Preparing For the Crossfire: Equipping Evangelical Administrators for Service in Public Schools

At church on Sunday you hear…

“The Church systematically, seemingly without guilt, turns one generation after another of children over to a pagan, godless, secular education system that turns them from the faith.”

Ken Ham & Greg Hall, Already Compromised, p. 101

At work on Monday you hear…"These people have serious anger-management issues. From the speakers’ podium, one hears a constant blast of hate directed at the enemy du jour: gays, feminists, non-religious people, university professors, 'liberal elites,' evolution, Democrats, the media, Muslims, Keith Olbermann, Hollywood, progressive Christians, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, public schools, global warming, France, etc….Yeah, I know the Religious Right claims to love the sinner and hate the sin, but after listening to two days of this, I usually conclude that the movement’s followers don’t love anyone who fails to agree with them.”

Rob Boston reporting on “Values Voters Summit”in Wall of Separation, September 17, 2010)

Americans United for Separation of Church and State

How well is your program preparing Evangelical leaders to

deal with this crossfire?

EITHER:

IGNORANT “…did not know what ‘evil forces’ were at work in your school…”

OR EVIL“…acting as a tool of evil forces even though you say you are a Christian.”

(Adler, 1996)

Program PossibilitiesTEACH THE CONFLICTMODEL THE VISIONANALYZE EVANGELICALS CONFRONT COMPARTMENTALIZATIONTARGET SUSTAINABILITY

TEACH THE CONFLICT

Long historyFacet of multiculturalismConflict as opportunity

MODEL THE VISION

Cosmopolitanism (Appiah)Convivencia (Hicks)Common GoodServant LeadershipSocial Justice

ANALYZE EVANGELICALS

Unique importance in American culturePractical importance as leaderWindow to other faiths

CONFRONT COMPARTMENTALIZATION

Starts with the leader“Secular Spirituality” (Flintham)Mine faith traditions for resourcesCheck for role conflictPractice of “faith at work”? (Miller)

TARGET SUSTAINABILITYWounded Leader (Ackerman & Maslin-Ostrowski) Reservoirs of Hope (Flintham) Tempered Radicalism (Meyersen) Adaptive Change Leadership (Heifetz, et al)

PROVIDE

“Campfires” and “Caches”

Gary Sehorn:gsehorn@georgefox.edu