God's Choice: The Total World of a Fundamentalist Christian School

Professors who teach educational psychology at the member colleges and universities of the Association of Christian Schools International were surveyed concerning their approach to teaching educational psychology. Sixty-two surveys were returned from the 169 schools. The survey indicated that 96.7% of the responding schools offer a major in education and require their education majors to take a course in educational psychology. A majority of the respondents were very interested in approaching the topic from a biblical perspective and desired more resources to do so. An outline is presented of the challenges that must be overcome before a learning theory that is both scientific and biblical can be developed and empirically verified.     

Christian Community in Action: Bruderhof Schools

The Bruderhof communities in the United States have organized their own private schools with a distinctly Christian philosophy of education, adding to the interesting mix of American private and religious schools. Rooted in early 20th century German pedagogy, romanticism, and shared responsibility, Bruderhof schools represent the essence of a pluralistic environment in which citizens can choose to educate their children in ways that are consistent with their personal philosophy and at the same time supportive of the good of the entire society. This article explores the Bruderhof educational philosophy as exhibited in their communities and their schools.     

The Legal Rights of Students with Disabilities in Christian Schools

The adoption of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) and the Education for All Handicapped Children's Act, now the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), have had a major impact on the delivery of services for children with special needs.

In light of the legal issues surrounding the delivery of special education to children who attend Christian schools, the remainder of this article is divided into two parts. The first section opens with an overview of relevant litigation pertinent to special education before reviewing Sections 504 and the IDEA, along with its regulations, as they apply to religious schools. The second part offers practical suggestions for educators in Christian elementary and secondary schools as they work to serve children with special needs.     

English,Christian or Muslim Law: Deconstructing Some Myths

Archbishop Rowan Williams's 2008 lecture, “Civil and Religious Law in England: A Religious Perspective,” has become an historic reference point for discussions about relationships between Islam, religious law and English law. One of the Archbishop's heart-felt pleas was for “deconstruction” of myths about both Islam and the Enlightenment. Continued stereotypes perpetuated by the “Trojan Horse” debate over Birmingham schools and the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo event suggest the plea went unheard. This article aims to address factors that prevent objective assessment of the relationship between English law, religious laws, Islam and other faiths. It is hoped that this will help the deconstruction of myths by examining what the law says, the claims religious communities make and whether further change is needed. The relationship of religious laws, norms and courts to secular legal systems is a pertinent topic for Christian–Muslim dialogue to which it is hoped that this article might contribute. Amongst issues considered are the scope for more formal recognition or monitoring of religious laws that have an impact on the lives of some UK citizens, and arguments for recognition on the basis that a democracy should reflect all parties to its citizenship and protection of the most vulnerable. As calls for further recognition of religious laws arise, the deconstruction of myths can only smooth the way for their objective assessment.     

Origin Stories: Same-Sex Sexuality and Christian Right Politics

In this paper, we examine dominant Christian conservative narratives of the origins of same-sex sexuality. Critics of the Christian right usually focus on a narrative of choice that Christian right organisations and activists use to explain the origins of same-sex sexuality. A choice narrative grounds a range of political positions and, in many contexts, effectively neutralises both claims of discrimination and public support for potential legal remedies. On the other hand, a narrative of development receives less attention from critics of the Christian right. Although it cannot be reduced to its political efficacy, the narrative of development has a political as well as therapeutic function. Indeed, this narrative circulates tacitly through a different set of public debates than those usually associated with the narrative of choice, including debates over programmes geared to eliminate antigay harassment in public schools. The two narratives create tensions within Christian conservative thought that can destabilise antigay social and political projects.     

Comparative Religious Ethics and the Politics of Christian Identity

I present a brief historical narrative of the legacy of Christian ethics in comparative religious ethics (CRE) that attempts to make sense of the tensions within the field from the perspective of the politics of identity with reference to its changing content and practices—its internal history—and what might be called the background conditions—its external history—that shaped not only the content and methods of CRE but also its self‐understanding. Given the politics of Christian identity and the historical development of religious ethics within the American academy, I recommend that scholars of CRE adopt a more confessional mode of inquiry that makes explicit their ultimate commitments.     

Christian Affiliation,Christian Practice,and Attitudes to Religious Diversity: A Quantitative Analysis among 13- to 15-year-old Female Students in the UK

Within the context of the “Young People’s Attitudes to Religious Diversity” project at the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, this study examines the association between self-assigned Christian affiliation, self-reported Christian practice, and attitudes towards religious diversity among a sample of 5,748 13- to 15-year-old female students attending schools in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The two hypotheses being tested are that, among female students, nominal Christians do not differ in their attitudes towards religious diversity from unaffiliated students and that church attendance leads to less tolerance of other religious groups. The data partly support the first hypothesis but not the second. Churchgoing Christian female students are more interested in and more tolerant of other religious groups. The data also draw attention to the perceived importance of religious education in schools for shaping views on religion and on religious diversity among unaffiliated students, nominal Christians, and practising Christians. Both the Christian churches and religious education in school seem to have an important part to play in nurturing a tolerant and inclusive religiously diverse society in the UK.     

A Research Agenda for Christian Schools

This report describes a project conducted to determine the areas of research required to support Christian schools as they carry out their task in a changing world. The project was carried out through an email survey and phone interviews of leaders of schools associated with two Christian school organizations—the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) and Christian Schools International (CSI). The survey sample included school-based educators, university professors, and education coordinators of the two Christian school support organizations. The topic that received the most concern and response specific to Christian schools is the integration of school mission and practice.     

Discipleship and Spirituality from a Christian Perspective

Spirituality is an important aspect of being a human. One may approach this topic from a purely psychological or religious perspective. In this paper, it is argued that spirituality as defined from a purely psychological perspective is inadequate to capture the depth of this human experience because it misses the core of spirituality—discipleship. Following Foster’s (1998) Streams of Living Water, it will be argued that discipleship is the core of Christian spirituality, and each of these streams provides an important context for fostering one’s relationship to the transcendent.     

Measuring the Contribution of Independent Christian Secondary Schools to Students' Religious,Personal, and Social Values

From the late 1960s independent Christian schools have emerged in England and Wales, initiated either by churches or by parents. Many of these new independent schools are linked through the Christian Schools Trust. The impact that these schools are exerting on their students may be of interest for the churches with which they are associated and of concern for wider society. The political debate concerning these schools has so far been informed by only a small number of empirical studies conducted in England and Wales. The present study extends previous research in three ways. It offers a comparative study by examining the responses of 271 year-nine and year-ten students (age 13 to 15 years) from 11 independent Christian schools with 20,348 students from 93 schools without a religious foundation. It examines a range of religious, social and personal values. It employs multilevel models to identify the contribution made by independent Christian schools after taking into account personal, psychological, and contextual differences within the students themselves. The hypothesis was that Christian schools were committed to developing distinctly Christian values among their students. The data supported this hypothesis. Even after allowing for differences in the religiosity of the students themselves, attendance at an independent Christian school was associated with higher self-esteem, greater rejection of drug use, lower endorsing of illegal behaviors, lower racism, higher levels of conservative Christian belief, and more conservative views on sexual morality (abortion, contraception, divorce, homosexuality, and sex outside marriage).     

Should Liberal States Subsidize Religious Schooling?

Many liberals and secularists believe that religious schooling should not be publicly funded or that it should simply be banned. Challenging those views, I claim that although liberal states may refuse to fund and may even ban certain illiberal separate religious schools, it is impermissible, for distinctively liberal reasons, to completely ban publicly funded religious schooling. I will however argue that providing religious instruction within common public schools is more desirable than having separate religious schools. I argue that providing religious instruction within common public schools (for all religious options with enough adherents) is a better way to balance the educational interests of parents, children and society than (1) banning religious schooling altogether; (2) authorizing it but refusing to fund it; (3) or having publicly funded separate religious schools.     

The Question of Conscientiousness and Religious Engagement in Public Schools

In this paper, I examine the question of how to nurture and develop conscientiousness thinkers and future citizens of diverse liberal-democratic societies from the perspective of virtue epistemology (VE). More specifically, I examine this question in terms of how public schools might frame engagement with religious perspectives in the classroom. I begin by distinguishing between good and bad conscientiousness through an exploration of current work in the field of virtue epistemology. I then follow Kenneth Strike in his defense of the need for a more robust engagement with religious perspectives as a liberal educational imperative. I argue that basing a framework for engagement on VE, particularly the notion of subjective justification, has significant benefits. My main interest in developing a framework for what I deem to be a necessary supplemental dimension of citizenship education focused on religious engagement is in underlining the responsibility that liberal educators have in regulating what is often a highly contentious and unfortunately caddish debate surrounding religion and the religious. I conclude that by eschewing this responsibility educators are potentially missing out on significant resources for supporting the liberal-democratic educational agenda.     

Religion,education and conflict in Northern Ireland

The aim of this article is to re‐evaluate and reaffirm the contribution of the churches and of Christianity to the realization in Northern Ireland schools of legitimate and progressive educational values such as the cultivation of tolerance, moral integrity and civic virtue. Implicit in this is a critique of educational initiatives that seek to undermine the influence of Christianity in schools. There is also discussion of the reasons why the increasing secularization of education in Northern Ireland should be resisted. The paper begins with a brief historical overview of the ongoing tension between religious and secular influences in education and notes the ways in which developments in education have tended to marginalize religion and to denude public education of Christian religious content and influence. Critical attention is then given to the role of religion in the Northern Ireland conflict, for it is the conviction that the conflict is religious that provides much of the stimulus for efforts to secularize education and schools. This is followed by some brief comments on the positive role that religion can play in religious education and in schools. The article concludes with a brief review of the reasons why a proper balance between secular and religious influences in schools in Northern Ireland should be maintained.     

Christian hip hop as pedagogy: a South African case study

Drawing on interviews with creators of Christian hip hop music in South Africa, this article demonstrates that this genre of popular music and youth culture is utilised as a form of pedagogy to transmit religious beliefs and values to contemporary youth. The pedagogical aspects of hip hop have been recognised in research on the topic, but the religious pedagogical uses of hip hop have been under-analysed within the social sciences. After outlining the global development of hip hop as a pedagogical practice, this article will demonstrate that, under the influence of North American Evangelicalism, South African Christian hip hop attempts to promote Evangelical orthodoxy and orthopraxy in response to the secular and religious practices of South African youth.     

Countering anti-Muslim attitudes among Christian and religiously unaffiliated 13- to 15-year-old students in England and Wales: testing the contact hypothesis

ABSTRACT

Drawing on data provided by 5,811 students from schools in England, Wales, and London who self-identified as either ‘no religion’ or as Christian, this study explored the effect of the contact hypothesis (having friends who are Muslims) on scores recorded on the seven-item Scale of Anti-Muslim Attitude (SAMA), after controlling for type of school (with or without a religious character), location (England, Wales, and London), personal factors (sex and age), psychological factors (extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism) and religious factors (self-assigned affiliation as Christian, worship attendance, and belief in God). The data demonstrated the positive effect of having friends who are Muslim on lowering anti-Muslim attitudes. The path is then described from educational research to curriculum development in the design of resources that offer young learners vicarious experience of having friends who are Muslims.     

Post Christian pastoral care: the wisdom of not knowing

Emergent religious pluralism leads many of us to reflect on pastoral care practices that have evolved mostly within the Judeo Christian tradition. This article makes public my reflections and offers ideas for a ministry of curiosity that is more conversant with an increasingly Post Christian society.     

KAGAWA'S COSMIC PURPOSE AND MODERNIZATION IN JAPAN

Kagawa Tyohiko (1888–1960), who was a well known Christian leader and social reformer, is re‐evaluated from the perspective of a public philosophy, and as an example of the possibilities for collaboration and conflict between science and the religious humanities in East Asia. His last book, Cosmic Purpose, which appears to be a kind of natural theology, is analyzed from the perspective of the hidden topic of human evil. By considering Kagawa's deep religious sensibility and conscience, the book can be interpreted to reflect on the wrong directionality selected by modern Japan's leaders that resulted in the tragic war.     

Christian and Political Conservatism Predict Opposition to Sexual and Gender Minority Rights through Support for Christian Hegemony

Although significant strides have been made for sexual and gender minority (SGM) rights in the United States, there continues to be opposition to SGM rights from many conservative Christians and political conservatives. In this study, we investigate this opposition by examining support for Christian hegemony (i.e., the idea that Christianity should be the norm and Christians should be in power in the United States) and unawareness of Christian privilege (i.e., unearned advantages for Christians) as religiopolitical variables that help to explain the association between Christian and political conservatism and opposition to a host of SGM rights (same-sex marriage, same-sex adoption, nondiscrimination policies in jobs and housing for SGMs, and bills regarding transgender public bathroom use). Based on structural equation modeling analysis with heterosexual cisgender Christian (n = 688) and Areligious (n = 327) students, we demonstrate that support for Christian hegemony and unawareness of Christian privilege help to explain the association between Christian and political conservatism and opposition to SGM rights. These findings advance our understanding of a new type of religious-based variable focused on religious power and privilege to help understand conservative religious and political opposition to SGM rights. Limitations, implications, and directions for future research also are discussed.