Prayer and Bible Reading Begin at Home

Religious expression has been a source of conflict throughout American history. The colony of Rhode Island was established with the primary goal of freedom of religious expression. Thomas Jefferson wrote the defining statement on freedom of religion into the Virginia Statutes before the American Constitution was developed. Questions continue to be raised about the place of religious expression in the public setting.

Of most immediate concern is what are we doing about what we personally believe. Our court system is still addressing issues such as allowing prayer at the beginning of public government meetings whether it be town councils, state legislatures, or congress itself. People still raise the issue of the appropriateness of mentioning God in a public setting in a way that would be considered reverential.

Our Supreme Court issued rulings related to prayer and Bible reading in schools in cases handed down in 1962 and 1963 (Engel v. Vitale and Abingdon School District v. Schempp respectively). In summary these decisions said a public school could not demand a prayer composed by the institution be used by the students or faculty, nor could a sectarian book be required reading as devotional material. From these cases and others that followed, many have said the Supreme Court took the Bible and prayer out of schools.

As long as there are math tests there will be prayer in schools. I use this humorous statement to make the point the Supreme Court did not ban prayer or Bible reading in our public schools. The rulings were clear that religious expression could be banned from schools only if it disrupted the intended purpose of the school which is nonsectarian instruction.

This says students can pray in school all they want as long as it does not disrupt the purpose of the school. Students can read the Bible all they want as long as it does not disrupt the teaching program of the school. Student religious groups have the right to meet on school property as long as it is not during instruction time.

This all leads to my primary point. Most students will not know how to pray or how to study their Bibles in a school setting if they are not learning how in their homes and churches. People who complain about the courts taking the Bible and prayer out of public schools raise my blood pressure when I discover they do not practice regular family devotion periods at home, or they do not provide their children with Bible and devotional material designed for their comprehension level, nor make sure their kids are WITH them in Bible study at church on a regular basis.

In conjunction with this is my growing concern about the time we spend in prayer and Bible reading in our churches. During a year’s time I will be in more than thirty churches on multiple occasions. I find a diversity of worship styles and elements. I also find a lack of focused prayer and extensive Bible reading.

Most prayers in Sunday morning church service last less than 90 seconds. The pastoral prayer will last the longest at three to five minutes. Wednesday night prayer services are generally illness discussions, a brief Bible study, and a prayer time that may last ten minutes.  If most of our people only come to corporate worship services, when are we teaching them to pray?

Bible readings in most of our churches take even less time. The text for the sermon may often be the only biblical passage read. We spend more time singing than we do reading the Bible. It takes more time to take up the offering than it does to read the Bible. Is this how we teach our children the importance of the Bible?

Deu 6:6-7 Never forget these commands that I am giving you today. Teach them to your children. Repeat them when you are at home and when you are away, when you are resting and when you are working.

My patience runs thin when I hear someone complaining about our courts. I want to ask them if they have abdicated their roles as parents to the government. We are truly in a sad situation if we have.

Freedom Of and Freedom From

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” On January 16 President Obama called on Americans to remember and practice our religious freedom. This action has been taken by each president since William Clinton in 1996.

Religious Freedom Day has a simple but meaningful history. “Each year, the President declares January 16th to be Religious Freedom Day, and calls upon Americans to ‘observe this day through appropriate events and activities in homes, schools, and places of worship.’ (President Obama, Jan. 16, 2013) The day is the anniversary of the passage, in 1786, of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. We encourage schools to recognize Religious Freedom Day during the school week leading up to January 16.” (from religiousfreedomday.com)

Following are some of the comments from the President’s Proclamation:

“Foremost among the rights Americans hold sacred is the freedom to worship as we choose. Today, we celebrate one of our Nation's first laws to protect that right -- the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Written by Thomas Jefferson and guided through the Virginia legislature by James Madison, the Statute affirmed that ‘Almighty God hath created the mind free’ and ‘all men shall be free to profess ... their opinions in matters of religion.’ Years later, our Founders looked to the Statute as a model when they enshrined the principle of religious liberty in the Bill of Rights.

“Because of the protections guaranteed by our Constitution, each of us has the right to practice our faith openly and as we choose. As a free country, our story has been shaped by every language and enriched by every culture…

“Today, we also remember that religious liberty is not just an American right; it is a universal human right to be protected here at home and across the globe. This freedom is an essential part of human dignity, and without it our world cannot know lasting peace.

“As we observe Religious Freedom Day, let us remember the legacy of faith and independence we have inherited, and let us honor it by forever upholding our right to exercise our beliefs free from prejudice or persecution.” (Excerpts from the President’s Proclamation declaring January 16, 2013 as Religious Freedom Day, Huffington Post, January 22, 2013)

In the hours following the President’s Proclamation, the digital ink flowed from both supporters and detractors of the president’s words. John Ragosta writing in the Washington Post (“Something to Celebrate on Religious Freedom Day”, January 16, 2013), rejoiced that the proclamation fully expressed both the breadth and the limitations of religious freedoms enjoyed by our citizenry.

The opposite perspective was taken by writers such as Ken Blackwell and Bob Morrison who, when writing “Endangered Religious Freedom Day?” in the American Thinker (Jan. 16, 2013), felt that the President was being less than true to his words. They quoted Thomas Jefferson as saying, ‘To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.’ This interpretation would lead one to believe that not only can you not tax a man to support a church he rejects, neither can you force him to support financially an act he feels morally repugnant. This would seem to make the contraceptive insurance requirement of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional if we have a Jeffersonian concept of religious freedom.

Our constitution says we have freedom of religion. That must include the freedom to allow religion to play no role in our individual lives. The question we face more today, however, is not whether we are free to have a religious belief or not. Rather the question is may our religion be more than a set of beliefs held in private and never expressed in public through action. May our religion govern our beliefs and our actions toward others in ways that do not limit their expressions of religion or their search for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Where can the government say my religious freedom has its boundaries? May the God some of us recognize guide our courts to come to His conclusion.

All Those Special Days

They're lined up like soldiers on review. One after another over the next three months plus they come with their own unique themes and both traditional and contemporary modes of expression. We have packed these late fall and winter months with enough holidays and special commemorations to allow us to survive the rest of the year. This is great for those involved in the celebrations. It is exhausting for those who do most of the planning and work.

Around here my churches are involved not only in revivals, but also homecomings and fall festivals during October. Church members are begging for candy donations and volunteers to handle the games. You have the special meetings and all the preparation meetings for the special meetings. Unchurched people are being invited to hear the gospel, see how much there is to eat on Homecoming Sunday, and hear some preacher from out of the past.

October is over one day and the talk surrounds the coming Veterans Day service where the church belonging to God gets turned over to the government and you're lucky to find a Christian flag anywhere. Even while plans are being made for this event, the leadership is thinking ahead to the Thanksgiving service on the Tuesday or Wednesday evening prior to that day of feasting. A handful of churches have no mid-week service at that time. Rather they have a special dinner on Thanksgiving Day itself to give a destination to those who have no place to go or anyone with whom to share the day. The church says, "We intend to be your family." Others don't go to the church building at all. They go to the local food ministry and serve dinner from mid morning to mid afternoon, delaying their own celebration until the evening.

The smell of turkey is not out of the kitchen before Advent Sunday arrives. Actually in central North Carolina as might be true in your area, Christmas decorations and craft ideas have been on sale since early September. Advent just marks the beginning of the Christian focus upon the season and reflects nothing of the actions in the marketplace. Among Baptists this four week season can include an inaugural Advent service, recognition of each of the four Sundays of Advent, choir presentations, children's plays, small group dinners and times of socializing, candlelight services, celebrations of the Eucharist, a Christmas Eve service, churchwide parties at which the jolly old elf may show up, and an additional emphasis on doing something for the poor and world mission efforts.

The last poinsettia plant heads out the door and the committee gets the church ready for the annual New Year's Eve service to welcome in the coming year with the prayer that it will be better than the last. Some such services last only an hour or so leaving little time to party. Other congregations make a night of it with dinner on the 31st and breakfast on the 1st, my kind of party. God is placed right in the middle of this celebration of new beginnings, a most appropriate recognition of the One who gives and restores all life.

These special days for the most part are recognized by our society with little attention paid to the revelation of the Divine that is possible in each one. The commercialization seems uppermost with some lip service given to the importance of taking time to strengthen ties among family and friends. The Christian must make the intentional effort in our secular society to note the role of God's involvement in history on these significant days.

One last day must be included in this list, a day that receives little recognition in our churches or our society. Yet it represents one of the great freedoms for which our ancestors in the past and our family members today have stood up and defended even if it meant dying. In a society that is becoming increasingly hostile to religion in general and Christianity in particular, we must remember Religious Freedom Day (religiousfreedomday.com).

Established by President Bill Clinton early in his administration, January 16 has been proclaimed Religious Freedom Day every year since by each sitting president. This day was set side not to declare our country free from religion, but rather a country in which every individual would be free to express their personal religious faith or lack thereof without concern for persecution or governmental interference. This day celebrates a right that was recognized in our legal codes as early as the Virginia Resolutions of 1786.

All of the special days we celebrate as Christians, not only during these fall and winter months but also throughout the year, are ours to enjoy because we have this freedom. Muslims enjoy the same freedom during the month of Ramadan. Those of the Jewish faith can celebrate Hanukkah with the same freedom from persecution. When groups tell us we cannot, then we must practice our freedom with even greater determination. Only then will all these religious occasions regardless of our chosen faith remain special for our children and generations yet to come.