When God comes to class, curriculum or dangersome?

On One Hand, by Gene Straatmeyer

First of all, let me thank you for having the Frontiersman on the Internet. I read the Frontiersman faithfully now three times a week here in Malawi, Africa. Thank you also for your recent editorial about teaching the Bible in the public schools in which you suggested caution.

I likewise suggest caution, not because I dislike the Bible or am opposed to it, but because (among other things) I wonder who will be teaching the course. The Mat-Su Valley is heavily populated by fundamentalist and Pentecostal Christians who have their distinctive views of the Bible, and from living in the Mat-Su area since 1991, I can see controversy already if the "wrong" person teaches the course. Will it be someone who has at least a college minor in Bible, a master's degree? Will the district co-opt a minister? How will the district define who is qualified to teach the course? Would a Mormon teacher be qualified? How about a person of the Jewish or Orthodox faith? The Valley is home to a wide variety of religions.

Let me list a couple of problems I have with a possible course of study. Will there be some agreement in advance of the course that the instructor will be evenhanded in his or her interpretation of the Scripture? Creationism is a strongly held belief among the churches I have mentioned, but the traditional Christian churches believe that the early story of creation does not have to be interpreted as seven literal days. Although I do not have children in Mat-Su schools, I do have grandchildren in another Alaska school district. I don't mind if they learn the creationist view of Genesis, but I certainly would want them also to know that many Christians interpret the message of Genesis simply as "God created" and conceivably God accomplished creation through evolution.

Will the teacher teach the commonly held Pentecostal belief that speaking in tongues is a sign of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and omit the traditional Christian belief that the Holy Spirit comes into every believer's life at Baptism?

Then there is the religious article in a recent Frontiersman that was written by David Kepler, who speaks of the rapture -- a word not found in the Bible. The rapture, most recently propounded by Hal Lindsey, is the product of dispensationalism that only came into being in the 19th century when an Englishman named Darby said he had a new revelation from God -- of which the rapture was a part. I would not want the rapture taught in a survey of the Scripture or at least, I would want all the interpretations of the Scripture concerning the Lord's Second Coming taught.

And one other important consideration. I have spent this year in a country where 15 percent of the population is Muslim and we have a Muslim president. Muslims here are persistent and aggressive. Muslim is the fastest-growing religion in the world right now. I understand there are more than four million Muslims in the United States at the present time. If a group of Muslims settled in the Valley and asked for a course on the Qur'an to be taught as literature, would the school district offer it along with the Bible? Even if the Bible is taught as an elective, if the school board approves, a precedent is being set. Should the Book of Mormon then be taught as an elective?

I personally hope that the school district will not offer the course as an elective. Since we live in a democracy, we have our churches and our Christian homes where the Bible should be taught. We have to keep the lines of church and state clearly drawn. It is easier, I think, to teach separation of church and state by not teaching the Bible as literature in the public schools. What we should be doing is the more difficult thing -- reading the Bible every day to our children in our homes, going with them every Sunday to Sunday school and worship, and doing the work of an evangelist -- inviting our non-Christian friends to worship with us and introducing them to the Scripture and to the One to whom it points as the Savior of the world.

Dr. Gene Straatmeyer is the Associate Pastor at Lingadzi Presbyterian Church in Lilongwe, Malawi, Africa.