A true story. Some years ago I was invited to serve on a community task force to work with the local school district. This was in suburban Minnesota (Twin Cities). At the time I was teaching at Bethel College, a broadly evangelical liberal arts Baptist college.
The US Supreme Court had recently ruled that public schools could teach “community values”—beyond merely “values clarification.” The school district invited me and about twenty-five other “community leaders” to advise them about “community values.”
We, the task force, met in a large room and were divided in groups of five. We sat around large, round tables each with a large sheet of paper on which we were to write community values.
When the several pages were hung up for all to see, one value was at the top of every list—“love.” Below that were (in different orders): honesty, compassion, friendship, learning, etc.
When the school district published its list of community values love was noticeably missing. I made an appointment with the district’s superintendent and talked with her about the reason why it was missing. She said that love is not a secular but a religious value and therefore could not be taught in a public school. I reminded her that the SCOTUS said “community values” without ruling out religious ones. Eventually she let me know it was time for me to go. The decision would not be reconsidered. Love was out because it is too closely aligned with religion, especially Christianity.
I agreed with her about love being a “religious value” in that there is no secular reason for love—as a value or virtue. I pointed out to her that “compassion” is also not a secular value; it depends on love. She didn’t disagree, but for some reason stood with the decision to omit love.
The story illustrates something about Christendom in America. In many places Christianity is taken for granted, especially in terms of values, whether people explicitly acknowledge that or not. And in the same places, often, elites (university graduates with graduate degrees tasked with governing public institutions) resist anything that smacks, to them, of religion, especially Christianity.
My vision of “soft Christendom” is that love, love of God and neighbor, should be taught as at least a good value in public spaces. People should be permitted, of course, to disagree. But when a list of community values goes up in a public school, love should not be omitted insofar as it is truly a community value. And, in some way, love, especially for the weak and helpless, should be instantiated as a value in public policies.
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