The First Commandment in Public Schools

Now that Arizona Public School teachers are free to teach the 10 Commandments in public school (see Supreme Court decision Kennedy v Bremerton School District), what are some of the details that can be taught? Let’s simply consider the First Commandment. Here is how the Westminster Larger Catechism describes the duties commandment:

“104. What are the duties required in the first commandment?
The duties required in the first commandment are, the knowing and acknowledging of God to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify Him accordingly, by thinking, meditating, remembering, highly esteeming, honoring, adoring, choosing, loving, desiring, fearing of Him; believing Him; trusting, hoping, delighting, rejoicing in Him; being zealous for Him; calling upon Him; giving all praise and thanks, and yielding all obedience and submission to Him with the whole man; being careful in all things to please Him, and sorrowful when in anything He is offended; and walking humbly with Him.”

There is enough there for a whole semester so I will need to just focus on one point at a time. These go together: knowing God, to be the only true God, and our God, and worshipping and glorifying Him. That means these are true things, they can be known to be true, we should know them to be true, and they affect how we live.

Consider particularly how the current public education system teaches, sometimes overtly sometimes by implication, skepticism and atheism. Skepticism is the idea that we cannot know the truth about these matters. But, not surprisingly, this leads to the neglect of the worship of God. A skeptic could reason to themselves: “I don’t know one way or the other if God exists, but I am going to worship Him.” This is a form of Pascal’s Wager, and I’m not suggesting it is the way to go. I’m just highlighting that skepticism doesn’t need to lead to living like an atheist. And yet it does.

Kids learn by observation. They see the parents in their lives neglect the worship of God. They see their teachers ignore these subjects. That is the atmosphere in which their education occurs.

Now, a teacher is free to offer an alternative. God can and should be known. And the teacher need not just say this but can offer the proofs to show it. God’s works reveal who He is to everyone. Those works reveal His glory. And that is the basis for the worship of God. The first commandment leads naturally into the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer: Hallowed be Thy name.

This is a wonderful time to be an educator in Arizona.