BIBLE-BASED CURRICULA AND THE CRISIS OF SCRIPTURAL AUTHORITY

by John H. Walton, Laurie D. Bailey, and Craig Williford

Reprinted with permission from Christian Education Journal XIII:3 (Spring 1993) 83-94.

As usual, Sunday morning had been hectic. . . dropping off kids in their classes, getting the baby settled in the nursery . . . trying to find five different people concerning one thing or another. . . not to mention trying to make islands in all of this for productive learning and reflective worship. But now the family had finally gathered around the table for Sunday dinner. This was important family time for distilling out the most positive and significant aspects of the Sunday morning experience.

"What was your story about today?" I ask my 3-year-old.

"Cain and Abel," he answered. I began to feel concern, wondering how such a sensitive story would be presented to 3-year-olds.

"Well, what did you find out about Cain and Abel?"

"God made their bodies" came the nonchalant reply. I quickly affirmed the truth of that but pressed for more.

"What did Cain and Abel do?" I was probing to find out how the issue of sacrifice had been handled.

"They didn't do anything," was the reply.

As it turned out my son had been neither forgetful nor inattentive. The story card sent home confirmed that (thankfully) neither sacrifice nor treachery were discussed at this tender age. The point of the lesson was "God gave us bodies." I was left to muse about what this curriculum was teaching my son indirectly about interpreting the Bible when stories were manipulated in this way. He was being raised in an evangelical church that used evangelical curriculum. But would he learn how to interpret the Bible properly if the curriculum that shaped his education often ignored the actual teaching of the text and molded the stories to its own purposes? What was he taught that morning that conveyed the authoritative teaching of God's Word from Genesis 4?