Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Politics and Religion
Is God Absent From Public Schools? What About Emmanuel?

Is God Absent From Public Schools? What About Emmanuel?

Last updated on: December 16, 2024 at 12:48 pm by Christy Thomas

0 Comments

Is God Absent From Public Schools? What About Emmanuel? 2024-12-16T12:48:41-05:00 Christy Thomas

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Is God absent from the Oklahoma public schools? That’s the claim. If so, I want to know what that looks like. Or let’s cancel Christmas.

Is God absent from public schools? Then it puts a lie to the whole Christmas story.

Image generated by ChatGPT.

Oklahoma’s superintendent for public instruction, Ryan Walters, is on a mission. He is convinced that he has the power to “bring God back to schools.” Friends, that is a lot of power.

Apparently, this all-powerful Creator of the Universe decided to leave. Or flunked out. Or maybe got kicked out because of a need to include the “least of these,” like maybe gay teens, Muslims and Jews, in the center of all-encompassing Holy Love. Whatever happened, Walters, declaring that God is absent, is convinced he’s got what it takes to push God back in.

My take: best of luck to him. I think he may be overestimating his influence over the Holy One. Plus, he completely negates the Christmas story.

Remember the narrative from Matthew Chapter 1:

“She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”

That’s the whole premise and the whole promise of this season: Yes, God IS with us, both in the light and in the darkness. In other words, God cannot be absent and there be any truth to the Incarnation.

What does that “God is absent” place look like?

Nevertheless, this Incarnation-denying Don Quixote-like quest to “bring God back” brings me to wonder what a place where God has left looks like.

I ponder my years of studies on the nature of God, or as much as we puny, limited humans can understand about the nature of God. I contended then and still believe that, even with our limitations, we can certainly take a stab at it.

The Scriptures testify clearly that love centers the nature of God, with justice and mercy being the primary ways of expressing that love.

Love, justice and mercy characterize the presence of God.

If God indeed departed the public schools in Oklahoma, then there must not be one loved child, not one caring teacher, zero just and corrective discipline, and nary a moment of gracious forgiveness offered to anyone in any classroom or administrative space anywhere.

And I am having a hard time believing that is the situation.

Think with me for a moment: what does a place empty of the Presence of the Holy One, the Immanuel, look like? Perhaps we can get a glimpse of it from what the news reports are saying about the unreal conditions in the prisons of deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. When the rebels opened the doors, they found . . . something approaching hell.

Prisoners were killed in mass hangings or tortured to death, including by being deprived of food, water and medicine.

Syrian authorities would then dump them in mass graves.

And yet, I’m betting even in these horrific conditions, some of those imprisoned, starving, tortured people found tiny moments of compassion for each other. Their non-imprisoned relatives still loved them. Even there, God is not absent. Even in the worst of darkness, the love of God persists. We may have a hard time finding it, but it is there.

Truly, the absolute absence of God is . . . absolute hell. That is the place where love cannot be, where all justice is twisted with the guilty rewarded and the innocent punished, where grudges are held forever and mercy never granted, where kindness makes no appearance, where the oppressed are further trampled and the privileged live without accountability, where music is forever silenced, where hope may no longer poke its head above the ground and breathe freely.

If that describes the God-vacated Oklahoma public schools, they need to close. Right now.

What kind of God/god do we want in our public schools?

So what does Ryan Walters, whom I’m sure is genuinely sincere in his assertions, really want? With all due respect, he doesn’t want the Holy, Merciful, All-Encompassing and Justice-seeking-for-the-oppressed God that is revealed in the Holy Bible, the One who favors feeding the hungry over rewarding the powerful.

Instead, Walters wants the god that has been created by small minds, the god who excludes the desperate foreigners and condemns the ones who don’t fit the “I am a girl’s girl/I am a boy’s boy” absolute divide, today’s editions of yesterday’s lepers. He wants the “I created the world in seven days” god rather than the One whose creative abilities hold this entire, ever-changing/ever-evolving apparently infinite universe together.

Walters, and so many like him, want the safe god. The god who doesn’t demand that we recognize our punyness, our ignorant prejudices and our casual dismissal of the full humanness of those who are radically different from us. This is the god that rewards our smallness and pettiness and does not insist we take a hard look at our dark and disturbed souls.

The problem: the God of the Bible, the one that showed up at the time of the Holy Birth, is not safe. Not safe at all. And most of us would rather not go to these unsafe, holiness-demanding spaces.

But I promise you this: the unsafe Holy God is not absent, however much we seek to replace the Holy One with the god of our own making. God is present. And God is seeking justice and mercy for least of us.

That’s our job: do justice and have mercy. God’s already here–we are simply making God’s presence more visible.

Evangelical

Politics and Religion

Education and Religion

Oklahoma public schools

Ryan Walters

About Christy Thomas

The Thoughtful Pastor is one woman’s way of making sense of the world, especially the intersected world of religion, business, and politics. I think, question, and connect odd dots. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

December 10, 2024

My First World Life VS Mary's Magnificat

Next Post

December 30, 2024 Five Thoughts About New Mercies And New Year's Resolutions

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Stepping away from his campaign for 13 days handed his opponents a gift which they ..."

Bob Shiloh

The Lies and Hypocrisy Are Degrading ..."

"Thank you. We really do need to practice what we preach. And hardly any of ..."

The Rev. Dr. Christy Thomas

The Lies and Hypocrisy Are Degrading ..."

"Mrs. Thomas, Reverend Jefferies became the pastor of First Baptist Dallas in August 2007 – ..."

glen smith

I Ache For The People Of ..."

"I sent you a reply which for some reason was not deemed appropriate for posting. ..."

linda_rob

I Ache For The People Of ..."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category " obedience abortion accommodation accountability administration adolescence Advent advice an ordinary death anxiety apology apportionments Ash Wednesday ask thoughtfulpastor baptism betrayal Bible bondage calling certainty change character charity children Christianity Christmas church church as garden clergy clergy credentials closure comfort compassion competition compromise Confirmation conservation conservative conspiracy theories consumer conversion coronavirua corruption courage covenant cultural context death Deconstruction discipleship discord divorce doctrine doing good drugs dysfunctional Easter Easter; Resurrection education election entertainment envy escape evaluation evil exclusive church exercise faith faithfulness family fasting fear feast featured film review finances first world problem food forgiveness fundamentalist garden gay marriage General Conference generosity giving thanks GLBT glory good government grace guilt habit happy harmony hateful acts healing health health care heaven hell hello/goodbye heresy hidden agenda holiness homelessness homosexuality humility hymn hypocrisy Imago Dei In training inclusive church indulgence injustice innocents insurance intolerance itinerancy joy Justice kindness Kingdom of Heave kingdom of heaven language laughter laundry lawsuit leadership Lent LGBTQ liberal life Little Things Matter longform meandering thoughts memories mercy metaphor metrics miracle misfortunes morality Mormon Muslim mystery worship natural disasters New Category Name nutrients older adults oppression pain Paleo paperwork partnered pastor peace pension pharmaceutical placebo politics poverty prayer privilege public schools questions quiet racism rain reason reconciliation religion repentance requirements rescue respect rest resurrection retirement Sabbath sacrament sacred salvation same-sex marriage sanctuary schism schooling science SCOTUS secrecy separation of church and state sexism sexuality short cuts silence sin sleep soil spiritual journey stillness suffering surgery sustainable church teacher technology thank you theology therapy thinking tolerance TOS trust truth Uncategorized welcome Why Easter? wisdom women worship

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 December 2025 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 March 2025 February 2025 December 2024 November 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 April 2024 March 2024 January 2024 December 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 October 2022 September 2022 July 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 October 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 January 2020 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 July 2007 March 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz