Bring Your Bible to School Day

Bring Your Bible to School Day

The Brees Connection:

If you’re like me, this national holiday is one that I’d never heard of… that is until Drew Brees was caught up in its promotion last week. He issued a short video that showed him giving a ‘thumbs up’ to the organization behind the drive.

Here’s what Heavy.Com Sports blogger, Johnathan Adams, wrote: “Drew Brees found himself in controversy heading into Week 1 [of the NFL schedule] after appearing in a video for Focus on the Family as part of the ‘Bring Your Bible to School Day.’ The video clip is just 22 seconds long but raised some concerns about the organization putting on the event, Focus on the Family. Outsports.com referred to Focus on the Family as ‘one of the main anti-LGBTQ lobbying groups’ in the country. Brees emphasized he was only aware of the specific event when he agreed to do the video.”

Wow! Talk about ‘stepping in it’, Drew tried to extricate himself from the mess only to ‘promote’ the holiday even more.

Not going there:

Let’s just say, that’s another whole can of worms that I’m not opening up… in this article.

Nor do I want to focus on the organization behind the event. Focus on the Family, focusonthefamily.com, is a pseudo-religious group out of Colorado Springs, CO. It was founded by Darryl and Tracy Strawberry. He was an outstanding baseball player, lastly with the NY Yankees. And she is his 3^rd wife of 13 years. The goal of Focus on the Family is, as per their website, ‘To cooperate with the Holy Spirit in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as possible by nurturing and defending the God-ordained institution of the family and promoting biblical truths worldwide.’

While I may not agree with everything they teach and espouse, I do applaud their good intentions. 

What is Bring Your Bible to School all about?

According to the website, they answer this question with this statement: On Bring Your Bible to School Day— this year’s event is on Oct. 3, 2019 — students across the nation will celebrate religious freedom and share God’s love with their friends. The event is designed to empower you as a student to express your belief in the truth of God’s Word–and to do so in a respectful way that demonstrates the love of Christ.

I don’t have a problem with this national movement to promote God’s word. Obviously, one question arises out of this movement. What are the legal ramifications surrounding such a mass deployment of faithful believers of the Bible? They explain it this way:

1) First Amendment rights: As a student in a public school, you have First Amendment rights to engage in voluntary, free speech conversations in a way that does not interfere with or substantially disrupt classroom time and academic instruction.

2) Equal Access rights: Student clubs (including Christian ones) and individuals also have equal access rights to participate in the same free speech expressions and activities already allowed by the school for other clubs and individuals.

So, students have a legal right to bring their Bible to school and can comment on their faith in the Word of God. However, we all know that school districts across the country are gearing up for this onslaught of religious freedom. And their FAQ addresses these issues.

We are the Word of God:

However, whether you want to participate in this particular demonstration of faith on October 3^rd is totally up to you. Nevertheless, this brings to mind the countless attempts over the past 2000 years to quash God’s word. And yet, here we are in 2019 still faithful and true to His word. Hallelujah!!

First off, we are the light of the word, just as our Lord was.

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life. (John 8:12)

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. (Matt. 5:14)

Furthermore, Jesus became the Word incarnate to illuminate the grace and truth of God.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it… And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-5 & 14)

In Romans 13:14 & Eph. 6:10-18, the apostle Paul instructs Christians to ‘put on Christ’ and His word as if it were body armor. And he further writes in Colossians 3 to take in Christ culminating in verses 16 & 17.

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

Therefore, any spear thrown at us by Satan’s disciples will bounce off this protective layer, the Word of God. And all they will see is the Living Word when they look at us.

So, when we are at school, work, the grocery store or anywhere we happen to be… others should see that we are not only carrying the Bible with us, but that we are the Word of God, incarnate. And that our lives are so much like Christ’s, we glow with the Glory of God. For, we are the Light of the World dispelling the Darkness of sin and doubt.

Michael Choate