#MillennialMonday Jesus-Free Zone You probably saw the headline a few weeks ago about the 2nd grade student in a Texas school who was told she couldnt read the Bible during personal reading time because it was inappropriate material. Naturally, the internet had no shortage of appalled people writing disgruntled articles about the incident. How dare a teacher keep a student from reading the Bible? Fortunately the school district overturned the teachers decision and announced that students would be allowed to read their Bibles during independent reading sessions. Victory! All is right again, no? Well... We celebrate the fact that children are now allowed once again to read the Bible during one segment of the day while overlooking a few key points. First, the problem is in the decision itself. Now the Bible can be opened as long as the student is silently reading to herself, but after that it goes back in the backpack and she cant bring it out or read it to her classmates. Second, were forgetting the fact that her teacher, the person under whom she spent hundreds of hours this year, is a person who believes her students have no business reading the Bible. Thats not an issue that only affects reading time. Thats a worldview issue, a thought process that drives everything the teacher does. Can such a teacher really help a child develop a biblical worldview? Of course not. Third, and most importantly, I have to ask - what are we really fighting for here? In discussing these issues Ive heard from or read multiple parents who say things like They say the pledge of allegiance every day and under God is still included. Our school prays before the football games. We dont celebrate Christmas religiously, but at least there was a song about Jesus in the schools Christmas program. Really? We get table scraps of a prayer here or a mention of God there thrown to us by the powers who - and Im quoting the founding father of American education, Horace Mann, directly - view children as hostages to their cause and were content with that? Remember the charge of Deuteronomy 6 and the call for parents to view Gods law as so important that they teach it to their children when they rise up, lie down, sit in the house, or go out? The freedom to read Scripture only to yourself for a few minutes or say the words under God every morning isnt exactly what God was commanding of parents then, and its not what He wants from families now. Schools teach both direct lessons and indirect lessons. Direct lessons have to do with what is taught, what the teacher says and what the textbooks address. While there are a number of dangerous direct lessons being taught today, the indirect are far more threatening to individual faithfulness. To quote from Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.s book on education and the family, When you send them off for seven hours a day to a place where Jesus cannot even be acknowledged, they will learn more from that than they will from their Sunday school lesson. They will learn that Jesus is for Sundays. Likewise, when they are told that the Bible can only be kept to themselves and for only a small portion of the day, indirect lessons are taught loud and clear. Instead of fighting for the right to squeeze God into a place where He is otherwise completely unwelcome, why arent we fighting for schooling that places God at the center of everything that happens, where prayer is offered frequently, the Scriptures are opened, and godly attitudes and behavior are expected of everyone? To have a Christian worldview means to place the Bible at the foundation of everything we think, say, and do. Educating the next generation is one of the most important things this generation does, and if we continue to leave clear biblical passages like Deuteronomy 6:7 and Proverbs 22:6 out of the decision, we cant say we have a biblical worldview and we shouldnt be surprised when we see continued failing results in 10-15 years. We can keep fighting for the increasingly rare God-friendly table scraps from the schools, or we can clear the table and start over with God over all. - Jack Wilkie
Posted on: Mon, 12 May 2014 22:08:47 +0000
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