Several times a year, a situation arises in a school where a nativity scene, a cross, a Christmas tree, or traditional Christmas song creates a controversy.

We are reminded, again, that schools are not the place to teach religion. Most of us agree with the sentiment.

If you are Catholic, you do not want your child’s teacher turning him into a Rastafarian.

However, my concern is that the goal of not teaching religion is actually impossible to achieve.

Many people equate religion with belief in God. Therefore, they theorize that removing all vestiges of God means you have removed religion.

However, that approach denies the reality that everyone has a moral code that is functionally religious regardless of belief in God.

A religion is simply “a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe…usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.”

Certainly that includes traditional religious teaching that pre-supposes a creator, but not exclusively.

By eliminating God from public schools, we do not eliminate “religion” in the truest sense because the instruction will still contain a moral code.

And it should.

However, the result is an environment in which the atheistic ethics, morals, and philosophies of secular humanism are the only ones allowed. This may not be intentional, it is simply the result of not recognizing the various forms of “religion.”

Imagine teacher “A” says or implies that we were created by God for a specific purpose.

Man is sinful and depraved and in need of a Savior. Meaning in life comes from discovering and accomplishing the purpose for which you were created.

Right and wrong are defined by God. You must endeavor to do what is right regardless of convenience or personal cost.

Failure to do what is right will result in dissatisfaction with this life and eternal punishment in the next.

Now imagine teacher “B” says or implies that life and all that you see is meaningless and random.

You have within yourself the solutions to all your problems. There is no purpose in your existence.

Therefore, do what makes you happy. “Right” is defined by public opinion and whatever makes you happy.

“Wrong” is interfering with someone else’s happiness. There is no life after death.

Therefore, there are no consequences for behavior other than their effect on your personal happiness.

Which teacher is teaching “a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe with a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs?”

The answer, of course, is that they both are.

However, one will get fired and one will get tenure.

At this point, I can hear many of you yelling at your monitors telling me that public schools do not teach secular humanism.

If that is your belief, please consider the following: if a child learned nothing (no parents, no friends, no neighbors, no churches, synagogues, or temples) other than what is taught to him in public schools and universities, is he more likely to believe a variation of the philosophy taught by teacher A or teacher B?

I rest my case.

Joesph Backholt is executive director of the Family Policy Institute of Washington.