A New Threat to Christian Schools
People send their children to Christian schools to protect them from pernicious doctrines. But apparently that only works if you don't live in Quebec.
An agency of the Quebec government has ruled that private Christian schools must teach Darwinian evolution and sex education (see http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/oct/06102404.html for details).
Why? According to Quebec's education ministry, all schools, including private Christian schools, must comply with the official provincial curriculum, which includes Darwinism and "sexuality" education.
What led to this bureaucratic ukase? The Quebec equivalent of a local public school board complained to the education ministry that a small Christian school in the neighborhood was not teaching children the full curriculum. There were only 20 children in the school, but that was enough to arouse the secular educators' ire.
The case will probably be litigated farther, and may eventually reach Canada's Supreme Court. We deplore this assault on the religious liberties of Canadian Christians; but we also wonder if it poses a threat to our freedom here at home.
How much control can the U.S. Dept. of Education exert over the day-to-day teaching in America's Christian schools? We haven't been worrying about this because so far the department has shown no inclination to lean on Christian schools. This, of course, could change, depending on election results in the future. ("Then arose a new Pharaoh who knew not Joseph...") Meanwhile, there are some straws in the wind.
State and federal courts have ruled that American public schools must teach Darwinism, and may not teach Intelligent Design or any other alternative to evolution theory. No case has come up involving Christian schools. It would make little sense for a parent who wants his child to learn evolution, and the joys of sodomy, to enrol him in a Christian school where such subjects are eschewed--not when he can send the child to a public school, and not even pay tuition.
But we wonder what would happen if some sanctimonious public "educator" sought to bring a case like this before an American court. (It's unlikely any state department of education would want to get involved in such a thorny First Amendment case, so the complaint would probably have to be laid before a judge.)
On the whole, our First Amendment is stronger protection than anything Christians have in Canada; but it is not absolute protection, and it is always subject to the politics of the moment.
This case from Canada reminds us that we must never relax our vigilance, nor concede any portion of our religious liberty.
An agency of the Quebec government has ruled that private Christian schools must teach Darwinian evolution and sex education (see http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/oct/06102404.html for details).
Why? According to Quebec's education ministry, all schools, including private Christian schools, must comply with the official provincial curriculum, which includes Darwinism and "sexuality" education.
What led to this bureaucratic ukase? The Quebec equivalent of a local public school board complained to the education ministry that a small Christian school in the neighborhood was not teaching children the full curriculum. There were only 20 children in the school, but that was enough to arouse the secular educators' ire.
The case will probably be litigated farther, and may eventually reach Canada's Supreme Court. We deplore this assault on the religious liberties of Canadian Christians; but we also wonder if it poses a threat to our freedom here at home.
How much control can the U.S. Dept. of Education exert over the day-to-day teaching in America's Christian schools? We haven't been worrying about this because so far the department has shown no inclination to lean on Christian schools. This, of course, could change, depending on election results in the future. ("Then arose a new Pharaoh who knew not Joseph...") Meanwhile, there are some straws in the wind.
State and federal courts have ruled that American public schools must teach Darwinism, and may not teach Intelligent Design or any other alternative to evolution theory. No case has come up involving Christian schools. It would make little sense for a parent who wants his child to learn evolution, and the joys of sodomy, to enrol him in a Christian school where such subjects are eschewed--not when he can send the child to a public school, and not even pay tuition.
But we wonder what would happen if some sanctimonious public "educator" sought to bring a case like this before an American court. (It's unlikely any state department of education would want to get involved in such a thorny First Amendment case, so the complaint would probably have to be laid before a judge.)
On the whole, our First Amendment is stronger protection than anything Christians have in Canada; but it is not absolute protection, and it is always subject to the politics of the moment.
This case from Canada reminds us that we must never relax our vigilance, nor concede any portion of our religious liberty.
