Catechizing for Christ or Caesar? The Battle Over Christian Education
Guarding Our Children’s Minds from Caesar’s Lies
Christian parents often turn to Christian schools or homeschooling with the hope that their children will be formed in truth, faith, and love for God. Many schools do this faithfully and well, providing an education rooted in Scripture and centered on Christ. But history warns us that not all “Christian” education is truly Christian. When schools baptize far-right political agendas under the guise of “patriotism” or “Christian values,” they risk discipling students not into Christ, but into ideology.
One modern example is Hillsdale College’s 1776 Curriculum, a free K–12 package marketed to Christian schools and homeschooling families. On the surface, it promises a “fact-based, patriotic” education. But dig deeper and it becomes clear that it represents a selective, conservative retelling of American history… minimizing systemic injustice, glorifying the Founding Fathers without critique, and portraying progressive reforms as corruptions of America’s true principles.
This kind of curriculum isn’t neutral. It forms loyalties. And when the loyalty cultivated is to a political order rather than to Christ, education becomes idolatry.
The Evil of Manipulating Parents with Christianity
One of the most insidious aspects of far-right curricula like Hillsdale’s 1776 Curriculum is not merely the distortion of history, but the weaponization of Christianity to market it. Parents are told that public schools are “indoctrinating” their children with secular or progressive lies, and that the only faithful option is to withdraw and entrust them to “Christian” alternatives. The fear is real, and deliberately stoked.
This is spiritual abuse. Instead of shepherding parents with the hope of the gospel, these movements exploit parental anxiety, equating submission to a political project with obedience to Christ. It is the same tactic that false teachers have always used: manipulate the vulnerable by wrapping ideology in piety.
History gives us chilling precedents.
In Nazi Germany, the so-called German Christian movement fused Lutheran theology with Hitler’s racial ideology. Parents were told that raising their children as “good Christians” meant raising them as good Nazis. Millions complied, believing they were defending the faith when in fact they were betraying it.
In Franco’s Spain, Catholic schools were absorbed into the nationalist project. Parents were pressured to believe that obedience to the regime was obedience to God, and the Church was used to sanctify the silencing of minorities and political dissent.
In Mussolini’s Italy, the state demanded loyalty through catechism-like rituals, teaching that devotion to Il Duce was inseparable from religious faith. Families were persuaded to hand their children over, convinced they were protecting them from corruption, when in truth they were delivering them to indoctrination.
The Westminster Confession reminds us that “God alone is Lord of the conscience” (WCF 20.2). To bind the conscience of a mother or father with threats of cultural collapse unless they adopt a partisan curriculum is not Christian freedom—it is tyranny. When parents are told that their faithfulness to Christ depends on handing their children over to a distorted, politicized version of history, they are being led into idolatry.
True Christian education does not demand submission to fear. It leads parents and children into freedom, truth, and Christ-centered wisdom. To turn that holy calling into a recruiting tool for ideology is evil, because it does not make disciples of Jesus—it makes disciples of Caesar dressed in church clothes.
The Insidious Ties to Douglas Wilson’s Theology
To understand why far-right “Christian” curricula are so dangerous, it helps to look at the ideas that have shaped them. One key influence is Douglas Wilson, a pastor and writer from Moscow, Idaho. Many Christians may not know his name, but his teachings have quietly shaped a whole movement of “classical Christian education” that mixes faith with political ideology.
Wilson presents his schools and books as deeply biblical and “Reformed,” but his vision is not centered on Christ’s kingdom, it is centered on building Christian cultural power. He has written about American slavery as if it were “benevolent,” defends rigid hierarchies, and teaches that Christian education should raise up children to fight a culture war rather than to love God and neighbor.
Even when curricula like Hillsdale’s 1776 package do not cite Wilson directly, they share this same DNA:
A sanitized view of American history that minimizes slavery, racism, and injustice.
A blending of Christianity with nationalism, treating America as God’s chosen nation.
An authoritarian approach to education, telling parents that their faithfulness to God requires strict loyalty to a political vision.
This matters because parents may think they’re choosing a simple “Christian” alternative to public schools, unaware they’re buying into a program shaped by these ideas. Wilson’s influence has normalized the belief that to be faithful to Christ, Christian families must “take back” culture and train their children as soldiers in that fight.
But this is not the gospel. The Westminster Confession teaches that “Christ alone is head of the Church” (WCF 25.6) and that “God alone is Lord of the conscience” (WCF 20.2). No pastor, politician, or curriculum may bind the consciences of parents and children to a partisan cause. When education becomes a tool of cultural domination rather than discipleship, it ceases to be truly Christian.
A Confessional Standard: Truth Belongs to God Alone
The Westminster Confession of Faith reminds us that truth is God’s possession, not the property of a political party:
“God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are, in any thing, contrary to His Word; or beside it, if matters of faith, or worship” (WCF 20.2).
When Christian educators adopt far-right curricula that rewrite history to fit an ideological mold, they violate this principle. They are binding consciences not to the Word of God, but to a partisan narrative. Students are taught to see America as a redeemer nation, the Constitution as sacred text, and conservative politics as the true outworking of faith. This is not discipleship, it is syncretism.
The Confession also teaches:
“The whole counsel of God… is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture” (WCF 1.6).
Education that filters history through a far-right lens fails this test. It does not seek the full counsel of God’s truth about justice, sin, oppression, and redemption. Instead, it presents a half-truth, a glorified story of America as chosen and exceptional. But half-truths are dangerous: they form half-disciples.
A Christian Vision for Education
Christian education must resist the temptation to baptize ideology. Instead, it should:
Tell the whole truth about history - including slavery, genocide, racism, and injustice, because all truth belongs to God.
Form consciences toward Christ’s kingdom, not a political one. Patriotism may be good in measure, but the Church’s first citizenship is in heaven.
Encourage critical engagement, not blind loyalty. Students should be equipped to discern truth from propaganda, even when it comes wrapped in Christian language.
If we fail to do this, Christian education will merely reproduce what fascist regimes accomplished in the past: a generation taught not to worship Christ, but to bow before Caesar.
What Christian Education Should Look Like
If far-right curricula twist Christian education into indoctrination, then what is the alternative? The Reformed tradition gives us a richer, truer vision. Christian education should not be about manufacturing “foot soldiers” for a culture war—it should be about forming disciples who love God and neighbor in all spheres of life.
1. Christ at the Center, Not Ideology
The Westminster Confession teaches that “the whole counsel of God… is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture” (WCF 1.6). Christian schools should be guided by this: everything taught, whether history or science or literature, should help students see the world through Christ, not through the lens of nationalism, partisanship, or fear. Christ is the center; not America, not Western civilization, not a political agenda.
2. Telling the Whole Truth
Because all truth is God’s truth, Christian education should not sanitize history. To minimize slavery, genocide, racism, or oppression is not faithfulness, it is lying. Scripture consistently commands God’s people to remember the sins of the past, not hide them (see Deut. 9:7, Neh. 9). A Christian school that cannot name injustice cannot proclaim redemption.
3. Training for Service, Not Domination
Far-right education often prepares students for power: to “take back” culture, to dominate, to enforce a vision of society. But Christian education should prepare students to serve. Jesus washed feet, not thrones. If a school produces graduates more eager to win arguments than to love the poor, it has failed its mission.
4. Freedom of Conscience
The Confession reminds us: “God alone is Lord of the conscience” (WCF 20.2). Christian schools must not coerce parents or students into a narrow partisan vision. Instead, they should cultivate conscience, critical thinking, and discernment, helping students wrestle with complexity under the guidance of God’s Word.
5. A Foretaste of the Kingdom
Finally, Christian education should be a witness to the coming Kingdom: communities marked by grace, justice, and reconciliation. A school that is truly Christian will look less like a fortress defending itself against the world and more like an outpost of the new creation, where students learn to hunger and thirst for righteousness, and to seek the good of their neighbors.
In short: Christian education should form saints, not soldiers. It should be rooted in Christ, grounded in truth, and directed toward love. Anything less is not truly Christian education at all, it is idolatry dressed in school uniforms.
Conclusion
The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum and others like it are not isolated errors. They are part of a broader movement to reshape Christian education into an arm of conservative political strategy. These programs promise to defend “Christian values,” but they often trade the gospel for a partisan agenda. Scripture and the Westminster Confession remind us that the conscience belongs to God alone, and education must point to Christ, not to political idols.
This is not just a debate about textbooks. It is a question of worship. Whose image are we forming in our children: the image of Christ, or the image of Caesar draped in Christian symbols? When schools confuse patriotism with discipleship, they risk raising students who know how to wave a flag but do not know how to carry a cross.
Christian parents, pastors, and educators must refuse to let fear drive them into the arms of ideology. We must choose education that tells the whole truth, trains children to love God and neighbor, and equips them to serve rather than to dominate. Anything less is not merely a bad choice. It is a betrayal of our calling.
Are we forming disciples of Jesus, or citizens of an empire? The answer will shape not only our schools, but the future of the Church and its witness in the world. A generation is watching to see whether we will trust in Christ’s kingdom or try to build our own.