The Church And The State – Educating Christopher’s Children

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The Guardian, as ever objective and in no way leaning to a liberal, humanist and secular agenda, asks the question should schools require Christian worship?

This comes at an intriguing time as I just read about the Anabaptist movement which was all for the separation of church from state. My upbringing definitely saw the school assembly giving some level of ‘Christian worship’. That was not so much the case when I got to secondary school.

I can imagine with strong roots in the Caribbean culture that firmly holds church and state fairly close that I’m expected to come out with a line reinforcing the status quo.

Here we go, though.

The Church, The State, The Family, The Kingdom: Taking Responsibility

The Christian faith, in as much as it is rich in tradition and is obviously interweaved in the fabric of English society, is not actually a faith designed to be inculcated in administrative establishments. The idea of a Christian society and Christian government in the world in which we live, doesn’t really make sense.

Even the ideal to which all Christians work for – the Kingdom of God established on earth does not necessitate a society where Christian values are enforced. By faith we believe in God and His Son, through faith we live out the expression of that love and in faith we share that faith with others in the hope they will embrace that faith.

We have a responsibility to bring up our children in the light of that faith. As a Christian community, we have a responsibility to ensure our children are made aware of the values in the context of the journey and the story. Beyond that our responsibility is on the sharing level. We cannot and should not expect those who do not know or agree with the fundamental tenets of the faith to engage in a Christian service. It does not make sense.

Dividing The Church And State

Now sure, the concept of school as we know it was birthed in the church, but it is no longer a church instrument. It is now an instrument of the state. A state that only nominally holds to any fundamental Christian value. A state that has a responsibility to make provisions for the subjects/citizens. One of those provisions is the education system starting with schools.

Christian worship in schools is a sham. A bit strong maybe, but behind that is the genuine belief that unless the members of the school are Christians (not nominal) and the staff are Christian (again, not nominal) then what really is happening? For what purpose?

It was a sham in the heights of Christendom, it’s even more of a sham now in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and most importantly multi-faith and growing secular/humanist society.

Maybe I’m a proponent of the separation between church and state. I definitely tend to be persuaded more by the argument that since Constantine the role of the church has been heavily distorted from being the minority perspective shining the light of Christ into the darkness to a monolithic power base looking to exercise its influences through fair means and foul.

So What About Christian Upbringing In Schools?

Where I sit at present I’d rather promote Christian values through the Body of Christ rather than a state instrument. If that means taking Christian worship out of school, that wouldn’t bother me. I’m more interested in the church creating useful links with the school and engaging with them, rather than feeling it’s a right enshrined in law to expect a pitiful nominal token effort of weak pathetic Christ-lite to be shared at school.

Having said that to suggest, as the Guardian article suggests, that the school is a faith-free zone is a very dangerously erroneous conclusion to reach.

In the meantime, however, for once I actually concur with the sentiment of this quote from the article

It is pretty difficult to get away from the issue that compelling children to take part in religious worship is wrong. It simply cannot be right for the state to mandate religion. While there is a right for parents to withdraw their children from collective worship, this is rarely done in practice. There is no right for children to withdraw themselves, except for sixth-formers.

What the article also brings up is this question – who should be responsible for religious education and what should be its goal? At present, the onus is on a teacher who is to give the students some information on the religions, enough to answer a question or two in a specialist round of a pub quiz. (Of course the children would be no where near the pub … of course not.)

I get the impression however, that it makes sense for the religious experts to provide the education and even then, there is something lacking in informing people of Christianity without also engaging in what is compelling about the faith. This is not dry, lifeless black and white information to be conveyed in a textbook. I’d imagine other faiths and the secular-humanist alternative would likewise suggest that is the case for their perspective.

This is just an opinion of course, subject to change and development as I grow and learn more.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd