Group dispels myths about religious freedoms in the public classroom

By Drew Nichter News Director Ekron—One teacher raised her hand: “Can a teacher wear clothing that has religious symbols on them?” Another asked: “Can a principal pray at a staff meeting?” A student mentioned that she once thought it was inappropriate to pray in school. Roger Dillon has heard similar questions and stories hundreds of times before. And quite often his answers to queries in the usually tricky area of religious freedoms in public schools are surprising. “Christians, whether students or teachers and others serving in our public schools, are not required to check their faith at the door when they arrive at school,” noted Dillon, who directs the Kentucky chapter of Christian Educators’ Association, Inc. It was a message he recently delivered to teachers, students and parents at Ekron Baptist Church during its annual back-to-school event. Typically, reserved as an evening of food, fun and fellowship, event organizer Belinda Cross said she chose to make this year’s event more informative. When it comes to religious freedoms in public schools, “it’s confusing, and teachers are not doing what they are even allowed to do because they’re afraid to do anything,” said Cross, a Meade County Schools board member.

Dillon agreed. “There is a lot of confusion, fear and intimidation,” he said.

So, just where does the confusion stem from?

Groups that champion separation of church and state, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, confuse the public by frequently challenging religious expressions in public schools, Dillon said. The media coverage of those challenges also breeds uncertainty, he added.

But mostly, the confusion is due to a general lack of knowledge and individuals just being too busy to learn the truth, he explained.

For the past couple of years, Dillon has toured the state as a CEAI representative, attempting to “dispel the myths of separation of church and state” as it refers to schools.

“This is a confusing area of law for a lot of people,” Dillon acknowledged—but it doesn’t have to be.

For its part, CEAI has been representing and informing Christian educators nationally for 57 years. The organization’s mission, according to its website, is “to encourage, equip and empower educators according to biblical principles.”

The organization boasts about 8,000 members in all 50 states—roughly 225 of those in Kentucky.

Like other teachers’ associations, CEAI offers its members professional liability insurance and job-action protection.

How it’s different, Dillon explained, is in who the group ultimately seeks to honor.

“The ultimate goal is to help the educator teach professionally, with their Christian faith, obediently honoring God, while blessing the student,” he said.

“We are a professional association and a missions organization.”

In his presentation at Ekron Baptist, Dillon frequently referred to public school teachers as missionaries. Why?

“The public schools are the largest mission field in the United States and represents the best area to transform our culture,” he emphasized.

Of the more than 738,000 students in Kentucky, nearly 671,500—91 percent—of them attend public schools, he noted. “So, if we were going to devise a strategy to reach students, where would we focus?” he asked.

“In the church body, we spend a lot of money and time … trying to reach youth,” Dillon continued. “Then we strive to get as much time as we can in front of them, and often maybe two, three hours a week is the best we can do.”

And that’s just for the students who attend church, he said. Those who don’t attend may not be reached at all.

That’s where Christian public school teachers come in: CEAI has estimated that 75 percent of Kentucky’s 43,000 public school teachers are “good-willed Christian men and women.” That’s more than 30,000 potential “missionaries,” Dillon said.

However, public schools often are not perceived as mission fields, he noted.

But churches like Ekron Baptist are catching on, sending their educators out into the schools to be Christ-like examples.

Before Dillon’s presentation, Ekron Baptist’s associate pastor Matt Stevens led a “commissioning service” for teachers, students and staff at the schools in Meade County and the surrounding areas. Many of the “missionaries” stood as their schools were shown on a screen.

One of those who stood was Steve Butler, a math teacher at Meade County High School who also is the youth minister at First Baptist Church of Brandenburg, which joined in Ekron’s back-to-school event.

He said Christian public school teachers should live their lives just as history’s greatest teacher, Jesus Christ, lived His.

“When you saw Him, you knew He was different,” Butler said. And as teachers who follow Christ’s lead, “we’ve got to be better teachers.

“Then when you’re in the community, they’re going to see that you go to church,” Butler added. “They’re going to see those kinds of things, and the life that you live is going to speak volumes.”

Following Dillon’s presentation, elementary school teacher Vesta Smith joined Christian Educators Association, a group she hadn’t even heard of before that evening.

Smith, who posed the question about wearing Christian imagery on her clothes, said she had never been quite sure about where the line was regarding her faith and her profession.

“When I wore a shirt … or a cross or something, I wondered, ‘Am I stepping over the boundary or not?’” noted Smith, who teaches kindergarten at Payneville Elementary School. “After tonight, I don’t feel like I am. I feel like I do have that right as a citizen.”

Why teachers—especially Christian educators—have such a difficult time knowing where that line is likely comes from the churches they attend, Dillon suggested.

In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in the Abington School District v. Schempp case that ruled school-sponsored Bible reading and prayer to be unconstitutional. Many church leaders today point to that case as the day prayer was removed from schools.

“You’ll hear it from the pulpit,” Dillon said. “And what does that do? That reinforces people thinking they can’t pray in schools.

“Prayer was not taken out of schools; people stopped praying in schools.”

In his presentation, Dillon points to several examples, including U.S. Department of Education guidelines, that show public schools are required to constitutionally protect, not restrict, a student’s right to express his or her religious beliefs in school.

“There is no legal basis to suggest, much less require, that our schools be religion-free zones,” Dillon pointed out.

Dillon said he believes every teacher, regardless of his or her religious beliefs, should say to his or her classes: “My classroom is a safe place for you to freely express your religious beliefs.”

“What if 30,000 Christian teachers (in Kentucky) said that at the beginning of the school year?” Dillon asked.

He said the key is to get teachers to first understand the facts about religious freedoms in public schools, which then will help students.

“If (teachers) understand their faith inside the classroom, they can honor God with they exercise that,” Dillon said. “That benefits the stuents and frees them up to exercise their freedoms inside the classroom also.”

Western Recorder issue date: August 17, 2010