| Defending Christianity in Public School | | Posted on Monday, May 11, 2009 at 6:00am | Fox News reports a story of a teen standing up for his religious  rights. A teacher bashed Christianity and the boy sued and won. I commend Chad for his courage. This story brought back memories of a time over thirteen years ago when our son Joshua had a similar experience.
When Joshua was in the eleventh grade he enrolled in a World Religion class to gain an understanding of other religions and to fulfill history credit requirements. The first day the teacher told the class that they would never again follow the belief system taught by their parents. She proceeded to teach her students that the "Western God" was the cause of all atrocities in the world, including abortion, abuse, alcoholism, and drug addiction. If we didn't have a "bad god" laying down rules and "guilt trips," we wouldn't feel the need to do such things.
While the class synopsis said it would explore all types of religion, including Christianity and Judaism, the entire semester was spent learning about Eastern and ancient belief systems. Christianity and Judaism were never discussed, except in disdain and ridicule.
The teacher required very little in her class except a weekly "Dear ______" letter where the students shared how they would apply in their own lives the new beliefs she taught. She made it clear that they were free to share whatever they wanted. Joshua used those opportunities to refute those teachings with biblical truths. Of course the teacher didn't like that at all.
At one point the students were required to give a report on Hinduism, stating which "realm" they felt they were presently experiencing in life. Due to serious illness in our extended family, we were out of town when the assignment was given. Therefore Joshua did not know about this report until the day he returned. She indicated that he would be given the required time to prepare, yet called upon him the very next day to give his report.
Joshua stood up and pulled down a map and pointed to our city and said, "I live in the realm of reality." He then began sharing his Christian beliefs saying that when he was angry he was not in a "realm” as believed by Hindus, but in sin. He shared the entire gospel message and how Christ had made a way for forgiveness and repentance.
The entire class exploded. One girl, who had also stood up at times for her beliefs, started crying. Joshua’s classmates threw questions and accusations at him, which he skillfully answered. The teacher allowed the students to try to tear holes in his logic, until she saw that it was turning and the students were asking solid, legit questions. They were starting to want answers from Joshua. The teacher quickly shut it down and told our son to take his seat.
The most amazing thing was the lack of other Christians standing up for the Truth. Even the girl, who was crying, backed down after that day. We tried to persuade other students to stand up, but they feared losing a needed credit. Although our son did all the assignments and fulfilled all the class requirements, the teacher failed Joshua, clearly as persecution for his beliefs. Like Chad in the Fox News Report, we took legal action. I will tell you the end results in my next blog post.
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