Fields: ACLU Defends Religion In Schools
BY SAM FIELDS
Guest Columnist
“You want to know what’s wrong with schools today? This all started when the took prayer out of schools–brilliant! God has ways of letting us know. Time to wake up.” Letter to the Editor Sun-Sentinel, April 18, 2009 by Donna Meyers, Oakland Park
Donna Meyers doesn’t know what she is talking about
Sam Fields
There is no prohibition of prayer in public schools. In fact, prayer in public schools is protected by the “free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
The American Civil Liberties Union has fought to protect that right.
If this sounds a little off to you, it is only because you have bought into the Right’s fictitious victimization and demonizing of the ACLU.
Let me make it clear.
The only rule is that the government–and that includes school boards, principals and teachers–cannot promote or unreasonably discourage prayer. “Unreasonably would probably include interrupting a final exam to belt out a chorus of Ave Maria at 100 decibels.
It may be that Meyers belongs to that religious sect that can only communicate with their god out loud, during Home Room and its priests must have earned the sacred degree of Bachelor of Education.
If that’s the case, the Constitution says she’s out of luck.
April 19th, 2010 at 8:36 am
Liberal Sam wants you to believe that the ACLU is an organization that supports religion in schools. The ACLU is responsible for not allowing any type of Bible study as literature in the classroom. Even though the Bible is part of our hertitage and was used in the writing of the Constitution, it CAN NOT be read from in school. The 10 Commandments are not allowed to be discussed even though they are the foundation of our laws.
Liberal Sam should learn the facts.
April 19th, 2010 at 9:32 am
To “Open Your Eyes Up”:
What part of the Constitution is based on the Bible? The part that mentions “God,” or the “10 Commandments?” Oh wait, there is no mention of God or the 10 Commandments, or any part of the Bible in the Constitution. The Constitution is a totally secular document. You should read it.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:00 am
You state “The ACLU is responsible for not allowing any type of Bible study as literature in the classroom” that may be the case and that is OK in my book as I would not want a public school teacher directing my child’s beliefs or lack thereof. The public school system is not the place for religious instruction.
I know of no regulation preventing a child from carrying a bible in their backpack and quietly reading from it on their own time while at school, (if I am mistaken then please let me know) they should not be reading from it during course instruction. If they choose to pray at the beginning of each day or before their meal, then do so, many do already. If you want them to read from it during course instruction, then there are several religious schools around the county that would be happy to enroll your child.
What is wrong with our schools is not the fact that religious instruction is banned, what is wrong is society as a whole, (that and our school boards lack of vision or accountability).The inability to accept responsibility for one’s self or ones actions. The mindset that I can do whatever I want whenever I want. The parents that think their child can do no wrong, let’s be real no one’s kid is perfect and the sooner people accept that and make their child accountable for their actions we would all be better off. What is that biblical saying “spare the rod, spoil the childâ€. Would you be all for that as well in our public schools or even the private religious schools? With that mindset, then if there can be religious instruction in school, would it then be OK for the teacher to crack the kids with a ruler for misbehaving?
Hmmmmm.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:06 am
Additionally, any religious beliefs that are instilled at home or in church should be enough to carry the child through the day at the public school. Maybe you should take a look at it from that vantage point and see where the parents or the church are going wrong with their efforts to instill good god-fearing values in their kids.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:08 am
It drives me CRAZY when people perpetuate these non-sensical myths. Do you ever READ anything?!?
There is no reference to “god” or any deity anywhere in the U.S. Constitution or in it’s amendments. The bible had nothing to do with the writing of any of it.
Only two of the Ten Commandments can be looked upon as legal points (don’t murder and don’t steal) versus moral guidelines. Maybe I’ll even give you half credit for “don’t lie” because under some circumstances, that could violate law. But 2-1/2 out of 10 is a pretty lousy rate for claiming something was the :foundation of our laws”. When was the last time someone went to jail for not honoring mom or dad? Or for mowing the lawn on Sunday?
The bible may be part of your heritage if you descend from Europe, , but what about the muslims, hindus, native americans, agnostics, and jews? Until it was forced upon them (usually through massive bloodshed), it wasn’t any part of THEIR heritages.
Finally, anyone is allowed to pray quietly in public school or to privately read the bible during their personal time. It’s only when you want to inflict your own religious beliefs on someone else and intrude on THEIR rights that you have a problem.
Practice your religion however you want (or DON’T want), but stop bullshitting people that Christianity is the foundation of America. That’s just one more lie you’re telling people.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:25 am
For generations Christian prayers in school guided our children and filled them with a sense of right and wrong. Now the ACLU has made it so you can’t even have a Christmas tree in a school or a town park!
If players try to pray before a football game, theACLU slaps you down. The ACLU sued to get the 10 Commandments taken down, but God’s law is the foundation of man’s law. The concept of justice has a Biblical foundation, thus the American Constitution is founded on a Biblical foundation.
All the founding fathers had a Biblical education. Some rejected it after they were given it. The ACLU would deny our children the right to decide whether Biblical truths are for them because they are forbidden to learn it in school.
The ACLU is wrong.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:25 am
To: Open your BRAIN instead of your eyes says:
Well said.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:52 am
Biblical education should NOT be in public schools for various reasons. One being there are far too many versions of the Christian faith floating around, which one do you choose, Methodist?, the Catholics won’t stand for that,nor would the Born Agains;there will be years of legal battles about that one issue alone.
Not to mention all of the other religions that are part of this melting pot of a country. What sections of the bible should be taught? Who is qualified to teach it? Do you want a Jew imparting their view of the Old Testament on your child any more than a Jew would want a non-Jew doing so. That is what private religious schools are for.
My son plays several sports and I have seen and heard prayers before games. I don’t get offended and neither does he. If you do then stand out of the huddle for a moment.
Children should be guided from the home. Again, religious instruction should come from the home and the churches, not the public schools.
April 19th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Thomas Jefferson made his own bible by taking a razor blade and removing all of the allusions to Jesus doing anything supernatural.
With this in mind, funny how people can consider our founders to have a “christian heritage.” Our founding documents were based on the enlightenment and reason, often to the antithesis of organized religion.
Open up a history book. Maybe you’ll learn something.
April 19th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
To: Open Your Eyes Up…
You’re NUTS to the point of being frightening. It’s self-centered zealots like you that want to force their views, standards, and beliefs on everyone else that made the ACLU get involved in all this in the first place. Why would I want my tax dollars to be used to teach my grandchildren YOUR family’s beliefs instead of MY family’s beliefs? Would you want those same football players reciting passages from the Torah before the big game? How about a few Hindu prayers at halftime? I’ll bet the ACLU’s arguments would seem pretty valid to you if it was a non-Christian religion being advanced instead of your own.
Keep your religion where it belongs: in the privacy of your home or in YOUR church. Oh yeah…and quit trying to convert the rest of us.
April 19th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
I have three thousand words to say about this, or in this case, 3 pictures…
http://www.atheistcartoons.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/thisidontbelieve.jpg
http://media.mcclatchydc.com/smedia/2010/02/08/11/100208usapettc.slideshow_main.prod_affiliate.91.jpg
http://www.marriedtothesea.com/101309/revolutionary-shot.gif
Hint: For those in the audience more apt to pick up a bible than an arithmetic book, that’s 3000/x = 3 where x = picture being worth so many words.
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:48 am
Where did the founding fathers say our unalienable rights came from? Government or our God? Sayin!
April 22nd, 2010 at 6:55 am
To: Open Your Eyes Up
I noticed on a website, yesterday, for a Broward county high school that one of the student clubs was “bible class”. It is not a core curriculum, which it should not be, but an extracurricular activity. It doesn’t seem as though the ACLU is slapping this down. If children want to attend it is there for them.
Would your statements now be baseless?
April 22nd, 2010 at 10:22 am
Dear James,
Inalienable rights is in the Declaration of Independence. After editing they took out “god” and put in “creator”
The concept of religion based inalienable rights was a relatively new concept that was somewhat connected to the Protestant Refermation. The vast majority of world relgions, including the rest of Christianty, Muslims, Hindu Jews, etc are “divine right” types. Power goes from the top down
Simply put inalienable personal freedom is rarely if ever a Godly principle.It is overwhemingly the opposite of religion in theory and practice.
The good news for you is that personal freedom gives even you the right to pontificate about things that you clearly know nothing about.
Try reading about the secular Enlightenment which is where the modern concept of personal freedom arose.