Re: Judge Jones again

There is nothing in the Supreme Court's 1963 school prayer decision that
forbids the teaching about religion in public school. In fact, the Court
specifically noted that this is possible. A later Court ruling affirmed
first amendment rights of students to express personal religious viewpoints
as long as they do not proselytize.

A major problem is that the incessant rhetoric of "no religion in school"
has trumped the reality of what is possible. Another problem is that in
local school districts, out of fear of offending the adherents of one
denomination or another because certain facts they disagree with might be
presented, has also cast a shadow. A third problem has been that some
textbook editors and authors (always skittish in the face of school board
disapproval) have wrongly omitted important historical and other facts about
religion.

In the 1990s the Clinton administration took steps to inform the public
through widespead distribution to public schools of a pamphlet sponsored by
a wide range of religious and civil libertarian groups, from the General
Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists to the ACLU (religious freedom makes
strange bedfellows). The 1995 document, "Religion in the Public Schools: A
Joint Statement of Current Law," can be accessed on the Department of
Education web site at www.ed.gov/Speeches/04-1995/prayer.html. You can also
find it on the Baptist Joint Committee, ACLU, and a dozen other sites. Just
Google the title. Read sections 5-8 and you'll see how much latitude is
there for teaching about religion in the classroom, and for students to
choose to write on religious topics and express personal views.

Back in 1978 I was visiting a cousin in Saginaw, Michigan, leafed through
her children's high school catalog. There was a course on "The Bible as
Literature" listed. Recently schools in Georgia and Alabama are
experimenting with textbooks that look at the content of the Bible and it
influence on Western Civiilization. All is not lost.

Bob

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Hamilton" <williamehamiltonjr@yahoo.com>
To: "David Opderbeck" <dopderbeck@gmail.com>; "Carol or John Burgeson"
<burgytwo@juno.com>
Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 3:32 PM
Subject: Re: Judge Jones again

> Thanks for posting, David. I had forgotten about Burgy's post of Judge
> Jones'
> comments. I agree with you, and read Judge Jones' comments with
> considerable
> discomfort. While I agree that religious dogma has no place in a science
> class
> (with a few obvious exceptions such as the ethics governing treatment of
> experimental animals), I believe we are creating the seeds of destruction
> of
> our society by keeping religion out of the public schools. I'm not
> arguing for
> teaching religion in the public schools, but public school teachers should
> be
> careful that they do not give students the impression that religion is
> irrelevant -- which they do by suppressing all mention of religion.
> Somehow
> students in the public schools must learn to understand the value of
> religion
> without being indoctrinated in a particular religion. Obviously the
> schools
> can't teach religion, but they should support the efforts of family and
> church/synagogue/temple/mosue to instill religious values in students.
>
>
Received on Wed May 24 16:46:20 2006