{"id":10233,"date":"2013-01-01T19:05:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-01T19:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=10233"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:56","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:56","slug":"newspaper-article-the-bible-and-public-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=10233","title":{"rendered":"Newspaper Article – The Bible and Public Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here’s my December newspaper article – published yesterday in The Republic:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

A recent Thursday evening found me in the local school\nauditorium listening to the 5th<\/sup> and 6th<\/sup> grade choir\u2019s\nChristmas program.\u00a0 I thoroughly\nappreciated the program, but not because I could make out my two oldest\nchildren\u2019s voices among the 50 or 60 on stage. (I couldn\u2019t.)\u00a0 And it wasn\u2019t because it helped \u201cput me in\nthe Christmas spirit\u201d. (It didn\u2019t.\u00a0 I\u2019m a\nGrinch.)<\/p>\n\n\n

Rather, my appreciation was for how \u201cbehind the times\u201d we\nare.\u00a0 In this age of hyper sensitivity\nand political correctness, when a field trip to watch a production of \u201cA\nCharlie Brown Christmas\u201d is taboo because of its references to the biblical\naccount of the birth of Jesus, it was refreshing to know that students in\nColumbus, Indiana were still allowed to learn and perform songs like \u201cSilent\nNight\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n

Contrary to what you might expect, I applaud the existence\nof the school Christmas concert not as a Christian who is paranoid about the\n\u201cWar on Christmas\u201d.\u00a0 (In fact, I would not\nbe the least bit offended if the school put up a \u201choliday\u201d tree or if these two\nweeks off were called the \u201cwinter break\u201d.\u00a0)<\/p>\n\n\n

Nor do I applaud it as a parent necessarily.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the school\u2019s job to \u201ckeep Christ in\nChristmas\u201d for my kids.\u00a0 (That role\nbelongs solely to my wife and me, if we so choose.)<\/p>\n\n\n

No, I applaud the concert mainly as an educator – because it\ngives me just the slightest hope that our culture\u2019s oft misguided sensitivity\nand fear of provoking controversy have not yet completely eliminated every\nreference to the Bible from our local public schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

During my years at Hauser, I always hoped to teach an\nelective course called \u201cThe Bible as Literature\u201d, but the schedule never\nallowed. Whenever I discussed the possibility with students, two questions\nconsistently came back at me: \u201cCan you teach that<\/em><\/strong> in a public school?\u201d and\n\u201cWhat in the world would it be about?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

There was a time in our not too distant past when both\nquestions would have elicited only laughter and incredulity.<\/p>\n\n\n

A year ago, Marilynne Robinson wrote in The New York Times<\/i>, \u201cThe Bible is the\nmodel for and subject of more art and thought than those of us who live within\nits influence, consciously or unconsciously, will ever know.\u201d\u00a0 The point is, regardless of whether one reads\nthe Bible as divine inspiration or as mythology, one definitely should<\/i> be familiar with it.\u00a0 The Bible remains the world\u2019s widest selling\nbook and a key foundation for much of Western art, literature, ethics and law.\nThose unfamiliar with what is written there miss out on every biblical allusion\npresent in the books, movies, and debates that surround us every day and an\nimportant dimension of meaning is lost.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

I have watched episodes of The\nSimpsons where a good deal of the humor would be lost on the biblically\nilliterate. \u00a0<\/span>And when our teens aren\u2019t\neducated enough to \u201cget\u201d a cartoon, a change is due.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

I suggest we need to go even\nfurther behind the times.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s my December newspaper article – published yesterday in The Republic: A recent Thursday evening found me in the local school auditorium listening to the 5th and 6th grade choir\u2019s Christmas program.\u00a0 I thoroughly appreciated the program, but not because I could make out my two oldest children\u2019s voices among the 50 or 60 on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10234,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10233\/revisions\/10234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}