A school, besides being a large group of aquatic animals, is a place of learning, for educating youth, and for helping youth develop their opinions and ideas about serious issues and events that they will face in the world. It is at school where children will have their minds sculpted the ideas taught. It is for this reason that this issue is an important one, do we want to have a bias towards a certain religion, and why Christianity?
America’s forefathers, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, all work towards keeping Church and State separate. Surely you don’t need a history lesson on your own country from a Canadian about your forefathers? It is because of the founding principles that almost all cases taken to the Supreme Court involving separation of church and state in school have been won. Don’t mention the most recent one in California, as a campaigner for equal marital rights for males I’m still pissed about that.
"The [First] Amendment's purpose... was to create a complete and permanent separation of the spheres of religious activity and civil authority by comprehensively forbidding every form of public aid or support for religion." U.S. Supreme Court, Reynolds v. United States (1879) Furthermore, a 1992 decision "Lee v. Weisman" by the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited "prayer, benediction, or invocation at any graduation ceremonies" Lastly, a 1999 statement by the Education Secretary "...the U.S. Supreme Court in 1980 ruled that it is unconstitutional for a state to require posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools...�
A prime example of where Church and State overlap in religious piety is the Pledge of Allegiance. These outdated traditions should be done with, yet we are adding to them, the words “under god� were added in 1954 so there would be a distinction between the U.S. and the godless Soviets. The 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires the government to not give preference of one religion over another. The words “under god� do just that.
In Western civilization we pride ourselves of being a free and multicultural society. In a society this multicultural (and getting more and more diverse as I type) it is astonishing to only incorporate one religious idea. That leaves the option of incorporating all religions equally, or not supporting any. Some may even venture that we can see the results of only supporting one religion in schools by the attitudes of Americans towards other religions like Judaism or Islam. If you want to teach acceptance of religion instead of tension, schools are the right place to start.
Thanks for reading.
America’s forefathers, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, all work towards keeping Church and State separate. Surely you don’t need a history lesson on your own country from a Canadian about your forefathers? It is because of the founding principles that almost all cases taken to the Supreme Court involving separation of church and state in school have been won. Don’t mention the most recent one in California, as a campaigner for equal marital rights for males I’m still pissed about that.
"The [First] Amendment's purpose... was to create a complete and permanent separation of the spheres of religious activity and civil authority by comprehensively forbidding every form of public aid or support for religion." U.S. Supreme Court, Reynolds v. United States (1879) Furthermore, a 1992 decision "Lee v. Weisman" by the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited "prayer, benediction, or invocation at any graduation ceremonies" Lastly, a 1999 statement by the Education Secretary "...the U.S. Supreme Court in 1980 ruled that it is unconstitutional for a state to require posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools...�
A prime example of where Church and State overlap in religious piety is the Pledge of Allegiance. These outdated traditions should be done with, yet we are adding to them, the words “under god� were added in 1954 so there would be a distinction between the U.S. and the godless Soviets. The 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires the government to not give preference of one religion over another. The words “under god� do just that.
In Western civilization we pride ourselves of being a free and multicultural society. In a society this multicultural (and getting more and more diverse as I type) it is astonishing to only incorporate one religious idea. That leaves the option of incorporating all religions equally, or not supporting any. Some may even venture that we can see the results of only supporting one religion in schools by the attitudes of Americans towards other religions like Judaism or Islam. If you want to teach acceptance of religion instead of tension, schools are the right place to start.
Thanks for reading.
