{"id":8601,"date":"2014-01-09T10:47:30","date_gmt":"2014-01-09T15:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=8601"},"modified":"2014-01-09T10:47:30","modified_gmt":"2014-01-09T15:47:30","slug":"dont-rely-on-the-state-to-legitimize-your-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/01\/dont-rely-on-the-state-to-legitimize-your-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Rely on the State to Legitimize your Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s state-run schools all include religious education. \u00a0In most districts, students can pick from Catholic, Protestant, or the secular \u2018Civics\u2019 in order to get a grounding in ethics and philosophy. \u00a0Recently, one of Germany\u2019s states, responding to demographic change, has added \u2018Islam\u2019 to the mix. \u00a0After another holiday season of fights over state-sponsored Christmas displays and perennial cases of school prayer,\u00a0\u00a0some American religious activists might envy Germany\u2019s casual integration of religion into civic life, but, as I discuss this morning at\u00a0The American Conservative<\/em><\/a>, faiths that seek legitimization from the state may find they\u2019ve been recast as something a little more anodyne and Moral Therapeutic Deism-y than they\u2019d like:<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>, the courses are intended to salve concerns about exclusion and to try to influence their assimilation in the style of\u00a0Henry Ford\u2019s English School<\/a>:<\/p>\n

By offering young Muslims a basic introduction to Islam as early as first grade, emphasizing its teachings on tolerance and acceptance, the authorities hope to inoculate young people against more extreme religious views while also signaling state acceptance of their faith.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2026When running classes in Islam, generally, the German schools run into the same conflicts that must come up when they give students classes in generic Protestantism.\u00a0Already, in one community<\/a>, a group of Sunni parents are trying to keep members of the\u00a0Ahmadiyya reformist sect<\/a>\u00a0from influencing the curriculum. When schools teach religion as a matter of ethics, not history, school administrators must either run ecumenical councils or, more likely, just set a curriculum more in line with the school\u2019s goals than the faith\u2019s.<\/p>\n

What would a Christian ethics course in this mode look like? Perhaps\u00a0the story of the loaves and fishes<\/a>\u00a0would be retold, as has become popular, as\u00a0a miracle of sharing<\/a>. After all, that\u2019s a salutary lesson for first graders!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Culture warriors end up hearing so much rhetoric against protecting the State or its citizens from religion that they tend to forget the church\/state divide also protects the Church from being co-opted or appropriated for temporal ends. \u00a0Just because your ideological enemies oppose a policy isn\u2019t a reason to endorse it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Head on over to\u00a0The American Conservative<\/em><\/a> to read the rest of the essay.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Germany\u2019s state-run schools all include religious education. \u00a0In most districts, students can pick from Catholic, Protestant, or the secular \u2018Civics\u2019 in order to get a grounding in ethics and philosophy. \u00a0Recently, one of Germany\u2019s states, responding to demographic change, has added \u2018Islam\u2019 to the mix. \u00a0After another holiday season of fights over state-sponsored Christmas displays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":8602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[64],"class_list":["post-8601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-morality-in-practice","tag-churchstate"],"yoast_head":"\nDon't Rely on the State to Legitimize your Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Germany's state-run schools all include religious education. \u00a0In most 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