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Building Christian Kids Who Can Stand Against Secular Culture: My Practical Plan

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Recently, I have been meddling in the parenting plan of a friend who has a bunch of children, ages 5-12. She has been watching a lot of scholars talk about scientific evidence for a Creator and Designer, like James Tour and Stephen C. Meyer, and getting more and more concerned about whether her own children are going to keep their own faith as they go through the education system into the workplace. And make a difference for the Boss.

I reflected on how best to influence children and concluded that we need a two-pronged attack: (1) excellent books that shape their thinking and character, and (2) structured real-world experiences that build practical knowledge. Since I’m in a different state, my role is mainly shipping good books and celebrating their progress with them. Even asking the mom to ask them about their progress helps. The mom is taking care of giving them useful things to do, like taking them to see “The Story of Everything” and “Young Washington”, teaching them to cook and build rockets, etc.

My plan is to build up their strength in testable areas, which will insulate them from the emotion-based arguments of the secular left in settings where peer-approval can easily overwhelm truth, unless truth is rooted in evidence.

I chose these areas:

    1. economic policy
    2. evidential apologetics
    3. military history
    4. classics*

* not the popular ones, but the ones with heroic characters and moral lessons.

Economic policy

For economics, I sent along a bunch of Tuttle Twins books. I don’t like Connor Boyack’s religion or politics, but he does a good job of teaching economics to children. And this is only a temporary measure until we can work our way up to Thomas Sowell, which will make them bulletproof against wokeness.

This is what I got them:

In economics, we look at other times and other places in order to learn what policies have worked and what policies have failed. So, all the pressure that kids will get from the culture to accept wokeness, socialism, social justice, etc. will roll right off them like water off a duck, because of the evidence.

Evidential apologetics

And then I got them books on evidential apologetics for kids:

  • God’s Crime Scene for Kids
  • Forensic Faith for Kids
  • Cold-Case Christianity for Kids
  • Case for Christ for Kids
  • Case for a Creator for Kids
  • Case for Faith for Kids
  • Your Amazing Body
  • The Farm at the Center of the Universe
  • The God Proofs: How Science Points to YOUR Creator
  • Discovering Intelligent Design: A Journey into the Scientific Evidence
  • Explore Evolution: The Arguments for and Against Neo-Darwinism

And the mom has the oldest one registered in the Discovery Institute biology course that I blogged about before.

The point of these books is to avoid the common and predictable fate that awaits most “church-raised” Christians when they hit university. Most Christian parents put a lot of faith in the church community and shallow social connections, but these things do not preserve faith in hostile environments like the modern university or the corporate workplace. A much better bet is to rely on hard evidence. Evidence that they’ve seen tested in formal. Academic. Debates.

Military history

And I got them a bunch of basic books on military history:

  • Great Battles for Boys: WW2 Pacific
  • Great Battles for Boys the Korean War
  • Great Battles for Boys: WW2 Europe
  • Great Battles for Boys The American Revolution
  • Great Battles for Boys The Vietnam War

You can see that military history dominates my “What I am Reading” page. I wrote an entire separate post about why Christians should read military history.

Most of the children are girls, but military history does the job of increasing humility, patience, endurance, and gratitude for boys and girls. These are all character traits children need to counteract the victim mindset, the entitlement, and the lack of accountability that dominate social institutions. Espcially the schools that are run by woke teachers and administrators and the big corporations that are run by DEI hires and woke HR departments.

Classical literature

Finally, the classics. I was able to resist the bad parenting and secular leftism I was born into by immersing myself in classical literature and classical movies as a child. The classics are basically “design patterns” (software architecture patterns) for making good decisions within the moral framework of the universe.

So, some of my favorite books and movies are laid out in my “About WK” page, but these are the books I chose for the kids so far:

  • The Hobbit (“Alone and unaided”): Readers learn how heroism can be found in people who don’t look like heroes, and how to seize the initiative “alone and unaided” in order to solve problems without outside help.
  • The Scarlet Pimpernel (“that part he played—the mask he wore… in order to throw dust in everybody’s eyes”): Readers see the power of humility and strategy when defying tyrannical regimes. As I often say in my gameplay videos: “is this shot worth revealing my position to the enemy?”
  • Cyrano de Bergerac (“I stand… not high it may be… but, I stand alone!”): Readers discover the nobility of personal integrity, avoiding peer pressure, and valuing excellence in everything over worldly approval or success.
  • A Man for All Seasons (“When a man takes an oath, Meg, he’s holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then — he needn’t hope to find himself again.”): Readers are reminded of the importance of personal integrity and keeping one’s oath to God and conscience, even when it costs everything.
  • The Screwtape Letters (“Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”): Readers gain insight into the spiritual significance of everyday experiences and the game of cosmic chess that is being played out.

She already had the Narnia series by C. S. Lewis and The Book of Virtues by William Bennett in the house.

One reviewer (Tom) also suggested that I add the Anne of Green Gables series, but I have not read those.

For the early classics, I’m not choosing “popular” classics or anything tainted by modern ideologies like secularism, leftism, feminism, etc. I’m aiming for books with heroic characters who can serve as role models.

See this recent First Things article that the mother sent me:

The stories of heroes and their spectacular deeds are intended as a lesson, an exhortation, to the present. This is what the Greek word mythos (“discourse”) generally means in Homer: It is not a narrative in the abstract, but virtually always implies some sort of persuasive agenda, usually an exhortation… Indeed, the heroic story is a stand-in for the father figure.

This is what the classical is about, for Homer. It is not concerned with books as such, nor ideas in the abstract, critical thinking, or intellectual history. Great men are what is essential, not great books. The classical exists, in short, to produce people resembling the best of its characters.

Later on, I will send classics to warn them about flaws in human nature; Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, etc. Basically, I am trying to take away the modern world’s praising of narcissism, entitlement and lack of accountability with the left hand, while pushing forward heroic and self-sacrificial concern for others with the right hand. I’ll add in Shakespearean plays like Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, to get that theme of tragedy coming from the failure to distinguish appearance from reality. And Hamlet, of course, which is my favorite Shakespearean play. (By the way, Hamlet has nothing to do with “indecisiveness” – that’s just postmodern relativists trying to avoid the real theme, which is how adult selfishness destroys the lives of children).

One reviewer (Drew) asked me to add a quick summary of what lessons are to be learned from these classics, so here is that:

  • Anna Karenina / Madame Bovary: Readers witness the personal and familial destruction that follows when passion and self-fulfillment are elevated above relationship obligations and self-sacrificial commitment.
  • Mansfield Park: Readers learn the quiet strength of moral conviction and humility triumphing over charm, social pressure, and compromised principles.
  • Pride and Prejudice / Sense and Sensibility: Readers see the wisdom of valuing character over first impressions or fortune in mates, and the long-term blessings of self-control and prudent judgment.
  • Macbeth: Readers confront the corrosive cost of unchecked ambition, the self-deception of “the ends justify the means,” and the tragedy of abandoning moral order.
  • King Lear: Readers learn how foolishness, vanity, and poor judgment in leaders and parents bring chaos and suffering, and the importance of choosing allies who have humility, loyalty and truth-telling ability.
  • Othello: Readers are warned against the destructive power of jealousy, manipulation, and trusting appearances over truth and evidence.
  • Antony and Cleopatra: Readers see the ruin that comes from prioritizing sensual passion and worldly glory over duty and self-mastery.
  • Hamlet: Readers learn how adult selfishness and moral failure create chaos for the next generation, yet personal integrity and trust in divine providence offer a path out of despair.

Movies have a place, but books are required. I have a list of some of my favorite classical movies in the About WK page.

The goal of sending the children classics is to give them the option of not acting according to the conventions of their culture.

Conclusion

So that is my plan. That is what worked for me in my own life.

One last point. I have worked with many natural-born Americans in the IT sector who were either homeschooled or attended Christian schools for many years and then left the faith (and their conservative views) in college. They had great church communities. They had big social networks. And this approach of valuing community and social networks did not prevent them from losing their faith in college or in the workplace. They just went from doing what worked at home and at church to doing what worked at the university and at the corporate workplace. Their habit of forming many social connections actually put a lot of pressure on them to change their Christian and conservative convictions.

Related to that last point, I wanted to mention that Cyrano had a particularly big effect on me. Cyrano explicitly says that he prefers not to be friends with many different people. He only has one close friend – Le Bret. He says that he prefers to have enemies. In addition, many modern people are influenced by popular books, movies and TV shows that teach false ideas. Cyrano strives to study the best topics like poetry, literature and fencing. He values truth.

Here is an example of something memorable from Cyrano that helped me to not want to make too many social connections (church, social groups) that would influence me to compromise my core convictions:

And in French:

It’s even better in the original French.

I had originally intended to name this blog “Stand Alone” after this speech, but the name Wintery Knight has even more meaning for me. One reason is public, and one reason is private, as Cyrano would say. The white chess piece logo is supposed to look like Cyrano’s white plume (“panache”).

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Marco Rubio’s case against communism and left-wing political violence

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I know that everyone will be talking about Trump’s prime-time speech today (Friday), but I always write blog posts the night before! So in this post, I just wanted to talk about Marco Rubio’s amazing speech opposing communism, left-wing political violence, and far-left extremist terrorism. And I’ve got the best clip from the speech, so that you can get an idea of what was said without having to watch the whole thing.

This article from PJ Media talks about the left-wing political violence:

Rubio began his speech by saying that the number one responsibility of any government should be to protect the people it represents.

He went on to point out that for a long time, counterterrorism in the United States focused primarily on Islamist extremism, which was necessary, but that there had always been a blind spot when it came to extremist violence from the political left.

[…]Rubio went on to say that many people here in the United States dismiss acts of violence and terrorism if it benefits the left-wing cause and that it’s time to put an end to that. He pointed to the George Floyd riots from the summer of 2020 and how media outlets called them “mostly peaceful” despite all the obvious violence and crime we saw with our own eyes, as well as other more recent examples, like Charlie Kirk’s murder, assassination attempts on Donald Trump, violence against ICE officers, and a transgender individual shooting up an elementary school. He listed numerous examples from other countries as well.

And the writer says that this is the best part of the speech:

This is a distinctive and unique evil. It has always been driven by a hatred, above all else, a hatred for civilization itself. It is a revolt of the worst against the best, a revolt of the weak and cowardly against the strong and the good. It’s perpetrated by those who cannot build, who cannot create, who cannot achieve great things, and take their revenge upon the world for their own inadequacies, by seeking to destroy those who can.

This is what radical leftism is. It may wear various different slogans and ideologies across place and time. They call themselves anti-capitalist or anti-imperialist, communist, anarchist, Marxist, but the fundamental character is always the same. It is a poisonous resentment cloaked in the language of equality, justice, and liberation; an overwhelming need to tear down what greater men have built; to wreck what is beautiful and what is right on behalf of people who are only filled with ugliness and have nothing else to offer.

And the clip! I can’t believe I’m sharing something from the State Department Twitter account:

https://x.com/StateDept/status/2077753532409647185

And there was more in that clip – about communism. I found an article from Town Hall that had the words from that part of the speech:

In a speech Thursday announcing a global crackdown on left-wing terrorism, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made exactly that argument: communism does not even work in theory. Socialism and communism, by their very nature, require the centralization of power, the destruction of the individual, and the abolition of private property, the very institution that has been instrumental to the development of the West and the greatest nations on Earth. Even as an abstraction, communism is the antithesis of nearly everything Americans have historically believed in.

“One of the criticisms you sometimes hear of communism, for example, is that it sounds good in theory, but it never works in practice. That’s actually not true,” the secretary of state said. “Communism does not sound good in theory. The world it envisions for all of us is small, flat, grey, leveled of all exception, drained of all that is good and noble in the human soul. The world it envisions is a world without courage, a world without creativity or ambition, a world without heroes or glory or great causes to strive towards, a world without miracles, without myths, without men who rise above the rest to do incredible and extraordinary things. And the world communism envisions is a world without God.”

Here is the whole thing:

If you want a good article about Trump’s Thursday night speech, the best I have on a Thursday night is this article from The Federalist by Brianna Lyman. Keep in mind that she is only talking about ONE of the 10 or so points that Trump made about election integrity in his Thursday night speech.

There was also this one from PJ Media that talked about the actual declassification of election meddling intelligence.

And another from PJ Media about China hacking the files on 220 MILLION American voters.

Here’s the full speech:

For more, you can probably find something about the de-classified reports Friday morning on Breitbart or The Federalist or PJ Media. As you can tell, I’ve completely given up on reading the corporate news media to find the latest news.

It’s nice to see Trump saying that he’s not signing the housing bill that Congress wants until he gets his Voter ID act passed. He’s playing hard ball, but there are good reasons to. And good for him for going straight to the American people – bypassing the corporate news media.

(Image Source: Marco Rubio’s Twitter account!)

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For Independence Day, let’s learn about George Washington and the Battle of Trenton

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My favorite book about the American Revolutionary war by far is called “1776”. It’s written by famous historian David McCullough. The part of the book that really stuck out to me was the Battle of Trenton. I think that this battle really defines the essential character of America, as seen in the decision-making of its great general and first President, George Washington.

In the book, I learned about how George Washington and his revolutionary army had suffered a string of defeats at the hands of the powerful Commonwealth army, and their mercenary allies. It was the middle of a freezing cold winter, and the many of the sickly and ill-equipped American troops were just days from having their enlistment contracts run out. Some of the troops were not waiting for their enlistments to expire, they were just deserting. In droves.

Washington was losing, and was just days from losing his Continental Army. If the Americans lost the revolutionary war, then it would mean that every man who signed the Declaration of Independence would be hanged as a traitor. The American revolutionaries had risked everything for liberty, and they were about to lose everything – their money, their property and even their lives.

I found a page that summarizes the battles leading up to the Battle of Trenton.

First battle, a defeat for Washington:

The Battle of White Plains

October 28, 1776

RESULT: BRITISH VICTORY

With the British army maneuvering to make his Harlem Heights position untenable, George Washington withdrew from the island of Manhattan, and established a new encampment further north near White Plains, New York.

On October 28, 1776, a flank attack by the British on this new position resulted in the collapse of Washington’s line. Thankfully, he was able to orchestrate an orderly withdrawal that preserved the army. Unfortunately, Washington’s retreat further exposed Fort Washington, which remained garrisoned on Manhattan.

Next, another defeat for Washington:

The Battle of Fort Washington

November 16, 1776

RESULT: BRITISH VICTORY

Following the defeat of George Washington’s army at White Plains, New York, British General William Howe focused his army’s attention on Fort Washington, the last post defended by the Continental army on Manhattan.  Although Washington hoped to abandon the fort, his officers convinced him that it needed to be held in order to keep British ships from ascending the Hudson River.

During a carefully-orchestrated, all-out attack on November 16, 1776, British and Hessian forces overwhelmed the fort’s garrison after vicious fighting. When he heard the attack begin, Washington, who had stationed himself across the Hudson River in New Jersey, travelled across the river to the enter the fort and personally inspect its defenses. Several officers accompanied Washington, including Generals Israel Putnam, Hugh Mercer, and Nathanael Greene. They convinced Washington to leave the fort just 30 minutes before it was surrounded.

And then, another defeat for Washington:

Evacuation of Fort Lee

November 20, 1776

RESULT: BRITISH VICTORY

After the fall of Fort Washington, George Washington made plans for the evacuation of Fort Lee, which stood across the Hudson River in New Jersey. In a letter written to John Hancock on November 19, 1776, the general wrote that “…Fort Lee was always considered as only necessary in conjunction with [Fort Washington]…,” and that it would be abandoned as soon as provisions and other supplies were removed.

Unfortunately, a large British force succeeded in scaling the heights close to the fort on November 20, 1776. Faced with superior numbers, Washington called for the immediate evacuation of the fort, which resulted in the loss of dozens of cannon, 2-300 tents, and 1,000 barrels of flour.

That brings us to the Battle of Trenton. Across the Delaware river from Washington’s army was an encampment of Hessian mercenaries, fighting for the British. The Hessians believed that Washington’s Continental army was in full retreat. The British generals had already written home to the King to tell him that the war was nearly over, and that they had won. But had they?

Washington crosses the Delaware

Here is what Washington decided to do on December 25th, 1776:

General George Washington’s commitment to cross the Delaware River on Christmas 1776 foreshadowed the many hardships faced as well as the eventual victory of the Continental Army during the American Revolution. At first glance, the decision to transport 2,400 Continental soldiers across an icy river in one night, directly into a severe winter storm of sleet and snow seems irrational.

Washington’s decision, however, was based on strategic motivation, understanding that the Continental Army desperately needed a victory after months of intense fighting with several significant defeats and no major victories. Washington also understood that the element of surprise was the only way that he and his army stood a chance of defeating the highly trained Hessian mercenaries.

On the morning of December 25, 1776, Continental soldiers woke up in their camps along the Delaware River to a frozen, snowy covered ground. Weather conditions worsened and temperatures continued to drop throughout the day. Late in the afternoon, the Continentals left their tents and began to form along the river in anticipation of the night’s events. Washington kept almost all of the details of the crossing a secret; as a result, none of the soldiers knew anything about their upcoming mission.

Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River on December 25, 1776 allowed his army to strike the Hessians at Trenton the next morning.

Washington’s plan was to cross the river at night, march to the nearby town of Trenton, New Jersey, and attack the Hessian garrison right before dawn. Time was Washington’s greatest enemy; to combat it his orders called for the various regiments to assemble at their designated crossing points no later than sunset. The close proximity to the crossing points allowed the soldiers to begin the journey immediately after nightfall struck and complete the crossing no later than midnight. Once across, Washington intended for the armies to reassemble and march approximately ten miles to Trenton, arriving there no later than five o’clock in the morning to achieve surprise. Despite his meticulous planning, the schedule failed almost before it even began.

Many of the regiments did not arrive at the river until well after dark. Additionally, a severe winter storm that included wind, rain, snow, hail, and sleet met the soldiers at the banks of the river significantly slowing their crossing. Many of the boats had to combat ice jams and unfavorable currents. To make matters even worse, the extreme darkness caused by the storm made it hard for the boatmen to see the opposite shore.

The necessity of using larger ferries to carry pieces of artillery across the river caused even more delays. Washington crossed the river with John Glover’s Marblehead mariners and upon arrival debated whether or not to cancel the entire operation because it was more than three hours behind schedule. Washington decided it was too costly to retreat and he painfully watched as his army continued to trickle across the river.

If you were standing by the river along with Washington watching his sick, frozen, ill-equipped army struggle across the Delaware, then you would probably think that Washington had lost the element of surprise. This attack was just taking too long to happen. Maybe Washington would give up his plan, because things hadn’t gone his way. But Washington didn’t quit – he persisted.

The Battle of Trenton, December 25, 1776
The Battle of Trenton, December 25, 1776 (click for larger image)

The Battle of Trenton

This is how the battle went down in Trenton, New Jersey:

Immediately following his famous crossing of the Delaware River, General George Washington marched the Continental Army to Trenton, New Jersey. The army’s forces included horses, guns, wagons, and soldiers, stretching for nearly one mile. The weather was worse than it had been crossing the river, but the army continued to proceed as Washington rode up and down the column pressing his men to carry on.

Shortly after eight o’clock on the morning of December 26, 1776, the Continental Army started its charge on the city. Three columns marched through thick snow with Washington personally leading the middle charge. As the soldiers pushed forward, artillery began to fire. At the same time, German drums urgently called the Hessians to arms. To his astonishment, Washington had maintained the element of surprise.

Immediately after the firing began, three Hessian regiments ran from their quarters ready to fight, quickly forming ranks. As the Hessians grouped, the Continental Army entered the city at two points: John Stark marched into the city on River Road from the west, while Nathanael Greene and Washington arrived from the north.

Andreas von Wiederholdt, a Hessian lieutenant, incorrectly reported to Colonel Johann Rall that the Continental Army had surrounded Trenton and there was no available route for retreat. As a result, Rall decided to counterattack Washington within the city and not retreat across Assunpink Creek. This proved to be costly as Washington’s forces occupied the highest ground in the city and had clear views of all of Rall’s movements.

Time after time, Washington countered Rall’s efforts to outflank the Continentals. Eventually, Washington’s forces overpowered the Hessians. Rall was mortally wounded and many of his soldiers broke ranks, fleeing from the fighting. Normally very disciplined, Rall’s regiment was confused and disoriented without their commander. They retreated to an orchard east of Trenton where they were forced to surrender.

Despite the large number of Hessians that escaped Trenton, Washington still won a crucial strategic and material victory. In only one hour of fighting, the Continental Army captured nearly nine hundred Hessian officers and soldiers as well as a large supply of muskets, bayonets, swords, and cannons. Washington ordered his soldiers to treat the Hessian prisoners in a humane manner, and the general quickly focused his attention on what to do next. Washington assembled all of his officers in Trenton to discuss whether they should attack another post, hold their position in Trenton, or retreat back across the Delaware. Washington decided that because of the condition of his army, the best move was to return to their camps across the River.

When the Continental Army returned to camp on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River, soldiers were exhausted. They had marched and fought for two straight days through rain, snow, sleet, and hail. Washington knew that his army had far exceeded expectations at Trenton and that they faced many more challenges going forward.

Washington won two more battles in rapid succession. Many of his troops re-enlisted because of these victories. There were many battles remaining to fight, and many hardships such as the winter at Valley Forge. But the Battle of Trenton was the turning point of the revolution. George Washington would not let a string of defeats stop him.