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Christianity has been of utmost importance to the United States since the time the first settlers set foot on Plymouth Rock. Since then, the United States has championed Christian values by teaching them compulsory in schools and even conducting witch hunts. Currently the church is separated from the state to ensure the normal functioning of other religions, although it is no longer mandatory, but optional for study. In the following essay I will talk about Christian education as always the option for US citizens and explain the importance of Christian education and the role it plays in our society.
Christianity has consistently played an important role in human education in both Europe and the United States. The first schools in both Europes were Catholic which taught high moral standards and respect for God’s rules. After the Protestant Reformation, the role of Catholicism was drastically reduced. When the first settlers arrived in the United States, the religion they taught in schools was Protestantism. Christianity has educated people in schools by placing certain limits on human development. Unlike the Catholic and Orthodox churches which strongly believed in God’s rule and written control and therefore rejected various sciences that are anti-religious (genetic engineering, nuclear sciences, etc.), the Protestant churches considered good deeds and helpful behavior as fundamental importance to God. Protestant churches believed that God created all possible sciences; therefore it was a human duty to study as much as possible as well as proclaim God and express God in all human achievements.
Christianity when taught in schools leaves a great stigma on students. Statistics say that students who study Christianity and Christian values in school are much less likely to engage in illegal activities such as underage drinking, promiscuous sex and carrying a gun. In US schools of all students who engage in illegal activities only 12% of them are students studying Christianity or are engaged in Christian schools.
On a more personal level, I believe that Christian education is of great importance for the whole country. Students in their teens are just forming their future character and certainly need various people to look up to. It’s no wonder that in poor schools and what we call slums, crime rates are much higher: in my opinion children who grow up in an abusive environment will be violent. It is a common fact that boys raised in families where fathers beat their wives are more likely to hit their future spouses as well as their fathers. In fact, all these examples show us the importance of education in the first years of human life and make us understand that education should have great value for society. Christianity on the other hand discourages weapons, sex before marriage and drinking. When exposed to Christian morality, students are more likely to develop personal attitudes that enable them to resist peer pressure, engage in in-depth study, and a strong desire for excellence. This demonstrates the important home security role that Christian education provides to the society that promulgates Christianity in schools.
At the same time, Christianity being only optional provides necessary freedoms for students of other religions, or even for atheists who don’t want to be influenced by religious thought. Freedom or choice, makes Christian teachers compete for students and therefore not abuse Christian morality as happens in areas of the world where Christianity is dominant (e.g. in Serbia and Horvatia Christianity has pushed people to uproot Muslims from Christian Earth).
In conclusion I would like to say that the Christian educational option indeed provides a wonderful complementary material to students in the United States. Statistics showing reductions in violence, lewd behavior or engagement in illegal activities confirm the practical importance of Christian education, while the separation of church and state ensures that no single religious leader can take control of political life in the United States. The crime-reducing role that Christian education plays represents the real need for such education in society.