Education: Culture and Law – The Law of God and Public Policy

Education: Culture and Law
The Law of God and Public Policy

Law gives shape to culture.

“You shall write [these words] on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:9

Subjecting culture to the control of law is not a novel idea. It may be threatening, but only to those whose cultural preferences lie beyond what the law allows. If such people cannot change the law, in a democratic society such as ours, they will simply have to keep their cultural expressions and indulgences within the limits of what the law allows.

In the field of education Christians must augur for public policies that acknowledge the educating power of culture and which help to keep culture from becoming a corrupting influence in the lives of citizens. School curricula that minimize the arts, relativize ethics, promote a materialistic orientation to life, and neglect to inculcate critical thinking skills are not helping students to gain the ennobling benefits of certain forms of culture or to identify and avoid culture that debases the soul. Forms of pop culture which glorify violence, sex as recreation, and an overall attitude of incivility should be subjected to the good intentions and guidelines of the Law of God, at the very least, within the households of faithful parents.

By thus writing the Law of God on the doorposts of their homes parents make a stand for righteousness and wholesomeness amid the cultural desertification which is dehumanizing our society and endangering our lives.

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.

–

In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.