History Repeating Itself

As a author who writes about the relationship of Church and State and whose public speaking presentation is entitled "The Relevance of Antiquity to Today", I was struck by the recent controversy here in Arizona. The Arizona legislature has a bill (House bill 2473) which permits the teaching of the Bible as literature in Arizona schools.

My experience as a Bible teacher tells me its difficult enough to interpret the Bible among Presbyterians. A public school classroom could well be populated by kids whose family beliefs about the Bible can range from the most fundamentalist Baptist to the most liberal thinking Congregationalist let alone Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Agnostics and Atheists.

In my newest book, Turning North, which will be published in a few months, I tell the story of how Charlemagne went about converting Saxons by defeating them in battle and forcing them to be baptized, thus making them Christians. Will we ever learn? One is not a Christian because the call themselves a Christian, go to church and observe the religious rites and rituals. You are a Christian by what is in your "heart" and by the fruits of your behavior. In the Letter of James, we are told of some of those "fruits of the spirit." Do you try to be peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy? If you are really trying to exhibit these characteristics and believe in Jesus, then you are probably a Christian.

The Arizona House bill 2473 is not an attempt to convert people, but only to familiarize kids with an important book that contains a lot of good stuff. But, can you imagine the minefield this creates? I'm a Christian and believe scripture is my path to salvation. When the State gets involved with the Bible, no good can come of it. I hope the bill goes down in defeat.

GO FORTH AND DO GOOD