Integrating Faith, Law, Learning and Practice

All teaching and learning must be faith integrative by identifying common elements across the spectrum.

Philosophy and Mission February 27, 2020

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1).

“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love (Galatians 5:13).

The purpose of Seventh-day Adventist education is both redemptive-reconciliative and integrative. Redemption and reconciliation are product end goals of church, home and school, and integration is the process, procedure or method by which we achieve the product goal.

Jesus adopts a systems approach of input, process and output. He takes us as we are, raw inputs of humanity, and through a teaching-learning integrative process of faith (spiritual beliefs), law (secular precepts) we become the outputs of His character as evidenced in our practice of daily living. We receive progress feedback at every stage of the system.

Integration is a major teaching and educational strategy. We are comparing elements across faith, and law, enabling us to learn several concepts simultaneously from both the secular/legal and religious/faith world. In the United States, the Constitution is the ‘mother of all laws,” and in that Constitution is embedded the First Amendment which distinguishes five freedoms:

  • Freedom of speech or expression
  • Freedom of religion with its Exercise and Establishment clauses (we do nothing to establish a religion or nothing to prevent its free exercise thereof)
  • Freedom of assembly and/or association
  • Freedom of the press
  • Freedom to petition

Do these freedoms enable us to do what we want at all times? Absolutely not! There are limits on the freedom of speech both in written and expressive form, especially in private schools.

Speech may be expressed based on the time, place and manner of speech, and in private schools the purpose of the content, as to whether it aligns with the mission and philosophy of the school.

The overall interests of the school are paramount—instruction and mission are premium; any freedom of expression in the school must not incite violence, cannot cause danger, must not impede the progress of others and sometimes is restricted to certain times and places. Whereas, public schools are wards of the state, private schools are not, and speech allowances or prohibitions are driven by institutional mission and purpose as expressed in handbooks.

In Galatians 5, Paul expounds on freedom. For the Galatians, freedom had been the libertine, individualistic freedom of their own ethical system to do what they wanted to do at any time. The Jews were constricted by their laws of circumcision as entrance to the gospel. Paul sought to free them from that enslavement, so that they could become free to serve Christ.

Both Galatians 5 and the First Amendment recommend restraint and limits on freedom. We are free but our freedom must not jeopardize another person’s salvific welfare. We are free to speak within the context of the gospel, to assemble for gospel purposes, and free to witness.

There is integrative common ground between the First Amendment and Galatians 5. Law, faith, learning and practice intersect. All teaching and learning must be faith integrative by identifying common elements across the spectrum.

Author

Sylvan A. Lashley

E.D., J.D., Associate Pastor, South Atlantic Conference, USA. Served in pastoral districts, high school principalship & superintedent and four college presidents in three countries. www.sacsda.org

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