By reading the title of this article alone, I have likely already stirred up a large range of emotions within you. My purpose in writing, however, is simply to stir thought, so please keep an open mind and try to reign in your opinions and whatever string of adjectives that come to your mind until the end, at which point I give you perfect liberty and encouragement to share your comments and possibly even your angst with me.

The question I wish to pose at the onset of this article is simple and direct. Are the students in your Christian school properly prepared to face global warming? If they are not, consider an event that occurred this past December at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark.

As usual, such conferences generally breed numerous protests. In this case, one that was not well publicized caught my attention. A group of youth activists from the United States interrupted a webcast speech by Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity.

According to one report, "The activists stormed the stage, crowded in front of the cameras, and shouted ‘Americans for Humanity' while waving signs in favor of clean energy." Mr. Phillips attempted to continue his speech, but he was drowned out by the shouts of the protestors.

While viewing the incident, I was taken back by their evident passion for their beliefs. I think it would be interesting to interview these youth to discover the means by which they developed such passionate viewpoints. Not having the opportunity to do so, however, I assume their education played a major role in this formation.

In How Now Shall We Live, co-author Chuck Colson addressed this thought. "Redemption is certainly alive and well in the classroom today, but it's a political redemption, a reflection of the kind found in a wider society. Many children know more about acid rain and gay rights than they do about Shakespeare and George Washington. Education is turned into the means for lifting society to the next stage of social evolution."

Although those words are spoken directly toward the public school, let's get back to my original question. Are the children in your school truly prepared to face global warming? Let me now clarify that I am not speaking about the effects of global warming, but the topic itself.

In practically every facet of their lives, your students are consistently confronted with this topic, typically from a one-sided secular perspective. How often it is approached from a Christian perspective in your elementary, junior high, and high school classrooms?

Students in Christian schools must learn to think about global warming and all such relevant and controversial issues from a biblical perspective. Such prayer-enriched, Bible-centered thought naturally leads to firm beliefs, at which point students are ready to logically articulate those beliefs to others.

Spouting facts or merely repeating commonly heard rhetorical statements does not suffice. I recently heard a commercial for a conservative liberal arts college proclaim that "even when the students get the right answer, we treat it as wrong in order to make them learn to rationally defend their answer."

I will stop short of giving you my opinion on what I think a biblical perspective of global warming should be. I'll save that for another time. Until then, may you be abundantly blessed in preparing your students to face global warming.

Roy Faletti
Vice President of Educational Services