The Law of God and Public Policy
The Law guides us in the main goal of education – and life.
“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORDour God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt.’” Deuteronomy 6.20, 21
An old motto from Harvard declared that the college existed – as most other early American colleges and universities – to “lay Christ in the bottom”, both of the curriculum and the lives of the students. Indeed, an early version of the Harvard Rules insisted that “The main goal of a student’s life is to know God & Jesus Christ.”
In order for this to be the case, the Word of God – beginning with His Law – is absolutely crucial as a cornerstone of any educational policy. Christians may not be able, as their forebears were, to make this part of the public school curriculum. Not at this time, that is.
But we must hold to the idea of Scripture serving as the foundation and framework for all education, and we must begin to pursue policies – at home, church, and in the schools of the land – where this can actually be the case.
Grounding in the Word of God will help to shape children into the image of Christ and better prepare them to take their place in the economy of justice and love which the Law of God outlines.
Curious children will naturally wonder why we put so much emphasis on learning the Word of God in the instruction we provide for them. The answer, as we have seen, is that we want them to know, fear, love, and serve God, so that they might also be able to love their neighbors as themselves and enjoy all the blessings and goodness of God throughout their lives.
T. M. Moore
Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition. Does the Law of God still apply today? Order a copy of T. M.’s book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, and study the question for yourself.
