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I'm against this. Reminds me of what my school district did back in the 1950s. At my elementary school, on Wednesday afternoons (during regular school hours), we were dismissed 90 minutes early if we attended bible study at one of the five main churches.
Mom sues to stop Bible study classes in West Virginia schools | Fox News
A kindergartner's mother is suing her public school system in West Virginia, asking that it discontinue a 75-year practice of putting kids in Bible classes that violate the U.S. and state constitutions. county School officials told the Charleston Gazette-Mail that the Bible courses are voluntary, financed by a nonprofit group and that the system's 19 elementary and middle schools provide alternative courses at the same time.
If they are privately funded and alternate courses are available should they be banned??
The Supreme Court of the United States follows a three prong test in determining whether such actions are constitutional. The test is this:
1. Does the action have a primary secular purpose?
2. Does the action have the net effect of advancing religion?
3. Will the action result in an excessive entanglement between church and state?
If an action violates any of these three prongs it violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment and is unconstitutional.
We don't need to get past the first prong of the test. Clearly, Bible study in school does not have a primary secular purpose.
Great. Bible courses have no place in public schools. And I'm not buying the claim that they were voluntary. The kids were probably presented with whatever class time as Bible class and only offered the other class if they asked. They may not have even known another class existed. I can't believe they have been going on this long. Why didn't Christian parents from other denominations find them unacceptable? Religious classes usually have some sort of denominational slant.
Exactly. I work in special education (as many of you know through different posts in different forums.) But it is my personal belief that church and (public and charter) schools should be separate. If you do speak of Christmas, one would also have to give equal time to Kwanza and Hanukkah. Not only that but we ended up talking about Christmas traditions around the world and not just traditional "American Christmas."
About the bold, this too is true. But for the most part unless kids comment, parents don't know. It's not like health when kids are about oh 5th/6th/7th grade being taught about sex...
Yeah! - Let's teach kindergartners about "My two mothers/fathers" and all the rest of the mushy-headed, liberal indoctrination the liberals think should be foisted on 6-year olds, but, heaven forbid we talk about God or His Word. By the Way, the notion of separation of church and state was intended by our forefathers to keep the state out of the church, not vice-versa.
Yeah! - Let's teach kindergartners about "My two mothers/fathers" and all the rest of the mushy-headed, liberal indoctrination the liberals think should be foisted on 6-year olds, but, heaven forbid we talk about God or His Word. By the Way, the notion of separation of church and state was intended by our forefathers to keep the state out of the church, not vice-versa.
If you want to know what the Constitution means, you have to read the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. In post 12, I explained the analysis the Supreme Court would apply to a case like this and why Bible reading would not be permitted in public schools.
You seem to have a different opinion and that is fine. The problem is that the opinion that counts is the opinion of the Supreme Court. They have a better idea of constitutional law--and what our forefathers really meant--than you.
One point conservative Christians like to gloss over is how many of the Founding Fathers really felt about religion. Ben Franklin was an atheist and than a deist. He was not a Christian. Thomas Jefferson was an agnostic who wrote a version of the New Testament that ignores any mention of Christ's miracles. George Washington lay on a death bed for days and did not ask for a minister to be there the entire time. Tom Paine was an atheist. I do not deny that "the Christian tradition" played a role in formulating our Constitution and laws. However, the framers were truly concerned about keeping Church and State entirely separate. That does mean that neither should interfere with the other.
They are using the public funded school building? Are these classes taking place during the school day, taking time away from classroom learning? Those are two issues but another issue is the peer pressure faced by the child. That is mainly what the woman is suing about. Her child will probably be mocked and shunned by the other kids for not attending the classes.
When I was in elementary school, there was Hebrew class for the Jewish kids. It was not held on public school property though. The negative aspect was that it was held during the school day and those of us who weren't Jewish were just left behind in the classroom to do busy work. The teacher couldn't teach because it would have been a waste with so many of the kids gone.
The article doesn't say much but it sounds like that religious instruction is held often. When I was in school the Jewish religious instruction was only about every two weeks and even that little bit took away from our learning time. Keep religions out of public schools. Don't they get religion in church on Sunday?
Religious factions don't hold these classes in public schools or in nearby places in lieu of regular classes, for the purpose of teaching anything. They do it as a demonstration that they have the power to impose their dogma on everyone in a community. It's all about control and dominance, which is the main purpose of organized religion in the first place.
Unless these courses are on Sunday when a church is paying full rental fees (I've seen schools rent to fledging churches), then these course should go the way of the Dodo bird.
Of course, Bible Study probably doesn't believe in the Dodo bird and evolution...so another saying might be more apt.
Yeah! - Let's teach kindergartners about "My two mothers/fathers" and all the rest of the mushy-headed, liberal indoctrination the liberals think should be foisted on 6-year olds, but, heaven forbid we talk about God or His Word. By the Way, the notion of separation of church and state was intended by our forefathers to keep the state out of the church, not vice-versa.
Would it be okay if we talk about other types of religion too? You probably wouldn't like that too much would ya
You cool teaching paganism, wicca ? I'm sure yer not. No..all of it is a no no in public schools...no brainer.
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