At a Political Crossroads: Christian Civic Education and the Future of the American Polity

by James W. Skillen, with Jerry Herbert and Joshua Good
Center for Public Justice (2001)
Booklet, 180 pages

A report from the Saints and Citizens project conducted by The Center for Public Justice and The Center for Christian Studies at Gordon College. Funding for this project was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Summary

The primary purpose of this report is to alert and educate a wider public on the aims, purposes, and best practices of the organizations studied. Many churches and Christian organizations know relatively little about one another and the contribution each is trying to make to civic life. We hope this report will help to remedy that ignorance and promote more extensive interchange among organizations.

Beyond the descriptive assessment contained in each of the following essays, the report concludes with an additional contribution. The concluding essay begins a process of evaluation that we hope all of the organizations and many readers will continue. Without presuming to be exhaustive or definitive, the primary author of the report offers some preliminary judgments, both positive and negative, both commendatory and critical, of the state of Christian civic education in America today. In our judgment there is a growing crisis of civic ignorance and apathy in the United States that Christians should do more to address. One aim of the Conclusion is to point readers to examples of constructive work that is being done and from which they can take inspiration and instruction. Our hope is that as a result of this study, Christian civic education in America might deepen in a profoundly Christian way, might expand on the best practices that are already bearing fruit, and might draw Christians and their fellow citizens into more intensive dialogue and debate bout how to strengthen the republic through  the diligent, cooperative pursuit of justice for all.