It continues to be a trial to be a mindful liberal these days. Recently in McCordsville, a suburb of Indianapolis had a teacher send home a note asking parents to have their children stop saying the words God, Jesus and Devil. Quoting the letter it says:
"With McCordsville Elementary being a public school, we have many different religions and beliefs, and I do not want to upset a child/parent because of these words being used,” the letter said. “If you got to church or discuss these things at home, please have a talk with your child about there being an appropriate time and place of talking about it.”
So of course the keyboard first amendment experts were there to express their outrage. But first let me say the letter from the teacher was both inappropriate and violates the students rights to free speech. This is not a gray area, the Supreme Court and many other courts have made decisions about the right of religious expression from students in school. If children express their faith in a manner that is not disruptive to the educational process nor is an attack on another child it is within their rights to use these words. May it be offensive? Yes. Is that a place for a conversation? Maybe. Can they be banned? No.
But of course the simple answer has no place in our culture where anyone can pick up the megaphone of the internet so let me use mine.
1. For the people who say we are a Christian nation: No we are not, we are a secular nation that has a plurality of people who identify as Christian. But written into our laws is a distinct separation of religion and government. The founders feared the role of religion in government as that is what they were feeling. They wanted a government of the people not ordained by God.
2. For those who say religion has no place in school: Religion can exist and does exist everywhere. The issue is who is bringing the religion. School officials cannot engage in bringing students together in prayer, cannot say one religion is better than another, cannot preach to children nor engage in religious recruitment in public school. However, students can in fact do all those things at appropriate times. Students can speak of their faith at free times, can pray before tests, lunch and anytime. Can wear religious items and ask for times to say daily prayers.
3. One nation under God is a phrase that was added to the pledge of allegiance in the 1950s because of fear of atheistic communism. It is ironically a bit unAmerican to require the pledge and worse to make a statement of faith in it. The beauty of America is that you can be any religion or none at all. We don't want a singular religion to be forced on us.
I can't understand why we so many people simply do not understand the idea and role of faith in our culture. We live in a country where we explicitly don't want all crimes to also be sins against God. We don't want religion at the center of our laws. (yes I know they influence our laws and some crimes are also sins) But we also don't want religion to be washed out of our public life. In fact we must fight for all to have their rights expressed as long as they don't interfere with the rights of others. (We don't have right to not be offended or upset). That way we can be free, free of the oppression of a government who defines how we interact with our gods, and free to do so.
"With McCordsville Elementary being a public school, we have many different religions and beliefs, and I do not want to upset a child/parent because of these words being used,” the letter said. “If you got to church or discuss these things at home, please have a talk with your child about there being an appropriate time and place of talking about it.”
So of course the keyboard first amendment experts were there to express their outrage. But first let me say the letter from the teacher was both inappropriate and violates the students rights to free speech. This is not a gray area, the Supreme Court and many other courts have made decisions about the right of religious expression from students in school. If children express their faith in a manner that is not disruptive to the educational process nor is an attack on another child it is within their rights to use these words. May it be offensive? Yes. Is that a place for a conversation? Maybe. Can they be banned? No.
But of course the simple answer has no place in our culture where anyone can pick up the megaphone of the internet so let me use mine.
1. For the people who say we are a Christian nation: No we are not, we are a secular nation that has a plurality of people who identify as Christian. But written into our laws is a distinct separation of religion and government. The founders feared the role of religion in government as that is what they were feeling. They wanted a government of the people not ordained by God.
2. For those who say religion has no place in school: Religion can exist and does exist everywhere. The issue is who is bringing the religion. School officials cannot engage in bringing students together in prayer, cannot say one religion is better than another, cannot preach to children nor engage in religious recruitment in public school. However, students can in fact do all those things at appropriate times. Students can speak of their faith at free times, can pray before tests, lunch and anytime. Can wear religious items and ask for times to say daily prayers.
3. One nation under God is a phrase that was added to the pledge of allegiance in the 1950s because of fear of atheistic communism. It is ironically a bit unAmerican to require the pledge and worse to make a statement of faith in it. The beauty of America is that you can be any religion or none at all. We don't want a singular religion to be forced on us.
I can't understand why we so many people simply do not understand the idea and role of faith in our culture. We live in a country where we explicitly don't want all crimes to also be sins against God. We don't want religion at the center of our laws. (yes I know they influence our laws and some crimes are also sins) But we also don't want religion to be washed out of our public life. In fact we must fight for all to have their rights expressed as long as they don't interfere with the rights of others. (We don't have right to not be offended or upset). That way we can be free, free of the oppression of a government who defines how we interact with our gods, and free to do so.
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