Group Urges Christians Not to Abandon Gov't-Run Education System
by Jim Brown and Jody Brown
January 10, 2006
(AgapePress) - - While a growing number of Christian families are choosing to remove their children from public schools, an Alabama-based group is urging Christians to embrace public education and try to improve it as best as they can.Redeem the Vote! is enlisting the help of Christian rock musicians to encourage Christians to spend more money on public education. It is also pushing for a bill in the Alabama legislature that would require schools offering Bible electives to use a textbook published by the Bible Literacy Project. Redeem the Vote! says that text, The Bible and Its Influence, constitutes an "honest and diligent effort" to avoid "sneak[ing] religious doctrine into the schools."
Redeem the Vote! founder Dr. Randy Brinson says the group is trying to address what he calls "a disconnect between the faith community and public education." Brinson believes that rather than retreating from the public arena, Christians need to be more engaged to make a difference.
"Particularly here in Alabama, because about 85 percent of our population profess to be born-again Christians," Brinson observes. "So if you extrapolate that, about 75 percent of the students in public education are Christians -- and we didn't want to give up on them. We want to know that there's a support mechanism to help them and help promote religious expression in schools."
He notes that his group succeeded in getting the Alabama Education Association and other educators across the state to promote religious expression in schools. "Surprisingly, they were very happy to help us with that," he explains. "They put out 50,000 guides on religious expression that we did during the summer."
He says his group also sought the assistance of some Christian musicians. "We also engaged some very prominent groups such as Casting Crowns and the Crabb Family, a variety of other groups, to help promote the same message about staying in school, get your education, further your spiritual gifts," he continues, "because you need to be educated to enhance your spiritual gifts so we can be everything that God calls us to be in this world as salt and light in the world to make a difference."
Brinson says Christians must not give up on reforming the public school system because too many Christian students are being educated in those schools. And to combat the erosion of Christian influence on public institutions, he believes Christians in public schools need to be talking about faith issues without endorsing a specific religion.
