The following is a true story, details changed slightly to protect privacy.
“Welcome to our second class of ‘Cherish America School’, today we have two student presentations, the first shows how we got to the extreme state of separation between religion and state in the public schools, the second highlights the importance of religious freedom and freedom of speech.”
Nell rises and strides to the front of the class.
“My name is Nell Keeler, I am named for my grandmother Cornelia. Our family lived in Vermont for a couple of generations, before that one branch hailed from Massachusetts, another from New York state. My roots in America go back to 1627, when my ancestor, John Bridge, came from Cambridge England, settled in the new colony that would later become Cambridge Massachusetts, and was one of the founders of Harvard College. You can see a statue of him in Cambridge Common, and I have a copy of the Bridge genealogy, which was published in about 1920 by a cousin who was proud of the Bridge heritage.
"Back then, it was okay to be proud of inheriting the legacy of the pilgrims and puritans.
"The Bridge genealogy lists prominent New England families, including the Hastings, who fled England and settled in Massachusetts and Connecticut. They fled because the Hastings family had a strong claim to the English throne. Queen Elizabeth the first actually had a flimsy claim for two reasons - her father’s father, Henry the seventh, was not royal, he married Elizabeth of York after killing Richard the third, and English royalty is passed through the father. Her claim was flawed also because she was considered illegitimate by both the Catholic and Protestant clergy, so, others who had a stronger claim fled for their lives, those others included the Grey and Hastings families.
"But there was more than just seeking refuge, members of the Hastings, Bridge, Philips, and Keeler families were fed up with the corruption that they witnessed in both the Catholic and Protestant churches in England, and with the infighting that got murderous. They sought religious freedom in the sense that every one can follow his or her conscience with no interference from others. My great great great grandfather was a wandering preacher in the late 1800’s at a time when some Christians anticipated a cataclysmic end of times.
"So my forebears were devout Christians, but were strongly opposed to any imposing across denominational lines. They promoted tolerance for all - I have to admit that this tolerance did not extend to Catholicism, however. Still, one could have an opinion about another denomination or even sect, but never, never impose, and even if one criticized Catholicism, one would never criticize a Catholic for his faith to his face. 'The harmony of the social group must remain intact.'
"I feel that the members of my extended family, the remnant of the New England WASP, did not realize how much society would change. They were not prepared to defend their culture against inroads from the Left, in fact, they had some fertile ground for those inroads to take root.
"That fertile ground was the value in favoring a laissez-faire attitude towards religion, a hands-off approach, as if the memory of the bloody infighting in 16th and 17th century England was still fresh in their minds, and to be avoided at all cost. The assumption was this if people would discuss religion, conflict would follow.
"That cost turned out to be the loss of our culture, and here is one example of how it began.
"My mother, Minnie, named after my great great grandmother Minerva Philips, who is buried in the cemetery in Vergennes, Vermont, came home from school in the fourth grade, 1947, by then they lived in a small town in Ohio, and said that that day’s religious study included the guest teacher saying that you can have a relationship with Jesus.
"First of all, in the public school I grew up in, Brookline Massachusetts, in the 1970’s and early 80’s, religion was not allowed to be mentioned, but you see here that actually there had been religious instruction in public schools until the early 1950’s. It stopped due to lawsuits that went to the Supreme Court that then ruled that public domains cannot have religious discussion or display.
"So my grandmother, with the value of tolerance, no imposing across denominational lines, and assuming that society was more stable than it really was, complained to the school that this guest teacher’s statement was an imposition. It was too charismatic a form of Christianity, which was specific to particular denominations. Grandma complained that religious instruction should be the shared concepts, not the particular ones that other denominations do not agree with. My mom said that besides that incident, religious instruction in public school addressed kindness, charity, forgiveness,forbearance, basically the life skills you learn from the Bible.
"What made an impression on me was two things - one, the fact that public school did indeed have some religious instruction, which did indeed make kids into kinder people. And two - the conflict between endless pluralism and the preservation of values.
"My grandmother could not have anticipated that the lack of unity among Christians in the USA would create an unstable ground for those from the Left who seek to destabilize it further. When religious instruction was banned in public schools, no one from my extended family raised an objection.
"If members of New England WASP culture had realized that Christian infighting of a different kind - not bloody persecutions, but bickering and stopping the others’ voice, would lead to a cynical nihilism and a make the remnants of what built America begin to self destruct, they may have better tolerated other points of view within the Christian world.
"My hope is to restore basic religious instruction in public schools, of course this can be expanded to include other religions, emphasizing the values that give people life skills. But this time around I would warn parents, please - tolerance means forbearance and patience, not preventing the expression of concepts you do not hold by."
The teacher was silent. Then she spoke and said, "it is really hard to hear how we sort of 'shot ourselves in the foot', but recognizing our fault lines that allowed incursions from those who would destroy us is an important first step in healing America."
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The above is an absolutely true story, including the Bridge genealogy and the story of the Hastings and Grey families. Bickering among Christians led to inroads - and to one descendant who saw no future, and embraced orthodox Judaism. It was the only way she could cleave to a scripture and Constitution - the Bible - that had been robbed from her by the very people who should have preserved it, but could not foresee that their bickering would lead to collapse.
Pray for America. Restore the awareness of the biblical roots of modern political science. Defend it! And please - NO MORE BICKERING. Christians will have to lay aside their differences lest a worse phenomenon follow.
Next essay - Why is Ahmed attending Cherish America School? His story of being the grandson of a Bedouin sheikh who fled his country because he was threatened for teaching that the prophet Muhammad loved all people, even the hypocrite. And so Ahmed too loves America.
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