Faith, education, and the challenge facing America

As I read the recent Monitor Weekly cover story on increased inclusion of the Bible and Christian values in public education by Jackie Valley, I couldn’t help but think of Charlie Brown.

When my children were younger, we would watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas” every year, and one thing always astonished me. In the middle of the show, for a full minute, the lights dim, the music stops, and Linus recites the story of the birth of Jesus according to the Gospel of Luke. He concludes, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

From my vantage point in late-2010s Massachusetts, it seemed utterly extraordinary that something so indispensable to American culture could be so unabashedly Christian.

Fast-forward to 2024, and Christian teachings are finding their way into much more official channels. Jackie’s story touches on efforts in Oklahoma to establish the Bible as an integral part of public education. The goal is clear: to ensure that the Bible has a preeminent place in Oklahoma society.

We’ve profiled other communities taking different approaches. Two years ago, we wrote a cover story about the various ways parents and communities are trying to teach values as Christianity’s dominant place in American culture recedes. This shift has caused alarm for many religious conservatives, who lament the loss of what had felt like a shared moral foundation.

In 1965, when “A Charlie Brown Christmas” came out, 72% of Americans were members of a church, mosque, or synagogue. But today, less than half of Americans (47%) are, according to Gallup. Statistics also show Christianity is declining nationwide. Should government be employed to stop that decline? How? For which denominations? And is that a slippery slope to giving the government coercive powers over individual rights of conscience?

Today, there is a lot of talk of Christian nationalism. I sometimes worry that has become too blunt a term, sweeping together both neo-Nazis and people who feel that the Christian principles that informed America’s founding deserve to be honored.

Yet concerns about the weakening of the separation of church and state are no liberal imagining. And they take on broader significance when considered within the context of recent surges in anti-Muslim and antisemitic rhetoric and violence, in the United States and around the world.

But is there space in the national conversation for compassion and an understanding of those who say they feel marginalized in their own country?

Perhaps the real challenge facing America today is to find a way to answer that question honestly and universally, without marginalizing others in the process. As Linus might say, “That’s what America is all about, Charlie Brown.”

This column was first published in the Dec. 9, 2024, issue of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly magazine. Subscribe today to receive future issues of the Monitor Weekly delivered to your home.