<p>It is about time someone noticed that that filthy Declaration of Indepence uses the word "God" and must be rejected by every school in America. I have been praying for this for a long time. </p>
<p>Can I get an Amen?</p>
<p>I live in the small town where the incident took place. Interesting.</p>
<p>Its a sad state of affairs when one of the founding documents of the United States of America is banned.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Vancat. Thats actually not what happened. </p>
<p>What happened was the teacher was suspended because he was teaching them about God in the Founding Documents. It doesn't matter if the founding fathers were religious. They installed something called church and state. God NEVER belongs in the classroom in any way, shape or form. That's what this is all about.</p>
<p>If you would read the Constitution, you would see that it NEVER establishes anything whatsoever about the separation of church and state. Here is the exact quote from the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
[/quote]
</p>
<p>There is no law prohbiting these children from practicing their own religion in the classroom; likewise, there is no law establishing Christianity. Even if you do think there is a magical phrase about "separation of church and state" it would be ignorant to invoke it in this case. Our whole country was founded on the premise that its citizens were Christians and that's where all of the principles come from of the Constitution. To ignore this fact is to ignore the rich history of the United States.</p>
<p>Like it or not, God is part of our history, and to try to teach it without mentioning it or God's (religion's) role in the making in history is just foolish. I'm all for not having prayer in public schools or preventing teachers from discriminating against non-christian kids, but sometimes people should stop being so "I have a stick up my ass" -ish and use some common sense.</p>
<p>Well it IS fifth grade. Since they are going to forget & learn the material again in any case why not let the political drama run its course?</p>
<p>I'm not 100% sure I know exactly what happened here, but I'll comment anyway.</p>
<p>There's no reason anyone should get suspended for showing kids the constitution. The founding fathers were religious men and church was not completely separate from state at that time, for sure. And some would argue it still isnt, us having a national Christmas tree and such.</p>
<p>But at the same time, teaching about God and teaching about the Constitution are not the same. There are tons of places kids can get their religious education, but not public schools. And that's how it should be.</p>
<p>What I can't be sure of is whether this teacher was just handing out Constitutions or if he was actually talking about God.</p>
<p>I think what people need is to look at it from another viewpoint. What would the reaction be if a teacher started to teach Islam in the classroom. What if they started teaching Judaism or some Hinduism or some other religion? I am sure that people, Christians and non-Christians alike, would have something to say about it.
So why is it so 'unacceptable' when a court rules that Christianity should not be taught in classrooms?</p>
<p>America is a massive country that is really diverse, and every racial and religious group has played a great a part in building it. Therefore, it is wrong to try and force beliefs of any particular group on to the others. Now THAT is one of the founding principles of this country. </p>
<p>Freedom to practice religion also comes with a responsibility not to force that religion on to people who aren't looking for it. </p>
<p>I don't hate religion, I think it's a great thing. But as with anything, people abuse it, twist it and really bastardize the whole institution. I personally would be disturbed if a teacher taught atheism or any religion, even my own religion in class or schools. It's just as ridiculous as teachers teaching kids to be liberal or conservative. People should be taught to choose their beliefs, not have it chosen for them.</p>
<p>If only people kept their personal beliefs to themselves, then we wouldnt have to worry about who says what to whom.</p>
<p>good point.</p>
<p>In the eyes of the Founding Fathers God does not = Christianity</p>
<p>I must add that I feel this bill is slightly silly(assuming the article tells the whole story). I don't feel that documents that simply mention God should be barred from classrooms, especially the Declaration of Independence as it is a piece of history. </p>
<p>If people were to hand out scriptures or things like that, that's a different story. I think the Bill should be modified to include only those that serve to promote a certain belief held by people, not anything that simply mentions the word 'God'.</p>
<p>"I think what people need is to look at it from another viewpoint. What would the reaction be if a teacher started to teach Islam in the classroom. What if they started teaching Judaism or some Hinduism or some other religion? I am sure that people, Christians and non-Christians alike, would have something to say about it. So why is it so 'unacceptable' when a court rules that Christianity should not be taught in classrooms?"</p>
<ol>
<li>The teacher was not teaching religion. If you look at the documents he was handing out to his students, they were all original founding documents, not some sort of propaganda. Source documents, friend. 2. The history of the United States is not as "multi-ethnic", "multi-cultural", and "multi-religious" as you seem to think. Most of the founders and original Citizens were at least professing Christians, and most of those were Christians in earnest. This is fact, not my personal belief just because I want to believe it.</li>
</ol>
<p>"America is a massive country that is really diverse, and every racial and religious group has played a great a part in building it. Therefore, it is wrong to try and force beliefs of any particular group on to the others. Now THAT is one of the founding principles of this country."</p>
<p>Uhm excuse me, but again you are taking what you would LIKE to be true and superimposing that wish onto reality. The reality is that not every racial and religious group has played a "great part" in creating America. Think the Amish or Indonesians. Members of those groups (and others) have indeed had impact on America, but not to the extent that other groups have. Christianity is truly one of the largest impacting groups on America. Again, this is fact whether you and I like it or not. </p>
<p>"I personally would be disturbed if a teacher taught atheism or any religion, even my own religion in class or schools. It's just as ridiculous as teachers teaching kids to be liberal or conservative. People should be taught to choose their beliefs, not have it chosen for them." </p>
<p>I completely agree with your last sentence, however, the first one is again not based on the facts because most public schools teach that either there is no god or no way of knowing whether there is a god, which are both the religions of atheism and agnosticism, respectively. </p>
<p>Perhaps you should re-examine history and current educational trends bit more closely.</p>
<p>I wish there is a day where no racial/religional fight would come, but probably it won't.</p>
<p>"I think what people need is to look at it from another viewpoint. What would the reaction be if a teacher started to teach Islam in the classroom. What if they started teaching Judaism or some Hinduism or some other religion? I was taught about islam and hinduism "</p>
<p>I learned about islam and hinduism and judaism in the classroom. Couldn't have done world history without them.</p>
<p>I fail to see what is so horrifying about learning about religions. I fail to see why "teaching" Christianity, or Judaism, or Islam, is a crime. What's the alternative? "Okay kids, today we're going to discuss the political situation in Israel." "Sir, what do the Muslims believe?" "Well, Johnny, you have to let your parents explain that to you. See, it's not a part of your education. And really, it IS possible to learn about this without understanding the religion behind it. Trust me."
"Sir, why is there a conflict in Ireland?" "It started with the split between the Catholics and Protestants -" "Sir, how are they different?" "Well, Johnny, I'm afraid I can't tell you. That would be brainwash."</p>
<p>My daughters third grade teacher discussed winter holidays with the class so that they could have a winter party. Otherwise a winter party wouldn't have been part of the curriculum! Other teachers in the school didn't have parties for any reason, no Valentines, no Halloween no winter celebrations :-(
This teacher presented holidays in a pretty straightforward way I thought, although he was heavier on the "Christian" religous celebrations around the world than secular or other religious holidays. Still we didn't call it a "christmas" party, or exchange presents although there was lots of food!
I think it is a fine line though, I have know teachers who don't present things in a nonbiased manner but are very biased one way or the other no matter what the actual material consists of. So you basically have to present a paper showing that you ( agree with) understand the material.</p>
<p>Wow, we have hit a new low.</p>
<p>Half the literature we read in AP English deals with God or some higher being. Why don't we just ban that as well.</p>
<p>Anybody else find the irony in title of this post?</p>
<p>Thank God California Has Gotten Rid of God in the Classroom</p>
<p>Are we not to learn about Rome? Henry VIII, the Catholic Reformation? Martin Luther, Plymouth, Salem, St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, Henry of Navare, WWII, Russian Revolution, Saudi Arabia, The Medicis, the crusades, ... are these all to be forbidden topics because they deal with religion? this decision leads down a VERY slippery slope.
the Founding Fathers guaranteed the freedom of religion and pracitce of religion, they never guaranteed the complete freedom FROM religion. just as the freedom of speech gives on the right to say whatever they want regardless of who finds it offensive, it carries the responsibility to guarantee everybody else the same right no matter how offensive you find their opinions. The freedom of religion allows you to believe whatever you want, but you also have to respect the rights of others to do the same. It is impossible to learn about the history of America without mentioning religion, it is even more impossible to learn about the history of the rest of the world and excuse the topic of religion from it entirely. Banning religion bans huge amouts of knowledge from being taught. Im not advocating prosilization by any means, but so long as the teacher doesn't condem or condone the religion in anyway and discusses it objectivley, how can you ban religion?</p>
<p>What's so bad about learning about religion anyway? I don't believe in any religion, but it's still fun to learn. I'll be reading Bible (King Translation) as a literature in my English class this year, but what's so bad about it? Since I haven't read bible, I think it's good time to read it, and understand why a lot of people in US believe this religion. We shouldn't be FORCED to believe in one religion, but I'm completely fine with learning them.</p>