Most teachers who are Christians desire to relate their faith in God and in Jesus Christ to the particular subjects they teach. This works well in Christian schools or homeschool settings, but Christian faith cannot be taught explicitly in most public school situations. So how do Christians live out authentic Christian faith when they work in a public school setting, which doesn’t accommodate a Christian viewpoint?
I think nearly all of us are aware that we are living in a time when Christians must navigate a completely new paradigm in terms of our role in society. How we must live out and effectively proclaim our faith has changed drastically in the last 20-30 years. The way Christian teachers express authentic faith in their teaching is a sub-set of this dynamic. The issue of how to be an authentic Christian should be toward the very top of the agenda for Christians in education.
For example:
• What does it mean to be an authentic Christian educator in 21st century North America in both private and public settings?
• What are legitimate ways in which we may speak out as Christians?
• Where are the new ethical “lines” in terms of what we may do and what we may not do?
• What might we agree is fair from both pluralistic and biblical perspectives?
• What laws and policies are too restrictive to authentic Christian faith and what consequences might we be willing to accept for challenging those restrictions?
Michael Bogart
