The State Is a Terrible Sunday School Teacher
TL;DR: While biblical literacy from public schools is a small good, the state cannot replace the church's and parents' primary role in spiritual formation.
I want my kids to know the Bible better than they know their favorite video game. As a Christian dad, that’s my deepest prayer for them. So when news broke this week about another state pushing to include Bible passages in mandatory public school reading lists, a part of me felt a flicker of hope. But it was quickly replaced by a deeper concern.
Putting Scripture in front of more students feels like a win, but we must ask: a win for what? If our goal is genuine, life-altering faith in Jesus Christ, then the state is a terrible Sunday School teacher .
This isn't just a theoretical debate anymore. With several states actively changing their curricula, Christian parents and educators are wrestling with this in real-time. The conversation is happening at school board meetings and around dinner tables. And the arguments, both for and against, carry significant weight.
The Allure of Cultural Literacy
The strongest case for teaching the Bible in public schools is cultural literacy . As Joe Carter argues at The Gospel Coalition , you simply cannot understand Western civilization, art, literature, or law without a basic knowledge of Scripture. How do you make sense of a novel’s reference to a “prodigal son” or a politician’s mention of a “Good Samaritan” if you’ve never encountered the source material?
Ignoring the Bible is historical malpractice. It leaves a gaping hole in a student’s education. On this point, I completely agree. Exposing a student to the literary and historical power of Genesis, the Psalms, or the Gospels is undoubtedly a net positive for their general education. It gives them a framework for understanding the world they’ve inherited.
But education is not the same as discipleship.
The Strongest Objection: Whose Gospel?
The most compelling counter-argument, and the one that settles the issue for me, is that the state cannot teach the Bible as the Word of God . It is legally and institutionally incapable of doing so. A public school teacher, who may or may not be a believer, is tasked with presenting the Bible as just another ancient text, a piece of literature alongside Homer’s Odyssey or Shakespeare’s Hamlet .
As Bryan Baise notes in a counterpoint article for The Gospel Coalition , this approach risks inoculating students against the Bible’s true power. When the resurrection is taught as a “story element” and the cross as a “symbol,” the supernatural, saving truth of the Gospel is stripped away. It teaches students about Jesus, but it cannot introduce them to Jesus.
This creates a dangerous illusion of knowledge. A student might pass a test on the parables but walk away thinking he understands Christianity, having never once been confronted with his own sin or his need for a Savior. This secularized “Bible class” can actually harden a heart to the real thing.
The mission is fundamentally different, as is the authority behind it.
Feature · Public School Instruction · Church & Family Discipleship
Primary Goal · Historical and literary literacy · Spiritual formation and salvation
Authority · State curriculum, secular interpretation · The Holy Spirit, inspired Word of God
Teacher · Certified educator (any worldview) · Believing parent, pastor, or mentor
Expected Outcome · Cultural knowledge, critical analysis · Repentance, faith, and sanctification
The God-Given Mandate
Scripture is clear about where the primary responsibility for spiritual instruction lies. It’s not with the government or the school system. It’s with us—parents, and by extension, the local church.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (KJV)
This is a 24/7, life-on-life commission . It’s teaching our kids God’s Word when we’re driving to soccer practice, when we’re tucking them in at night, and when they come to us with hard questions. Delegating this sacred duty to a state-approved curriculum is an abdication of our primary calling.
As I’ve written before, I’m not celebrating these kinds of policies . They lull Christians into a false sense of security, making us feel like the culture war is being won in legislatures while we neglect the real battleground: our own homes and churches.
This is a weighty responsibility, but thankfully, we are not left to our own devices. We have the Holy Spirit, the fellowship of our local churches, and incredible resources to help us. The future of Christian education in an age of AI means we have more tools than ever to help our kids understand Scripture deeply. This work of spiritual formation is the primary task, one that technology can support but never replace.
If your kids come home with questions from a school reading of Isaiah, you need to be ready to explain the prophecies of the suffering servant and how they point to Christ. When you feel unequipped, tools like the AI Bible Assistant at FaithGPT can be an incredible help, providing historical context and theological insights to prepare you for those conversations. But the tool doesn't do the discipling; it equips you to do it.
So, am I against having the Bible read in schools? Not entirely. I’ll take a student encountering Psalm 23 over not encountering it at all. But we cannot fool ourselves into thinking this is a substitute for the real work.
Let the schools teach the letters, but let the Church teach the Author.
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