Progressive Movement

Jonas
3/17/10

The De-formation of America


There have been numerous great men in history. We know about them; we hear of their great accomplishments. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. John Adams, chief drafter of the Constitution. George Washington led a group of soldiers through the War of Independence. By the end he only had five soldiers left who would stand with him. These men were all great, but sometimes it is those we rarely read about or know little about that have the greatest affect on us as a nation. Some of these men and women we have heard of. Some for the better and some for the worse. Here are just a few: Thomas Jefferson, Robert Lafollette, Hiram Johnson, John Dewey, Margret Sanger, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson, to name just a few. But the main things that will be dealt with in this essay are who some of the original leaders were, and the philosophies and the key issues that they wanted dealt with. Finally, what do Christian doctrines say about this and were Dewey’s education reforms based upon this movement?
Robert Lafollette was probably the first “official” Progressive. When he became governor of Wisconsin, he instituted new laws and regulation on certain things, which caught the attention of others. Though he and other governors were the first signs of Progressivism, Theodore Roosevelt was the first to actually gain power and push the Progressive agenda. He pushed for women’s rights’ reform, but my belief is that two people had a greater influence on us as a nation than Theodore Roosevelt. These two people were, in my mind, the embodiment of this movement and also are the start of the modern liberal movement.
The aforementioned people were Margaret Sanger and John Dewey. I will start with Margaret Sanger. But to start with her, I need to give you some background. In the 1800s Charles Darwin published his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. This is a well known book from which we get the theory of evolution ,but you have only to read the title to find racism and segregation. “ Favored races” which race is favored? According to Darwin it was the least “ape-like”, or, in other words, white people. After this was published, people began trying to get “ape-like” people into zoos and museums. In fact they did this to a man in the Brooklyn Zoo, saying he was an ape. Now, Margaret Sanger followed Darwin when it came to preserving “favored races”. She is the founder of Planned Parenthood, and was a believer in eugenics. So why is she one of the Big Two in my mind? Because now we have more than the Holocaust and the Killing Grounds in Russia, combined, in deaths through abortion. We have millions of little babies dead in landfills because they have been aborted. So again why? Because she pushed Progress. This was a “woman’s right to choose”; women needed this right. This ideology gave women “rights” just like Progressives wanted. Now onto the second person.
John Dewey was the second big guy in the Progressive Movement. He pushed for educational reform. Well, you say, that can’t be to bad…can it? Yes it can, because his idea was to remove the Classical Education and just teach kids practical information and be able to hold jobs. Here’s the problem: the classical model wanted to build children up to think for themselves, have a values-based life, and to be able to hold leadership positions and be independent business men. This man, John Dewey, gave the government control of education. That is a problem, because the government will indoctrinate them 40 hours a week. What is a Christian kid supposed to do? What is he supposed to believe? You think he will believe the Bible and what the body of Christ teaches, or the 40 hours of indoctrination? Dewey’s method was socialistic and very much Progressive. One issue was, that his education idea said everyone can be a leader in our culture by being in leadership roles. That meant women had the right to be above men, if they wanted. They could get a degree and take a leadership position. Dewey wanted this. It was not values-based, this was pagan. He wanted boys and girls to grow up with just a basic knowledge of life applicable things. Today kids learn only math which applies here and there.
Progressivism is not in any way a Christian ideology. At all. It removes God from the picture. It takes away certain rights and it is just plain paganism. It starts by taking Christian ideals away; mainly women being allowed in leadership position above men. Finally, it destroys the concept of “one nation under God”. Instead it replaces it with this mantra, “one nation under natural stuff, and lets allow kids to just learn from the government, and give women the right to vote and by the way….let’s make an unlimited government, and everything is just a party.” This is movement based on reform, actually it should be called deform.