Bakery Run #11 – Grass Roots Café, Adelaide Uni

Pie Buddy: Adam

Topic: Christian teaching in High School – A Non-Christian’s perspective

Ok, let me just say first off, I realise this place isn’t exactly a bakery. But it was a fairly impromptu affair, and this was the only place I could find in the university campus that sells pies. I did the best I could. If that’s not good enough for you, I won’t force you to keep reading. Go on, stop reading now, I dare you. Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Well, as a bakery, this place isn’t the greatest. I doubt the pies were made on site. Most of them were just sitting unheated on display and got put in the oven when someone wants one. I took my pepper steak pie out of its bag (probably thirty seconds after it was given to me), and it felt like it had just come out of the fridge. As far as a pie review goes, you can’t give a high mark to a cold pie. That’s a deal-breaker. The pie had mince filling, no chunks of meat. It had a decent hit of spiciness, and tasted quite good, but unlike revenge, meat pie is not a dish best served cold. The caramel slice was really delicious, albeit quite small for $4. There was a good selection of (cold) pies and buns, most of which looked pretty good. I think the taste of cold pie will prevent me from venturing back there too soon though. That’ll teach me to go to a pretend bakery!

Adam and I got chatting. After talking to Anton about his experience at a nominal Christian school, I now heard Adam’s perspective of being at a school where religion was forced quite hard on him. As Adam isn’t a Christian, we realised that we would disagree on quite a few things throughout this conversation. And we were right. The phrase ‘agree to disagree’ was used more times than I could count! It’s worth pointing out that Adam was educated and churched in a Christadelphian environment, which I personally would consider to be false teaching, but that’s a topic for another time. The point of today’s chat was the method, not the theology, of the religious education.

“My view on Christian teaching is that it shouldn’t be the sole teaching in a school,” Adam began. “I think that all religions should have equal footing in terms of teaching, because what I worry about is students not being able to make up their minds because they don’t have all the facts. It’s basically brainwashing if you’re not told the whole story, in my opinion.”

“What impact did your religious education have on you?” I asked.

“It wasn’t all negative. It was a positive experience in that it gave me good morals in the sense of what the western world thinks, and I enjoyed myself at school, don’t get me wrong. But looking back in hindsight later in life, I don’t think Christianity should ever be the sole teaching in school. I think kids deserve to know the full picture to make an informed decision later on.”

I briefly discussed my own religious education experience, which focused on worldly morals rather than biblical teaching. “There was never a time when we opened the Bible as part of our Christian Ed,” I finished.

“Can I ask you a question though – do you think that was the right way to teach in a Christian school environment?” Adam queried.

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s a school that’s selling itself on Christian values and identifying itself as a Christian school, and yet it is not giving any sort of Christian teaching at all. So whether you think Christian teaching is right or not, they’re selling themselves as a product that they’re not delivering on.”

“But don’t you think that students have the right to have a balanced view on what religion is in a way that gives them exposure to all types of religions?” Adam asked.

“Absolutely. I don’t think a Christian Ed class could be expected to have an equal focus on all religions, but I think it should be able to explain what other religions are out there.” From my point of view, knowing about other religions is useful in terms of giving people an understanding of why Christianity is the truth. And it would make the kids think. I wonder how many nominal Christians there are in the world who have never grown in their faith because they’ve never put much thought into it.

I decided to turn the focus on to the parents. “Essentially, as a parent, if you don’t want your children taught Christianity, why would you send them to a Christian school?”

“Exactly right, I agree,” Adam replied. “In that case you probably shouldn’t send them to a Christian school. You shouldn’t expect them to teach something else just because you want to have a better school. I understand that, but there’s another aspect to that argument – has anyone asked the kids what they want?”

I knew this was where the conversation was heading. “That’s the big issue. The parents choose the school, but the kids have no say whatsoever.”

“And that’s what my story comes down to. I went to a Christadelphian school, which was quite separated from everything else. I can only speak from my experience,” said Adam.

“I think if a Christian school is trying to brainwash kids, then that’s the wrong way,” I said. “Like if the science text books have certain pages ripped out or whatever. From my experience though, our classes were no different from being in a public school.”

“And in my opinion, it should be taught like that,” said Adam. He then recounted his schooling experience, which ignored evolution, related everything back to God, and gave students no chance to question what was taught. The school was run exclusively for children of Christadelphian families.

I wasn’t a fan of that sort of exclusivity. “I think as far as Christian community goes, whether that’s church, school or whatever, there should be interaction with the outside world.”

“But then what about the idea of being in the world but not of the world?” Adam asked.

“It means you’re called to be in the world, to be a part of the world around you, but not behaving as people of the world do,” I replied.

“And that’s the way I see it too, but Christadelphians see it differently.”

“What do they say about it?”

“That we should be completely separate from the world and limit our interaction with the world.”

Clearly the ethos of Adam’s school differed greatly from my personal views. I tried to get things back on topic. “The way I would see it is that if a school claims to be a Christian school, not only is it appropriate to teach the Christian message, but the onus is on them to do so. If a school claimed to be great at teaching maths and they didn’t teach maths well, then why would you send your kids there? But I think it should be done lovingly, and not in such a way that they’re trying to convince the kids that there are no other worldviews out there.”

Adam agreed with me in principle, but suggested that any religious education should cover other religions too. “It’s not a bad thing learning about religion,” he said. “It shapes everyone.”

“I think it would be helpful for kids to know what other religions are out there,” I replied. “I reckon it would help them to think a bit more.” This came back to what we had been saying earlier.

Adam then discussed some of his fundamental issues with religion as a whole. “Religion is taking someone’s life, taking advantage of their doubt and giving them a reward/punishment system that is based around human belief,” he said. “It seeks to take control of people. That’s my opinion, and I feel really strongly about that.”

“Christianity is offensive,” I replied. “It’s saying we’re sinners, we’re not good enough, we can’t make it on our own. We needed Jesus to die on a cross to save us. And if Christianity takes control of people, what are those taking control looking to gain?”

“Power, money, influence, anything they can get from it.” Adam brought up the example of the wealth and influence that the Catholic Church holds in the world.

“Do you think that’s the reason for religion?” I asked.

“No, I think humans needed an answer to bridge the gap between knowledge and belief. Humans need to believe in something, whether that’s through science or religion. There was just a period in history when we believed in religion, which has carried on to today. And it can be manipulated by people in power.”

“I would agree religion being manipulated, but I wouldn’t for a second say that’s a reason to disregard it,” I responded. His point was a good one though, Christianity (like all other religions) has definitely been abused over the years. That was a discussion for another time though.

I decided to launch my conclusion. “So in terms of school teaching, I think that Christian schools have the responsibility to teach children through the Bible, what it means to be a Christian, and to give them a chance to respond. To present God’s word faithfully, truthfully and lovingly to them without forcing them to do any sort of action that’s against their beliefs.”

“I think they should be taught how to think,” said Adam.

“Absolutely, and that’s the big one for me,” I replied. “It’s a stage of people’s lives where they get shaped a lot, and I think they should be challenged. They should be encouraged to ask hard questions. Challenge the teachers. And the teacher should have the right to respond to that.”

Whenever the thinking through of one’s faith is discussed, the passage that always comes to my mind is in Acts, where Paul talks about how thorough the Bereans were in thinking through their beliefs based on what they had read and been taught.

Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (Acts 17:11)

This is a great example for us today. We should be testing and examining everything we hear and read. We should be well thought through in our views.

“And as far as chapel services go,” I continued, “I think it’s perfectly fine to have, say, three services in a week where there’s a Bible reading and then a talk explaining that passage.”

“What do you think about non-Christian schools?” Adam asked.

“They have absolutely no obligation to do any sort of religious study,” I replied.

“I think that as religion plays a big part in human history and present events, they should be taught some religion,” Adam responded. “I think it’s wrong to not understand what some people think.”

“To be honest I haven’t really thought about that too much. I think if it could be structured in a way that represents religions in an accurate way, that’d be fine. You’d probably get parents complaining though. I wouldn’t have a problem with it, but it’s up to the school really.”

“When it comes down to it, it’s up to each person to make their own decision,” said Adam.

“Absolutely. That child will grow up and form their own views, become their own man or woman.” I’ve met countless people who have had religious education of some sort and decided that they don’t believe it.

Adam wasn’t quite finished. “One last point – I think there are people in church who shouldn’t be there. They’re only there because of their parents. For me, my whole world growing up was church, so from my perspective, it’s not a good thing to cut yourself off from the rest of the world, it’s a recipe for disaster.”

“I could not agree more.”

It seemed to me that the big issue Adam had was not so much with Christian education itself, but that the views of his school were forced upon him, with no chance to question these views, and with no acknowledgement of alternative worldviews. The exclusive, isolated nature of the school was also unhealthy in that it prevented him from being able to have a range of perspectives from which to develop his own worldview. In my personal opinion, a Christian school should present God’s word clearly and truthfully to its students, and give them the opportunity to think about these things and ask questions. Students should be taught not just to listen, but to think.