“We are fascinated by what you’ve told us about Christ and we’d like to give this information to our students.” The well-dressed Russian teacher appeared to be about 50 years of age and spoke into the microphone with confidence and authority. “But you must understand, for the last 75 years we have learned and taught atheism. How can we teach Christianity in our schools when here in Russia we have separation between the church and the state?”

I glanced at the other American scholars and educators sitting on the stage in Leningrad. Since I was the panel member who had wrestled most with the church/state issue, I realized I would have to answer.

“It’s a crucial question,” I began. While I waited for the interpreter to translate, my mind raced across the past four months. This question had haunted me from the beginning of this improbable project.

Virtues Of Being Voluntary

The phone call that launched me into this vortex of controversy had come from my old friend Blair Cook, a pioneering director of many international projects for Campus Crusade for Christ.

“Alan, I’d like your help. The director of Crusade’s Jesus Film Project, Paul Eshleman, just completed an astounding set of meetings with the deputy minister of education for the Russian Republic. The minister is interested in having us produce a curriculum to present Christianity as a basis for morality. We will have a chance to introduce the curriculum to hundreds of Russian teachers in a series of three-day convocations in Moscow, Leningrad, and Vologda. Then the teachers will show the Jesus film and teach our curriculum to their students.”

Blair paused to let what he had said sink in.

“But there’s a catch—they want the convocations four months from now.”

From the start, I had two concerns: Is it possible? We can’t even do this in American schools. And then, Is it wise? Even if they are willing, do we want to make Christianity mandatory in publicly funded education?

When the curriculum writers assembled two weeks later, we discovered that even as American evangelicals, we were far from united.

“Let’s not impose our American ideas of pluralism on the Russian culture,” one professor said. “Their educational system and whole society has been ‘top-down.’ They have always been told what to believe. We now have an opportunity to tell them the truth. Let’s take advantage of it!”

Others urged caution. “The history of state-imposed Christianity has been mixed at best. We would be doing them a disservice to encourage the return of government-sponsored religion.”

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Because I was writing an introduction to orient the teachers to the ten lessons, the task fell to me to chart some kind of middle course for the curriculum. I puzzled and prayed. In the end, I included a page addressed to the teachers entitled, “The Power of Voluntary Commitment.” I wrote, “One of the benefits of Christianity is that it appeals to the individual heart and conscience. When students freely choose to follow Christ, they are transformed from within in a way that surpasses the effects of any imposed ethical system.”

I also warned the teachers that “one of the dangers of teaching religious ethics in a state-supported school is that students may see it as imposed morality or enforced belief.” I made it clear that this was not the desire of the writers. But I assured them that “when Christianity and Christian morality have been studied in an atmosphere where belief is optional and voluntary, many individual lives are transformed, and those individuals go on to constructively influence their society.”

A Precarious Balance

I offered three specific suggestions for safeguarding the free choice of the students. First, I explained that many sessions include a survey of one or more non-Christian viewpoints. I warned the teachers to “be sure the students understand that intelligent, respectable people hold these other views.… This will help the student grasp that accepting Christianity or Christian morality is his or her own choice.”

My second suggestion flew in the face of 70 years of Communist-dominated education. I told them to “encourage students to ask questions and even challenge (privately or during appropriate times in class) the Christian perspective presented in this unit.”

My final suggestion also required a break with the “read the curriculum verbatim” approach common in the Soviet system. “Feel free to express your own opinion when you feel it fits in the lesson or when a student asks what you believe.” I encouraged the teachers by saying, “Whatever your beliefs about morality or Christianity, be careful to label them ‘my viewpoint’ or ‘my opinion,’ and respect and encourage students who disagree.”

Two months later, as our 747 was headed for Moscow, I discussed the delicate balance with one of our convocation speakers, Ronald Nash, then professor of philosophy and religion at Western Kentucky University.

“We do want to avoid advocating a state-imposed Christianity,” Ron said, “but I would hate to think that 20 years from now we would look back and say, ‘We had a chance to get Christ in the Soviet schools, but because we were so anxious to be fair, the New Age movement came, Islam came in, but there was little Christianity.’ ”

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Apartment Tour Guides

As the aging teacher in Leningrad waited patiently for her answer, I remembered an idea from the preface of Mere Christianity.

“C. S. Lewis, a professor at Oxford University,” I told the gathering of several hundred teachers, “compared Christianity to a house with many rooms; one room might be the Orthodox church, another Catholic, another Baptist. Imagine that here in Leningrad there is a large building of flats that for years has been overgrown with plants; the windows are cracked and the doors locked. But suddenly it is being refurbished; people are living there again, and it is open for visitors.

“Many in the city are curious about what was closed and hidden for so long. Some might even want to consider living in one of the flats.”

Heads were beginning to nod in comprehension.

“I see your role as teachers like that of a tour guide who points out the building and explains something of what it is like to live there. Your job is not to argue whether one of the flats is better than another. If some of your students decide to live in this building called Christianity, they will eventually have to choose a particular apartment: Orthodox, Baptist, or whatever.

“But I think it is beyond your role as public-school teachers to argue for or against any particular church. However, Christianity has played an important historic role in Russia, and I see evidence it is becoming important again, so you perform a valuable service to introduce your students to this dwelling called Christianity and to the common beliefs of all who live there.”

I paused and perused the intent faces of teachers obviously wrestling with radically new thoughts.

As the third convocation ended in Leningrad, I felt hopeful for Christianity’s future in Russian education. Many of the teachers impressed me with their sense of humor and sharp analytical minds. They were quick to question and debate various new ideas, both political and religious. And they were quick to laugh at the foibles of their society and its leaders. I was also impressed with the courage of the officials in the ministry of education. They were willing to experiment with teaching Christianity in a school system in which the official textbooks still taught that God and the human soul do not exist. They also invited us back to hold teacher convocations in many other Soviet cities.

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But most encouraging was the response of the teachers. Of the 840 attending convocations, 45 percent of those who turned in written evaluations indicated they had received Christ during the three days. Over 90 percent of the teachers indicated they plan to teach the curriculum and show the Jesus film in their classrooms.

Predicting the future of Russia and its sister republics is risky in this period of tumultuous political and social change. However, what I saw in the response of the Soviet teachers convinced me that Christianity can play an unprecedented role in the educational formation of a new Russia.

Eugene H. Peterson is pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church, Bel Air, Maryland, and author of A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (InterVarsity) and Answering God (Harper & Row), both of which are about the Psalms.

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