Posted on 05/24/2003 7:30:45 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
I read in the news the other day about a teacher’s aide in a public school in Glen Campbell, Pa., who was suspended for wearing a cross to school after repeated warnings that the Pennsylvania Public School Code prohibited her from doing so.
According to a school official, the code is designed to protect students whom he described as a “captive audience.” He said case law has shown that the state has an interest in preserving religious neutrality in schools.
Clearly, this was an extreme example of applying institutional rules rigidly. But it highlighted what I believe is a disheartening and alarming drift in our society.
Increasingly, we are choosing to deal with the plurality of religious beliefs and to “preserve religious neutrality” by proscribing the issue of faith entirely, avoiding the type of conversation that kids who are trying to figure out what matters in the world most crave and deserve.
When people think of “school” and “faith” in the same context, they usually imagine a Catholic school or Hebrew school or some other organization which has as part of its mission the goal of developing in children a particular religious perspective.
This is a powerful and entirely appropriate education for some children and some families.
But I am saddened that those who teach and learn in other schools are handcuffed by our society’s devotion to “religious neutrality” such that matters of the spirit cannot even be discussed.
I am the first to agree that it is the responsibility of parents to provide answers to their children that are in tune with their own traditions, culture and beliefs.
And certainly setting up a program in which matters of faith can be explored in a neutral manner would require extraordinary sensitivity.
But it is my conviction, and is the philosophy of Wooster School where I work as acting chaplain, that a complete educational environment must include conversations about the nature of God and the ethical implications wrapped up in the answers to life’s biggest questions.
Can schools open up discussions of faith without crossing the line into advocating a particular religious perspective? I believe they can in at least three ways.
The first is to offer a purely academic study of the world’s major religions: Christianity in its manifold denominations, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism all contain wisdom and ideas that thoughtful children can consider and from which they can learn.
The second is to provide, in equal measure, access to religious leaders from a variety of faiths who can speak personally about what they believe and why, giving students a chance to ask questions as they form their own belief system.
The third way to broach the subject of faith in a non-dogmatic fashion is what I find myself doing as the acting chaplain at Wooster.
As a lifetime Christian and Episcopalian working at a school originally founded by an Episcopalian priest, I conduct mandatory chapel services for students from kindergarten through 12th grade who are from Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other backgrounds, as well as for the many young people here who have no religious affiliation at all.
Parents who send their children to Wooster know from its mission statement that spiritual development is one of its goals, yet they expect that their unique religious beliefs will be respected.
We strive to meet this seemingly paradoxical charge by approaching belief through the sharing of stories and ideas from a variety of sources that open up questions and invite the students to consider things they may not have encountered before. “What does it mean to believe in God?” “What does God want of us?” “Why is there pain in the world?” “How can faith help us deal with the ups and downs of life?”
In the first chapel service of the year, I retold the biblical story of Jacob wrestling with God on the night before he is reunited with his estranged brother Esau.
The struggle is physical and spiritual: As he wrestles, Jacob is trying to understand who God is, what his own relationship with the divine should be, and who he most profoundly is meant to become. As a result of the encounter, Jacob takes on a new name, Isaac, and returns to his family a new man.
My message to the students was simply this: “Welcome to the wrestling ring. Living a full life is about struggling to find the truth. Your experiences at this school can help you in that struggle. My role is not to tell you what belief structure is right for you, but rather to provide you new ideas to grapple with.”
I tell them stories from religious texts, native American traditions and Dr. Seuss. I pose questions to which no one knows the answers but about which mankind has wondered throughout history.
I challenge them to think, to ask and to wonder in an atmosphere that celebrates the journey, promotes the free exchange of ideas and accepts the reality that each of us ultimately must answer these questions for ourselves.
Gary Taylor is the acting chaplain and assistant head of Wooster School in Danbury.
Neutrality is the wrong word. Suppression is the word that should be used.
"Christianity in its manifold denominations, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism all contain wisdom and ideas that thoughtful children can consider and from which they can learn.Implies that children who already have a formed faith are "unthoughtful" or "closed-minded".
"The second is to provide, in equal measure, access to religious leaders from a variety of faiths who can speak personally about what they believe and why, giving students a chance to ask questions as they form their own belief system."
"Access" means "recruiting access" as well.
A chance to ask questions does not necessarily affect faith. A priest hands out candy whereas an imam preaches that candy is bad. Mr. Taylor's approach somehow equates faith and reason.
Hosea 4:6 says that the "people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Children today are bibically illiterate. The Christian preacher/pastor is called to contend earnestly for the Faith - not the faiths. Paul tells Timothy to preach the faith, in-season and out of season...again, not the "faiths."
This is a really a sad story, not an encouraging one.
Exactly.
FMCDH
Rom 9:33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
This chaplain is attempting to not bring offense. But we are told that Jesus is a stumbling block and an offense to those who refuse the gospel.
This is just another sad incidence of Christians desiring to please man, rather than God.
Better would be the approach of one Christian school which was upfront with parents and stated in their enrollment interview that they could expect that their child would be taught what it meant to come to a saving knowledge of Christ. Or the experience of the local Catholic school which had enrolled Muslim children whose parents then objected to the Christain teachings: "take your child elsewhere then; we will not cease being Catholic to accommodate your child."
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