A research group asked the question: Could businesses or workplaces benefit from more spirituality? The persons polled responded with 61% saying: Yes. About 4% were unsure and 35% said: No. The margin of error was determined to be plus or minus 3%. Other polls and research show that about two of three persons believe that something needs to be done in private and public life to nourish the spiritual concerns of the majority of persons. Founders of the United States acknowledged this majority concern when they incorporated or permitted various practices in both public and private American life. Congress was given its chaplains, as were the military. Deity references appeared in official documents, and printed on legal tender; exclusion of taxes was afforded non-profit religious institutions; and, so the story goes. To strengthen the point, the government was forbidden to make laws that would hinder the free practice of faith on the part of citizens. This last was a stroke of magnificent insight. Many nations make laws either denying freedom of religion, or access for any faith group not approved by the national authority.
When I went to public school my first grade class was begun with prayer. When I went to public high school, our student chorale, under the direction of Mary Albright Hanson, sang Christian anthems arranged by the eminent Professor Christiansen of St. Olaf College. Our public school often had concerts in churches. We students, formed with Catholics, Protestants, Jews and other identities, sang the same lyrics with gusto. (I was spiritually a near nothing identity until my last semester.) A close friend in grade school was Merwin Solomon, a Jewish lad. My best friend in high school was Donald Mike Kelly, an Irish Catholic. During my senior year I noticed a pretty girl, Joanne Ries, singing in the school chorale I was in. Evangelical Christians, Joanne Ries, with Esther Burger and Lola Jean Albright, formed a fine trio singing beautiful songs in high school without printed scores. We were not offended at the differences in our basic beliefs, and we were in a context where respect for each was engendered. So we proceeded. We tended to believe that somehow there was a spiritual meaning we would likely address in the future. Freedom, respect, tolerance, and a spirituality allusion as a meaningful issue seemed to manage us.
It was out of this milieu that I became a Christian. Could that happen today? I am unsure, but if it happens for young students in the public context, it seems to happen with some difference than that which touched us in the 1930s. Today the spiritual needs of mankind are sublimated to gratify humanists, using government to protect non-beliefs. Some rights may have realigned since my youth. No wonder home schooling has grown so dramatically. Public students may act destructively to refined culture: or openly hold wholly humanistic beliefs, sometimes carnal interests; or developing rough conversation and swearing; or join gang-like activity; but strictly avoid religious or values references or activity. Currently bullying is a big and unhappy experience in public schools across the nation. No prayer at commencement; no anthem, if God’s name is in it; and, surely no commandment from Moses is to be identified as a truth. So we limit access to God who gave us our freedoms in the beginning, and sustains creation. He urged education. When did reference to God become, prejudice, presumption and interruption? The Christian favors decency and love, improving society’s values coming from whatever source. Christianity is personal, but a free public product proclaimed by Christians asking little but respect and freedom from society to advance its gospel of hope for human beings. It holds out for the right for all to hear the creative affirmatives – the way to God’s gifts. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020