The Myth of Religious
Neutrality in Education
Before Christians can make any adequate critique of educational programs or make any significant contribution to the solution of our educational problems in America at all, we must dispose of the humanist myth of religious neutrality in education, politics and ethics. To be religiously neutral on any issue is impossible. To attempt to be so is to lay aside our Christian faith and Biblical truths, and to act as if God, Christ, and the Bible are irrelevant concerning those issues. But, man cannot live wholly or partly without taking God’s Word into account.
1) The Lordship of Christ over everything and everybody makes religious neutrality impossible. There is no area of life, no individual, no human activity, no aspect of the inner life of man, no institution, no moment in time, no place in the universe, now or ever, which is not the personal possession of Christ and under his sovereign jurisdiction, Daniel 7:14f, Ephesians 1:19f, Revelation 19:16. All individuals, all nations, and all institutions are accountable to live in submission to his Lordship in all eras and areas. Anything less or anything else is not neutrality. It is rebellion against God.
2) The all-embracing authority of the Bible as the Word of God makes religious neutrality impossible. The authority of the Bible, as the verbal Self-revelation of God, is inerrant, final, all-embracing, universal, inescapable, eternal and self-authenticating. The Bible is a light to our paths and a lamp to our feet. When we step outside that light we are in darkness, because it is only in it’s light that we can see light, Psalm 36:9, Isaiah 8:20. No area of life can be rightly understood, unless it is understood in light of the Word of God, Psalm 119. To disregard the laws and truths of the Bible on any issue is not neutrality, it is arrogant autonomy, i.e., the desire to play God.
3) The Nature of Religion makes religious neutrality in anything impossible. A person can never lay down his religion and act as a religion- less manner, because religion, (of whatever label), is the governing principle of all he does, is and says. Religion is like the “heart,” out of it flows the issues of life, determining all areas of human thought and experience, Proverbs 4:23, Mark 7:20. Religion is “the binding tendency in every man to dedicate himself with his whole heart to the true God or an idol.” In this sense everybody is religious because no one can escape being a person made in the image of God, created to worship and serve God, rebellious and unregenerate though he may be, Romans 1:15. Man is inescapably religious. The Christian, whose religion is that of the Bible and whose heart is held captive by the Word of God, may never think or live as anything other than a Christian governed by the Word of God. He is never his own person, having been “bought with a price.” He may not claim sovereign rights over his own opinions or behavior. He is a person under authority at all points of his existence. Attempting religious neutrality in education, or in anything else for that matter, is betrayal of Christ and his revealed religion.
4) The express statement of Jesus concerning the myth of religious neutrality is: “He who is not against us is for us,“ Mark 9:38. We are always acting and thinking in a way that is for Jesus or against Jesus. Between those poles there is no neutral ground in the entire universe. Trying to think and live with total religious objectivity, without any preconceived assumptions, and without any commitment for or against Christianity is is the deliberate suppression of the clear witness of God in our souls and in all of creation, Romans 1:18f. For which suppression of the truth in unrighteousness, we are without excuse before God, Romans 1:18f.
Education is not, and cannot be, something religiously or ethically neutral. All education is based on religious assumptions, either Biblical or apostate. As Henry Van Til write: “Human achievement is not purposeless but seeks to achieve certain ends, which are either good or bad. Since man is a moral being, his culture, (and education), cannot be amoral. Because man is a religious being, his culture, too, must be religiously oriented. There is no pure culture (or education) in the sense of being neutral religiously or without positive or negative value ethically. Although the realization of values in a culture may seem on the surface to be concerned merely with the temporal and the material, this is appearance only, for man is a spiritual being destined for eternity, exhaustively accountable to his Creator Lord. All that he does is involved in the whole of his nature as man.”
To attempt to act or think in a religiously neutral manner in any area is to commit the sin of Eve, (and Adam), who assumed that, after God has spoken to her and said, “Do not eat of the tree!, and after a neutral position and decide for herself and by herself which one spoke the truth. Thus, in a fallen condition, she, as the first humanist, pretended to have the autonomous ability and responsibility to determine for herself good and evil, Genesis 3:5. Who is man that he should ever take a neutral position to the command of the living God, much less put himself over the Word of God as its judge!
Before Christians can make any adequate critique of educational programs or make any significant contribution to the solution of our educational problems in America at all, we must dispose of the humanist myth of religious neutrality in education, politics and ethics. To be religiously neutral on any issue is impossible. To attempt to be so is to lay aside our Christian faith and Biblical truths, and to act as if God, Christ, and the Bible are irrelevant concerning those issues. But, man cannot live wholly or partly without taking God’s Word into account.
1) The Lordship of Christ over everything and everybody makes religious neutrality impossible. There is no area of life, no individual, no human activity, no aspect of the inner life of man, no institution, no moment in time, no place in the universe, now or ever, which is not the personal possession of Christ and under his sovereign jurisdiction, Daniel 7:14f, Ephesians 1:19f, Revelation 19:16. All individuals, all nations, and all institutions are accountable to live in submission to his Lordship in all eras and areas. Anything less or anything else is not neutrality. It is rebellion against God.
2) The all-embracing authority of the Bible as the Word of God makes religious neutrality impossible. The authority of the Bible, as the verbal Self-revelation of God, is inerrant, final, all-embracing, universal, inescapable, eternal and self-authenticating. The Bible is a light to our paths and a lamp to our feet. When we step outside that light we are in darkness, because it is only in it’s light that we can see light, Psalm 36:9, Isaiah 8:20. No area of life can be rightly understood, unless it is understood in light of the Word of God, Psalm 119. To disregard the laws and truths of the Bible on any issue is not neutrality, it is arrogant autonomy, i.e., the desire to play God.
3) The Nature of Religion makes religious neutrality in anything impossible. A person can never lay down his religion and act as a religion- less manner, because religion, (of whatever label), is the governing principle of all he does, is and says. Religion is like the “heart,” out of it flows the issues of life, determining all areas of human thought and experience, Proverbs 4:23, Mark 7:20. Religion is “the binding tendency in every man to dedicate himself with his whole heart to the true God or an idol.” In this sense everybody is religious because no one can escape being a person made in the image of God, created to worship and serve God, rebellious and unregenerate though he may be, Romans 1:15. Man is inescapably religious. The Christian, whose religion is that of the Bible and whose heart is held captive by the Word of God, may never think or live as anything other than a Christian governed by the Word of God. He is never his own person, having been “bought with a price.” He may not claim sovereign rights over his own opinions or behavior. He is a person under authority at all points of his existence. Attempting religious neutrality in education, or in anything else for that matter, is betrayal of Christ and his revealed religion.
4) The express statement of Jesus concerning the myth of religious neutrality is: “He who is not against us is for us,“ Mark 9:38. We are always acting and thinking in a way that is for Jesus or against Jesus. Between those poles there is no neutral ground in the entire universe. Trying to think and live with total religious objectivity, without any preconceived assumptions, and without any commitment for or against Christianity is is the deliberate suppression of the clear witness of God in our souls and in all of creation, Romans 1:18f. For which suppression of the truth in unrighteousness, we are without excuse before God, Romans 1:18f.
Education is not, and cannot be, something religiously or ethically neutral. All education is based on religious assumptions, either Biblical or apostate. As Henry Van Til write: “Human achievement is not purposeless but seeks to achieve certain ends, which are either good or bad. Since man is a moral being, his culture, (and education), cannot be amoral. Because man is a religious being, his culture, too, must be religiously oriented. There is no pure culture (or education) in the sense of being neutral religiously or without positive or negative value ethically. Although the realization of values in a culture may seem on the surface to be concerned merely with the temporal and the material, this is appearance only, for man is a spiritual being destined for eternity, exhaustively accountable to his Creator Lord. All that he does is involved in the whole of his nature as man.”
To attempt to act or think in a religiously neutral manner in any area is to commit the sin of Eve, (and Adam), who assumed that, after God has spoken to her and said, “Do not eat of the tree!, and after a neutral position and decide for herself and by herself which one spoke the truth. Thus, in a fallen condition, she, as the first humanist, pretended to have the autonomous ability and responsibility to determine for herself good and evil, Genesis 3:5. Who is man that he should ever take a neutral position to the command of the living God, much less put himself over the Word of God as its judge!
