When I get up in the morning, I take care of my necessaries, have my cup of instant coffee and then I tune in to one of my favorite radio shows, The Armstrong & Getty show. If you haven’t listened to them before you should check them out, they’re funny, insightful and bring a lot of things to ones attention that you normally wouldn’t necessarily hear about. They’re also available via pod cast for your convenience. But this post isn’t about them or their show, it’s about the separation of church and state.

On today’s show, one of the topics of conversation was this USA Today story about how kids (nationwide in a huge exhaustive study) are saying that school is too easy. Make sure you read it because it’s an excellent article that really makes you wonder just what is going on in our schools. On top of that, they played a sound clip from Florida Congresswoman, Frederica Wilson, where she is speaking during an interview talking about standardized testing. I can’t find the clip (just listen to the third and fourth hour of the show) but it left me shaking my head trying to comprehend her thinking. Sure I understood her point, put it is not grounded in reality-the reality of the real, competitive world that these kids are going into-and when you combine both her comments and the USA Today article I asked myself, why would any Christian want our faith (or any other for that matter) to be taught in public schools?

If you look at the statistics, by and large our public schools are failing our children miserably. Reading, math, science…it’s bad, real bad. My wife and I are blessed to have our 12 year old in a good public school (I couldn’t afford a private school if I wanted to) but, even still, we spend a lot of time with our son teaching him additional scholastic necessities. For example, my wife is good at math, so she teaches him basic finances and mathematics while I am more prone to English, politics and history. I even keep my college texts books so I can teach him the things that I learn in my classes. It’s a great way to help you stay awake for those O’dark 30 classes when you have to take notes to pass on, and it helps us stay on our toes by repeating the information back but more importantly, analyzing it for ourselves to not just know what the teacher/professor said but to develop critical thinking skills and having my own understanding. Regurgitating information is just that, I want him-and us-to actually think. That’s how I was raised and so it will be in my home. Whether it be political science or physical anthropology, we have him covered. That includes-first and foremost-Biblical wisdom and a bit of apologetics.

I wasn’t raised in church at all, neither was my wife (she was Buddhist growing up) and knowing what I know now, I’m blessed to have my wife and son know the Lord. Not by force mind you, but thru knowledge. Knowledge brings wisdom, and wisdom once applied to our lives brings understanding. Force does nothing but generate hate and ill will. I want him to love the Lord because he chooses to, not because daddy and mommy said so.

If the schools cannot teach the kids the things that they need to know in order to advance them academically, I for darn sure don’t want them teaching my kid about the God we worship as Christians-that’s my job, to be done at home and at church and lived in our lives, not some government sanctioned version of the Bible. Just as it is our jobs as parents to spend time with our children doing homework, study and the like, it is our responsibility to live and teach them the Word of God. I know there are great teachers and excellent professors out there, but I don’t want them teaching my kid about God; not in a school setting. If it’s private school, that’s  different because you are paying for that but even then at home and in your personal life is where the real teaching and learning should take place.

Now I know that separation of church and state isn’t specifically mentioned in the constitution but nonetheless, I don’t think it is a bad idea. Separation I’m with, banning and hatred I’m not. So for example if the kids want to pray (like my son blesses his food at lunch during school) they should be able to do so. Or if someone wants to say a prayer at graduation or something like that, they should be able to do so. I realize that not everyone is a Christian and that some might be offended by hearing a Christian prayer by a valedictorian or something like that. To that I say, you don’t have the right not to be offended. I have been in situations in public where the prayer was from a person of a different faith or whatever and it didn’t bother me at all. If you’re that easily upset then chances are you have other problems you need to deal with because in the real world, you get offended and upset everyday. If you can’t deal with someone blessing their food, or saying a prayer, you’re going to have a hard time going forward in life.

But that goes both ways. It should not be banned and punishable to the faithful, but it also should not be forced. A look at past (and present) history should be enough for anyone to quickly agree that government forced religion does not work well at all. People have been and in some places, still are, butchered, set on fire, imprisoned and everything else, because they didn’t believe as they were told. I don’t want that and I don’t think that Jesus Christ would want us to do that either. Remember that we are saved by grace thru faith in Christ Jesus and that’s something only He can do. Not you, not me, not any law. Being a living example (light and salt anyone?) and actually acting out your faith in humiliation and gratitude to God for saving us is what I would argue is a better approach. Being lazy and abdicating ones responsibility as a parent is part of the reason we are in the situation we are today. Teachers are hired to teach, yes, but that doesn’t mean as parents you take a bow out and leave it up to them, how could you? Why would you let anyone have more influence over your children than you do?

A lot of Christians act surprised by all of this but it tells us in Mathew 10:22 that,

“And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”

A school board tripping over a copy of the 10 commandments that has been there for 50 years is indeed stupid-it’s not hurting anyone unless they’re being forced in some way to “pray” to it or something like that-but is it really worth focusing all of our spiritual energies towards, when the problem is much more severe and deep seated than that?  Most professing Christians don’t attend church on a regular basis (no you don’t have to go to church to be saved but we are not to forsake the gathering of believers either.) Many Christians don’t even believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus and to me that’s a much bigger problem. We need to square away what’s going on in our own community first before we worry about stone monuments in school yards. Some people seem to care more about a physical cross than what it actually stands for, and that I think is wrong.

In closing I’d just like to say that there are good and bad teachers out there but either way it goes it’s our job as parents to handle our children. Whether it’s teaching them about God or understanding the causes of the American Civil War, we have the duty and responsibility to look after our own and do right by them. If not, someone else will-and you just might end up regretting that.