Why Christian Schools – Part 2 – The Public School is a Great Place for My Kids to be Salt and Light

“You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world.”  These are familiar quotes from the gospels usually attributed to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.  Many of us have been motivated by these statements of Jesus to be active in our jobs, neighborhoods, even the world to let our “light shine before men so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”  It is one of the marks of a disciple, that we are willing to step into the world to represent Jesus and all that He teaches.  It is common then, that a parent, desirous of teaching and training a child to be a disciple, would think that a perfect place for their child to be salt and light is on the campus of the local public school.  After all, if we pull all of our children out of the public school to put them in Christian schools, who is going to be left to witness to the masses in our schools?  It is a question truly motivated by a love for the lost and it may almost seem uncaring to counter it.  Yet it deserves a carefully reasoned response.  There are some assumptions that are being overlooked to conclude that God would have us place our children in the public schools to be “salt and light.”

The first assumption to address is that schools are mission fields.  They are not.  Schools are specifically designed to impart certain knowledge and train pupils in a specific worldview or way of thinking.  It is not the same as sending a missionary to go to a foreign land to labor among the people and in the process of living life among them, influencing them in such a way as they would listen to and receive the good news of the gospel.  Schools are designed to do just the opposite.  Young people who are impressionable and teachable are brought to adults who impart philosophies and ideas that may or may not be in line with truth.  At its very best, public education teaches some form of truth, but it extricates if from the whole truth that includes God as the ultimate Mover and Maker of the world.  We also know that some of what is frequently taught in public schools is in opposition to the truth as revealed by God in His Word.  How is it possible then for a child to assert influence over anyone in a setting where it is by design that they are the ones to be influenced?  And the worldview they are presented with and taught is not one based upon the truth of God’s Word, but the worldview the government desires its citizens to have.

A second assumption is related to the first and is that a child is a missionary.  The problem is nowhere in the scriptures do we see children being called to be missionaries.  Instead we see over and over and over again the emphasis placed on parents to teach and train their children.  Consider the following:

Deuteronomy 6:6, 7 – And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Ephesians 6:4 – Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Here are two passages that clearly indicate that our children are not to be doing the missionary work

Please be aware that I am not implying that God can’t or won’t use children to affect others.  I know you can give me examples of many times God has been so gracious as to accomplish His work through our kids.  But just because He can and does sometimes, does not change what our children are primarily supposed to be doing (learning the truths of God) and what we are supposed to be doing (teaching our children the truths of God).  Nowhere does God command us to make our children into little missionaries.  A good friend and colleague of mine, Franklin, puts it this way: “Nowhere in scripture are parents with a choice compelled to have their children taught in a secular institution.  If anyone can show me scripture that says otherwise, I will change my position.”

The final thing to consider in this discussion is not a false assumption but a brutal truth.  As parents, when we drop off our children at the public school, we are implicitly transferring our authority to the teachers and staff and implying that we agree with what they teach.  Our children, trusting us, feel it is safe to accept what is being taught and for the most part do so without hesitation.  It is as though we were teaching them ourselves.  Are you in Biblical agreement with everything the public school teaches? What about 90%?  50%?

When you bring your child to the door of a Christian School, you transfer the same authority.  Are your beliefs and teachings more in line with what the Christian school teacher is teaching your child or the public school teacher?