Why I think my conservative Christian dad kept us in public schools
My dad, a conservative Church of Christ preacher, did not like some of what the public schools taught his three kids.
In sixth grade, it was the Big Bang and evolution.
In sixth and ninth grade, it was sex education.
In high school, some teachers spoke in favor of abortion and gay marriage.
On the basis of his reading of the Bible, Dad opposed those things.
But as far as I know, he never thought about homeschooling or moving us to a private Christian school.
Nor did he run for school board to try to change the schools themselves.
Why not?
I think he had at least two reasons.
First, Dad told me more than once that truth has nothing to fear. If one has truth, he can face challenges to the truth with chin up and a cheerful whistle.
At best, our understanding of truth will pass the test and prove to be true indeed.
At worst, we learn that what thought to be true is not so true. We have a chance to enter into a better understanding of truth.
For better or worse, exposing truth to challenge is good for truth.
And good for a believer in truth.
If we’re not willing to expose to testing what we believe to be true, how do we know it is true?
The second reason I think Dad kept us in public schools is that he took as a personal obligation the “Great Commission” of Jesus Christ: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations…” (Gospel of Matthew 28:19).
This is what Dad practiced every day of his adult life.
Notice the source of Dad’s confidence: Jesus’s claim to “all authority” on heaven and earth. Grounding himself in that authority, Dad neither favored nor feared any other. He did not need to concern himself with the school board or superintendent; he believed he operated within the power and protection of his Christ, who claimed “all” authority.
But I think that, to Dad, the most powerful word in the Great Commission was GO. That is: Leave whatever is comfortable, familiar, and safe and go to “all nations.” Go be with people whose understanding of truth is foreign to one’s own understanding of truth. This is what Jesus did and it is what disciples of Jesus must do.
Dad spent a few hours each week in his congregation, among people who mostly agreed with him and thought he was right about most things. But what Dad counted as “Great Commission work,” I think, are the many hours he spent mixing it up with people out “in the world.” People who thought he was wrong and told him so. It was only by being with those people that Dad was to earn their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
It was only by being with them that he could “make disciples” of them.
And make disciples he did, baptizing hundreds in his life of ministry.
But here is a crucial point: Dad knew that knowing the truth is all but worthless if one lacks one thing. He knew this verse well: “If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge…but do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2).
Dad loved. That made all the difference. He was patient, kind, polite, generous, gracious, and willing to stick with someone even when they did not come around to seeing things his way (see 1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
To Dad, the point was not to get people to admit that he was right and to go along with whatever he said to be true. Because he trusted in the authority of his Christ, he did not have to do this. The power to change minds–and lives–did not come from his own authority or power. So he did not have to acquire, establish, and fight to hold onto those things.
He could just go and love in the way of Jesus.
So it’s not a surprise that he wanted his kids to go to the public schools. He wanted us to grow up knowing how to obey the Great Commission. He wanted us to learn to go be with those whose understanding of truth challenged or opposed what we believed to be true.
He wanted us to learn to go love in the way of Jesus.
Dad didn’t need to run for school board or try to change the public schools for us to do that. He didn’t need to campaign to ban certain books from the library or to make Bible study and Christian prayer compulsory.
I think he knew that doing so would do grave damage to the things he held to be precious and true:
First, it would betray that Dad did not really trust in the authority of his Christ. It would mean his church and his kids would grow up thinking the authority of Jesus is not enough, is teetering and tenuous.
Second, it would mean that the truth Dad claimed did indeed have much to fear. That it could not stand up to challenge and testing.
Third, it would mean giving up on loving one person at a time in the way of Jesus in an attempt to “mass produce” disciples by compulsion.
Dad believed and obeyed the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. That is why, I think, he kept his kids in public schools and respected that public schools ought to be truly public.
Grace and peace.