Chasing God and truth out of public schools
Conn Carroll
If you believe the greatest danger our nation faces is that young people might believe in God, don’t worry. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has you covered.
This year, the FFRF pressured an elementary school to stop teaching gospel songs in music class.
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“The district’s choir programs must focus on teaching secular music and lessons, not religious devotional music and Bible stories,” FFRF legal fellow Sammi Lawrence said in a statement.
“By coercing sixth grade students to sing overtly Christian worship music in its choral program, the district demonstrated favoritism towards religion over nonreligion, and Christianity over all other faiths,” the statement continued.
“This favoritism towards Christianity needlessly alienated all students and families who do not subscribe to Christianity,” the FFRF claimed. “Notably, Generation Z, which makes up the entire student body, is the least religious generation in U.S. history, since 49% of them say that they have no religious affiliation.”
But if Gen Z is the least religious generation ever, isn’t it even more important that these nonreligious students understand what faith looks like? All of Western civilization is premised on the existence of God. The great works of literature, Shakespeare, Milton, and Chaucer, came from a world in which faith in God was assumed. Shouldn’t students have a working understanding of that worldview?
And it is not just the classics that require an understanding of faith. One of the songs that so offended the FFRF was “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel,” which the music teacher paired with a lesson on the biblical story of Daniel.
First of all, the Book of Daniel is a Jewish story, not a Christian one, although Christians have incorporated it into their own faith. But more importantly, “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel” is an African American spiritual created in the United States by former slaves who used their faith to help overcome racism in the first half of the 20th century. This song is history. It is our history. And you need a working understanding of the Bible to understand the lesson.
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“I think the main question to ask is, is there a legitimate secular purpose for teaching the songs, and do they have educational value besides just being devotional songs,” Lawrence told a local paper.
Yes, ma’am, they do.