Pastor’s Post #13: “CHRISTIAN TEACHERS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS” (03/04’17)

I don’t think there’s any topic more perplexing for Christians than the issue of Christians and the public-school system. My wife and I wrestled with this as we raised our six children; and my guess is that, if you’re a parent – and especially if you’re a parent who is a teacher or a teacher who is not yet a parent – you wrestle with this issue, too.

Public education in the United States is an establishment of religion. It has a view of origins. (You especially see this in public school science classes). It is, at best, agnostic: We don’t know where “the stuff” of everything came from, but we accept the view that our universe came from a “Big Bang.” How the matter that exploded got here, we simply do not know. It has a view of purpose: Education is to prepare young people to be responsible citizens of the State – and of the World. It has a view of standards: Prevailing cultural ideas (so long as they are civilized and supposedly don’t harm others) are the norms – at least for now – for how we are to live our lives. Increasingly, though, that “norm” is simply “whatever”.

Christians, of course, are 180 degrees different in their thinking: All things originated with God. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Our purpose is to glorify and enjoy God as citizens of a Kingdom under the Lordship of the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. Our standard is the Bible – the written Word of God. And, as a result, many Christians have opted for alternatives to public education: Christian schools, homeschooling, or something of a hybrid in co-ops that enable Christian parents to work together in the Christian education of their children.

But here comes the perplexity: Moses was schooled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians – and he became a leader of the nation of Israel. Daniel and three of his friends received at least part of their schooling in the court of the King of Babylon – and they served the Lord there. Jesus Himself said that the children of this age are shrewder in their generation than the children of light. There is much we can learn IN the world, even as we work hard not to be part OF that world. And the apostle Paul said that all things – including the world – are ours; with no contradiction to the fact that Christians are owned by Christ and, in Him, to God Himself. Parents with special needs children see this as an invitation to use the amenities and resources that Christian schools and home-schooling usually cannot provide. Other parents want their children to be able to know the world’s ways of thinking so that, as adults, they can function in the world and, at the same time, do that as committed Christians with real understanding of the world. Others simply don’t have good Christian schools available to them; and, for various reasons, don’t feel comfortable with the home-schooling alternative.

Perplexing, indeed.

But if this is perplexing for Christian parents, how much more perplexing is it for Christian teachers who – again, for various reasons – feel a burden and a calling to use their gifts and training in the public-school system. And there are many Christians in this position: Teachers, administrators, counselors, staff in – let’s be honest – a very religious educational system that, in many ways, is hardly friendly to their Christian faith.

This large group of people are somewhat like those who are missionaries in countries that are more-or-less closed to the Gospel:

  • They must be careful about being publicly “up front” about their faith; but they can speak privately and personally with students and parents when they are asked questions about what they believe.
  • They must be very careful in the ways they challenge the common secular orthodoxies of public education; but there is no extinguishing the light they inevitably give as people saved by grace and seeking to live lives to God’s glory in everything they do.
  • They witness the hundreds of ways that a culture of death brings brokenness, misery, confusion, and tragedy to families and individuals; but they cannot speak boldly – at least not publicly in the classroom – about the only genuine remedy for sin and its manifold effects: The Good News of the God-man who came into the world to live a life of perfect obedience and, by His cross, resurrection, and reign, to rescue people from the wages of sin.
  • Like righteous Lot, their souls are vexed by slices of our modern Sodom and Gomorrah; but they’re restricted in their heart’s desire to freely tell its citizens that they must flee from the wrath to come. And, to add to the burden, Christian teachers who seek to be witnesses of Christ on this challenging mission field of the public schools are often criticized by other Christians for “selling out” to a system that people see as anti-God, anti-Christian, and anti-Christians.

Now without, today, getting into the massive issue of Christian education versus secular education, I think it’s extremely important that we enter into the world of those Christians– and, remember, there are many of them – who do, in fact, teach and serve in the public-school system. They need our understanding and our support. And they can give us a huge picture window on the real world in which all of us are to be part of the great rescue mission led by the Christian church.

I have two guests today – both women who teach in very challenging public schools in New York City itself, or right on its border. I want you to enter into their worlds –both so that you can pray for them more intelligently, and also so that you can get a feel for the mission field all around us. Don’t forget that most of your neighbors and friends are either products of the public school system or have children who are part of it. What’s that world really like?

My first guest is Miss Christiana Johnson. She teaches at a public secondary school right in the heart of New York City’s Harlem. Miss Johnson (!)…Christiana, if there is a “typical day” for you teaching in your public school, what’s it like….?

Yours in the King of Kings,
Pastor Bill