Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

The Colson Center. I'm John Stone Street.

Late last month, the Department of Justice's Religious Liberty Commission heard testimony from experts and teachers about the importance of overlapping religion and education.

Among those voices was Dr. Hutz-Hertzberg, the chief education

officer of Turning Point USA's education arm. Hurtzberg argued that the public education system

could no longer be trusted to train children in truth and in morals. He also highlighted the

importance of teaching children these things from the absolute authority of Scripture.

His comments highlight an essential but often unasked question about education.

What is the goal of education?

The answer depends on what is true about reality and the human person, because education is never

neutral.

Every curriculum, lesson, teacher, and student enters the

classroom shaped by underlying assumptions about who they are, what's true, what's good, what's real,

and whether life has purpose. The essential task of Christian educators then is to guide students

toward the true ultimate goal of students becoming true worshippers of God, who recognize all

of reality and truth as belonging to God, and who respond by loving him with all they are,

according to all that he is revealed. Therefore, Christian education has to become far more

than just academic excellence in a Christian environment, like so many schools claim.

It's about forming students who know and love truth, who can live faithfully in a fragmented

and disorienting cultural moment, are confident in who God has created them to be, and who see

their lives as lived in his presence for his purposes. That framework of truth, hope, identity, and calling,

that's the substance of a truly Christian education. In the very best of cases, a secular vision

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