For five years the Washington Elementary School District in Arizona had contracted with Arizona Christian University to place student teachers in their schools for field experience. The contract provided opportunities for recruitment and hiring for the students after college.
But on Feb. 23, the school board approved a motion to dissolve the partnership with ACU. The board wasn’t shy about its reason. Members of the board openly attacked ACU for its commitment to biblical values and to Jesus Christ.
It’s because they are Christians
Board member Tamillia Valenzuela initiated the motion to dissolve the contract. She explicitly stated that she opposed the Christian values of the university.
Valenzuela, who contends that she is advocating for LGBTQ values, said, “My concern is when I go to Arizona Christian University’s website, [they are] ‘committed to Jesus Christ, accomplishing his will and advancements on earth as in Heaven.’”
“Part of their values is… [to] ‘transform the culture with truth by promoting the Biblically-informed values that are foundational to Western civilization, including the centrality of family, traditional sexual morality, and lifelong marriage between one man and one woman,’” she said.
She criticized ACU’s mission to teach biblical values, advance a Christian worldview, and impact the culture for Christ. “At some point,” she said, “we need to get real with ourselves and take a look at who we’re making legal contracts with and the message that is sending to our community. Because that makes me feel like I could not be safe in this school district.”
Other LGBTQ advocates on the board agreed. Board member Kyle Clayton blasted the university for “teaching with a Biblical lens.” He said he was concerned when he “looked into not only their core values, but the statement of faith… [which they] ask their students to sign and live by.” In defense of the motion, he explained, “Proselytizing is embedded into how they teach. And I just don’t believe that that belongs in schools.”
The motion passed, and the contract was dissolved.
Legal action upcoming
The board’s anti-religious bias is brazenly unconstitutional. So, ACU is taking legal action. But maybe most disturbing is the board members’ transparent discrimination against not only ACU but also Christianity.
In fact, call it what it is—persecution.
The school board’s actions, and their belief that they are justified, illustrate the condition of our culture and what Christians can expect in the future. As I see it, here are three takeaways:
- It’s about ideology, not education.
The school board’s decision acknowledges more than it denies.
The members made no effort to mask their bias against Christianity with fuzzy references to Church and State, as if the presence of Christians might violate the Constitution. In the past, that would have been the go-to excuse for excluding Christians.
But today across the landscape of our culture secularists are embracing anti-Christian bias, so the board comfortably and openly attacked Christians for being Christians.
The decision of the board magnifies the agenda of the LGBTQ movement. They will not tolerate any ideas or beliefs that conflict with their own. And with the leverage the movement now wields in our culture, they see no reason to veil their true intentions. The agenda is to sideline and, if possible, squash any worldviews they disagree with. And certainly, the biblical view of marriage and family upheld for centuries in the Western world conflicts with their ideology.
By punishing ACU’s students for what they believe, the board is obstructing the ability of these students to enter the workforce, essentially denying those they disagree with the right to hold gainful employment.
They are not interested in equality, or even what ideas and practices are best for the kids. They are interested only in ideological supremacy.
- Parents are right to be concerned.
The actions of this board validate the parental angst spreading throughout the nation.
Public education systems have adopted the role of indoctrination. School boards are not advocating for the best educational processes and programs for all children. They are not even interested in children learning the basic skills that education previously provided.
Instead, school boards are adjudicating which ideologies will govern the education of our children. They are deciding the dominant worldviews kids will be exposed to for the duration of their formative educational years.
The Washington Elementary School District is not concerned that “proselytizing is embedded” in how Christians teach. The truth is, they just want to control who does the proselytizing.
- People don’t know what Christians really believe.
But they are wrong. The students from ACU are not “proselytizing” the children. If they were, it would be obvious by now. The Board has had five years to build evidence for it. But no such evidence exists. Only the presumption of guilt.
As a clear indication of how far-removed Americans are from the foundations of our culture, the entire scenario displays a surprising ignorance of Christianity, biblical beliefs, and our national heritage.
Most of the colleges and universities in the US were started by Christians. The educational systems in our nation began with Christian influence and the determination of Christians that all people should learn to read and write.
Why is that? Christians respect the freedom of the mind, created by God, to learn, reason, and seek the truth (Acts 17:2). Christians, especially evangelicals, are not afraid of education. We embrace it. Education that leads to the truth inevitably leads to God.
Contrary to the common cultural narrative, a Christian teacher in the classroom is far less likely to pontificate about her beliefs than the atheist is. Instead, Christians believe that all truth is God’s truth, that people have the freedom to choose, and that universal truths are the basis for all education.
In reality, when Christians live by biblical values, everyone benefits. Christians who live faithfully for Christ always make the culture better.
And Christians bring a host of other biblical values into the education system. Kindness, love, compassion, mercy, and a strong work ethic, to name a few.
Welcome to the new America
Arizona Christian University is absolutely right to have a statement of faith and values, and for its students to stand firm on their own values.
But, if actions like those of this school board are allowed, we should become accustomed to being denied a voice in the culture, a seat at the table, or a job in the marketplace simply because of what we believe.
And the time will come that the culture will actively pressure Christians to deny their beliefs in order to buy groceries, get jobs, or educate our kids. And that time may be sooner than we think.
This is the new persecution. This is the new America.
In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
2 Tim. 3:12