posted May 15, 2007 05:12 PM         

I liked it.

Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd.


If Scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now.
Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.


For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the state.

We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.

We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong,
We're taught that such "judgments" do not belong.

We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd.

It's scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; My soul please take!

posted May 15, 2007 07:00 PM         

I think we should be able to practice any faith or freedom of speech that we choose. But as a result of everyone trying to be politically correct....We can not longer label certain things CHRISTMAS Break is now WINTER break.
Halloween is now FALL break.
I thought our country was founded on freedom of religion...among other things. Why do we now, after so many years, have to give up the American way of life?

posted May 15, 2007 10:58 PM         

Jesus is not God is he?

I went to Catholic school but they never shoved the beliefs down our throats. Students who had other religions did not have to attend mass if they did not want to.

Most people went for a good education.

All were welcomed.

posted May 15, 2007 11:41 PM         

Freedom = Good
I think we should have a certain latitude in conforming to our religious beliefs wherever we are.

Tolerance = Good
I do think that kids need to learn how to tolerate people of varying religions, and it's difficult to teach tolerance in the absense of what you'd like people to be tolerant of.

Forced religion = bad
If a parent doesn't want their child eating bad food at school, they are free to send their kid to school with a healthy lunch. Perhaps, if a parent feels like their exposure to other religions may mislead their child, then they should have the opportunity to send their kids to a religion-free school.

posted May 16, 2007 12:15 AM         

If you have prayer in public schools the question then is, whose prayers? Jewish prayers, Catholic prayers, Protestant prayers, Buddhist prayers? I think you get my point.

I feel that religion is best left to the parents and their chosen religion to teach the kids. I also feel that parents should encourage their children at a certain age to look into and find out about all other religions. That teaches a child religious tolerance. I don't think that parents should force their own religious beliefs on their children but encourage them to explore all forms of spirituality outside of their own.

Prayers do not have to be a public display anyway. So what would the point of prayers in school be? Kids are not in school for religious education.

The U.S. Constitution provides for the separation of church and state and for a very good reason. People do not follow the same religious beliefs. And without the separation of church and state you can be sure that one religion will dominate which would cause persecution and exclusion of all other religions and beliefs.

Baby Blue, you must have missed something in the Catholic school you attended because Catholics DO believe that Jesus was God incarnate. In fact, it's in the creed or profession of faith.

posted May 16, 2007 09:39 PM         

quote:

---

Teachers and students barely have time to teach and learn the basics well.
Religious studies should be left to College or to self study.

---

I think Mirandee expressed my feelings best: if you have organized prayers in school, WHOSE prayers do you recite?? I don't want my son coerced into reciting the "proper" words of any spiritual belief system.

I remember saying the Pledge of Allegiance with my hand over my heart every morning in grade school, but that's where it ended. Starting in junior high school, ALL emphasis was (imho) where it should be: math, language arts, science and art -- no Pledge in Homeroom. The Pledge taught me as a child that I was a part of a big and wonderful country, and to be proud of the place I lived.

I would prefer not to have the Ten Commandments plastered on the walls of every City/County/Fed building however, the carving having been paid for with my tax dollars. They are an excellent list of rules of good social behavior, but were they not given in a time when people really *needed* such an explicit list?? This is not to say they are not desperately needed now I find it exclusionary to non-Christians when placed on a building that is for ALL the people, not just those who follow the Bible.

posted May 16, 2007 09:43 PM         

ETA:

1. I had a counselor think I was a satanist and persecute me for it. I wasn't the only one. When I wrote suns and stars on my jeans with a yellow highlighter, she said this "proved" I was a satanist. My experience isn't unusual.

2. Brandi Blackbear was expelled for "casting hexes" that made teachers sick. Plenty of others have been persecuted by faculty and students a like for not being Christian, and I can provide links if you'd like to hear of some.

3. There was a prayer group in my old high school. They like to pretend to be persecuted, but no one cared. It was only that if the faculty demanded people pray that the government was supposed to get involved. The faculty went after people like me instead of those praying openly every morning.

And ahem:

"We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable."

As I say, NOT a student. That sure wasn't allowed in my school, the dress code was strict, but not as strict as many others were. They were even trying to pass Janet Reno's school uniform thing at the time so as to stop all the ACLU lawsuits against schools. And pity you if you said so much as the d-word.

Students were allowed to quote scripture and pray all they wanted, they just couldn't force others to do it (or weren't supposed to be able to). You can get expelled for having your hair too long and too short, and even for wearing the wrong colors or wearing a cap (especially "sideways").

"We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong,
We're taught that such "judgments" do not belong."

Ignorance! They have NOT been in a school in a long time to allow their imagination to get this carried away. Sex ed is utterly pathetic and in most schools it's "abstinance-only."

Btw, they mention about keeping guns out of schools. I'm for teaching gun safety and all that, and disagree with schools being "gun free zones" (as that just makes them too tempting for mass murderers to pass up, and they're not going to obey that law). That said, it's at least as ridiculous to assume that if teens actually get CREDIBLE sex ed info that they'll turn into rapists and perverts as is the idea that if you teach gun safety that they will turn into mass murderers.

"We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd."

What fundie created this and then broke the commandment against bearing false witness?

Shall I post some linx about how witchcraft is persecuted in schools (that doesn't mean those persecuted for it actually ARE witches or are casting spells)? I can, but I'm trying to be as fast as I can on responding here.

Sex ed: abstinance-only. No condoms that I know of at the high school I went to in 99. Certainly no "secret abortions" as many of these liars like to claim, nor do schools call the ACLU (that would be like the KKK calling the NAACP).

posted May 16, 2007 11:00 PM         

Zala, Silent prayer is the best form of praying. Mainly because it comes from the heart and soul. Mostly prayers recited out loud are just that, recited and not felt. Especially if that prayer is repeated day after day after day. There is a place and time for that type of repetitious prayer but for kids in school that would just be tedious and boring I think.

The Pledge of Allegiance is a good example of that. All of us kids only recited it because we had to. Not because we felt it at the time.

Prayer would just become one more obligatory thing a kid had to do in school. It would become tedious and boring to kids.

Everyone probably knows the Lord's Prayer. But even among Christians Catholics and Protestants don't recite that prayer the same. The wording is different. I think that would be confusing to a kid and why should a Catholic kid who learned it one way have to recite it the way Protestants do?

Since the bible itself is misinterpreted and interpreted differently by people of different religions ( and even in the same religions at times) I wouldn't want someone who interprets it differently than my own religion or than I have taught my children confusing the child with their own view of what the meaning of passages of Scripture are.

I think religious education in schools and prayers in school would only serve to totally confuse children. It's enough that parents already hear that so and so's mom says she can do that but you said I can't. lol Parents would be hearing that Miss so and so said that is not what that passage in Scripture means and you told me it was.