When the dangerous work of free Bible give-aways in schools starts
making front-page news ahead of the opening of the House of Commons, or
any great variety of world issues, it's a pretty clear sign that
Canadians have a poor understanding of what the word "secular" means in
our country, and how it applies to our schools.
Thankfully,
all nine judges of the Supreme Court of Canada defined "secular" for us
in another school battle: Secular means religious people are part of the public mosaic in our land, too.
The
most recent tempest in a teapot is over the Gideon Society, a
6,000-member club in Canada. In their 60-year history, Gideons have
circulated more than 20 million Bibles into public places across the
land. Schools were part of that process until about 10 years ago, when
we began importing a notion of secularism wherein agnostics and
atheists rule, and where all religion is stripped out of public
life.
Now, a mother from Richmond, B.C., is applying her secularism
to the public education system and has objected to her son's school
newsletter giving parents the option of allowing their children to
receive a free Bible.
I
like the little Gideon Bible; it's the size of my Palm Pilot, comes
with just the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs and has a sort of
Yellow Pages up front where you can look up inspiration on a quick
search, "Where to find help when . . . " It covers everything from
looking for a job to retirement and all the life-hiccups in
between.
Should kids have the option to get a free one? Frankly, it's up to the parents to decide, not the school.
In Canada, parents are primary educators of our children, and we delegate authority to the schools to help us in that task (Regina v. Audet).
We like it when they teach the classics, athletic ideals, technology,
art, culture, and some don't even mind if Coca-Cola or Scholastic
Canada step into the schools for their own commercial ends.
So
why banish the right to religious belief being part of public
education? If we continue to remove the choice of parents to let their
child receive any religious material in a school, then the noisy voice
of a few will enforce their own belief system, in other words,
secularism.
In 2002, the Supreme Court of Canada (Chamberlain v. Surrey District School Board)
had to deal with the term "secular" because it was feared elected
school trustees were imposing their beliefs in order to keep gay books
out of early primary grades. As part of its deliberations, the court
determined the term secular should not be read as excluding religion,
because only religious believers would then be excluded and as a
result, the beliefs of atheists and agnostics would be given privileged
positions.
What the court was saying is gay books, Gideon Bibles, Hanukah candles,
kirpans etc. -- all belief systems are part of public education.
The
best writing on this is found in the McGill-Queen's University Press
2004 collection of scholarly papers, "Recognizing Religion in a Secular
Society." The collection emerged from a conference co-sponsored by an
Ottawa-based think-tank, the Centre for Cultural Renewal and the McGill
Department of Religious Studies. In his piece in that volume,
Considering Secularism, the centre's executive director Iain Benson
examines how our courts have determined that the term secular should
not be read as religiously exclusive. Quite frankly, that means
Christian folk and their Bible options in public schools are Canadian,
too.
"The
Supreme Court of Canada did a very good job of saying we're all part of
this society and determined that the phrase "secular principles" should
be read to include religion, because the secular is a realm of
competing belief systems, and atheism and agnosticisms are belief
systems," says Mr. Benson.
Parents
know that our children need a great many resources to navigate their
way through the world, and if some choose a Bible as part of that
education, it shouldn't be denied because of enforced secularism.
Lorna Dueck produces Listen Up TV, a spiritual perspective on the news, seen on Global TV and CTS.
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On April 30, 2005 Lorna was privileged to receive an honorary Doctorate of Christian Ministries from Canada's largest Christian university, Trinity Western University. Lorna was recognized for the witness and leadership that Listen Up TV has provided in public messaging: "a leader in the voice of evangelical life in Canada."
