The Bible in School

In today's Wall Street journal, there is an article entitled Saving Souls at School. Two court rulings have made it possible for elementary schools to have Bible clubs on campus led by teachers. The article focuses mainly on those who support the idea, so the reaction against it isn't conveyed clearly, but it does mention a few who oppose the idea. Throughout the article, I wasn't exactly sure where I stood, but after reading it and thinking it through, I don't have any objection and think it is an excellent idea.

First of all, the clubs are after school hours and many of the teachers make it clear to the students that they are doing this not as teachers, but as private citizens. This distinction I don't believe is really that important. After all, the idea that public employees and representatives should separate their public lives from their private beliefs is a. impossible, b. unnecessary, and c. dangerous. Separating private beliefs from your public life means you must represent the majority view, or whatever view is common in the government at that time. This is not the idea of representative democracy. The idea is to select men and and women who the public believes are morally straight and mentally capable of the task. And no person can make any decision without considering using their own moral beliefs. It is not possible and should never be asked of anyone. Therefore, Christian teachers, or Jewish, Muslim, etc., should never be asked to leave their religion at the door. Though they should not proselytize, it is not a criminal act for them to speak about their religion in the classroom. Nothing is being forced upon anyone. It is up to the children to decide. And the parents will ultimately have a larger sway on the child's mind, if they are giving as much attention to the child as they should. If not, in most circumstances, that is their own fault and they are the ones who must change, not the teacher.

Anyway, back to Bible clubs. The Moab, Utah school district has allowed the meetings, but is concerned that they blur the line between church and state. The concern is that Christianity is being promoted over other religions. My question is, if a Jewish teacher started a Jewish club, would people have the same concerns? What about a Muslim teacher? Or a Buddhist? Some parents may have a concern, but I doubt anybody with any authority would. These clubs would promote diversity. Yet there is no, I repeat, no difference between these clubs and the Christian clubs, except that Christianity is the majority religion. The fact of the matter is, the state is not promoting the religion, the individual teachers are. And they are not claiming the school supports this religion, they are only saying that they, as individuals do. The school giving permission for this to happen does not constitute an endorsement for the religion, it constitutes an acceptance of people's religious beliefs, which is a fundamental part of the Constitution. Banning the clubs would be the exact opposite: it would be repressing individual citizen's rights to share with others their beliefs.

The claim that this blurs the line between state and religion is further proven baseless by the fact that no other religions are banned from starting clubs. This is the right of every Jew, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu out there. The Founding Father's intent was not to ban religion from the public sphere, an idea unthinkable at the time, but to allow everyone to freely practice their religion. By allowing "religious diversity" clubs to abound and banning Christian clubs, the state is repressing religion, something that is unarguably unconstitutional. Therefore, these Bible clubs, far from blurring any hypothetical line, are showing why our Constitution was written with that clause: to protect our ability to practice any religion.

Also, parents are required to give their permission. The strongest argument against these clubs is that these kids will be taught something their parents don't approve of. This is taken care of by the permission slips. If the parents are uncomfortable with it, they don't have to sign the permission slip and the matter is over. Since the clubs are afterschool affairs, the parents don't have to worry about the teachers "indoctrinating" their children during school hours. Some parents might fear that if all of their child's friends are in the club, the kid might not be able to escape talk of the Bible. Any parent that fears there child will give in to peer pressure regarding something so "dangerous" as beliefs about the bible, should be scared stiff about peer pressure regarding things that represent real dangers later on: drugs, alcohol, sex.

And finally, there is the fact that these teachers are teaching something that no one should be opposed to : good moral conduct, loving one another, being accepting, forgiveness. This is the message of Christ and the Bible. If anything wrong is taught, such as intolerance of non-Christians or other things that Christians are accused of, this is the fault of the specific teacher and the parent should complain about the teacher, not the Bible club. These Bible clubs, if they survive, will do a great deal in improving the morality of Americans. There are few things better than teaching children the words of Christ. At this time in their lives, when they are the most impressionable, there is nothing that could do a better job of countering the trash that fills the modern media, except the parents teaching the Bible. But, since many parents seem to decline the responsibility of this, then the next best place is in these afterschool clubs.

Here's to the future. May it be filled with millions of Bible reading and loving children.