Teaching without Fear, Part 7: Easter in Your Classroom

How can public school educators teach about Easter's religious aspects? Well, as I've written about Christmas, you can teach all about the religious nature of a holiday as long as it's done academically and objectively-not devotionally. Besides its religious value for Christians, the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus has historical and cultural relevance for non-Christians. Teaching students the New Testament story has academic value.

Academically Expected

Some states provide educators with detailed standards for what students should learn about the Bible and Christianity. For example, in California, sixth-grade students are expected to:

"Note the origins of Christianity in the Jewish Messianic prophecies, the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament, and the contribution of St. Paul the Apostle to the definition and spread of Christian beliefs (e.g., belief in the Trinity, resurrection, salvation)."

The new California History-Social Science framework (adopted in July 2016) also adds that students should learn that "Jesus shared the Jewish belief in one God, but he added the promise of eternal salvation to those who believe in him as their savior." (See 189)

In Massachusetts, seventh-grade students are expected to:

"Describe the origins of Christianity and its central features. A. Monotheism; B. the belief in Jesus as the Messiah and God's son who redeemed humans from sin; C. the concept of salvation; D. belief in the Old and New Testament; E. the lives and teachings of Jesus and Saint Paul."

As part of World History, states across the country expect students to learn about the teachings and beliefs of Christianity. Of course, the death and resurrection of Jesus is the central teaching of Christianity.

The Easter Story and Commonly Used Terms

Several terms we use in literature and conversation come from the Easter story. We talk about somebody being a Judas - that is, a traitor. To suffer under something is referred to as "your cross to bear." To be criticized unfairly and persistently is sometimes referred to as being "crucified." An action or relationship that ruins someone is referred to as "the kiss of death." To disassociate from someone or something can be referred to as "washing my hands of this." A person who refuses to believe something until shown proof can be referred to as "a doubting Thomas."

Cultural & Historical Connections

Teachers can help students make cultural connections, whether it's history, literature, art, or social movements.

Leonardo da Vinci painted his idea of The Last Supper. The legends of King Arthur refer to the quest for the "Holy Grail" -- the cup or plate used by Jesus during the Last Supper which supposedly holds magical powers.

William Shakespeare assumed that those who attended his plays knew the stories in the Bible. He made hundreds of references to the Bible. For example, in his play King Richard the Second, the king says: "So Judas did to Christ: but he, in twelve, found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand, none. God save the king! Will no man say, amen?"

During the Civil War, a popular song was entitled "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." It is still well known across the country today. You may recognize its stirring chorus, "Glory, glory, hallelujah! His truth is marching on." It reflects a spiritually-motivated desire to end slavery and references the sacrifice of Jesus as an example to live by. For example, one verse reads: "In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on." A later version changed the words to "let us live to make men free."

In 1963, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was jailed for his civil rights actions. Some people called him an extremist-being too bold and going too far in his activities. He wrote a response, entitled "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." He used the Bible to explain the importance of being extreme for goodness. He used the death of Jesus as an example:

"In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime-the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists."

J.R.R. Tolkien was an English author who wrote The Lord of the Rings. He was a Christian and used biblical allusions in his writing. For example, Gandolf's dramatic fight against the giant demonic figure Balrog of Moria illustrates the battle between good and evil. Gandolf sacrifices himself to save his friends, but later is "resurrected" in robes of white and appears to Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas in a forest.

Ben Myers lists twenty-five of his favorite pieces of literature that use Christ imagery. These include Don Quixote, Jim in Huckleberry Finn, Billy Bud, Jim Casey in The Grapes of Wrath, Aslan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea, and Simon in Lord of the Flies.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

Terminology It may be helpful to use the term "recognizing Easter" rather than "celebrating Easter." Using the word "celebrate" may cause some people to feel that you are promoting religious participation in the holiday. There is a difference between "participating" in the holiday in a devotional manner and "recognizing" the holiday in an engaging academic manner.

It is also best to teach about Easter using words of attribution such as: "Christians believe...;" "The Bible says...;" "Martin Luther King, Jr., referenced the crucifixion when he wrote...;" and so forth.

Reading the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus to students is permissible to help students gain a basic academic familiarity with a person who has influenced so many people throughout history in government, art, literature, music, and social movements.

Presented with an eye toward education, not endorsement or devotion, recognizing the religious aspects of Easter is a legitimate academic activity.

CLICK HERE to download the textbook-style Easter lesson.

RESOURCES:

Click here to order our Easter Card for teachers.

Alliance Defending Freedom - What Can Be Done in Public Schools Regarding Religious Holidays

Literary Christ Figures (Power Point used in South Plantation High School - Plantation, FL)

How to Identify a Christ Figure in Literature (from Mill Valley School District - Mill Valley, CA)

How to Tell the Easter Story in Public School

Education leaders from around the country recognize the importance of students learning about the Bible. For example, California’s sixth grade academic standards expect that students will learn about "the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament" (History-Social Science Content Standards for California Public Schools, p.26)

In Massachusetts, seventh graders are to "describe the origins of Christianity and its central features: A. monotheism; B. the belief in Jesus as the Messiah and God’s son who redeemed humans from sin; C. the concept of salvation; D. belief in the Old and New Testament; E. the lives and teachings of Jesus and Saint Paul." (Massachusetts History & Social Science Framework, p. 90)

In Florida, sixth grade students are to, "Identify key figures and the basic beliefs of early Christianity and how these beliefs impacted the Roman Empire. Examples are Christian monotheism, Jesus as the son of God, Peter, and Paul.” (Florida SS.6W.3.13)

Objectivity

It is important when teaching students about a religion, that you remain objective. The best way to achieve this is by attribution. For example, when introducing this lesson on Easter, explain to students that it is from Luke’s account of the life of Jesus. Use phrases such as, "Luke wrote that...," or "The Bible says...".

When referring to beliefs about the story, use phrases such as "Christians believe...," or John Newton believed..."

Your goal should be to introduce students to the story and help them understand the influence it has had on history, literature, art, and music. The lesson is not designed to prove the story is true, nor question whether the story is accurate.

According to the U.S. Department of Education’s guidance on religious expression in schools:

“Public schools may not provide religious instruction, but they may teach about religion. For example, philosophical questions concerning religion, the history of religion, comparative religion, the Bible (or other religious teachings) as literature, and the role of religion in the history of the United States and other countries all are permissible public school subjects.”

As a teacher, you can be confident in addressing this topic. This story has had significant influence in world history and should be understood as such. You are not teaching Sunday school; you are teaching history, literature, art, music, and language arts.

CLICK HERE to download our free textbook-style lesson on Easter. Make copies and share it with your students.

A Model of Christian Charity

This week marks the anniversary of John Winthrop’s sermon delivered to his fellow Puritans aboard the Arabella before landing in the New World in 1630. The most famous line from his sermon is: “We must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all the people are upon us.”

His message makes for a good civics lesson today. Students should read Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity” and reflect on the relationship between moral conduct (specifically, loving one another) and civil society.

Winthrop posed a question, asking how people of different status (rich and poor) should treat one another. His answer was that the colonists should live with an eye toward the good of the whole society. Contrary to today’s caricature of Puritans being cold-hearted, he urged the members of his society to live a life of love for one another.

He gave practical application for the colonists by urging them to show mercy by giving generously to those who had need without expecting to be repaid, and to show justice by lending fairly to those who wanted to borrow and had the means to repay. He told the colonists that giving should not be motivated by the need, but by the love for the one needing. He said, “Nothing yields more pleasure and content to the soul than when it finds that which it may love fervently; for to love and live beloved is the soul’s paradise both here and in heaven.”

To apply his message, he urged the people, “We are a company professing ourselves fellow members of Christ.” He reminded them that they live “by mutual consent” and “the care of the public must oversway all private respects.” They should operate as the prophet Micah urged, “…to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”

It was in this context that Winthrop delivered his most famous portion:

"For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world."

He continued by quoting Moses in Deuteronomy 30:

"Beloved, ‘there is now set before us life and death, good and evil,’ in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and to keep his Commandments and his ordinance and his laws, and the articles of our Covenant with Him, that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land whither we go to possess it."

Winthrop ended with this warning:

"But if our hearts shall turn away, so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced, and worship other Gods, our pleasure and profits, and serve them; it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land whither we pass over this vast sea to possess it."

The Puritans were establishing a civil society guided by their religious faith. They believed in the idea of separate Kingdoms -- the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Man. They left Europe where the two realms were blended. However, they saw the need for civil government to function in alignment with biblical principles. Exactly how to do this, as more people came to their colony, was a challenge. Historian Edmund Morgan referred to this as “the Puritan dilemma” -- how to do right in a world that does wrong.

The Puritan Message Throughout American History

The Puritan message, that a civil society requires a moral society, echoes across American history. Benjamin Franklin emphasized the importance of a free people being a moral people. In 1787, he wrote, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As people become more corrupt and vicious [full of vice], they have more need of masters.”

John Adams warned the newly-formed United States of America:

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice [greed], ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." (From John Adams to Massachusetts Militia, 11 October 1798)

In standing against the injustice of segregation, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail:

“How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.”

The debate about virtue and liberty continues. Does civil liberty mean having the freedom to do as we please or the freedom to do as we should? The Puritan idea of having the consent of the governed assumed the governed had the moral capacity to live as they should. As our country drifts from the values of its Christian heritage, we are in peril of ruining the very freedom we so lust after. The Puritan dilemma is still with us today.

Classroom Discussion Questions

1. What do you think is the best view of freedom for a society: Does liberty mean having the freedom to do as I please or the freedom to do as I should?

2. If civil liberty is the freedom to do as I please, why would we have laws?

3. If civil liberty is the freedom to do as I should, how does a society decide what I should do?

4. Are there absolute principles that all people should follow? If so, where do those absolute principles come from?

5. What are the commonalities between the quotes from Winthrop, Franklin, Adams, and King?

How Christian Missionaries Changed the World

Teach public school students how the world benefits from Christianity

Too many public school students only learn about Christianity by studying the Crusades, the Inquisitions, and the Salem Witch Trials. It is important that they learn the rest of the story. Students of all faiths, and no faith, should understand the impact of Jesus on the world.

Robert Woodberry, a political science professor at National University of Singapore, conducted extensive research on missionaries’ impact around the world. His findings were published in the highly respected American Political Science Review with the title, “The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy.”

Woodberry and his research team found that:

“Conversionary Protestants [missionaries] were a crucial catalyst initiating the development and spread of religious liberty, mass education, mass printing, newspapers, voluntary organizations, most major colonial reforms, and the codification of legal protections for nonwhites in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These innovations fostered conditions that made stable representative democracy more likely— regardless of whether many people converted to Protestantism.”

Literacy

In a later lecture, Woodberry explained, “missionaries wanted people to read the Bible in their own language, which meant poor people and women needed to be able to read — which now we think is normal but at the time was a revolutionary thing.”

He gave specific examples of his findings. For instance:

“The people of Nagaland and Mizoram (North-East India) did not have a written language before the 1890s; they were hunter-gatherer people. And now they are almost all Baptists. Kerala and Goa have large Catholic populations and a significant number of Protestants by Indian standards. These areas have the highest literacy rates in India, particularly women’s literacy.”

Printing

Woodberry found similar patterns regarding mass printing. He points out that “for hundreds of years, people knew how to print and didn’t do it….nobody copied printing until you get Protestant missionaries coming along and printing tens of thousands of texts trying to convert people.”

Economic Prosperity

Woodberry also spoke about the missionaries impact on economic prosperity. For example:

“Missionaries also taught other things in addition to reading; they taught concepts of private property, they spread new skills, they spread new crops. In Ghana they introduced cocoa and cotton, various things like that where they were trying to help indigenous people make money and have self-supporting churches.”

Social Movements

The history of nonviolent social movements is also linked to missionaries. Woodberry points out that, today, people think the activities in social movements (organizing, printing pamphlets, public speaking, petitions, etc.) arise naturally. “However,” Woodberry found, “those techniques were pioneered, for the most part, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and they were pioneered mostly by nonconformist Protestants and evangelical Protestants in England and the United States. And they are the people who spread them around the world.”

Reflecting on the impact of Christian missionaries, he tried to find other explanations for the civilizing effects. He admitted, “It startled me certainly when I first found those results, and I spent a lot of time trying to make them go away…and they didn’t go away.”

He acknowledges the complexity of both good and bad actions of missionaries. “You can find examples of almost anything if you look hard enough.” However, he concludes his research with this:

“What we consider modernity was not the inevitable result of economic development, urbanization, industrialization, secularization, or the Enlightenment, but a far more contingent process profoundly shaped by activist religion.”

Woodberry’s research adds to what Historian Rodney Stark, in his book The Triumph of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success :

“Christianity created Western Civilization. Had the followers of Jesus remained an obscure Jewish sect, most of you would not have learned to read and rest of you would be reading hand-copied scrolls. Without a theology committed to reason, progress and moral equality, today the entire world would be about where non-European societies were in, say, 1800.”

* * * * * * 

Curriculum Connections

Teachers can introduce students to Woodberry’s findings in academic topics such as:

1. European colonial activity in Africa and East Asia

2. How democracy spread around the world

3. Economic development in the world

4. The history of social movements in underdeveloped countries

5. How scientific knowledge spread globally

6. The role of literacy in modern development

SHARE YOUR IDEAS for how to use Woodberry’s research in your classroom. CLICK HERE

Additional Resources

How Christianity Changed the World, by Alvin Schmidt

The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy, American Political Science Review

Religion and the Roots of Liberal Democracy, The Centre for Independent Studies

Woodberry Lecture: The World the Missionaries Made

A Little-Known MLK Sermon - "Rediscovering Lost Values"

Black History Month

An inspiring sermon America needs to hear,

"Rediscovering Lost Values" (1954)

The Rev. King, motivated by his Christian faith, stood, marched, and spoke to advance civil rights. While many people know about his "I Have a Dream..." speech, few have heard the inspiring sermon he delivered in Detroit in 1954 - "Rediscovering Lost Values."

His message, then, is just as relevant for America today:

"My friends, all I'm trying to say is that if we are to go forward today, we've got to go back and rediscover some mighty precious values that we've left behind. That's the only way that we would be able to make of our world a better world, and to make of this world what God wants it to be and the real purpose and meaning of it. The only way we can do it is to go back and rediscover some mighty precious values that we've left behind."

• To read the sermon, click here.

• For a more powerful experience, read the printed text while listening to Rev. King deliver his 1954 message by clicking here or watching below.