right

[07:20] again I'm not doing esquetology here I'm

[07:22] not a pastor or a theologian. I

[07:24] encourage you guys to find people that

[07:25] know what they're talking about. I'm not

[07:27] preerttrib. I'm not post-trib. I'm

[07:28] pantrip. It's all going to pan out. I

[07:30] am, if I offended you with that, my

[07:33] mission is in the second question, not

[07:34] the third question. Okay? I'm going to

[07:37] be on the welcoming committee, not the

[07:38] planning committee. I am here to love

[07:40] God, love people, know Jesus, and to

[07:41] make him known. That is my life's work.

[07:43] And so, but then it comes into

[07:46] education. And I think unintentionally

[07:50] in the modern Christian world that we

[07:53] kind of forsake an education because we

[07:56] are so heaven focused.

[07:58] We should want to build educational

[08:00] institutions, educational movements that

[08:02] last and that are durable, that can go

[08:06] generation to generation, that can live

[08:09] longer to you. And if we and if Jesus

[08:11] comes sooner, then praise the Lord, we

[08:13] were still doing righteous work in

[08:15] anticipation of his return.

[08:17] What do you want to be caught doing when

[08:19] Jesus returns? And so the second

[08:22] question, the first one is very

[08:23] important, but that's, you know, one of

[08:25] the easier answered ones. But the second

[08:27] one I find is where all of a sudden so

[08:30] many Christians fail to then give young

[08:32] Christians action items of what to do.

[08:37] And I find this all the time with our

[08:39] Turning Point USA students. and they

[08:40] say, "Charlie, at my local church, my

[08:43] local school, the I was raised in, they

[08:46] will talk about the afterlife and

[08:47] bringing people to heaven, but they

[08:49] don't talk about family formation. They

[08:50] don't talk about fighting for the

[08:52] unborn. They don't talk about contesting

[08:54] for your nation or for standing up

[08:56] against evil." You see, I'm of the

[08:59] belief, and everyone has their calling,

[09:01] that we as Christians have not not done

[09:03] a good enough job on why are we here.

[09:07] We've not done a good enough job on that

[09:09] the last 40 years. In fact, we don't

[09:11] even have the same answer. If you talk

[09:14] to some more liberal branches of

[09:16] Christianity, they say we are here to do

[09:18] social justice.

[09:20] They they say that we are here to try to

[09:23] iron out the iniquities or to try to

[09:25] push forward of egalitarianism or to try

[09:27] to end racism or and what ends up

[09:30] happening. And this is why wokeism has

[09:33] infiltrated the church and why wokeism

[09:35] has infiltrated Christian education.

[09:38] It's because while the conservatives we

[09:41] are heaven focused, the liberals in

[09:43] Christianity are earth focused.

[09:47] So we're like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're

[09:48] taking over my school. No, no. I'm so

[09:50] focused on what's coming next." When all

[09:52] of a sudden we look around at some of

[09:53] our once great Christian colleges, one

[09:55] by one have become liberal. And you know

[09:57] what I'm talking about, right? It's

[09:59] because we've kind of forsaken the

[10:01] immediate because we're so focused on

[10:04] what is coming next and we should be.

[10:05] Everything of course eventually should

[10:07] be heaven focused. That is the worldview

[10:09] that we should view. But that God does

[10:11] not want us to run to the hills and hide

[10:13] from society until Jesus returns. That

[10:16] that is not scriptural. That is not

[10:18] biblical. He wants to be salt and light.

[10:20] Salt and light change things the

[10:22] environment that they come in contact

[10:23] with. And so the reason why wokeism has

[10:26] infiltrated is that branch of theology

[10:29] or lack thereof is we have to do

[10:32] immediate action on this earth because

[10:34] social justice and social change is the

[10:36] most important thing. And you they go

[10:38] even as far as to trying to undermine

[10:40] biblical inherency as you can see. And

[10:42] they're like oh Jesus was more kind of

[10:43] like a political activist or a social

[10:45] teacher than he was the savior of the

[10:47] world. So what does this all mean for

[10:49] us? This is where education comes in

[10:51] because education impacts all three

[10:53] parts of this which is you must un you

[10:56] must unabashedly reject when people put

[10:59] forward this modern lie of valuesneutral

[11:02] education. But secondly you must as a

[11:06] Christian educator not be do not be

[11:09] afraid to talk about the nation to talk

[11:12] about America and to talk about liberty

[11:15] talk about freedom. And this is what

[11:17] sometimes I'm so disappointed in is that

[11:21] so many good Christian kids went through

[11:23] the whole cycle of Christian education

[11:25] and they have no idea how precious this

[11:28] country is or what a constitutional

[11:31] republic is or what our history is. And

[11:33] so then what ends up happening is far

[11:37] too many of them will then fall prey to

[11:39] liberalism once they kind of go and

[11:41] enter into the world or they kind of

[11:44] have a let's just say a national

[11:46] agnostic Christianity not that

[11:49] interested it's not for me and so this

[11:51] is where turning point education comes

[11:53] in and it's so critically important

[11:55] which is that we are Jesus focused and

[11:58] then second liberty focused America

[12:01] focused citizen focused because God

[12:03] calls us to care about our nation. And

[12:06] that combination, I'll be honest, is

[12:08] very, very hard to find right now in the

[12:10] education space. Instead, what I get is

[12:13] I get emails from parents on boards of

[12:15] Christian schools where they give a lot

[12:17] of money and they're told that you're

[12:18] not allowed to talk about, you know,

[12:20] CRT, you're not allowed to talk about

[12:23] transgenderism. And finally, everybody,

[12:25] if you don't equip your Christian youth

[12:28] to know why they are here and what they

[12:30] are fighting for, it might be when

[12:32] they're 20 or when they're 25 or when

[12:34] they're 30 and they might be living in

[12:36] Atlanta or Philadelphia or New York and

[12:38] you send them out into the world, are

[12:39] they prepared to respond to a friend or

[12:41] a colleague or a boss that all of a

[12:44] sudden says, "Well, yeah, why don't you

[12:45] go march in the BLM parade?"

[12:48] Are they prepared to do that? Do they

[12:51] know what that is? Do they know the rise

[12:52] of new paganism of environmentalism and

[12:54] the cult of anti-racism? Do they know

[12:56] that these are just counterfeit gods

[12:58] that we saw once in the Bible that are

[12:59] replicating itself in the west? And so

[13:02] the reason why all of a sudden we raise

[13:04] your hand if you know someone that was

[13:05] raised in a Christian environment and

[13:06] became super liberal and atheistic after

[13:08] every hand goes up. And of course I know

[13:11] lots of them. I'm sure if I said how

[13:12] many of you know 10, 20, 30. And it's

[13:14] tragic and it's sad. There's a lot of

[13:16] reasons for it. And the one that I'm

[13:17] trying to emphasize today, I don't know

[13:18] if it's the biggest or second or third,

[13:20] is that you have an illquipped youthful

[13:23] Christian population that gets torpedoed

[13:26] by secular leftwing persuasion and they

[13:31] have no antibodies to this virus.

[13:34] They have not been inoculated to the

[13:36] woke mind virus. So they go out into the

[13:39] world and all of a sudden someone says,

[13:40] "Yeah, you know, Jesus said that we

[13:41] should have have open borders." and they

[13:44] didn't come from a Christian environment

[13:45] that ever talked about immigration. And

[13:47] they say, you know, uh Jesus said it's

[13:48] perfectly fine uh for two dudes to

[13:50] marry. He didn't mention homosexuality.

[13:52] Not true, by the way. Mark 7:2, he

[13:53] mentioned sexual immorality, which the

[13:55] Greek word is porna. That's your fun uh

[13:58] factoid for the day that Jesus actually

[13:59] did mention sexual degeneracy in a

[14:01] negative light. Anyway, that's

[14:02] secondary. Um

[14:05] but they're not equipped for that

[14:06] because we don't talk the Christian the

[14:08] Christian view in most Christian

[14:09] schools, well, homosexuality is too

[14:11] controversial. abortion is too

[14:13] controversial. We'll talk about the

[14:14] gospel. We'll do reading, writing,

[14:16] arithmetic, and they can figure it out

[14:17] on their own. And then once that

[14:20] destabilizing,

[14:21] deconstructionist,

[14:23] post-modernist view gets hold, then all

[14:26] of a sudden they're like, well, if two

[14:27] guys can marry, is the Bible actually

[14:29] true?

[14:30] And that is the all those things are

[14:32] gateway drugs to undermine biblical

[14:35] inherency. They're gateway drugs to

[14:37] undermine the authority of scripture.

[14:39] They're gateway drugs. And you can see

[14:41] this is the enemy. We know how he works,

[14:43] right? What are the characteristics of

[14:44] the enemy? He's not everywhere. He has

[14:46] to focus on certain principalities and

[14:48] certain cities in certain places. He's

[14:49] not on the present. But also, literally,

[14:52] his word means deceiver or prosecutor in

[14:54] Hebrew. He's always trying to deceive,

[14:56] to undermine, to debase. Did God really

[14:58] say that? Are you sure? Is that really

[15:01] what scripture says? Constantly

[15:03] challenging, constantly questioning. So

[15:05] then you have a youthful population that

[15:07] gets out there and they're obviously

[15:09] tempted by everything imaginable. That's

[15:11] a whole separate topic that we could

[15:12] talk about of how we need to talk more

[15:13] about sexual purity and all that. But

[15:15] from the political standpoint, that's

[15:17] where they get hold. And parents, I I I

[15:20] I've seen this progression so often.

[15:22] Parents will be like, "Yeah, you know,

[15:24] my kid, he's really liberal, but he's

[15:26] still Christian. Two years later, he

[15:29] ain't Christian any longer."

[15:31] Because once you kind of go down that

[15:33] and that sequencing of deconstructionism

[15:35] begins, the end point is complete and

[15:38] total nihilism.

[15:40] Once you undermine the authority of

[15:42] scripture and you do that via politics.

[15:44] So Satan is using in the Christian

[15:46] education. I'm talking about secular

[15:47] world. I'm talking about our

[15:48] environment, our community, our kids,

[15:50] our people that we spent tons of money

[15:52] and energy educating. Satan is using

[15:55] politics as a way to get into Christian

[15:59] youth to then get them to not be

[16:01] Christian.

[16:03] All because we were told that if we talk

[16:05] about politics, they wouldn't be

[16:06] Christian. Turns out the exact opposite

[16:08] was actually true.

[16:10] talks about talk turns out that we don't

[16:12] talk about these issues they end up

[16:14] getting completely destabilized. So what

[16:15] is the answer? You lean in to every

[16:18] controversial issue as it's age

[16:20] appropriate through a biblical lens as

[16:23] it's age appropriate. What does the

[16:24] Bible say about pornography? What does

[16:26] the Bible say about abortion? What does

[16:28] the Bible say about immigration? What

[16:29] does the Bible say about boom boom boom

[16:32] boom? And all of a sudden they'll have

[16:33] the antibodies. Then in the back of

[16:35] their head when they're 26 years old and

[16:37] their accountant, you know, at Deote in

[16:38] Cleveland, Ohio,

[16:41] all of a sudden someone says, you know,

[16:42] yeah, you know, uh, Jesus never talked

[16:44] about homosexuality. Actually, you know,

[16:46] there's a rootedness because you leaned

[16:49] into the controversial, you leaned into

[16:51] the topical, you leaned into the

[16:53] immediate. And that's also a message for

[16:55] pastors. And we'll do some questions. I

[16:57] know there's some pastors here with the

[16:58] pastors also who don't do this.

[17:02] They people wonder why you know pastors

[17:04] wonder why people are leaving your

[17:05] church their churches liberal churches

[17:07] and they're going to more conservative

[17:08] churches like Jack Hibbs and many other

[17:10] you know great people is they want their

[17:13] pastor to make sense of what is

[17:14] happening in the world. They

[17:18] long term they don't need the same

[17:20] repurposed sermon. They say hey I'm

[17:24] confused. tell me what to think. And

[17:27] I'll be very honest with you, it is a

[17:28] failure and a disservice and a tragedy

[17:31] when a mom goes to a pastor and has a

[17:34] transgender kid, which doesn't really

[17:36] exist, but let's just say, you know, a

[17:37] kid that's struggling with

[17:38] transgenderism or gender dysphoria, the

[17:41] pastor says, "We don't really do that

[17:43] here." Or even worse, the pastor says,

[17:46] "Well, we have to affirm it because

[17:47] Jesus loves all people.

[17:50] This stuff is not going away. Yes, we're

[17:52] temporarily winning the culture war,

[17:54] everybody. But you better believe it

[17:55] will roar back at some point. And it's

[17:58] not going to be the secular world that

[17:59] will save us.

[18:02] It has to be Christian youth, Christian

[18:04] kids, biblical principles. And that

[18:06] means you have to kind of reconfigure

[18:08] how you view education. I know that's

[18:10] why Turning Point education is having

[18:11] such incredible success. So again, the

[18:13] three questions, you know, how did I get

[18:15] here? Why am I here? Where am I going?

[18:19] We need to spend more time in the second

[18:20] question. We've done really good on the

[18:23] third, but interestingly, the second

[18:25] will actually lead to the third.

[18:28] Evidenced by today, 25 kids that were

[18:30] here for the politics, but they stayed

[18:32] for Jesus.

[18:36] And the consensus

[18:39] was always

[18:41] don't talk about politics because it'll

[18:43] prevent people from leading to Jesus.

[18:45] The law, there's the three types of law.

[18:47] You know this the moral the civil and

[18:48] the ceremonial ceremonial we can kind of

[18:51] we can study but we don't have it that

[18:53] doesn't apply to us. The moral we should

[18:54] still follow the civil we should

[18:56] consider for application in government

[18:57] institutions as appropriate but we're

[19:00] not bound to every civil law. That's the

[19:02] three categories of the 613 laws of

[19:04] Moses 613 laws of Judaism.

[19:07] The law according to Galatians 3 is a

[19:09] school teacher. It is a guard. It is a

[19:11] caretaker. It is a protectorate of Jesus

[19:14] Christ. The law points you to Jesus and

[19:18] especially the one part of the law that

[19:19] we never talk about. You see pastors

[19:21] will always say the moral law, you know,

[19:23] you know, you can't follow the moral law

[19:24] and that's eventually why you lead to

[19:26] Jesus. That's true, but it's incomplete,

[19:28] right? That's totally true, but that's

[19:29] an incomplete teaching. Notice the

[19:31] pastors never talk about how civil law

[19:33] can lead you to Jesus. It's like, hey,

[19:35] the Bible had a lot to say in the 613

[19:38] laws of Moses about how to run your

[19:39] government, about borders, about

[19:42] boundaries, about, you know, desecration

[19:44] of the divine. But we're told that we

[19:47] can't be political. Everybody, I don't

[19:48] want you to be political. I want you to

[19:50] be biblical.