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Dr. Greene BCS Co-founder

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Why Christian School?

Let's turn the question around and ask, Why not Christian schools? What are some of the reasons given for not having Christian schools? Thinking about some answers to these questions may put us in better position to consider positive reasons for Christian schooling in the next issue of Second Thoughts

1. Christian schools are divisive. Especially in a country with as many different nationalities as the United States now has, it is important that people think of themselves as one people, and the public schools are a powerful factor undergirding that thought. Christian schools will divide us like the Protestants and Catholics in Ireland or the people of Quebec in their sense of separation from the rest of Canada.
   
   By way of response we should remember that what makes people feel part of each other is a common basis for morality, and Christian schools can and do include a variety of racial backgrounds which are united around common religious goals for life. The public school based now on facts, which are regarded as neutral, has no commonly accepted perspective on morals and ethics around which to unite students.



2. Christian schools are not patriotic. Government schools unite citizens of one country. To set up separate Christian schools is not only divisive, but also lacks patriotism.
   
   The answer to this objection lies in the question, who has the right to determine how children should be taught about life. The obvious answer is that that right belongs to the parents. The business of the state is, according to the Bible, the dispensation of the public justice. But the moral education of children is not a matter of public justice; rather it belongs to the realm of the family. It is inseparable from a religious basis. Yet the common belief today is that public school can teach children all they need to know about the world in total separation from religion of any kind. This leaves the whole question of how to live in today's world in total darkness.



3. Christian schools deprive the public school of much-needed Christian witness. The task of the church is to bear witness to the world, and one place to do this is in the secular public school.
   
   While the above statement is commonly accepted by the public today, few people realize that the concept of "fact" has changed significantly within the last two or three centuries. Facts are now supposed to be neutral or meaningless. They provide power for those who know them, power to master and manipulate the world. Biblically speaking, facts are not meaningless. They are not neutral, but charged with meaning. God made and maintains the world with the specific purpose of revealing Himself to us through it. Facts put us under obligation to respond to God by the deepening of our awe, love, praise and service to Him. While the information imparted in the Christian school is the same as that provided by the secular school, its significance is radically different. Hence the content of the schooling differs deeply between the two kinds of school.

With this as background, we can look next time at some of the positive reasons for having Christian schools.

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