Civics was taught back when I went to parochial grade school. It’s the study of the rights and duties of citizenship, from “civis,” the Latin word for a fellow citizen. From what I hear, civics, American history too, isn’t taught the way it used to be. The church is partly at fault. I’ll give you an example, but first.
“I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing the sight of God our Savior.” That’s Sunday’s epistle lesson, 1 Timothy 2:1-3.
Tomorrow is Constitution Day, a holiday mandated by the federal government in 2004 to commemorate the creation and signing of the Constitution on September 17, 1787. During most of my years as president of Concordia Seminary, I ordered free of charge and distributed copies of the Constitution to our campus community. One year a student complained, “Why are we doing this?” The Dean of the Chapel responded, “Because the president said so!” Yes, and for a reason. In 2005 the United States Department of Education mandated the observance of Constitution Day by any school receiving federal dollars. That includes the Seminary and many other colleges and universities.
I often hear people say government regulations and laws don’t apply to us because of the separation of church and state. That is naïve. For example, our Seminary must account every year to entities of the federal, state, and city governments. We even report to the Metropolitan Sewer District, which gave me stuff to joke about! Your congregation doesn’t have all those accountabilities but try to get a building permit, have someone allege harassment, someone embezzles church funds… You need to know civics.
James Madison, principal author of the Constitution wrote, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” We may not be “of the world,” but we are “in the world.” The church can help the civics deficit in our country.