If there is one skill that lawmakers possess, it is the ability to coin ingenious and grandiloquent names for the bills they write. One such bill is currently being ping-ponging throughout various California state senate committees. Senate Bill 48 is named the FAIR Education Act, and in a witty, verbal sleight of hand that would make elementary school teachers swoon with delight, FAIR is an acrostic for fair, accurate, inclusive and respectful.
What is in the bill?
Who would not support a bill with such a harmonious, creative name? But to whom is the bill being fair, inclusive and respectful? How is it being accurate? As the old adage goes, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
The FAIR Education Act, if passed into law, alters several clauses in the California Education Code. For instance, curricular materials for social studies classes will be required to mention the contribution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.
Further, in the name of anti-discrimination, the bill prohibits any classroom instruction, school activity, or instructional material that “reflects adversely upon persons on the basis of… sexual orientation.”
So what is the big deal?
Upon a cursory glance, the bill may appear appropriate because it is not Christlike to disparage gay individuals or to treat them “adversely.” Loving them is, in some sense, being tolerant of their behavior.
However, being tolerant does not also mean accepting that behavior. The bill, however, fails to make this distinction and, by default, portrays the gay lifestyle as acceptable.
Parents of children in public schools do not have a choice to opt out of the curriculum. Younger elementary school children, who haven’t yet developed critical thinking skills, will not question the implied view that nothing is wrong or harmful about the gay lifestyle.
The outcome of the bill will be significant to Biola, as numerous graduates of our School of Education go on to become primary and secondary school teachers in California public schools. They will face many moral dilemmas should the FAIR Education Act become law.
Does not their biblical view regarding the gay lifestyle “reflect adversely upon persons on the basis of… sexual orientation?” Will such a view become legal grounds for discrimination? At the very least, they must wrestle with yet another piece of red tape.
“What shall we do?”
Although the bill remains in its nascent stages and must progress through much of the legislative process before becoming law, the situation calls for watchfulness.
As a former public school teacher, I can attest to the prevailing climate of political correctness in the public schools. There is no clear-cut way to respond, except to be as wise as serpents but as innocent as doves, as Jesus taught in Matthew 10:16. Christians must seek the Lord’s counsel and strategy. As people asked in response to Peter’s message at Pentecost in Acts 2:37, Christians must also ask “What shall we do?”
In the end, the FAIR Education Act is anything but what its name purports to be. It is unfair, exclusive, and disrespectful for those who disagree with the views it espouses. Just how accurate instructional materials can be while still satisfying the bill’s requirements remains to be seen. To accomplish its goal to stop discrimination, the bill must discriminate. To teach tolerance it must be intolerant of those with a different view.
