In June of this year, Kentucky joined Florida, Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Virginia, and Kentucky in an attempt to allow public schools to offer a Bible history course to students. Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin took a great step in the right direction. We should pray for this initiative. At the same time, we should also pray beyond teaching the Bible as a historical document to reinstating the Bible to the foundational place it held in the early classrooms of our nation. Restoration of the instruction of Biblical content will not only transform education but will also transform America.

From America’s inception, the Bible was the foundational book in our schools and held first place in instruction. As early as 1642, Pilgrims who lived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed laws that stressed their children be taught to read the Bible for themselves and be able to read the laws of the land.

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One hundred years after the Puritans’ first laws, Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), known as the “Father of Public Schools under the Constitution,” stated firmly that the Bible was to be read in public schools in preference to all other books. The Biblical foundation instilled in children developed a strong internal moral code which enabled them to live by God-given principles that made America great. Biblical teaching instructed children to revere God as their creator and know Jesus as Lord and Savior.

All of that changed in 1845 with Horace Mann, known as the Father of Public Education, who diverted education away from its biblical foundation. Mann, as Secretary of Education in Massachusetts, convinced the legislature to grant money to start the first secular public schools financed with taxpayer money. Mann, a Unitarian, hated Calvinism and rejected any notion of a personal experience of salvation. At the time, opposition to public schools was so prevalent that Horace Mann and his supporters secretly organized the placement of people in communities for the sole purpose to lobby in such a way to sway public opinion toward government schools. The Calvinists of the day who feared the long-range effects of secular education stated, “We do not need this central, all-absorbing power; it is anti-republican in all its bearings, well-adapted perhaps, to Prussia, and other European despotism, but not wanted here.” (The Christian Witness 1844)

Mann, well-financed with taxpayer money, overcame the Church’s objections and established schools that taught secular, watered-down religion that attempted to retain moral content without referring to Jesus or conversion. After 150 years, we now have the fulfillment of Mann’s dream with failed public schools that no longer allow the Bible or prayer in its classroom. Our foundational moral compass destroyed, we reap the harvest of spiritual depravity evident in our culture. Now is the time to pray for the restoration of our Biblical foundations.  

• Lord, I pray your people rebuild the Biblical foundational truths that once prevailed in our classrooms. (Is 58:12)
• Restore your Word to our children, so it is a lamp to their feet and a light to their paths. (Ps 119:105)

About the Author: Nancy Huff is an educator with a mission to equip believers to pray strategically for the Cultural Mountain of Education. She has authored Taking the Mountain of Education: A Strategic Prayer Guide to Transform America’s Schools. She leads prayer groups to pray at key educational locations across the US. Currently, Nancy serves as the Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network (HAPN) Lead Prayer Coordinator for the Mountain of Education. For additional information go to: https://takingthemountainofeducation.com/author/nancyahuff/