Christian education association encourages teachers to show faith without violating the law

Teachers leading a lecture for children Reuters

There is a way for teachers to live their faith without violating the Constitutional tenets in proselytising, according to the Christian Educators Association International.

The association is encouraging educators to be good role models of faith in their schools without being afraid of legal consequences.

In a report by The Washington Post, the CEAI is teaching teachers how to show their faith without promoting any specific religion, which is against the law.

"We're not talking about proselytising. That would be illegal. But we're saying you can do a lot of things...It's a mission field that you fish in differently," Finn Laursen, the group's executive director, said.

According to Laursen, teachers can pray with colleagues during breaks, or pray with students if students request it after school hours. They can also lead religious clubs for students before or after school.

However, some are already criticising such measures as bordering on violating the Constitutional provision on Establishment.

Daniel Mach, American Civil Liberties Union, which figured in a court case over Florida's religious expression in 2009, claimed that the CEAI was pushing teachers to cross the line towards proselytising.

"Decisions about the religious upbringing of children should be left in the hands of parents and families, not public school officials," he said.

Charles C. Haynes, a First Amendment expert at the Newseum Institute's Religious Freedom Center, sees nothing wrong with CEAI's proposals, explaining that First Amendment works both ways – while the government cannot establish religion, it also does not inhibit the religious freedom of faculty and students.

"The First Amendment does not exclude religion from public schools. It gives us the ground rules for how religion comes into public schools," he said. 

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