The chairman of the religion department of Boston University [link=http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-prothero14mar14,0,5385607.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail]argues that the Bible should be taught in public schools[/link]. Even though his in not Evangelical reasoning, he has quite interesting points.
Biblical illiteracy is not just a religious problem. It is a civic problem with political consequences...
But barren of the Bible is just what our public school curriculums are. According to a study by the Bible Literacy Project, which publishes a Bible textbook for secondary schools, only 8% of U.S. high school students have access to an elective Bible course. As a result, an entire generation of Americans is growing up almost entirely ignorant of the most influential book in world history, unable to understand the 1,300 biblical allusions in Shakespeare, the scriptural oratory of President Lincoln and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. or even the prominence of Ezekiel 25:17 (actually a mishmash of this verse and passages from Genesis, Psalms and other books) in the film "Pulp Fiction."
This past week some of our staff helped in piloting the domestic version of [link=http://www.charactersolutions.org/index.html] Character Solutions International's curriculum at the notorious Fremont High School of the Los Angeles Unified District. They taught over 30 kids for one full week, all day long this faith-based character curriculum. They shared their testimonies, prayed, discussed church, etc., all in a public high school with parents and staff in attendance.
These kids were somewhat of a captive audience this was part their first two weeks "off-track" meaning they are in year-round school and they are now on starting a two month break and they could come for two additional weeks and participate in this program to work off a $250 truancy debt.
However, our staff reported the students were lively, enthusiastic and excited about what they were learning.
Donna, one of our senior women staff heard a girl say, "I'm gonna keep being late if it means I can go to special classes like this one!"
In Compton, I (Mike) had a lunch time Bible study in a local middle school for years before I became the director. And it was at the administrations request! We had the former LA (and St. Louis) Ram Jackie Slater come in and he laid out the Gospel with every student and teacher present in the auditorium without anyone batting an eye.
Just a week and a half ago, I was just able to introduce the Compton Unified School District to the [link=http://www.josephsoninstitute.org/]Josephson Institute of Ethics (and their well known Character Counts program[/link]), whom I have admired from afar and providentially just recently met. Pray with us that these two organizations will continue to be as positive as they are now with each other about working together in some very significant ways.
In the inner city both the African American and Hispanic cultures in general hold spirituality in high regard, its almost an insult not to. So we can get away with a lot more than the suburbs can. And in the schools, principals will allow almost anything that can give them some extra help. But than can be good and bad.
As Christians, we must take advantage of these opportunities as much as possible, while the windows are open. In this post (or post-post depending on who you talk to) Christian society we don’t know how long we will have this window, even in the inner city.
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