I just got back from sitting in on a bible study group (20 rosy-cheeked youngsters), conducted during school hours in a trailer just a couple hundred short yards from the front door of Tumalo Community School (a Redmond public school, K-8).
The Good News Club, which hosts the bible studies, is an “outreach ministry” for the world-wide organization, Child Evangelism Fellowship (whose seal states: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations”).
The GN club is acting in accordance with the law, and the students can only attend these clubs with the written consent of their parents.
But the close relationship between faith-based organizations like CEF and public schools underscores the difficulty of defining the line between church and state in contemporary society as some religious groups make a renewed push into the public square.
Next week we’ll take a look at where the line is drawn locally and who is in charge of making sure that it isn’t crossed.
This article appears in Feb 9-15, 2012.
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What you wrote is accurate, but you seem to have missed an obvious point when you referred to “…the difficulty of defining the line between church and state in contemporary society….” The separation is very clear – the children are taken OUT of the School building to another site (in this case a trailer). This should make it clear that this activity has no connection with the school. In no way does the school promote this activity – they merely permit it in accordance with Oregon Law.
The Good News Clubs were started in 1921. Surprise!
They are as American as apple pie and the prayers of the founding fathers.
The US Supreme Court already ruled that these clubs are constitutional. Our Christian founding fathers gave us the first amendment to protect the church from the government. It protects the equal rights of Christians to rent and publicize their faith in public buildings on the same terms as other non-faith groups. That is the American way!
Parents around Central Oregon want their children to receive Christian training. Good News Clubs provide one hour a week of rich Biblical instructions which were given by God our Creator. These kids learn that there is truly a God who loves them… (the public school, in their 30 hours a week do not mention this God). They also learn about good citizenship, kindness, forgiving, doing for others, discipline and other valued characters. No one is forced to come; it is the parents right and privilege to sign up their children.
Who is behind the pointing of the finger at Good News Clubs? What is so dangerous about the teaching of the Bible in a time that parents allow their children to be released to participate in, and legally at that? I was a teacher in the clubs when my children were attending public schools and they attended also. Our ‘godless’ schools don’t teach the values and principles and role models that are found in the Bible. Let faith have her voice.