Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting with Senator Claire Chandler. Senator Chandler is a Federal Member for the Liberal Party here in Tasmania.
It was refreshing to be able to openly discuss some of the concerns with Senator Chandler that our schools have about the proposed changes to anti-discrimination legislation that are being put forward by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC).
During the meeting I talked about the desire we have for our schools to remain distinctively Christian as we focus on our vision of being a transformational Christian learning community and uphold our mission of providing the highest quality Christ-centred education to our students and how our distinctive has given our families the opportunity to choose this type of schooling for their children for over 60 years. There has been much discussion recently about the ALRC’s proposed changes to anti-discrimination legislation. These changes, if adopted, would have a significant impact on Christian (faith-based) schools like ours, as they would effectively remove the exemptions that currently exist that up until now have allowed us to discriminate in our employment practices on the basis of faith — being able to hire only Christian staff whose faith and values aligns with ours. I believe that one of the challenges we have in this space, is that there is a broadly misunderstood view of what the purpose of Christian education is and why being able to continue to employ only Christian staff is so important for Christian schools.
“We love and welcome all of the families and students in our school communities, ”
There are many politicians (and indeed many in our society) who hold a view that the majority of Christians are bigoted and narrow minded and that we don’t love those in our communities with a different viewpoint to ours. Without labouring the point (no pun intended!) everyone who has worked in a Christian school knows that this is not the case. We love and welcome all of the families and students in our school communities, regardless of what their beliefs are and from my experience being with CST we have never discriminated against a student for his or her religious (or other) beliefs. Unfortunately, we are living in a society today where people think if we disagree with them that we hate them or are attacking them. The world in which we live today is full of people who are easily offended. As the author of an article I read on this topic recently wrote “From safe spaces at universities to unconstitutional attempts to tear down free speech because of what is being said, the world wants us to know something: They’re offended!” As a Christian organisation, we teach from a Biblical worldview (from the truth of God’s word) which contradicts what those with a secular worldview hold to be true and because they don’t understand it, there is opposition, and quite often offence! As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing…” To those who don’t follow Christ, the message of the gospel is absolutely stupid and inherently offensive. People who don’t believe it can and do take issue with its message.
“it’s just as important for our support staff and leaders to be able to model the Christian life to our students and those in our school communities.”
But the big debate right now (and the issue at hand) is around whether or not a Christian school should be able to hire only Christian staff. It’s clearly apparent that there are many who don’t believe it should make any difference to a Christian school if the staff at that school are Christian or not. Again, as anyone who has worked in a Christian school knows, having staff who are Christian not only makes a difference, but it actually makes us who we are – it’s the single greatest reason for our ‘distinctive’ and the reason so many families choose Christian education for their children. And it’s not just our teaching staff. Whilst it’s important for us to teach the curriculum through a Christian worldview (which we believe can only be done by Christian teachers!) it’s just as important for our support staff and leaders to be able to model the Christian life to our students and those in our school communities. How could a non-Christian authentically model the Christian life? How could we have an authentic Christian community if we didn’t have Christian staff?
So, what can we do? Many of you would hopefully have participated in the ALRC survey about your beliefs and your experiences in Christian education. (For those who didn’t, unfortunately the survey has now closed!) Over the next few weeks our Principals will be reaching out to Federal and State members here in Tassie inviting these members to visit our schools. We are hopeful that these visits will give our Principals and families who currently have their child/ren enrolled in our schools the chance to explain to our politicians why it is so important for our schools to continue to be able to hire staff whose faith and values align with ours.
The Australian Association of Christian Schools (an organisation that provides political advocacy support for Christian Schools across Australia) is about to launch a new website that will collect stories about our schools – it’s called MyChristianSchool.au which will be the face of their campaign to persuade politicians and bureaucrats that the faith of teachers and staff at Christian schools does matter. For it to work, they will need to hear from people like us. To that end, they’ve put together a short (five minute) survey to collect and share the stories of what really happens in Christian schools. If you’re interested in participating in this, you can complete this by clicking the button below.
The Bible tells us to “Stand true to what you believe. Be courageous. Be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13). We are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5). Now is our time to be salty and to let our light shine and to be courageous and to stand up for what we believe! Amen?
David Gillman — CEO Christian Schools Tasmania