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EDITORIAL
Christian faith and the state

Jim Coggins

During television coverage of the funeral of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Liberal Senator Michael Kirby praised the former Prime Minister for having deeply held religious convictions but keeping them separate from his political life. While Kirby meant the statement as a compliment, I found the statement disquieting. How can a person have an extramarital affair in his personal life, promote abortion, divorce and homosexual activity in his political life and still claim to be a good Roman Catholic – when the Roman Catholic Church strongly opposes all of those things? One of the foundational positions of the first Anabaptists in the 16th century, and also of the first Mennonite Brethren in the 1860s, was that faith, in order to be real, had to be lived out in life – an idea which certainly has considerable biblical support.

Trinity Western University, a Christian institution, is currently in the Supreme Court of Canada defending its right to fully train school teachers. In an earlier court case on this issue, Trinity Western was supported by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. According to a news report, the BCCLA argued that “A public school teacher’s religious beliefs have no bearing on [that person’s] ability to teach.” BCCLA’s argument is valid in one sense: Teaching skills, intelligence, understanding and so on are gifts of God, but the Bible indicates such things are given to non-Christians as well as Christians (Matthew 5:45; 25:14-30; 1 Corinthians 1:26-27; James 1:17). On the other hand, I am reluctant to wholeheartedly endorse BCCLA’s argument. A teacher’s religious beliefs do affect the ability to teach. A teacher’s Christian faith should make him or her more concerned about the students’ welfare, more honest in assessing the students’ performance, more fair in dealing with students and more clear that there is such a thing as objective truth than that person would otherwise be. If we believe that people are changed when they commit their lives to the living, loving, holy God, then we should expect that change to be obvious in daily life.

This case is extremely important for religious freedom in Canada. If Christians are not allowed to train teachers, it is only a short step to say that Christians should not be allowed to be teachers. In attempting to defend the rights of homosexuals, the B.C. College of Teachers (Trinity Western’s opponent in the court case) is trampling over the rights of Christians (which is why the BCCLA intervened on the side of Trinity Western). While I strongly support Trinity Western in this court case (the balance of competing “rights” has been badly distorted by the BCCT), we should not pretend that there is no substance to the case. Homosexual practice is incompatible with Christianity, and Christian teachers will have (and do have) an impact on the values that are taught (and caught) in public schools.

The relationship between church and state is a complex one, and we need to think clearly about our approach. In a government institution such as a public school, particularly in a pluralist society, there are legitimate and illegitimate ways of standing for Christian truth. God does not force the truth on anyone, and we should not either. We should not use force, such as government institutions, to force Christian standards on others. On the other hand, that does not mean that we have no obligation to present, teach and practise the truth as individuals (including teachers, parents and students). For instance, I know of one Christian teacher who did not make Christianity part of the curriculum in his classroom but who invited his students to a Christian youth meeting in his home. (He was also careful to get the parents’ permission.) We must witness to Christ but do it with integrity. This also does not mean that governments should not enforce moral standards which are supported by a broad public consensus and which demonstrably benefit the community as a whole. For instance, all governments rightly enforce laws against murder (although the understanding of what constitutes murder may vary from society to society). What is illegitimate (and ultimately impossible) is for Christians or any other group to enforce moral standards which are not supported by a broad public consensus.

Another court case illustrates some of the balance required. The B.C. Court of Appeal ruled Sept. 20 that the Surrey (B.C.) School Board had the right to keep three pro-homosexual books off the curriculum for elementary school children. The School Board had lost an earlier case when a judge ruled that the School Board erred by taking the religious convictions of parents (Christians, Muslims and others) into consideration in making its decision; that judge ruled that the public schools are secular and that religious convictions should have no influence there. The Appeal Court correctly overturned this ruling, saying that while the schools should not teach Christian values, they cannot disregard the values of Christian parents either.

What has amazed me about this case is that it has focused on whether the School Board has a right to keep the books off the curriculum, and no attention has been paid to whether the teacher has a right to add the books to the curriculum. The teacher, a Mr. Chamberlain, has a personal bias on the issue (he evidently is a practising homosexual) and had the support of a lobby group, the Gay and Lesbian Educators Association. What Mr. Chamberlain wanted to do was to use the schools to promote his particular values. That should be no more acceptable than for a Christian teacher, with the support of a lobby group such as Focus on the Family, to add the teaching of Christian doctrine and morality into his classroom, in effect using the power of the state (since children are legally required to go to school) to impose the Christian faith on a captive audience.

Christians should not use the power of the state to impose their values, but they must nevertheless teach, promote and live by those values in whatever area they live and work. Contrary to Senator Kirby’s claim, values, if they are really held, do impact life. To be a Christian is to be a Christian in all of one’s life, not just in selected parts.

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Last modified November 29, 2000.

© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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