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Mainstream Alabama Baptists |
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April 2008 From the Executive Director ...
Once in elementary school I received a New Testament from the Gideons. No one thought much about it. Everyone in our school was white and Christian, or of no faith. Except for one boy. He was Jewish, the only Jew I was aware of personally. That school no longer exists. Its neighborhood is completely different. Our society across the nation has changed radically into a pluralistic society. One can find in almost all elementary schools students from various non-Christian faiths or no faith. Today Gideon Bible distribution in public schools is regularly challenged. Recently U.S. District Judge Carl J. Barbier ruled Louisiana’s Tangipahoa Parish public schools must stop in-school Bible giveaways to students. "Distribution of Bibles is a religious activity without a secular purpose'' he said in his ruling, and amounts to school board promotion of Christianity. An agency of local government promoting a religion, even the religion of the majority in a community, is unconstitutional. Recently I listened to a Southern Baptist pastor rail against the ruling, which reminded me how far some Baptists have drifted from our roots. A most important Baptist distinctive has been our demand for separation of church and state. Colonial Baptists fought to keep our nation a secular state open to all religions. At that time the only established churches in the various colonies were Christian. But had there been a colony whose established religion was Jewish, Islam, Hindu or any other religion, the First Amendment cause would have been the same. The state should be absolutely secular and the individual citizen absolutely free in matters of religion. I love the Gideons and have supported their work in every church of which I have been the pastor. Heaven only knows how many have been saved and had their lives changed as a result of their worldwide distribution of Bibles. Emotionally, I would support giving out New Testaments in the public schools. But my commitment to religious freedom for all people causes me to agree with the courts, and pray that the religious right is never successful in stuffing the judiciary with judges who will violate the constitution. Some have argued that equal access would solve the problem. Let the Moslems give out the Koran if they wish to do so, or any other group give out their holy book. But the violation would be the same, a government agency promoting religion, or religions. As a Baptist parent, if my children had been given a Koran in elementary school, I would have been vehemently opposed to the practice. I imagine if I were an atheistic parent, and my child was given a Bible in elementary school, I would likewise be vehemently opposed to the practice. It is better for the schools (and all other government agencies) to stay out of the business of promoting religions. Pray that all the Baptists in North America will answer the prayer of Jesus for his followers “that they all be one.” (John 17:11) |
