Can Christians Still Teach In Minnesota? Not for Long.
Is there still religious liberty? Not in Minnesota. Not for teachers, anyway.
Beginning in 2025, state regulations adopted recently will require teachers to affirm all expressions of gender identity and sexual orientation to EVEN BE LICENSED as a teacher. The new regulations also require affirming Marxist critical race theory in classroom practices. See Minnesota Guidelines here.
It’s one thing to try to navigate this delicately, faithfully, and respectfully in geometry. It’s another thing entirely to have to commit to affirmations–which is committing to violate your religious beliefs–to have the opportunity to teach…to have the opportunity to try and navigate delicately, faithfully, and respectfully.
Come Fall of 2025? You’re out of a job Magellan. No wise navigation needed.
It essentially keeps any professing AND PRACTICING Christian out of the classroom, along with any religion that disagrees on the same principles. Like Islam.
Did you know that this is where some of our states are?
Did you know that this is where we could be as a nation in very short order?
There are several interesting conversations to be had here.
What’s a Christian to do?
- Do you lie to keep your job–agreeing to affirm anything and everything while knowing in your heart you will not?
- Do you take early retirement, which may not come with retirement at all depending on how many years you’ve been working?
- If you stay out of the classroom as a matter of religious principle, what does that mean for the debt from student loans you may have and be paying off still? Or is that a thing anymore? Student loan debt I mean. I know no one has forgiven my debts yet.
- Do you continue to teach because you see no conflict here at all?
- How many other places and professions are in this same boat and have been a while?
Most of the above are “You Questions” that only you can answer. But I do know that Scripture is clear about God’s sovereignty and authority over His creation and affirming distortions of His creation is denying who and what He is. I know that participating in ideology that is specifically designed to deconstruct the nuclear family, a thing which God has ordained and values, is antithetical to following Christ.
Sure enough, taking up one’s cross daily may in fact come with a cost.
This is a political issue as we choose in November whether we want the same policies Minnesota has adopted to govern us all. But even more than that, it is a Biblical worldview issue.
Is God’s Word the ultimate authority for the believer or do the regulations and requirements of man determine our behavior? Who sits on the throne of your heart? Has DEI, sexuality, or gender become an idol that we bow before…before we bow before the Lord? Do you truly trust God to provide for you and your family should you lose a job for His name’s sake? I fear this economy may force us to address our trust for provision far sooner than 2025. And that’s a good thing.
Nail it down, friends. He is good and He is God or He isn’t. If He is then there is no sacrifice too great to make on His altar. Teachable moments, indeed. It is teaching us to pray if nothing else.