I’ve never been a social justice person. In fact, I’ve been upset many times about the church meddling in any affair that is not directly related to the winning of souls. Please be certain that this is still my primary concern. The church was never supposed to enter into the public arena, from my limited knowledge of the scriptures.
Yet teaching children is something that believers were told to do. In many respects, it was an assumed art. Of course, Proverbs tells us that we are to, “train up a child in the way he should go…” I grant you that the public school system in America is in no way related to the sort of schools that kids went to in Biblical times. Often those schools were simply teaching kids the Law.By the way, "simply" is a misnomer. Of course I believe learning God's law is vital.
Let me be clear: I don’t think we should be mixing Christianity and the public school system. I’m not calling for prayer in school, etc. What I’m talking about is churches realizing that a problem exists: That low-income students in the United States are not keeping up with their peers when it comes to education. That is what we mean when referring to the “Achievement Gap;” that an educational achievement gap exists between students who’s parents have and students who’s parents have not. This is unsatisfactory.
Let me be frank:
I believe the church can close the achievement gap.
I believe it should.
Stay tuned for further explanation.