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My son has played baseball for a little league that has a priest bless all players before the league starts for the year. The kids also say a pledge before each game that has a part that includes God. This irritates me to no end. Why is it necessary to bring religion of any kind into kid's sports? What if I want a prayer to Vishnu to be included? But we're a "christian nation" so that wont be happening.
Don't even get me started on Boy Scouts! My son loves the Scouts but religion is stuffed down his throat at every turn.
Well, you can't do anything about the Scouts. Unfortunately they're allowed to be a bigoted and discriminatory organization. Not sure where the funding for your little league comes from, but if any of it is public money, you may have a case to get them to stop the prayers and the god-pledge.
Well, you can't do anything about the Scouts. Unfortunately they're allowed to be a bigoted and discriminatory organization. Not sure where the funding for your little league comes from, but if any of it is public money, you may have a case to get them to stop the prayers and the god-pledge.
Possibly if the ball fields are owned by the county or city. Here I'm not sure where the funds for uniforms, etc. come from, but the ball fields themselves are owned by the county Parks & Rec.
Possibly if the ball fields are owned by the county or city. Here I'm not sure where the funds for uniforms, etc. come from, but the ball fields themselves are owned by the county Parks & Rec.
Yeah. His best bet is to first ask nicely for the ball club to refrain from religious display. Maybe they'll be reasonable, maybe not. But I would ask first, and go from there depending on the response I received.
Mike. Don't sweat it. I have 2 boys (now 16 and 14) and one still attends Catholic high school. He has to endure morality class, etc. The other is in public high school. He attended 3 years of Catholic middle school. My wife attended Catholic high school and BC. Don't sweat it. It's only for the politics of it all.
Both my boys are disdainful of organized religion and we did not indoctrinate them one way or another.
Your boy will find his own way. I was 50 before I started to see the light and really get serious about actively shunning the religious BS. Just let it flow.....when your son is, ideally, 13, let him make up his own mind and keep it simple.
I had to attend a college tuition assistance seminar the other night and it was begun with a "Hail Mary". I just mumbled the recipe for jambalaya and it was all good.
You have friends here. Please don't despair. The generation will come that will start to wipe out organized religion. Right now is not the time. There is too much polarization in society. Just hug your boy and teach him that certain people are mixed up and you'll help him get through this mess. Life in general is quite nice on its own merits and the prayer stuff is just foo-foo.
I disagree. He should politely request that the activity cease, in order to make a welcoming environment for all children in the group. If atheists keep being quiet and submissive about the forcible intrusion of religion into their lives and the lives of their children, it will never change.
Someone has to start the ball rolling to even the playing field. The scouts are allowed to be discriminatory because they're a private organization. However, if the little league is not a private organization, then they are doing the wrong thing by bringing in a priest and having prayers.
I say he should talk to the league organization about it.
I do agree with you in essence. You and I actually agree on almost everything! I just detected some angst on Mike's part and tried to help him minimalize it. Hopefully, with his maturity and guidance he can work with his young son to deflect the nonsense.
I do not desire to see religious scars inflicted on anyone. I am much more militant in my thinking, just in the past 6 months, but not yet a true activist. I would hate to see Mike's son get bamboozled like I was for 50 years, and my parents actually did nothing to help matters.
It doesn't seem from the OP that Mike is asking for advice - just an opportunity to vent and be heard by people who 'get it.' If his son loves the Scouts and religion is even more of a feature there, it's unlikely a quick pledge at Little League is weighing heavily on the boy. It's the dad who is irked. I 'get' that - it would rankle me, too. I agree with Eloy, though, that it isn't worth pursuing that battle. Chances are it would just make things uncomfortable for his son and, IMO, since his kid likes everything else about it, it's more important in this case of him to be happy than for his dad to change the world of little league prayer.
Overall, it totally grrrs me - in non-religious settings - when people assume that it's acceptable to pray AND that the prayer 'should' be Christian/Jesus based.
It doesn't seem from the OP that Mike is asking for advice - just an opportunity to vent and be heard by people who 'get it.' If his son loves the Scouts and religion is even more of a feature there, it's unlikely a quick pledge at Little League is weighing heavily on the boy. It's the dad who is irked. I 'get' that - it would rankle me, too. I agree with Eloy, though, that it isn't worth pursuing that battle. Chances are it would just make things uncomfortable for his son and, IMO, since his kid likes everything else about it, it's more important in this case of him to be happy than for his dad to change the world of little league prayer.
Overall, it totally grrrs me - in non-religious settings - when people assume that it's acceptable to pray AND that the prayer 'should' be Christian/Jesus based.
It's not a quick pledge though. He says a priest is called in to pray and bless the kids. That's unacceptable unless it's a Catholic school.
I agree. That is going way too far. It doesn't surprise me at all.
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