In this interview on The Dennis Prager Show, host Dennis Prager talks with Pastor John MacArthur about MacArthur’s new book, The War on Children: Providing Refuge for Your Children in a Hostile World. MacArthur traces a historical pattern of child sacrifice in pre‑Christian societies and argues that contemporary Western culture is reverting to a pre‑Christian, pagan mindset that endangers children. He critiques public schools for exposing kids to destructive influences and champions homeschooling and church‑run education as viable, even preferable, alternatives. MacArthur describes the homeschooling groups, hybrid model (Grace Academy), and the fully‑Christian K‑12 Legacy Christian Academy that his church operates, noting the “Grace for the Children” campaign launched after COVID‑19. Throughout, both speakers express concern for the spiritual and moral safety of children and promote the book and Prager’s membership platform.
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Pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, a prolific author. Just the other day, I give you my word, folks, where was it? I was at Starbucks, I think it was, and a young couple recognized me, said hello, and I could tell that they were reading some biblical commentary. And sure enough, it was John MacArthur's. Would have brought, would have brought you, John MacArthur, a great deal of joy to see this young couple in a restaurant reading your commentary. He has a brand new book, The War on Children: Providing Refuge for Your Children in a Hostile World. I have to say, I've never had a particularly optimistic view of the human condition, Pastor MacArthur, but the war on children, I did not predict. Did you?
Well, I think I could see it coming. And historically, you would know back in the Old Testament, as soon as the children of Israel entered into Canaan and ran into all the Canaanite tribes, they ran smack into child sacrifice offered to Molech and Baal. And then you have that all over the world in Africa and Europe. You have the Mayans, the Incas, the Aztecs doing that. So pretty common in ancient times to offer up children to the gods. Even in the Roman era, when they ran out of children, they would find orphaned children to offer as sacrifices to the gods. So that's not anything new, but that was pre-Christian. Post-Christian, you would think that the Christian movement the Judeo-Christian movement, the biblical ethic would have forever put that away. But in this post-Christian culture that we live in today, it's starting to look a lot like paganism.
Yeah, well, it's funny, I have been saying it's not really post-Christian we're entering, it's pre-Christian.
No, you're exactly right. Yeah, it's as if the Christian era never happened.
Yes, exactly, as if it never— it's perfectly put. So the war on children— I have been urging parents for years to homeschool their kids. What's your position on homeschooling? Am I advocating something that's just not feasible for most people?
No, I think it is feasible. It's more feasible today than it's ever been because of the internet and accessibility to the best of teaching. The problem is not with the availability of educational material. The problem is the willingness of parents to make the sacrifices to their economic status and their sort of financial ambitions to invest rather in their children. No, I'm a strong advocate of homeschooling. In our church, we have two large homeschool groups. We have two more hybrids, a school, Grace Academy, where half of the week they are in class with teachers and half with parents. So we've long been advocates of that. And I think to start out with, It is the responsibility of the parents to educate the children. And that means you've got to put them in the place where that education will be the best. And you've got to put them in a place where they're protected from those who would be destructive influences on your children.
So when you speak to parents who are members of your congregation, Do you get the sense that a serious percentage knows what is being done to kids in schools or not?
I think they do in our church because we've made much of this. We have a, we have a campaign that's been going on here for a number of years called Grace for the Children. The children are a priority for us from, from the COVID when we We picked up our church services after a few weeks because we knew they weren't telling us the truth. And the first thing that happened on the kind of the opening Sunday officially was we had about 1,000 elementary kids here and we welcomed them with balloons and lollipops and all of that. They have always been a priority here. That's why we have 2 homeschool groups, 2 hybrid groups, and we actually have a full Christian academy, Legacy Christian Academy for of the full education K through 12 in a standard kind of approach. And all of that is designed for—
Let me, forgive me, I want to promote your book, The War on Children: Providing Refuge for Your Children in a Hostile World. Perfectly phrased. The book is up at DennisPrager.com. For the full episode of The Dennis Prager Show, go to PragerTopia.com, sign up, and become a full member.
