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

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

Culture has a powerful role in education.

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

Every aspect of life in ancient Israel was intended to reflect the goodness and justice of God. As all creation, in the beginning, was “very good,” so God intended His Law for good (Rom. 7:12), to enable His people to be restored to this original condition, and to flourish within it. The fact that the Law of God today remains as the “core curriculum” of the Spirit’s instruction of the faithful (Ezek. 36:26, 27) should encourage us to a higher view of the Law and greater dependence on it for the revival, renewal, and awakening we seek.

The idea of writing the Law of God on the doorposts of homes and the gates of communities was intended as a symbol and meant to convey the idea that every aspect of life at home and in the community should be intended for good, as defined within the shelter and according to the direction of God’s Law. This would have included all aspects of cultural life as well.

We see this emphasis on the educating power of culture in several ways. For example, God was insistent that His people should not tolerate in their midst tokens or representations of anything in pagan culture which would have been likely to draw them away from devotion to Him and His covenant. All pagan religious artifacts were to be destroyed, and all pagan religious practices were proscribed. Certain aspects of pagan culture—farms, fields, homes, cities, and so forth—could be assumed for the use of God’s people. However, over them all the Law of God was to stand as guardian and guide, so that no destructive pagan influences would be able to find a way into the economy of God’s people. Pagan “ways”—laws, protocols, conventions, and the like—were to be avoided and expunged.

Any effort to educate children in the ways of the Lord will struggle to make progress while the currents of culture flow against such an aim. Contemporary culture today is materialistic, commercial, sensual, and self-serving in the extreme. Public policy has increasingly taken an “anything goes” attitude toward aspects of cultural expression, making room for forms of culture which are (as we shall see) abominations in the sight of God.

The simple fact is that culture is a powerful educator, especially of the young. Parents and community leaders, therefore, must do whatever they can to ensure that the culture to which their children are exposed offers instruction which complements, rather than contravenes or undermines, their own efforts to help children learn to take their place in an economy based not merely on self-aggrandizement and pleasure, but on justice and neighbor-love.

Should certain forms of cultural expression be outlawed? The very idea seems like an infringement on “freedom of speech.” Nevertheless, in our culture today, as debased as it has become in many ways, people yet realize the power of culture to affect young minds, and they have erected laws to guard against culture’s educative power. This is why films and video games are rated, certain consumer goods (e.g., alcoholic beverages) are forbidden to children, and even certain forms of speech are not permitted on the public airwaves.

However, this cultural guardianship and guidance—a function in certain ways of government acting for good—has been steadily eroded by the sensual and material interests of our day, and the detrimental consequences, especially on young people, are visible on every hand.

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.

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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.