No Hiding Place
Let me warn you. I’m starting off with discouraging stories and ending with positive ones. Hang in there!
On a recent Wednesday night after church, a teacher (I’ll call her Jill) told me that she skips over parts of what she is supposed to teach, especially in history, because the material conflicts with her Christian beliefs. I’m glad she skips over it, but I’m sorry the material is in her curriculum.
That same night a young man told me about a radio program he had heard recently. A reporter interviewed a school teacher. She told him that she had been a Christian in the past but she is glad to be past that now. The teacher also related an assignment she had given to students. She told her students to go outside the school, burn an American flag, and then write about how they felt about the experience. The young man ended his story with, “I had to turn it off. I couldn’t listen anymore.”
I am not equating being glad about leaving the Lord with /flag burning, but I wouldn’t want my child exposed to either one.
Those are my two heartbreaking stories. Here are the encouraging ones.
Last night after church, I visited with a school teacher (I’ll call her Sherry) and a teacher’s aide who also drives a school bus (I’ll call her Janie). They work in a different school system from Jill. Sherry complimented Janie on her pretty cross earrings. Janie explained that she had changed clothes after she got home, but that the earrings had matched the cross on the T-shirt she had worn at school. I’ve forgotten the strong Christian message that was on the T-shirt, but it was so clear that I asked, “You can wear that at school?”
Janie answered joyfully, “Yes, we can.” She followed with, “And we have a big ‘In God We Trust’ banner hanging just inside the school.”
Yesterday, while working on a lesson about President Theodore Roosevelt, I learned about a particular experience he had while working with the U.S. Congress which was meeting in special session. The President was in the U.S. Capitol when the session ended. Those in the hallway of the Capitol could hear a voice in the Senate chamber saying, “May God’s benediction abide with you all.” From far away in the House chamber, members of the House of Representatives were singing to the former Speaker of the House, “God Be With You ‘Til We Meet Again.”
While I was writing down these stories, I realized for the first time that any attempt to remove God from school or any other public arena is impossible. God is everywhere. No amount of effort from any person can remove Him from anywhere! What comfort.
“Am I a God who is near,” declares the Lord,
“And not a God far off?
“Can a man hide himself in hiding places
So I do not see him?” declares the Lord.
“Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 23:23-24