Date

1-2021

Department

School of Music

Degree

Doctor of Worship Studies (DWS)

Chair

Jerry Newman

Keywords

God, Removing, Pledge, Prayer, Effects, Schools

Disciplines

Christianity | History of Christianity | Religion

Abstract

Despite the Constitution allowing for the removal of religious conceptions from public schools, the perspectives of most United States middle school-age kids show that the cultural shift towards scientific naturalism as the de facto worldview has impacted worship music in the Church. The worldview is one of worship that presents more as a concert than that of praise. The data, such as suicide statistics, show that there is a correlation between a negatively shifted moral valuation and the aversion, or inability, for the subject of God to be approached in the school setting (i.e., the science classroom) - even where such a discussion would be entirely appropriate given the specific natures of each element (e.g., intelligent design vs. Darwinian evolutionary theory). Guided by the Endorsement Test Principle, this mixed research study, employing a narrative design, identifies perspectives that have not yet been explored or documented concerning the lives of American middle school-age children. The insightful methodology and data presentation herein stands to benefit or advance the larger debate in this area by showing the deeply negative impact the removal of God has had on the development of middle school-aged children (particularly concerning the naive establishment of scientific naturalism as a nearly mythological base worldview and the apparent moral ambiguity now present in worship communities first impacted by such policies).

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