Why the School Strike
Richard Laue
Ephesians 4:1-3
The Word of God is not of much value unless it can be applied. The passage we face today applies to a contemporary situation in our city, the teachers' strike.
One time in an average size city, the public school teachers and the administration (the school board) could not get together on a contract. The outgrowth of the situation was the teachers left the classrooms and refused to teach. Substitute teachers were brought in, and there were daily confrontations on the picket line which the striking teachers maintained around the schools. One morning as a substitute arrived, there was a confrontation and words were exchanged. As the picketing teacher turned to go on down the street, the wind blew his sign, and the substitute thought he was being accosted. He attempted to defend himself and was flattened by the picketing teacher. Following this incident, all kinds of rumors spread around the school and the city. Some said the substitute was hit over the head with a ball bat. Soon others took up the offence on both sides. People called the picketing teacher's home and made threats at all hours of the night. The teacher's son faced all kinds of rebuke and ridicule in school after that. Many harmful, hurting things were said, and most of them were not even true.
The striking teacher soon realized that his reputation was at stake, and he defended his action before the local media, and there was an article in the paper attempting to explain his side. But even after this, people made up their own minds as to what the truth really was, the suffering for all involved continued.
The outcome of it all is that everybody's reputation was impaired. Nobody was free, and nobody was innocent. Division and hatred never solves problems; they only create more.
Here in the United States, our civilization and culture was founded upon the Judeao-Christian ethic. The basis of that moral ethic has bee ...
Richard Laue
Ephesians 4:1-3
The Word of God is not of much value unless it can be applied. The passage we face today applies to a contemporary situation in our city, the teachers' strike.
One time in an average size city, the public school teachers and the administration (the school board) could not get together on a contract. The outgrowth of the situation was the teachers left the classrooms and refused to teach. Substitute teachers were brought in, and there were daily confrontations on the picket line which the striking teachers maintained around the schools. One morning as a substitute arrived, there was a confrontation and words were exchanged. As the picketing teacher turned to go on down the street, the wind blew his sign, and the substitute thought he was being accosted. He attempted to defend himself and was flattened by the picketing teacher. Following this incident, all kinds of rumors spread around the school and the city. Some said the substitute was hit over the head with a ball bat. Soon others took up the offence on both sides. People called the picketing teacher's home and made threats at all hours of the night. The teacher's son faced all kinds of rebuke and ridicule in school after that. Many harmful, hurting things were said, and most of them were not even true.
The striking teacher soon realized that his reputation was at stake, and he defended his action before the local media, and there was an article in the paper attempting to explain his side. But even after this, people made up their own minds as to what the truth really was, the suffering for all involved continued.
The outcome of it all is that everybody's reputation was impaired. Nobody was free, and nobody was innocent. Division and hatred never solves problems; they only create more.
Here in the United States, our civilization and culture was founded upon the Judeao-Christian ethic. The basis of that moral ethic has bee ...
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