Thousands of Children Are Trapped by Educational Inequality
Education has the equalizing power to turn a captive into a king's advisor. This truth spans millennia, as powerful today for American students as it was for young people thousands of years ago.
The cries of the Israelites in Psalm 137 reveal how an entire nation mourned its captivity:
"By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept…On the willows there we hung up our lyres. How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?" (Psalm 137: 1a, 2a &4a)
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Yet in the midst of Israel's darkest moment, unimaginable hope broke through the gloom. Four young men from the tribe of Judah stepped onto Babylonian soil as captives, as did all their friends and relatives. Yet they proceeded to attain the highest positions of leadership within their captors' government.
How were they set free to free others? What made the difference for these four young men? There were many young men of noble birth chosen from the exiles to take part in the same government leadership program, but there was something special about Daniel and his friends that prepared them to think critically, choose wisely, and act courageously when everyone else around them faltered.
They loved God with all their hearts, all their souls, and yes, with their minds. It is easy to see that these young men received the best education possible in Babylon, held to the highest standards. The Babylonians understood the power of knowledge. What they never anticipated was the power of consecrated, educated minds prepared and equipped to change the world for good.
Today, thousands upon thousands of children, images bearers of God, are held in a captivity of sorts in America. They have not been taken as spoil by a conquering king, but are trapped by racial and educational inequity which restrains their God-given potential. According to U.S. News and World Report, the academic achievement gap between black and white students has barely narrowed at all since the Civil Rights Movement. The chains of inequality that have bound minority children for generations are holding fast. It is up to us, the followers of Jesus Christ, to bring Biblical Justice to these children. We can begin by setting higher standards in every state of the union and ensuring education opportunities for all America's children.
National Education Sunday, September 3, 2017, has been set aside for Christians to focus on the value of high quality education for every child. This year, for the first time, National Education Sunday will be celebrated across all 50 states. In worship services all over America, Christians from a variety of denominations and ethnic backgrounds will unite with a common goal: quality education for all children regardless of zip code, ethnicity, or income.
On Education Sunday, Christians will seek to honor the image of God in the children who fill our schools, empowering those who were once captives to inequality to become the leaders of tomorrow. Churches will pray for their local schools and hear from educators about how to best support students in their communities. Congregations will bless backpacks, collect school supplies, and many will launch ongoing partnerships in support of public, private and home school educators.
As we secure education opportunity for "the least of these," we prepare them to change the world just as four Jewish youth did in Babylon. We empower them to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind." (Luke 10:27)
Nelson Mandela said, "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children." Let us follow the example of Christ, who so valued the children that He stopped everything to bless them. There is no better time to begin than now, and no better place to bless children than our churches and schools. May we bless America's children with quality education for all.
