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its a witchhunt (or reverse witchhunt) to get rid of all Christian references. I am pretty sure if he said "Buddah says hi" after every sneeze the teacher wouldn't have said anything.
This guy should be fired. Disrespectful? To who? Did somebody complaign about it? It's known as a common courtesy. At least the school agreed with the students who complaigned about this loon and he is pulling back it appears. Makes you wonder what other kinds of insanity this guy puts his students through though.
Chicagoland had the best answer for this problem and even though claiming to be agnostic or atheist told it the best in that those people do use those words pertaining to religion now and then.
I don't think that anyone should be punished for it unless they have been told to not do it and they continue. In that case they are not being punished for using the phrase but for the insubordination.
I am one of the people that actually is offended when someone says this to me after a sneeze. It is the same when someone will say to me "have a blessed day" or some other variation. To many religious people, these are simply innocuous phrases that they have been taught to use without even giving it any thought. However, since you can't be sure that everyone around you shares the same religious beliefs, I think it is rude to just assume that nobody is going to care.
I have a feeling that many Christians would be screaming bloody murder if they or their children were routinely greeted with As-Salam Alaikum.
I've greeted people with "salaam" and never had any problems. Nor does a blessing necessarily need to be from God. I think at this point you are just nitpicking. To be fair, I think Christians are nitpicking when someone says "Jesus Christ!" as an exclamation and aren't actually talking about the guy. There are tons of phrases we use in every day language that don't really mean what they originally referred to. When you "kill two birds with one stone", are you actually talking about hunting? When you "keep an eye" on something, are you literally maintaining gaze with the object or situation? Sometimes you are, like when you're keeping an eye on someone's bag. But people use that expression to mean "managing a situation" even when the person doing it isn't physically present.
How often do people get their panties in a bunch about those technicalities? Did you just get a wedgie? Seriously, we use metaphorical language all the time. Why are we all the sudden making an exception when it happens to deal with God? Let it go. It's not that deep. Or if you are going to be that picky about it, at least be consistent. I'm guessing that you don't actually mean that Christians will literally be screaming the words "bloody murder" if they hear someone say assalam alaikum. My guess is you mean something along the lines of "freak out" or "disapprove of" or "make an issue out of" that situation. But that's what language is. It's chock-full of figurative and metaphorical language. That includes "bless you," and "godd@mnit."
The United States is not a theocracy or Christian country.
"Bless you" is not a Christian-only or theist-only phrase. There are plenty of people with no religious beliefs who use the phrase. My parents are both atheists and they taught me to say "bless you". In fact, I think I just picked it up from them because they say it themselves.
"Salaam alaikum" (and its shorter form, "salaam") is a standard greeting in many Middle Eastern and North African countries, and is used by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It's become removed from its religious implications and become a cultural norm. It's akin to saying "Hello." Even "goodbye" in English originally comes from "God be with you" but no one means that anymore when they say "goodbye."
Let me guess--now you're going to stop saying "goodbye" cause I told you that.
Just got done emailing hte principal of the school! Requesting the health teacher be suspended for not using the opportunity to teach about droplet contamination but instead belittled one younger than him.
If it is in the middle of instruction time: then I would suspect many teachers would take issue with students saying "Good morning" or "Have a good weekend".
Nitpicking.
If in the middle of a classroom lecture, you accidentally sneezed or farted and said "excuse me", do you really think your teacher would object? Or would they appreciate your use of manners?
I'm in school now and students ask for clarifications all the time. They ask for these clarifications by saying "excuse me." That is interruption, technically, but it's with good cause. If the reason is to understand the lecture or to excuse slightly improper behavior or a bodily function of some sort, 99.9% of teachers excuse the interruption. In fact, most of them welcome it, cause they want to make sure the students are following what they're saying. The .1% are people like this teacher.
People once thought that a sneeze was the body trying to expel an evil spirit or demon. That's the origin of the phrase, as I understand it.
Actually, I'm pretty sure the origin is the Black Plague in Europe. That disease was so widespread and lethal, anytime someone sneezed, people believed they had it and would most likely die. Therefore, they said, "God Bless You."
Although it appears your variation is one suggested belief regarding its practice too.
The United States is not a theocracy or Christian country.
Not in an official way, but in practical census terms, yes it is. Even if your point obtained, the First Amendment not only guarantees freedom of speech it also prohibits impeding the free exercise of religion. You can not make a reasonable argument that the time it takes for someone to sneeze and another one to say 'Bless you' is an unreasonable disruption of classroom activity. This is anti-religious bigotry in bold letters. This teacher should be parking cars for a living.
Do you also object to our writing the year as 2011?
After all, that is 2,011 years since the birth of Christ.
How many Americans do you think write "2011" on their checks and think "Two thousand eleven years since the birth of Our Lord..."
Please.
according to Sco, porn must also be a Christian thing, seeing how many times the women scream God's name in vain.
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