Special note ... our dear friend and pastor John Samples passed away peacefully Tuesday morning, October 6. Pam and I visited John Monday and are thankful we had the chance to say goodbye (John married us in 2009). John’s Celebration of Life will be at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, at East 91^st Street Christian Church, Indianapolis. Visitation 2-4 p.m. – Bob

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Friends: Ask a simple question, get a simple answer. Some questions appear harder than they are.  Blessings, Bob

Spirituality Column #1039

October 13, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The Simple Stuff, Part 2   

By Bob Walters

“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth … and in one Lord, Jesus Christ … who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven …” – from the Apostle’s Creed, Book of Common Prayer, Episcopal Church, 1789

Here is where we ended last week: “…it is the simple stuff of Christianity – the orthodoxy and doctrines – that our students need to have on hand without hesitation or confusion.”

Mission Christian Academy in Fishers, Ind., where Pam and I teach high school English (her) and history/civics (me), is a highly biblically literate environment.  Faculty and staff all sign Christian faith statements, while the students (and their parents) who are drawn to that environment don’t have to sign anything; they just know what – and Who – is there.

Also mentioned last week in Part 1 was that teaching western culture, literature, history, civics, and economics becomes a much more complete experience when the foundation of western culture, i.e., Jesus Christ (we’ll get to the Greeks, Romans, and Jews in a minute) and the Bible, are not ignored, pre-empted, or outright banned as they have been in American public education since the early 1960s. (U.S. Supreme Court refresher:  Engle v. Vitale, 1962, vigorously restricted public prayer; Abington School District v. Schempp, 1963, banned mandated daily Bible readings and recitation in public schools.)

Twenty-first century anti-Christian sensitivities and atheistic liberalism have made cultural things worse, spiraling into the Woke, DEI, gender fluid, critical race theory, globalist morass that now defines universities, the media, entertainment, public school, much industry, and government bureaucracies. It is called “Progressive,” but I see no progress toward truth.

I see zero progress, in the public academic square, toward Jesus.

Anyway, back to my MCA students.  A few weeks ago, in both U.S. history and American government, we were studying pre-Revolutionary War colonial society including the Great Awakening of the mid-1700s. The Awakening developed a spiritual cohesion among the not-always-copacetic Christian denominations that coalesced into a common cause for developing a free nation independent from the British king.

In the discussion of how these 13 separate colonies – separate nations, really, each with a dominant local denomination – united in a religious sense toward becoming one nation, words like “doctrine” and “orthodoxy” came up.

If I ask almost any of my students simply “what do you believe,” they would effortlessly answer that they believe in God, that Jesus is Lord and Savior, and that one day they will go to heaven, forgiven of their sins. And most would add flourishes beyond that. 

But, ask them to name one orthodox Christian belief, or to explain any part of Christian doctrine, every student in every class clammed up. They didn’t realize they already knew the answers.

The problem was the words, “orthodox” and “doctrine.” These are simply descriptors for articles of faith that remain the same across all Christian denominations. Things like the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That Jesus, the Son of God, was fully human and fully God. That Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, lived, taught, was crucified, was dead, buried and resurrected. That his death was a perfect sacrifice that frees us from our sins and restores our relationship with God the Father.

That, forgiven, we will spend eternity in a new life in heaven with Jesus and the communion of saints.  That the Bible is Spirit-inspired and carries God’s authority. That the Old Testament prophesizes about Christ.

Every one of these is an orthodox Christian belief; each is a bit of universal Christian doctrine.  Christians have fought to defend them since the time of Christ. Depart from any, and you may have a religion but it is heretical in relation to Christianity.

The miracle of America’s founding had help and inspiration from the pre-Christian Greek and Roman republics, and of course the Jewish laws, scripture, and commandments. Even the more modern Enlightenment asked many right questions about man’s sovereignty vs. government.

Our job is not to freeze up when asked about our faith; the basics are pretty simple.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that the phrase “Judeo-Christian” came into modern parlance in a 1939 book review by George Orwell; the phrase wasn’t known at America’s founding.