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So the idea being put forth is that 33 states are now looking at providing optional, elective bible classes in public schools. I kind of like the idea, so I’m going to remain optimistic here.
(Oh dear Lord, one in ten kids can’t even read, our schools teach that you can just pick your own gender, and how to put rainbow colored fruity flavored condoms on a banana is a real thing. What’s going to happen to the bible in their hands???)
Sorry, I was just hyperventilating for a moment. All better now. Optimism, optimism….
A couple of things come to mind right off the bat. First off, people should home school. But even if you don’t, faith is still our responsibility. You can’t just hand the job off to a secular school system. It’s kind of like how people complain about how, “we’ve kicked God out of public schools!” Well, how many of you actually read the bible together and pray together at home??
“In Him I have my breath and being.” So in theory anyway, you can’t technically kick an Omnipotent Being out of anything. That doesn’t even rise to the level of a logical fallacy, which more people would fully understand if they had actually been home schooled, but I digress.
This whole idea that we can just dump every social problem we have on our public schools and they can just magically indoctrinate all these problems right out of the next generation is precisely why we now have classes learning how to put rainbow colored condoms on bananas and selecting which one of 23 genders they’d like to self identify as.
Bear with me, I have a greater point. I don’t believe you can actually “teach” the bible. True, I am a total autodidact by nature, but I genuinely believe you cannot teach people what they do not want to learn. People actually teach themselves. You can provide resources, facilitate learning, and spark some critical thought, but you can’t really “teach.”
In our faith, this truth is even more critical, because the Holy Spirit teaches us. I can link to a dozen theologians right now, degrees and all, and every last one of them an atheist. Do they know the bible? Well…… sort of. They know the words anyway, they are familiar with history and doctrines, but they deny the existence of the Author.
Their understanding of the principles and prophecy put forth in the bible is… really odd. It would be kind of like me trying to translate a Japanese video game. “All your base are belong to us.” They be speaking biblical Engrish.
The bible just doesn’t make much sense if you don’t have some kind of a relationship with the Author and Finisher of our faith. You can’t just read the bible, and poof, now you’re singing that old song from the Monkeys, “I’m a believer.”
Well, it may happen just like that for some people, but what I mean is that the Father first draws us to Himself.
In fact, it actually says something about that in the bible. John Six:44, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” Or Jeremiah 31:3, “The LORD appeared to him from afar: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion.”
“We love because he first loved us.” That’s also in the bible. You can’t really “teach” love, love must be experienced and reached for.
We actually don’t need to be “taught” the bible. We just have to read it. Don’t get me wrong, there are all kind of wonderful resources and studying it with other people can give you fresh eyes to see things in different ways, but the very notion that it can be “taught” as if you can just download data into a human computer brain and magically fix all the viruses is just wrong.
But I do think we seriously need to change this culture. People must be supported, nourished, loved, encouraged to read the bible, to pray, to have a relationship with the Lord. Children especially, because they are far more vulnerable to social pressure, and they are being robbed of their opportunity to be in faith by the amount of hostility and rejection being directed towards anything Christian. And it is just brutal out there.
So, I’m going to remain optimistic here. The very fact that we are even talking about how there might be a need for elective bible classes in public schools is a potentially good thing. If nothing else it provides some push back against a culture that has done everything it can to try to instill shame and social disapproval against all things Christian.
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See, there's this thing called biology... 
Amen.
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The bible can be read in many ways, theology aired but at the end of the day God is known by love, faith and His own self revelation to us. Our faith is the gift of God. Thanks for another thoughtful post.
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Exactly–the enemies of children (like my current “Governor” Rat (Ralph is a pseudo-nym!) Northam who is now on the record of supporting infanticide!) are the ones who want to increase public school funding! We need to cut public school funding as a government waste. But the left be saying, “Oh, but poor children won’t be able to afford school!” Not everyone actually even needs school. Children who do not go to school are not going to be worse off than children who do.
Also, where’d you get the idea that there were 23 genders? You are an old fogey. There are currently 53,426,785,931 genders. Scientific study will
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Ha! I am an old fogey, it is hard to keep up with all these new “discoveries.” Only a few months back there were 23 genders. I am laughing here,but once I figure them all out,I am just going to forget were I put them all anyway….:)
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Well at least you’re not pretending like my dear governor Rat now claiming to have been taken out of context. To think of it, an actual rat would be a much more decent alternative to the current rat infestation in our governor’s mansion. Not a single neo-evangelical is condemning him for even supporting the bill in the first place. They’re fine condemning Trump on immigration though…and pretending they are being “prophetic”.
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I heard a woman on TV today saying, “well I didn’t actually read the bill I signed so I can’t really be held accountable for what’s in it.”
One of these days I will roll my eyes so far into my head, I will fall right through the back of the Narnia closet. 🙂
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Sometimes I wish Chancellor Palpatine was our President. At least he’d transform us into a competent Empire instead of a foolish Republic.
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Yes, let’s “remain optimistic”
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Totally against this, I presume this is another brilliant idea of DeVos’. Why should tax dollars go for this rubbish.. If parents want their children to learn the bible and religion they will take them to Church. Give our schools a break.
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@House of Heart
Don’t think the Feds have anything to do with this. Also looks like a variety of approaches will be used. Some groups even want to pay the teachers with money from private funds.
Since the instruction will take place in the public schools, I have IB’s attitude. I pray God will give us cause for optimism.
I think parents would be better off abandoning the public schools, but that’s not easy. Taxes don’t leave most parents with enough money for private schools. So I like education vouchers.
Because the Democrats and the teachers unions effectively run the public schools, without God’s help it is going to be very difficult to conduct effective Bible study classes there. Kids have difficulty learning anything in the public schools.
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The majority do not send their children to public school for religious training. It’s absurd. As I said, that’s a personal issue. Leave it to the parents and religious institutions. Democrats and unions don’t run public schools or we would not be having a major issue with teachers leaving the profession due to Low pay and unreasonable responsibilities.
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@House of Heart
We all go to school to learn the same thing? Ever heard of specialization?
The first universities were for the instruction of theologicians. Theologicians exist to instruct ordinary clerics and people in general in wisdom. If we do not learn wisdom, whatever else we learn we will not properly apply. That is why parents should decide where who teaches their children, not politicians.
We cannot depend upon politicians to care about other people’s children. It requires more prayer than we have in us to make politicians wise.
You actually expect politicians to run our schools well? The public schools are run by four different committees: School Boards, local governments, state governments, and Congress. That’s absurd! Who but politicians would put everyone in charge so that no one is responsible?
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Did I say That I want or expect politicians to run our schools though DeVis us very political. I’m saying religion should not be taught in public schools funded by our tax dollars. I’m done talking to you.
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@House of Heart
So you are not in favor of government-run schools? That’s good.
Have you ever tried to define religion? Turns out to be much more difficult than you seem to think. That’s one reason why the First Amendment only prohibits Congress from establishing a religion or interfering with its free exercise. Because what we believe makes such a big difference in how we behave, we cannot constrain the practice our religious beliefs from the public square. Consider your own behavior, for example.
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You are a rude sob who needs to consider your own behaviour.
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@House of Heart
Think about the offense you are taking. You find the notion that anyone would teach about the Bible in a public school abhorrent. Why? The Bible is deeply embedded in the philosophy, ethics, history, and literature of Western Civilization. If we have not read the Bible, we have a huge void in our knowledge. Yet there you are angrily protesting. Do you have a religious aversion to “religion”?
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You are now blocked.
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@House of Heart
Blocked? What is funny is that you probably think you are the perfect model of tolerance. Sad.
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Whether or not everyone should home school, which is a large conversation, it’s pretty clear that Bible instruction in public school will not be “Bible study,” except in the technical sense of the term “Bible study,” as in “I have to study Bible because we have a test on Friday.”
So, what the aims of the instruction are supposed to be, and how they will be achieved, is fairly murky at present. That means the outcomes are almost guaranteed to disappoint everyone involved.
Except possibly those college literature professors who are currently struggling with the fact that fewer and fewer incoming freshmen know anything at all about Biblical narrative, so that teachers simply cannot assume that students will understand any reference to the Bible in any work of world literature without further explanation. Maybe that will get better.
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I think there’s a pretty good argument to be
made in favor of using the bible to teach cultural literacy. Literature is full of references to the bible, philosophy, politics, and of course our Western culture is heavily influenced by Christian narratives and values. To not have some familiarity with the bible would be kind of like not speaking the language.
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Early in American history, schools often taught reading through the bible.
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I’m not sure I would support bible instruction in public schools. Wouldn’t that kind of violate your constitution?
I think that there are legitimate ways that the Bible can be used in academic instruction, it has far more to offer beyond religious instruction. Eg. Its philosophical thought, its range of literary genres, even its historical elements shed light on our understanding of the ancient world. I honestly wouldn’t want the religious instruction element to be in the hands of govt bureaucrats. Once govt funding is involved, the compromises follow.
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Good point, but I don’t think so. As one who has read, I don’t see anything in there that children can’t read, though that can be placed up for debate. And it should not create fear in those who have their children read, even if it’s simply to teach reading. There are a lot of books, many classics, such as Tom Sawyer’s books that rarely are on the scene. Why? Fear. Experiences. But we’re not allowing children exposure to such classics that actually raise the consciousness of our youth so they can challenge themselves on such decision making and understand what makes people tick. I’ve always been in support of children and teens thinking for themselves, but without the literature that brings up points, the process without decent exposure creates the kinds of chaos we see in many of today’s schools and a sense of entitlement behavior. Thinking for yourselves doesn’t mean do whatever feels good. It’ means having experiences and education, hopefully much from home, and being able to make good decisions with bad decision garnering consequences. I’ve read of Confusious and others, and learned something from each.
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When children learn about God and the bible, when their parents truly hope and try to live by morals, then the children are happier and know they were created in love.
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Outstanding read!
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This is very interesting. What you said is very true. “People must be supported, nourished, loved, encouraged to read the bible, to pray, to have a relationship with the Lord.” There’s so much more involved with reading and studying the Bible than just reading and studying. Your motives and heart condition have to be right in order to truly get the sense of what God is telling us through the scriptures. Acts 13:48 says, “When those of the nations heard this, they began to rejoice and to glorify the word of Jehovah, and all those who were rightly disposed for everlasting life became believers.” We can read the Bible all day but if we’re not “rightly disposed” or in the right mindset we won’t readily accept it as truth. Also, I agree that this type of education must happen at home. God has given the parents the responsibility to teach their children about Him. Others can help, but it starts at home (Deuteronomy 6:6,7)
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