As a social studies teacher, my students can ask me some fairly controversial questions. I have been asked about my political party preference, how I feel about abortion, and why racism is still a big deal. However there is one question I am asked every year without fail:
What is your religion?
My seventh graders are more likely to ask this question than my eighth graders as part of the seventh grade course is a study of world religions. There are two methods of dealing with this question (to my knowledge) and I have tried them both. The first method (and the one I used in my first year of teaching) is to not tell them. I inform them that my job is present to them with a variety of opinions and let them make their own choices. What I believe should not be a factor as it could influence their judgments. I have also tried telling them my religion and explaining to them that the choice is still theirs. I will not raise their grades for sharing my faith or lower their grades for having different beliefs.
Yet that question begs a larger one in education: What should religion's role in education be? I have encountered individuals across the entire spectrum of answers to that question. I have encountered a pastor who has lamented the removal of school-sanctioned prayer as tantamount to spitting in God's face. I have encountered those who believe religion should be kept out of school all together. Interestingly, not all of these people are atheists. Some do not want one "version" of a religion taught in school that counters their denomination's brand. And I have encountered far many more who are not sure of what the role of religion should be.
To answer that question, one might turn to the First Amendment that forbids Congress from making any law with respect to the establishment of religion or its free exercise. Public schools, as government enterprises, fall under that directive. But the vagueness of the First Amendment that was the Founding Fathers' genius (so that the Constitution could adapt to the circumstances at hand) also makes debate all the more likely. Some would argue that the Founding Fathers' idea of freedom of religion was permitting Americans to choose which brand of Christianity they wanted without penalty as opposed to a license to remove it from school all together. Still others point to some Founding Fathers who shared more pluralistic views of society as evidence that this view was not universally shared among the Founders. Those from this camp will point to several Supreme Court cases as further support for their point of view.
As a Christian and a social studies teacher who champions the ideals of the U.S. Constitution, this leaves me seemingly between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, I want students to experience and cherish the freedoms of the Constitution when it comes to their choices but I also want my students to make the right choices. And I personally believe that the best choice they will ever make is saying "yes" to Jesus. But as a public school teacher and a de facto member of the government this Constitution limits, I cannot come out and encourage them to follow Jesus. How then can I preserve my ideals and my faith? How can I let them choose and not violate my heart that knows there are eternal consequences to their choice in this regard?
The answer, I have found, is deceptively simple: Because that's what Jesus did and does. Jesus lets people choose. People can choose to accept Him or they can spurn Him. Love, which I believe is at the center of God's pursuit of us, is after all about choice. A person can't make another person love him or her. God can't either because it's not in His nature; it's not in the nature of love. So, to follow Jesus, is to let my students choose. Because I love Jesus. And because I love my students.
Some may say that this does not solve the conflict. Jesus, as many readers of the New Testament would point out, could and did directly speak to people about their need for forgiveness. (Although I will point that the danger for Him was the possibility of His arrest and death, a price He ultimately paid.) If I do the same, I risk being fired and forfeit all contact with students. So, am I not still stuck?
Let me answer that question with one more question. When you think of Jesus, what do you picture? Most would probably think of His death on the cross or Him rising from the tomb on the first Easter. Still, others might think of Him walking on water or feeding the five thousand.
All of these pictures have one thing in common: they describe actions. Jesus, while on earth, was a man of action. He loved people where they were and in a way they would understand. Think about it. Jesus could have easily told the world's people He loves them and left it at that. But words, as powerful as they are, are just that: words. Anyone can utter them at any time and the cost is nothing. But this is not so with actions. And Jesus chose the most poignant of all as He was nailed to the cross for you and me, leaving no doubt about where He stood in His opinion of us.
I am not permitted to tell my students who Jesus is. But I can show them. I can show them in the way I forgive them for breaking a rule. I can show them by attending their basketball games. I can show them when I remember their birthday. I can show them in attending their brother's funeral. I can show them in how I care. I can show them in how I love. And then, like Jesus does with all of us, I can let them choose.
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