This post is part 13 of a series on Christian citizenship, and why I believe mixing Christian identity with American identity is bad for both. My intent in sharing these short Biblical reflections is not to "prooftext", or just compile a list of unrelated Bible verses to support my argument. Rather, I hope to give you little bite-sized thoughts, which I believe represent themes you'll find throughout the Bible and historic Christian teachings.
I hope they make you think.
It's been a few days since my last post. Life has gotten busy!
Today's reason why I want to live as a Christian in a multi-faith nation:
Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, (1529) a short pamphlet teaching the basics of the Christian faith, encourages the “head of the household” to teach the faith to their family. Luther himself was very diligent in teaching his own children the Christian faith, because he saw it as his own responsibility.
In my Lutheran expression of Christianity, every time we baptize a child, we ask the parents to make some promises: among others, "to teach them the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments," and "to place in their hands the Holy Scriptures." Of course, many families choose to "deputize" the congregation to which they belong, to help them with this task of Christian education. That's the origin things like Sunday School and Confirmation. But make no mistake: it's still my job to fulfill the promise I made at my children's baptism.
If Christian households advocate teaching of the Christian faith in public schools, they are giving up a very important job God has given to the parents themselves. Also, there is more than one way to interpret the Bible, and taking Christian teaching into a public sphere means one interpretation will gain prominence over others. As many times as some Christian programs will proclaim that they are "generic," there truly is no such thing. Even when we avoid controversial topics, we all teach the Bible with our particular perspective. It's unavoidable.
I don’t want my children to learn how to pray in their schools because we would likely find that the prayers they would learn would not line up with our beliefs.
For some Biblical words about survival as a religious minority, and what that can teach those in the majority, check out tomorrow's post.
For more background information read this statement from the ELCA's presiding bishop, or learn about Christians Against Christian Nationalism.
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