Let me begin by saying I’m not a controversial or political person. I’m a very ordinary person. However, dramatic and scary things are happening right under our noses in the Texas Board of Education, that have moved me speak out. Texas school children are facing a sterilization of intellect and many faithful families will lose the right to pass along their faith to their children if this alarming trend is allowed to continue.
The numbers are growing in power on the Texas Board of Education that see their own religious views as facts to be taught in the public schools. They have started this erosion by attempting to knock holes in the accepted science of the Theory of Evolution and it seems clear what direction they are headed. This action scares me. I am a person of faith. I am also a person that believes science, including evolution and natural selection, is one more of the billion beautiful ways a person of faith might know God. However, my right as a parent and Christian educator is on the line to share this faith, as I believe, if science is refuted and faith-teaching seeps into our public schools. Some of our BoE representatives, perhaps faithful and well-meaning, are holding a gun to the heads and hearts of school children, and they need to back off.
These BoE representatives seek to first erode the understanding of evolution and natural-selection, so that the doors will be open to “teach” creation. The two stories (yes, two–re-read it!) found in the first chapters of Genesis are not teachable, much less can these stories stand up to the scientific method. These stories are share-able, wonder-able and inform our existential condition, but they are not science.
I am a Lutheran Christian. Martin Luther was a 16th century priest, teacher and monk, who had moments of brilliance and moments of gross misdirection. One of his more brilliant gifts to the people was access to the Bible. It was as if he found it one day on the side of the road, half-dead. He said, “Word, Word are you okay?” and performed Biblical CPR. He translated the Bible from Latin into the language of the people, and combined with the advent of the printing press gave the people a way to know for themselves the living Word of God.
<Brief Aside: If we find a person in our church half-dead we perform CPR and get the defibrillator and pray a lot as we send them off in an ambulance—all requiring brilliant SCIENTISTS!>
It is in this tradition, modern Lutherans, along with many other Christians, read these texts as a living document, that is both in conversation with itself and with us, as we live out our daily lives. It is not a static document that serves as a history book or a science text. It breathes. By putting the Bible in the same literary class as a text book, it will be deprived of the ability to live in the hearts of children.
These same children will also grow up at risk of not reaching their fullest intellectual potential. They are at risk of not fulfilling the needs and responsibilities to respond to the challenges our planet faces in the 21st century. They are at risk of not being able to learn accepted science. For me, however, the scariest risk is that they will come to believe that faith can be learned as if it is math, grammar, science or history.
I wonder if the real injustice has been going on right under our noses for years—centuries, even. We do not often pass along faith well. Children are often seen as ones to be seen and not heard, or beings to be molded into a certain way of thinking—instead of Imago Dei. It is as if their little minds can be opened, and we can pour in our dogma. This way of religious education has worked for centuries, but somehow it is breaking down in post-modern society. When children grow into adults that do not live in the faith of their parents or grandparents, it isn’t too surprising.
Faith is what is left after intellect, logic and reason have wrestled with dogma. Faith is the gift from God that lives in the human soul and cannot be separated from it. Sadly, when children are only taught static dogma, a living faith is not nurtured.
Traditional religious education has evolved from traditional educational models of presenting information and hoping for regurgitation. Compounding the problem, add the incredible market for Sunday School materials, Vacation Bible School materials, Christian music, books and web applications and you’ve encased religious education in cultural consumerism.
Wondering with children about faith, in a way that doesn’t provide “right and wrong” answers is risky. Presenting sacred stories in a way that points toward a universal human condition and not editorializing, is risky. Honoring our faith liturgies, as the work of a people, takes work. Deeply respecting the child’s individual relationship with God and their own spirituality takes work. But these risks and work are worth it, as we seek to grow faithful children that can respond to a broken world with both intellect and compassion. There are glimmers of hope that point our society toward new ways of growing spirituality in children, while nurturing the skills our society needs in the 21st century.
Science is teachable–faith is “wonder-able.” What if we left the teaching to the teachers of subjects that are teachable? What if we shared our faith in a living, breathing dialog of wonder and mystery? That is a radical movement—like a radish, rooted in the deepest traditions of faith. Stories are shared from the heart and relationships validated by mutual respect.
Faithful adults need to seek out the best ways to share faith with our children. Those ways will be as unique and varied as the faith beliefs themselves. As our children grow into adults to find cures for cancer, peace around the world and food for the starving, they will need to call upon the compassion of their faith and brilliant scientific minds to face these challenges. As the caring adults walking along the side of children, let’s share our faith in the home and church and empower schools to teach them science.