Christianity has been of the greatest importance to the USA since the time when the first settlers stepped on the Plymouth Rock. Ever since the USA has upheld the Christian values teaching them as mandatory in schools and even conducting witch hunts. At present the church is separated from the State to assure the normal functioning of other religions, while being no longer mandatory, but rather optional for studying. In the following essay I am going to speak about the Christian education as always being the option for the citizens of the USA and to explain the importance of Christian education and the role it plays in our society.

Christianity has constantly played a great role in human education in Europe as well as in the USA. The first schools in both Europe were Catholic that taught high moral standards and compliance with the God’s rules. After the Protestant reformation, the role of Catholicism was drastically reduced. When the first settlers arrived to the USA, the religion they were teaching in schools was Protestantism. Christianity educated people in schools while placing certain limits on the human development. Unlike Catholic and Orthodox churches that highly believed in God’s dominance and written scrutiny and therefore rejected various sciences that are anti-religious (genetic engineering, nuclear sciences, etc.), protestant churches considered good deeds and helpful behavior to be of the ultimate importance to God. Protestant churches believed that God created any sciences possible; therefore it was a human duty to study as much as possible as well as proclaiming God and expressing God in all human achievements.

Christianity if taught at schools leaves a great stigma on the students. The statistics say that students who study Christianity and Christian values at school are much less likely to engage in illegal activities such as underage drinking, promiscuous sex, and carrying arms. In US schools from all students who engage in the illegal activities only 12% of them are students studying Christianity or are engaged in Christian schools.

On a more personal level I believe that Christian education is of great importance to the whole country. Students in their teens are only forming their future character and certainly need various people to take example from. It is no wonder that in poor schools and in what we call bad neighborhoods, the crime rates are much higher—children that grow up in violent environment are in my opinion are going to be violent. It is a common fact that boys that grew up in families where fathers beat up their wives are more likely to also beat up their future spouses like their fathers. All these examples indeed show us the importance of education in the early years of human life and make us understand that education should be of great value to the society. Christianity on the other hand discourages arms, sex before marriage, as well as drinking. When exposed to Christian morals, students are more likely to develop personal attitude that would allow them to resist the peer pressure, engage in profound studying and strong desire for excellence. This shows the important role of domestic security that the Christian education provides for the society that promulgates Christianity in schools.

At the same time, Christianity being only optional provides the necessary freedoms to students of other religions, or even atheists who do not want to be influenced by the religious thought. The freedom or choice, makes the Christian teachers compete for the students and therefore not to abuse the Christian moral as it happens in areas of the world where Christianity is dominant (e.g. in Serbia and Horvatia Christianity prompted the people to eradicate the Muslims from the Christian land).

In conclusion I would like to say that the Christian educational option in fact provides a wonderful complementary material to students in the USA. The statistics that show reduction in violence, loose behavior or engagement in illegal activities corroborate the practical importance of Christian education, while the separation of church and state assures that no single religious leader can take control of the political life in the USA. The role of being the crime reducer that the Christian education represents the true need of such education in the society.

By: Tim Johnson