Using a Story From Your Life to Teach Timeless Truth

The story of a girl taking a bible from a young boy’s hands and then shouting “Separation of Church and State” as she tossed it into some bushes actually happened – to me, when I was in eighth grade.  And so, In this secont blog post for The Chronicles of Belteshazzar, I weave an actual story from my life into the teaching of a principal about never being afraid to pray to God.

Because of that memory in my life, I wanted to raise this question:  What does the phrase “separation between church and state” mean?  This is not a trivial question, as the topic of what is or is not allowed in school is a much-debated topic.  In this chapter, I attempt to bring the issue of teaching about God in school into focus in such a way that a young person can grasp the nuances of the topic.

When writing my novel, one of the young girls reading the book emailed me to say that while she knew who Thomas Jefferson was, she was not sure what, if anything, he had to do with the writing of the Bill of Rights.  This allowed me to have an ongoing conversation with her about the topic beyond the scope of the book.

As an adjunct college professor, I enjoy introducing my students to the little-known fact that the phrase “separation between church and state” comes from a letter written by Jefferson when he was President to an association of Baptists in the state of Connecticut.  Even less well known is the story of the question they asked that prompted his response.

I was aware of multiple Youtube videos that explained that whole relationship.  And so, I went online to find a video the help my young friend better understand the context.  The gist of what the Danbury Baptist Association wrote to Jefferson is related in the chapter.

Basically, the issue was this:  If God is the author of our “inalienable” right to worship Him as we see fit, then by putting such a “right” in the First Amendment, do we not make MAN the one who grants that right (“we enjoy as favors granted”)– and if MAN grants that right, can he not CHANGE that right in the future (“and not as inalienable rights”)?

Jefferson replied to them by stating that the First Amendment created “a wall of separation” that would protect the church from the power of the state.  It was therefore a one-way wall creating a “wall of separation between church and state.”  

To Pray or Not to Pray at High School Graduation: A Personal Experience

In the Book of Daniel, those that hated him got the king to create a law about worshipping God that Daniel could not obey (he could only pray to the King, but not to God).  The Danbury Baptists would CERTAINLY have known this, and feared that someday, an American President/Congress would do the same thing to a religious group they did not like.

In the 1990s, I served as the State Director of the Indiana Christian Coalition.  In 1993, the Indiana Civil Liberties Union (ICLU) sent a letter to all of the school corporations in the state threatening to sue them if they allowed a prayer or reference to God during any part of the graduation proceedings.  The American Center for Law and Justice responded with a counter letter to Indiana’s school corporation threatening to sue if a student Valedictorian Speaker was denied the right to express their faith in God during their remarks.  That year, I was invited to be part of a debate on this issue in which I faced off against the ICLU attorney who had written that letter to the schools.  In my remarks I connected the story of Daniel being thrown into the Lions’ Den to what was happening at that time.  I noted that at the end of the story about Daniel, all those who sought to harm him, along with their families, were thrown to the lions.  My point was that by removing God from society, the culture itself would unravel.

Question for Reflection

This brings me to a discussion question you might wish to have with your kids or grandkids, or the next time you’re at the dinner table and you’re having a discussion about those big questions in life.  Here’s the “Question for Reflection” – actually, two:

Why do you think an Iranian man would want to make videos to explain the American Constitution? What similarities or differences can you see between Daniel wanting to pray in Babylon and American students wishing to talk about God at school?