Christians Should Stop Begging the State to Teach ‘Our’ Children Morality


Since his election in 2006, Ohio’s Democratic Governor Ted Strickland has been working to eliminate funding for abstinence education in state schools. In response, Christian organizations throughout the state have been urging citizens to write to the governor and ask him to reinstate this funding. In a recent email, for example, the Ohio Christian Alliance wrote

“We want our children to be exposed to the truth that it is in their best interest — physically, emotionally and spiritually — to abstain from sex until marriage!”

My first thought upon reading this was, “Well then folks… They’re YOUR children, so TEACH THEM already!”

When Christians send their children away to humanistic government schools and allow the state to take their money through taxation to fund “education” we should not be surprised that these non-Christian bureaucrats want to teach immorality.

The solution is not to keep sending the children to the humanist schools where they are being taught evolution, pluralism, and situational “ethics” and then BEG the bureaucrats to spend MORE money to teach morality on the side. What a waste of effort!

We’re fighting the wrong battle here! The solution is to take God’s children out of Satan’s schools and separate the school from the state. That is, we should PRIVATIZE education! Let’s demand that our elected representatives stop taking our money and spending it on “public education” – period! We cannot expect a humanist school system to effectively teach morality.

Check out the Alliance for the Separation of School and State to learn more.

Nathan Radcliffe

Nathan Radcliffe is a former Christian school teacher and a long-time advocate for home education and limited government. He is a husband and father of two young girls. Nathan and his wife, Rachel, live in Lancaster, Ohio and attend a local Vineyard Church.