What should you do when your “Christian” workplace is not following Christian principles? The teacher’s contract states that: “The above-mentioned teacher will: 3a. Faithfully serve God, as a Christian in good standing.” This is the first item in the section about duties the teacher must perform. Then in 5e, it says: “The teacher may not be absent from teaching for more than seven work (teaching) days during the whole school year…”.
As i write this now, March 16, i have not missed even one minute of school time in the little-over 7 months i worked there, except for one sick day last November. Last Friday in our faculty meeting, i read 3 paragraphs from the Spirit of Prophecy about how the message of warning and reproof must live in the church, or we will get cut down by the slaughtering weapons of the 5 men in Ezekiel 9. Then i gave that paper and a little letter i had given to some of the parents to the administrator, and read item 3a. Then i looked up to the administrator, and said: “Our administrator —- has made it impossible to obey this item. But i must obey. I thank you for the opportunity to work here, i will not be returning”. The administrator looked up with an astonished look, said “huh?”, so i repeated, standing up, then slowly walked out to sounds of laughter from the head teacher.
Of course i had thot of this a long time. I had first mentioned grave concerns about our school honoring a false god around 4 months previous. I had prayed and hoped and coaxed a bit to get the administrator to not only correct that problem, but other problems where Satan’s presence was being directly invited onto school grounds, as in allowing children to wear buddhist jewelry into the school etc.. But nothing was ever done physically by the administrator to remove the idols, or the stain of our honoring idols, from school property, and the name of the being in our school name – Christ.
During the last week i thot many times of the following two texts as applying to all the Seventh-day Adventist teachers at our school, and since the responsibility lies highest with the administartor, this applies with the most force to him – “(Matthew 6:23) But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” and “(1 Kings 18:17-18) And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim.” For the word “Baalim”, insert “Buddha” to bring it up to date.
Please, please administrator and teachers, if you are reading this, “(Hebrews 3:15) While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.”
May the administrator repent, resolve to follow God fully, and remove the evil influences from the school so that item 3a in the contract CAN be fulfilled, and i will glady return to give glory to God.
May we put away the sins that so easily beset us, and run the race, the race leading to a glorious crown of eternal life that all may receive freely from the own mighty right arm of our lovely saviour – Jesus Christ.
Why is this message from you titled “California Christian International School”?
Was it started by a group of California SDA’s in a private endeavor? Is this school in Bangkok independant of the official SDA organisation approval? Who wrote the standard of conduct contract? It is to that person you are to direct your complaints. They alone are to do any disciplinary actions with the principle or resident director of the school. Youve know the standards of the school now since your 7 months of working there. Why didn’t you resign earlier? Did the leaving of your lady-friend teacher give you the impetus to put up this public protest?
Why did you not keep to the social protocol of giving two months notice like required for teachers? Then they have the chance of finding a substitute. They laughed at your dramatics because it appeared so right-winged old fashion typical for fanatical fundamentalists. However, I understand your indignation. The fact of the matter may lie in that no one sees your authority to speak for God in these issues because of your not being representative of any organisation that SDAism recognizes. So throwing in the towel, giving a moral lecture, and stomping off not to return, …. welll, it gives signals to the students who heard about this afterwards that this is an example to follow when upset about something theologically.
Protest and flee… (oh well, each to his own).
So the very next day the kiddies came to school and had no beloved teacher. That much loved teacher who didn’t give them the time to adjust to the fact of his leaving by preparing their wee soft souls for the bad news. In their souls they harbor the feeling that you just dropped down dead. sad, sad.
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I am sorry but I don’t understand what the issue was and why you left in the manner that you did. Please clarify. Thanks.
The school i worked at was run by a fellow Seventh-day Adventist man from Korea. “Christian” is part of our school name, and i verified with him that the school was dedicated to God, to give glory to him.
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But! We, as a school, did many unchristian things. For example, we observed “loy krathong” which is a buddhist festival. Admittedly, the administrator did not know about it beforehand, but even after the buddhist teacher did this in her class, he did not apologize or say anything about it being unchristian to the students or parents until the very day that i left. And like i said in my post, he allowed buddhist jewelry to be worn by the students and staff. I mentioned to him i think in September or October about the problem, and he finally around the middle of November sent out a strong newsletter saying jewelry is “unchristian” (too strong imho). But he never enforced it. I started taking it off of students under my care immediately, and of all students i saw with these idols starting in January. When one mother got very agitated about it, he directly asked me to stop taking them off around the end of January.
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I gave the administrator around 4 months to repent and follow Jesus wholly. He did make some reforms like make the cafeteria vegetarian, but then he would not reprove one teacher who insisted on bringing chicken herself! Is 4 months too short or too long? I don’t know.
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I cannot and will not give my talent and energy and time to support people who call themselves Christians while advancing Satan’s objectives.
“…they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding…” Jeremiah 4:22
Do you think that Jesus would have sympathy for your colleagues, students and parents who were not consciously and willfully rebelling against God?
Do you think that Jesus would have tried to educate people rather than forcing them to obey (e.g. removing jewelry)?
Perhaps you advanced Satan’s objectives by believing in authoritarian rule and force. Perhaps you placed a heavy burden on people, especially children.
“At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you…” Zephaniah 3:19
Perhaps you are the one who needs to repent before your Judge.
As I am conveying this message through a limited communication mechanism I would like to assure you that this is said respectfully by someone who is encouraged by your dedication to God and His ways but concerned by some of your attitudes and actions.
God bless. I am praying for you in your ministry.
Numbers 16:41 But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the LORD.
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Beware that you do not call “good” “evil, and “evil” “good”.
I do not want to call “good” “evil” and “evil” “good”. I want to understand your approach to a less than ideal workplace situation so that I can compare it with my approach and situation.
I assume that you do not think that more sympathy could have been shown or more efforts to educate people could have been made. I assume that you have no doubts about removing jewelry from children which was placed on them by their guardians.
I do not understand how your method of reproving helped anyone. Neither do I understand how your leaving helped anyone.
What has been a positive outcome from this experience for you or others?
Reading the Bible very carefully, in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, will make everything clear 🙂
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Specifically, Many people were amazed that a true Christian doesn’t do just like the world, and that a true Christian will give a witness against idols even if it costs them their job.
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The children especially were able to see that standing up for the Bible truth can make many people upset. This is great training, emphasizing in a first-hand way what i had been teaching them – that to love Jesus and do what he says will invite persecution and perhaps death.
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The blessings to me in following the Bible in this case have been great also – one thing being that i have a completely “at-peace” conscience with God, knowing that i did not compromise his principles (for longer than the 4 month period that i did pray and plead for action on the administrator’s part).
Thank you for this explanation.
God bless.
And God bless you too in your situation to stand tall for the truth as it is in Jesus – mercy and justice combined
(^-^)