RELEASED-TIME PREACHING—By Clifton Rogers
RELEASED-TIME PREACHING---By Clifton Rogers PANEL DISCUSSION: RELEASED-TIME TEACHING
“Teaching the Bible in Connection with State Schools”
Clifton Rogers RELEASED-TIME TEACHING
What It Is
Released-Time teaching of the Bible in connection with State schools is very closely akin to Dismissed- Time teaching as just described. The Bible is taught as an elective for which one credit toward high school graduation is allowed. The requirements vary somewhat with each school system but are in main similar to those imposed by the Dallas, Texas, schools. However, instead of classes being conducted following regular school hours, the students are released during school hours for attendance at Bible classes.
Generally in small towns the students are released zone period each day for Bible classes in their respective church buildings near by—each student being released in response to parental request. In larger towns and cities the classes may be scheduled for classrooms in the school buildings. In either instance, there is the explicit understanding that this is released-time teaching for which there is to be no expenditure of monies by the school system. Who Teaches
When the classes are conducted at the church build-ings each religious group chooses its own teacher (generally the minister), with the requirement being that he or she have at least a high school education. Much the same procedure is followed in those programs where each religious group is privileged to teach a class in the school building. But in large high schools where only one instructor is provided for all Bible classes, the teacher is usually one who has been recommended to the School Board by the Ministerial Alliance of the community. The salary of the instructor is provided wholly by the Alliance or by other outside sources.
What Taught
Two courses of Bible study are usually offered: 1/2 credit in Old Testament and i/£ credit in New Testament. When the classes are conducted at church buildings the teachers are free to give whatever emphasis to the lessons they may desire. When the instruction is given in the school classrooms, the “nondenominational” rule must be followed—“the Bible only,” without sectarian emphasis. Your Part
Recognizing the splendid value of studying the Bible daily under circumstances which require real “learning,” several responsibilities become yours as a citizen in your community. If such instruction is not offered in the high school, you may deem it very important that you work for such a program. At the very outset you must come to a decision concerning the relative values of Dismissed-Time and Re- leased-Time teaching. If you decide that the latter has definite advantages over the former, you need yet to decide between classes at the church buildings or at the school buildings. In the former greater freedom is provided in actual teaching, but in the latter more students will study the Bible without sectarian bias (and, if you are the instructor, more nonmembers will be exposed to the truth).
If, on the other hand, the Bible is being taught each day in a school classroom, you must helD your son or daughter decide whether or not to enroll in the course directed by one not a member of the church of Christ. Too, you can anproach the problem from a more positive standpoint by trying to assure that a member of the church will be the instructor. Sincere, humble, prayerful effort in this direction may bear fruit sooner than you have imagined. True, the minister (as would-be-teacher) may have to explain to the Ministerial Alliance just how only the Bible will be taught, but this does not require affiliation in any way with the Alliance. The School Board’s concern in the matter relates to general public approval of their actions—a fact which you can well appreciate.
Moreover, in a number of instances where each re-ligious group was privileged a Bible class either in the school budding or in church buildings nearby, the strenuous demands of such daily instruction prompted most of the groups to “drop out” within two or three years. At Gilmer, Texas, this very condition developed, and it was my privilege to teach two large classes a day of high school students of many religious convictions. Can the whole counsel of God be taught under such an arrangement? Certainly so. The restriction “only the Bible” is not a restriction but a liberty. Upon occasions the principal may be urged by parents to question the teacher (as was my experience) concerning the “sectarianism” of various lessons. Example: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” When the Bible is opened before the principal and explanation is made that this is but an accurate reading of Acts 2:38 without sectarian interpretation, the response nearly always is, “Well,, that's what it says, doesn't it?”