29 "Bless you" is OK to say

James Lord, a senior at Dupo High School in Dupo, Illinois was suspended for a month from his daily news broadcast after signing off his December 17th broadcast with: "Have a safe and happy holiday, and God Bless." Apparently, the school administration hasn’t suggested he change his name.

According to the web log at Christianity Today, the issue has been resolved without a law suit, but only after the story made the national media and Lord hired some legal help. The school administration was ridiculed on hundreds of blogs on the internet. Before this, probably very few people had ever heard of Dupo, Illinois, or knew that the casual “Bless you,” could be construed as religious. Why hasn’t anyone suggested that swearing in public is a religious act of calling God’s damnation or speaking the name of Jesus aloud in cursing? Wouldn’t upset me a bit to hear less of that “religious” talk.

Just where did public education come from anyway? From the churches. Before the 18th century, only the wealthier families educated children with private tutors and governesses and private academies. Poor children worked. Christians, beginning in England, gathered up the urchins from the deplorable factories and slums on Sundays and began teaching them basic skills, values such as self discipline and thrift and literacy so they could read the Bible. Yes, Sunday School was our original “public education.”

For more on this fascinating part of the history of public education, see the web site about Robert Raikes, considered the founder of the Sunday School movement.