If the concept of gay marriage alarms you, don’t even think about the school prayer!
Over the years, the church has shifted many of its biblical responsibilities to secular government. In each case, secularism diminished the institution’s root of God. The Bible designated the church to care for those in need. God directed his people to care for widows, the poor, and the underprivileged. There is Biblical order and instruction regarding who is to be helped and how. The church gave this responsibility to the government. The resulting welfare systems do not resemble God’s plan for the welfare of his people.
God established marriage with the creation of Eve in Genesis 2. In Malachi 2:14, God calls marriage a covenant. A covenant is a sanctified divine relationship between two parties. In the 18th century, the church was concerned about the practice of “clandestine marriage” or marriage outside of church sanction. In response to this practice, the clergy urged the government to pass Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act 1753. This Act legally required a registered ecclesiastical marriage. But it also introduced the practice of the government marriage license.
By 1923, the federal government required licenses for all marriages and had codified marriage as a secular contract rather than a biblical covenant. The government is secular. The government license is a secular license. Religion doesn’t matter to the government. What God understood as a divine pact, the government reduced to a civil contract. The very nature of contract law is non-discriminatory. When the church relinquished its covenant responsibility in defining marriage, it brought the definition of marriage under the authority of contract law. A marriage contract is subject to the same secular rules as a vehicle purchase contract. How surprised that this secular institution contemplated marriage contracts between people of the same sex?
Whatever the church allows the government to do, the church authorizes the government to control.
Do you really want the government to teach your children about God? Noted atheist and Christian antagonist Madalyn O’Hair did.
Most Christians assume the Supreme Court ruling banning prayer in schools was a complete victory for America’s leading atheist. Not so. Ms. O’Hair had two goals for the role of religion in education. She achieved the minor goal. The Court ruled that the school-sanctioned religious ceremony was unconstitutional. She failed in the greater quest. Ms. O’Hair wanted to institute a secular religious instruction curriculum for fifth graders in all public schools. In a 1968 debate broadcast of the Long John Nebel Show Debate, Mrs. O’Hair stated:
“…From the fifth grade, all public schools should introduce certain things about religion. First, there should be a study of comparative religion because these children in this grade, they are capable of understanding this… There should be introduced every one of the holy books… Then too, I think there should be a study of the psychopathology of religion or the psychology of religion. And, that all of this should be in the public schools.” Whatever the church allows the government to do, the church authorizes the government to control.
Do you really want the public school sentence? Who will lead this prayer? The teacher, the principal, the soccer coach? Who would guide and instruct their children in prayer? What do you think? Are you a Christian, a Buddhist, an atheist, a satanist? Do you believe that God is a force of the new age of the universe?
Is this the wisdom of God?
you will teach [my words] your children… (Deuteronomy 11:19 NIV)
The subject understood-you, refers first to the parents and then to the religious teachers. The church established the first American schools to teach children to read the Bible. When the church handed over responsibility for education to the government, it also began to hand over religious authority. School-sanctioned prayer is the authority of the school over corporate prayer. God did not command that the secular school have authority over the teaching of his word.
The persecution of the early church facilitated the spread of the Gospel. If Joseph’s brothers had not sold him into slavery, the Israelites would not have had access to food during the famine. Most people have interpreted the Supreme Court ruling, Murray v. Curlett 1963, to indicate that religion is not allowed in public schools. I disagree. I think God used Madalyn O’Hair to get the public school out of religion. Like the persecution of the early church and the enslavement of Joseph, “all things work together for good to them that love God.” (Romans 8:28 NIV) Our public school systems reflect the moral foundation of society. Look at the recent wave of sexual relations between students and teachers. This system teaches Darwinism as a fact and presents premarital sex as natural. Do you really want this secular system involved in your children’s prayer life?
As Christians, we must insist on the same First Amendment rights that everyone else has. If there is a gay and lesbian student club, there should be a student bible study club. However, there should be no school prayer. What about student-led prayer? What about the farewell prayer graduation?
What does the valedictorian think? What about next year’s valedictorian or next year or… Are you ready for a school-sanctioned Wiccan chant? Remember, the student body will reflect the belief system of society.
Whatever the church allows the government to do, the church authorizes the government to control.
