The Flagpole and the Cross In Education

.

.

By Dr. Joe Renfro

There are two forces competing for the heart of the education of American youth—progressive thinking that is very much anti-Christian and Christian thinking that was once basic in Western education.  One focuses on protest and the other on the power of prayer. September 26^th of this year 2018, students from all over the world gathered for the twenty-eight-year anniversary of the global week of student prayer for their nations and for the future direction of our world.

The media gave little attention to the fact that students all over the world gathered to pray for the sake of our world, but they take and have taken every opportunity to cover whatever protest wherever and whenever they can find it.

In many ways the See You at the Pole (SYATP) movement is an affirmation that points to hope, in every nation, whatever their flag might be, through prayer and submission to God. In America and in what has been called Christendom, it brings together the national focus at the flagpole and the affirmation of the cross of Christ and that for which it stands.

This year’s theme was, “Broken,” with the focus on Ephesians 3:14, where it says: “I fall on my knees before the Father.”  Prayer is not only asking God’s forgiveness, but it is praising and thanking him for all God’s goodness and support.  It is making petitions for not only ourselves but for others, as well as seeking his guidance.  We need to be taking to our knees in humble submission to God, rather than to take to our knees in protest in arrogant pride as some have been doing at sporting events over many things that some might feel needs to be addressed in ways other than they are or have been addressed.

The SYATP movement was started by a group of teens in Burleson, Texas who felt moved during a “Disciple Now” weekend.  Such a movement was and is very much appropriate in our nation. The group traveled to three different schools and prayed at the flagpoles.  It was a small group that quickly expanded to way over a million participants now all over the world.

SYATP officially began Sept. 12, 1990, having developed from a brainstorming session in June 1990.  After this brainstorming the teens decided to name the religious challenge “See You at the Pole” with a goal of drawing students for a day of prayer in a central campus location.  The flagpole and the cross should not be seen as being in conflict with one another, and the flagpole was the ideal location for it.                                                                                                                     

The first SYATP day drew more than 45,000 teens throughout different states to the school flagpoles at 7 a.m.  Then, on September 11, 1991, a year later, an estimated one million students gathered at school flagpoles all over the country, reaching from California to North Dakota — including Texas and Massachusetts. The day of prayer is now recognized globally — with over sixty-four countries, like Canada, Korea, Japan and Turkey — participating in the day designed to pray “for their schools, for their friends, for their leaders and for their country.”  Who knows, the number of participants could be in the millions now!

As we look about our world, we see forces at work that seem to be breeding disaster.  There are cultural chaos, political unrest, division, and a downward spiral of what was esteemed as morality. But darkness is just the absence of light. Our generation needs the spirit of Christ to fall down on us and to shine bright.  The youth who take the courage to gather at the flagpoles for prayer to God for the sake of their nation and the world are looking at the problems the right way, choosing prayer to God rather than violence and protest

Prayer in school is constitutional, and freedom of speech and freedom of assembly with it. There are many arguments supporting the view of citizens who favor the return of prayer to public schools, and some of these are:

• In banning school prayer, the U.S. Supreme Court has misinterpreted the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. A simple and voluntary school prayer does not amount to the government establishing a religion, any more than do other practices common in the U.S. such as the employment of Congressional chaplains, government recognition of holidays with religious significance such as Christmas or the proclamation of National Days of Prayer, or events such as this, the “See You At The Flagpole.”
• In banning school prayer, the U.S. Supreme Court has mistaken the principle of “freedom of religion,” guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, for freedom from religion and any observance of it. What a better way to correct this error than to gather before school at the flagpole to pray for our nation and the state of the world!
• School prayer should allow religious students the freedom to observe their religious beliefs during the school day. The U.S. Supreme Court has urged school cooperation with religious authorities for “it then respects the religious nature of our people and accommodates the public service to their spiritual needs.” It does allow prayer times for the Islamic students, so why not for the Christian or Jewish, or whatever other groups who want to pray!
• Prayer in school acknowledges our religious heritage, and looks to the basic presupposition or basis to the granting of all our rights in America, as is stated in our Declaration of Independence, “Endowed by their Creator.”
• Our country was founded by people who believed in freedom to practice one’s religion openly and who used their religious beliefs to create this backbone of this nation. Our children should be able to participate openly in this great heritage, seeking help, strength, and endurance from God as did their forefathers.
• Our system of education has a rich spiritual heritage. Of the first 108 universities founded in America, 106 were distinctly Christian, including the first, Harvard University, chartered in 1636. In the original Harvard Student Handbook, rule number one was that students seeking entrance must know Latin and Greek so that they could study the Scriptures: “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, (John 17:3); and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.”

As well it can be said that prayer in school offers many societal benefits.

• School prayer can help to instill moral values. Schools must do more than train children’s minds academically. They must also nurture their characters and reinforce the positive values taught at home and in the community. Founding father Samuel Adams said, “Let divines and philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their endeavors to renovate the age by impressing the minds of men with the importance of educating their little boys and girls, inculcating in the minds of youth the fear and love of the Deity. . . leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system.”
• The public-school system is tragically disintegrating as evidenced by the rise in school shootings, increasing drug use, alcoholism, teen pregnancy, and HIV transmission. School prayer can help combat these issues and is desperately needed to protect our children.
• School prayer could lead to increased tolerance and less bullying in school since it can instill a sense of right and wrong and a love for others above oneself.
• School prayer can promote good citizenship. Founding father John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” The founding fathers believed this should be taught in school. George Washington stated, “What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ.”
• School prayer may cause students to acknowledge a power greater than themselves on which they can rely for comfort and help in times of trouble. This will lead to decreased reliance on drugs, alcohol, sex, and dangerous amusements as well as decreased suicides.
• Students praying at the flagpole before school begins is drawing students together for something positive, not something that often degenerates into very negative overtones as much of the protesting does. Prayer is a much better step toward social progress than protests!

The radical left attacks this, as I read from one critic of prayer and that I’m sure relates to others who opposed the movement, “See You at the Flagpole.”   She wrote: “One might just as well credit the lack of prayer with the great advances that have taken place since the 1962 and 1963 decisions on prayer. Look at the leap in civil liberties, equality, environmental awareness, women’s rights, science, technology and medicine! The polio scare is over. Fountains, buses, schools are no longer segregated by law. We’ve made great strides in medical treatment. We have VCRs and the computer chip. The Cold War has ended! Who would turn the clock back? (The Case Against School Prayer – Freedom from Religion Foundation, by Annie Laurie Gaylor, 1995)

How stupid such statements are, for who in their right mind would credit these advances to have taken place because prayer was taken out of the schools or to complain about students praying at the flag poles for God’s guidance and protection of our nation and the world as a whole, as many in the same frame of mind do in their stands for freedom from religion!

The psalmist wrote, “The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God” (Psalm 51:17). The theme for this year’s ”SYATP” is “Broken,” and anyone, young or old, should be able to see that things have broken very much over the past half century in America, and the brokenness to our culture needs to be fixed.  We have subtracted the spiritual soul out of education, and things are broken in bad shape. But there is the need to have broken, humble spirits, broken in another way from the bad way to correct it in the good way.  God desires an open heart ready to receive all he has, and prayer at the flagpole is a right step.

In the book of Joel, particularly 2:1-17 there is the message of Judah’s repentance and God withholding his judgement on that land. This was the call for national repentance! In our day we see progressive thinking that not only projects an amoral world view, but actually promotes very much an immoral worldview.  The message of Joel was the call to blow the trumpet or sound out the problems and the need to correct the situation!

In Joel 2:12-13 there is a powerful call to repentance, as it says: “Now, therefore,” says the Lord,  “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God,  For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.”  The youth who are in the “See You at the Pole” movement are affirming the affirmation of the cross and the call for our land to repent.

Looking at the Scripture from Joel and the chaos presented in the first part of chapter two there is the message, “‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘Return to me with all your heart.’  The necessity of repentance was a very urgent necessity. We need to repent of the ungodly progressive thinking of our day and return to reverence of and direction from the guidance of God’s word.  The time to repent is now and part of it is to pray, as II Chronicles 7:14 declares: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land!”

There is the message to “Return to me.” The Hebrew text from Joel 2:13 uses the Hebrew word “shuwb,” which means, “to turn.” The word “shuwbah” means “to turn,” which can be seen as very much the equivalent of the Greek word, “metatithemi,” which means, “to change the mind” or “have an afterthought.”  This can be understood as a different thought and thus to change the mind with regard to some act or action.  The change of mind is to be expressed as a change of direction of life, and this very much speaks to realm of education.

We need a change of mind in the thinking of what is happening in American education. Our nation needs to turn back to reverence for the word of God and to the promotion of the morality which the Bible promotes.  The youth who sound out the trumpet the call and proclaim call “See You at the Pole” are pointing to the great truth of the cross and the power of prayer.

The movement “See You at the Pole” is a step led by the students themselves to correct the secular corrosion that has been basic for the American falling behind in comparison with many other nations drastically over the past half century in academic achievement, falling in positive behavior in the schools, and in failing to overcome the detriments of drug and sex abuse.  The power and guidance of God helps greatly in the learning process.  The trumpet sounds, and “See You at the Pole” is an example of young people hearing it and responding.