Salt and Pepper: Religion and Public Education
The Cheatham County Tennessee School District is being sued by four students who are protesting the District’s position that allows, and apparently encourages, religious activities in the district’s schools. According to an article in the Tennessean:
The lawsuit alleges: a planned prayer took place at graduation last spring; the Gideons International were allowed to speak to classes and distribute Bibles; a cross hangs in a classroom; and a history teacher taught that the United States is a “Christian nation” and decried the separation of church and state. The suit asks the court to stop the activities.
Now this may seem like a frivolous lawsuit to some — to those of you who believe that your own religious beliefs have no borders and should have no limits — as well as those of you who argue that no one forced the kids to pray at the graduation or accept the Bibles or look at the cross on the wall and you would be right — well at least partially right. But when we come to that situation where students in a classroom, some of who may not know better, have to listen to a Christian Evangelistic version of U.S. History and an abstraction of the Constitution we’ve reached an unquestionable limit and have begun to corrupt the educational process.
The broader picture is: The United States is not a “Christian nation”; it is a nation based not on religion but on morality, a basic morality that forms the basis of ‘civilization’ as we understand it and practice it — a morality that exists apart from any religion — a morality that is, by law, the basis of even the most ardent atheist’s behavior.
I realize, of course, that it’s human nature to want to share a good thing and religious people believe that they have not only a good thing to share — they feel that it is their duty to share it. I wish they would also realize that there are many people in this world who have their own “good things” going in their lives (their own religions and/or their own non-religious or quasi-religious belief systems) and that Christian (or other) evangelism is not only an intrusion into these other people’s lives, it is an insult to their intelligence and their choice of life style.
Loading ...
3 users commented in " Salt and Pepper: Religion and Public Education "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWhen I was in grade school in the sixties we said the Lord’s Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance [with God in it] every morning and we were and are better for it. Thank you Madeleine Murray O’Hare for changing that. I hope its hot where you are.
It is amazing to me that people, such as yourself, try to convince those around you of what you believe is a prejudicial view on Christianty. You don’t mind letting teachers talk about Greek gods; Hinduism; Buddua and the like of other religions and gods but why is that your view concerns only the Christian aspects?
You say that “The United States is not a “Christian nation.” Have you seriously read your history, read your Shaskespeare, read your English literature in school. You do know that the Bible was the only book for many, many years, taught to ALL children to teach them history, english, spelling and the like.
RELIGION IS NOT TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS today but people with Christian beliefs or non-religious beliefs should be able to have freedoms that are our constitutional right. I guess you haven’t heard of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the right to pursue happiness.
When you take away one person’s right to express their freedoms to succomb to another’s you are not doing anything but running around in a circle and taking the other’s rights as well.
You state that children “in a classroom, some of who may not know better, have to listen to a Christian Evangelistic version of U.S. History and an abstraction of the Constitution we’ve reached an unquestionable limit.” But you don’t seem to question those other student Christian, Hindu, even atheist that have to sit an listen about Buddua, the Nazis, and even even the idea of evolution, which in itslef is a “non Christian” belief. Sometimes these same students have to do papers and projects on these topics. Where are the people screaming abour these religions/non-religions?
If you really want to be fair, then take all religious and non-religious beliefs out of school. What do you think they will actually be able to talk about, learn from or instruct?
If you do basic science, you are still including religion in every form; Mathematics is a worldly language that is also combined with the secular view of religion; what about history, everything is caught up and related to religious facts.
Your one sided argument is flat. Your ideas and persuasions are unfounded. And your “non-religious” views are only being prejudicial to your own “non belief.” If good times include mass murders in school and suicde of children who feel they have no one and nothing to turn to for comfort, then I consider this a sad reality of life as a “non believer.”
I will pray for you because you are going to need it. God said to pray for your enemies and I will do that. I hope you don’t have children and if you do I will pray for them as well.
Jeannie Vanlandingham
I just wanted to thank you for expressing reasonable views on this topic. It amazes me that the only replies I see are from people who can’t tell the difference between:
a) freedom of expression
and
b) government representatives teaching children they’re not good enough if they believe differently
You have a clear right to express your views. You do not have a right to use your bully pulpit to ram your religion down the throats of other people’s children. Expressing your views on a daily basis, and forcing children to express their views in front of their authority figures and peers, falls under (b), not (a).
While the majority of people in the US may be christian, we are far from a christian nation. The founding fathers were mostly deists. They felt that restricting the state from interfering in people’s religion was important enough that they enshrined it in the very first amendment. Teachers in public schools are representatives of the state.
You can see where these commenters are coming from in their trailing comments. They start off telling the lies they tell themselves about the US being a Christian nation, and they end up telling you what’s wrong with your belief system. Their goal is not to promote the American spirit of freedom; their goal is to make everyone believe as they do.
If it were Islam or Buddhism being espoused as the only true religion in schools, these guys wouldn’t be following due process to make things right. They’d be forming a lynch mob.
Leave A Reply