Bibically Sound
Christian View
Have you ever wondered what your child was really learning in school? Baptist Christian School is committed to a Biblical worldview. In short, your child will be exposed to the great truths of Scripture every day. These truths have been historically summarized in the following:
- The accuracy and authority of the Bible.
- The deity of Jesus Christ.
- The virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
- The death of Jesus in our place and His physical resurrection.
- The gift of eternal life by faith alone.
- The pursuit of godliness for the glory of God.
The staff of Baptist Christian School holds to these tenets of faith without reservation before people and with great joy before God.
Christian Values Are Foremost in
Christian Education
At the heart of Christian school education is values—Christian values. Christian schools unashamedly embrace Bible-based values, beliefs, and virtues. They also emphasize quality teaching, life skills, discipline, patriotism, character development, a safe environment, and a solid academic program. Thus, Christian schools focus on teaching the head knowledge and the heart Christian values.
Most people agree with teaching values in schools. Regrettably, the teaching of biblical values offends some people. But why would anyone oppose the teaching of values simply because the teacher emphasizes the relationship between values and the Bible? Before addressing this question, the discussion needs a definition of the term value. A value is a belief, principle, standard, or trait regarded as meaningful, worthwhile, and desirable to a person, a family, a school, a state, or a society.
A person’s values are based upon a belief system. A belief system is how a person thinks in relation to creation, to God, and to sin. No matter how one looks at values and the premises upon which they are based, values are always built upon how a person views God and His teachings as recorded in the Bible. For those who reject the values espoused in the Bible, they develop their own value system, or they adopt a system developed by society or a religion. However, for Christians, values are based on the teaching of Scripture. Therefore, Christians embrace Bible values because they want to honor God in everything they do (Col. 1:18).
In relation to education, the issue of values is rooted in the religious premises espoused by the school and its teachers. Since teaching cannot exist in a religiously neutral vacuum, someone’s teachings will prevail in every classroom. The question is, “Whose teachings?” All teaching has a religious premise, whether it is the teacher’s teaching, a textbook’s teaching, or a school’s teaching. All teaching is embedded in philosophy, and philosophy has its biases. Thus, all educational institutions promote a value system, and every value in that system is assumed to be true by its proponents.
Interestingly, research shows that social issues such as values, beliefs, and discipline rank decidedly in what parents want in the schools where their children attend. However, research does not define the supporting truths upon which these values are based. Is a value good because society says it is good, the school says it is good, or the teacher says it is good? Christian parents define their values on the basis of biblical teaching, and in turn teach these values to their children. The same principle applies with the schools their children attend.
If parents don’t shape their children’s values, someone else will. That someone will teach their value system. Who is this someone? How about the school where your child attends? How about society’s values as promoted by television, Internet, movies, magazines, and music? Which source do you want your child to model his values after— school, society, or the media? Actually, none of these!
If you want your child to embrace and practice Christian values, you must model and teach them at home. This would include values such as honesty, trust, truth, responsibility, character, love, forgiveness, respect, tolerance, hard work, and other character development traits. The home is responsible, but the school where your child attends must complement your values, or what you value at home will be negated at school. The Bible tells us in Amos 3:3: “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” When it comes to your child’s education, the home and school must be in one accord.
All schools teach values, some by preference, some by conviction, and some by law. This is fact! The issue is: “What values do I want taught in my child’s school?” If God is left out of a school’s philosophical value system, then the school is saying that what federal law and society say is OK with me.
Think about this. Is it actually OK with you that God is left out of the value and belief system taught at your child’s school? The Bible answers this question for you: “I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal” (Job 27:11). So, what biblical rationale can a Christian parent use in supporting any teaching institution that leaves God and His values outside?
This leads to an even more pointed question: Should Christian parents send their children to a school where God has no relevance, where God is omitted from textbooks, where being a Christian is not a prerequisite for teaching, where the Bible’s teachings are considered illegal or politically incorrect, and where Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is despised and held in contempt? I submit to the reader that every Christian’s child should be attending a school where God, His Son, prayer, and the Bible occupy positions of preeminence. To do otherwise is to deny God’s value system.
Article written by Dr. Charles Walker, the executive director of the American Association of Christian Schools. He also serves as the executive director of the Tennessee Association of Christian Schools.