The Biblical Roots of Modern Educational Assumptions

An argument for the Bible in public schools

Everyone in my neighborhood had come outside to look up into the sky. They weren’t staring at a UFO or any rare bird species; they were gazing up at my dad dangling helplessly from a tall pine tree. My dad has always been the ultimate do-it-yourselfer, and he had ascended the dying tree in our backyard with a climbing tree stand—the kind deer hunters use—and a chainsaw to lop it off one section at a time. Unfortunately, the weakened tree could not support his weight and collapsed when he got near the top. Thankfully, another tree in our neighbor’s yard braced his fall and prevented him from falling through our neighbor’s roof. My dad had literally cut down the tree he was sitting in.

As I’ve reflected more on the debate over LifeWise Academy’s desire to start a weekly parent-approved, “released time” Bible instruction program in my community’s public school system, I’ve concluded that LifeWise’s opponents are doing something similar. They are effectually sawing off the branch upon which they sit. Let me explain.

In his book Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, historian Tom Holland shows that even as modern Western society secularizes, it’s values and instincts remain undeniably Christian. America today, even with declining church attendance and an increasing number of people claiming they aren’t religious, is saturated with Christian assumptions. If you live in America, you can’t escape Christianity’s influence. Whether you like it or not, the Bible has shaped the way you view the world.

As LifeWise’s opponents make their arguments against teaching the Bible to public school students, even their arguments against the Bible rely on Christian values that derive from the Bible—whether they realize it or not. They want Christian values devoid of the source. They want the benefits without the God, the generous giver. They’ve received a rich inheritance from the very Bible they disdain. They saw off the branch as they unknowingly rely on it to uphold the weight of their arguments.

To learn all the ways that Christianity has impacted modern culture and shaped our default assumptions about everything, read Holland’s book. I will focus on three areas here that are relevant to the debate over teaching the Bible in public schools: the value of children, the very idea of public education, and separation of church and state.

First, ancient societies did not value children before Christianity. Here’s Holland’s description: “Across the Roman world, wailing at the sides of roads or on rubbish tips, babies abandoned by their parents were a common sight. Others might be dropped down drains, there to perish by the hundreds. . . Girls in particular were liable to be winnowed ruthlessly. Those who were rescued from the wayside would invariably be raised as slaves. Brothels were full of women who, as infants, had been abandoned by their parents.” What happened to cause these monstrous attitudes to change? Holland tells us—“the emergence of a Christian people.”

It’s the Bible that teaches us that every human being possesses equal dignity and worth because every human being, regardless of disability, deformity, or disease, has been created uniquely in the image of God. It was the early church following the way of Christ who rescued unwanted orphans and taught the world that throwing out God’s image-bearers with the trash is an inexcusable abomination. We value children today and deem them worthy of the investment of education and protection because of 2000 years of Christian witness. We derive these ideas from the Bible.

Second, public education in America originated for the purpose of teaching children the Bible. Puritan Christians passed the Massachusetts School Law in 1647, mandating public education in towns with fifty or more households. These early Christians set up reading and grammar schools so that children would learn to read and interpret the Bible. We likely wouldn’t be having this debate today if not for the Bible.

Finally, as opponents of LifeWise Academy erroneously argue that allowing parent-approved Bible teaching violates the separation of church and state, they fail to recognize that the Bible itself introduced the notion that church and state must operate in separate spheres. I’ve already demonstrated that allowing the Bible to be taught in public schools in no way violates the First Amendment of our Constitution and such programs have already withstood Supreme Court challenges.

Before we can discuss separation of church and state, however, we must establish that the secularist interpretation wherein we build a impenetrable wall to prevent religion from having any influence on the affairs of the state is a historical myth. As you can see from this essay, the Christian religion has impacted every facet of the American constitutional order and culture and will continue to do so. The founders of our great nation never intended to bar religion’s influence from public life; rather, they passed the First Amendment to protect the right of every American citizen to follow his or her conscience in matters of faith.

Separation of church and state develops out of Christianity. Particularly, it derives from the biblical conviction that genuine religious faith cannot be coerced. I can assure you that ancient civilizations did not practice separation of religion and politics, and those not influenced by Christianity still do not. Historically, the state has controlled the worship of its citizens. Jesus changed that when he taught that his kingdom did not originate in this world before offering grace to all who freely repent and believe.

The state does not possess the authority to determine whether children learn from the Bible. Parents and the church, however, do rightly possess this authority from God. LifeWise Academy merely seeks to restore the order of authority according to God’s good design.