To Teach or Not to Teach: Critical Examination of the Bible in Schools

[Sue D.]

Yes, Bible teaching Needs to be in the home 1st. And 'home' was established by God with Adam and Eve. Man/woman marriage. Egg/***** // biology 101.

 

[Sue D.]

Yes, Bible teaching Needs to be in the home 1st. And 'home' was established by God with Adam and Eve. Man/woman marriage. Egg/***** // biology 101.

Curious -- why is '****** " bleeped out but not 'egg'. It has been before, too. I kinda chuckle at that.

 

[Hekuran]

Well, I would love for every child to be deeply immersed in the Bible. But there are practical and political problems with teaching the Bible in schools.

In the UK every school is required to have a daily assembly that is 'broadly Christian in character'. This is widely disregarded. Worse, it means that teachers who have no faith in God are put in the position of leading worship, while trying not to fall foul of the parents of other faiths or no faith.

This is a tremendous opportunity for the church to step in and help out. But when left to their own devices schools give an account of the gospel that is so watered down it makes no sense, and may put children off faith for life.

I'm not over-keen on the bible being taught for its values either. Primarily it's the story of God rescuing his people and redeeming creation. Only when the gospel is understood does 'pray for those who persecute you' have any force.

If there was a way to ensure really good teaching of the bible, I'd be all for it. But I'm hesitant about a half-hearted approach.

 

[Sue D.]

I Still don't understand Why you'd Not be keen on Bible being taught for his values. It's Biblical morality / ethics -- sex for within marriage only. Marriage between Only man and women. Don't steal from your boss. Working 8 hrs for an 8 yr days work or however many hours nowdays -- maybe 10 or 12. Office materials stay in the office, not in your pocket or purse for at home use.
Dress modestly at work.

 

[Hekuran]

I Still don't understand Why you'd Not be keen on Bible being taught for his values. It's Biblical morality / ethics -- sex for within marriage only. Marriage between Only man and women. Don't steal from your boss. Working 8 hrs for an 8 yr days work or however many hours nowdays -- maybe 10 or 12. Office materials stay in the office, not in your pocket or purse for at home use.
Dress modestly at work.

I'm against the bible being reduced to a book that teaches values. Most religions, for example, have some form of the golden rule 'do unto others...'. The moral precepts you've given above are pretty much universal, so the bible doesn't have a unique place in that regard.

What is unique about the Bible is the story that God created the world, made humans in his own image as to be partners in caring for creation, but humans took their own path, bringing death and destruction, God promised to destroy evil, and made good on that promise by sending his son to live as a perfect human, to exhaust the powers of evil, and to restore God's reign of unending goodness and love. Jesus will return in power to raise the dead, judge good and evil, and to reconcile all things to himself.

Teaching Kingdom values without the kingdom robs them of their power.

 

[Sue D.]

Where would you Rather have your kids -- our younger population - get their moral values From -- Society Or God's Word?

Society tells us -- if it feels good, do it. And 'when two people love each other, Let them 'be together' because there's just not enough 'love' being shown these days'. Are those Really the moral values we want our kids to be following?

teaching Biblical morality is Not 'reducing' God's Word to anything universally already being taught. If you haven't noticed -- lots of countries Don't teach much of anything Biblical.
Why do you think that no one really wants To hear God's Word these days. Because it's convicting in nature. And public education ridicules it -- colleges/ universities -- well-- their 'education' is so secular it's pathetic. No room for Bible -- creation at All. No real sense of values at all.

Christianity is unique -- we have the Only Risen Savior. It's relationship based -- not works' based. And, yes, 'we' Do have the Holy Spirit's teaching the individual , his convicting power which is what people Don't like. People want to be able to live their own lives, on Their terms, but with no negative consequences -- and they get really disturbed when the negative Does happen. And then when they blame someone -- it's God. Or now days -- as marijuana use is now Legal in some areas -- more and more -- people will simply not care. Which is Probably what 'they' Want -- people to become laxidazical - and That is Dangerous for Everyone.

Need to scoot for now.

 

[Hekuran]

Ok. My fear is that by leading with values, children grow up thinking the gospel is good advice rather than good news. They get just enough of the Bible to remain immune to for the rest of their lives.

No worries if you disagree.

 

[Sue D.]

Well -- how much of the Bible is Being taught? And how is it being Presented.

What do you mean by 'just enough of the Bible to remain immune to for the rest of their lives."

What values do you want kids to grow up with? Isn't God's Word Supposed to be their / our guideline For living.

Or do we 'get saved' and then don't worry about anything else. God's Word in us is supposed to make a positive difference in our everyday lives. How do we talk to our parents? Act around people / talk around them.

 

[Hekuran]

All I mean is that there might be a danger that the Bible taught badly might do more harm than good.

 

[Sue D.]

Well -- God Does tend to get His Word into hearts. And, yes, there is Always That chance. Look at all the various 'opinions' voiced here on Forum. that's why there is a lot of interaction at times. Mostly, people are Not just going to sit by and twiddle their thumbs while Scripture is being taught 'badly'. At least we Shouldn't. Teaching Should include interaction between student and teacher, so that the teacher knows what the student is understanding and learning. It's Also true that some teachers don't want To be challenged. Which is all the more reason to approach that teacher after class and share your thoughts. Education CAN be challenging.

God created our kids with working brains, too. For a while, my older daughter wanted to go to CCD like all her friends at school did. So, we let her. We started hearing about the questions she was asking. Good solid questions. And she was sharing Scripture with them. It was interesting.

 

[Jesus_is_LORD]

You're quite welcome. Yes, prayer is needed.

And sometimes, God is finished with a work. And the same can be true of nations. It is my opinion that the USA as a nation is on the way out. God has accomplished what He wanted with it, but now He is moving on and the U.S is not needed. In fact, the U.S. would be in the way. Of course all of this coincides with our apostasy in moving away from God. God never does just one thing. With every move He makes, there are many things accomplished.

I hate to see the Bible removed from our society; from our schools; the Ten commandments removed from our court houses; prayer removed also. But the reality is, they don't represent our society anymore. Our society really has no right to have these emblems of righteous behaviour. They do not represent them anymore. They represent pockets of people still in our country. But not the powers. The powers represent all that is against God.

In my opinion our prayers should involve surviving the inevitable demise of the U.S. For, as I have said before, somewhere, we are like the U.S.S. Thresher. We have lost our motoring ability and are descending to crush depth.

Quantrill

Very very very very. well said, I recognize the truth in your statement. Thanks for sharing. Let us pray.

 

[Sue D.]

How about our prayers being directed towards the unsaved that they accept salvation Now. And, yes, our encouraging each other daily.