🚀 go-pugleaf

In la.general TraceyLevin <tracey12@swbell.net> wrote:
> No one wants to force you, your children, or anyone else to say a
> prayer.  Every Christian I know thinks that would be a very wrong thing
> to do.  But, at the same time, we do not want you telling us that our
> children cannot pray openly in school.  

So, you think that it would be acceptable for a cult like the Church of
Scientology to have students sit in rooms running e-meters and giving personality
tests in school? Just what class period are you willing to give up for this? And
when do we know it to be a religion, or a cult? Is this option open to the
Moonies? The Krishnas? The Satanists? Is animal sacrifice allowed if the kids
really want to do it and it is within the rights of their faith? How do you feel
about sun worshipors, you know, nudists who believe that the proper way to worship
is sans clothing. I have to assume that you feel that they too should have the
same rights as Christians to worship as they wish in the school.

> Liberals have a very hard time with living in a society as diverse as
> ours.  For some reason, they seem to believe that if God is
> acknowledeged by students in public schools, those same schools will
> suddenly become Baptist, or Catholic churches which will instantly lead
> to the rewriting of the Constitution to include a new amendment stating
> that there is now a national religion.

No, we know that if the majority get to wrap their morality up in a way that makes
the minority students feel left out or different or not part of the group, that it
will stigmatize and create divisions. Please, don't tell me that it won't. I have
had the wonerful experience of being the only non-christain in a christian group,
and I can't tell you the subtle ways that people attempted to entice me to seek
forgiveness in the arm of Jesus. That includes parents who told their kids that
they couldn't come to my home to play as it wasn't a "good christian home". 

If you don't think it would make a difference, it is only because you have choosen
to blind yourself to the many times, and many ways, that man has punnished his
fellow man for failing to embrace their "blind faith". Try walking in the shaman's
shoes in a land filled with non-believers, get used to being shuned, and then tell
me that it isn't so.

> Liberals are way off base on this issue.  Students have a right to free
> exercise of their religion even on government property.  

No one has ever said that a student can not pray. Before a major test I'm sure
that there are many who are praying. The problem is that you don't want that. You
want to show how pious you are by making an issue out of it. It isn't enough that
you have a moment to speak with your lord, no you must make a display of that
moment. 

If my religion states that when I pray to my lord I must be nude, with nothing
between me and the lord, then I don't think you would be all that keen on having
me pray in the public school. 

If you are going to insist on this right to protect you and your christianity,
then you had best be able to stand the stuff that will crawl out of the woodwork.
From e-meters to saffron robes, you are opening a box that even Pandora wouldn't
be stupid enough to want open. Once you let this jini out of the bottle, there is
little hope of getting it back in.

> Liberals are highly threatened by strong believers in God and Christ
> Jesus.

No, not liberals. People that respect the rights and desires of the minority.
People that know that open "faith" is just an excuse to intimidate. People who
have any understanding of history. People who know that time and time again the
"faithful" have, in the name of their faith, done far more damage to mankind then
any other cause or group.

> They see our government and religion as an all or nothing
> situation: We either have no references to God in government, or we have
> an official state religion where everyone is forced to attend church by
> law.

Is that what you believe? It isn't what I believe. I believe that FAITH is a
private matter. I believe that you can feel free to practice as you like in your
home, or your church. I believe that it doesn't belong ANYWHERE where one person
(a taxpayer) would be made uncomfortable and choose to not participate in
something that he has paid for becuase he feels that his faith is being challenged
by the faith of others.

Non-faith is not a faith. The government, and all the actions taken by the same
wityh the monies of the taxpayer, should ensure that at no time will those monies
be spent to support a faith that any one taxpaer doesn't believe in.

I have cut the rest of your "liberal" rants, as they are about as accurate as
trying to fish with a 9 iron. I would like to point out that no court has ever let
stand a decision from a school to not allow students to pray silently and without
disruption to the class. Not one. Students can pray. They can do so 1,000,000
times a day if they so choose. They just can't do it in any way that disrupts the
process of educating all the taxpayers children. If you can't live with that
restriction, then I suggest you consider a private school for your kids.

J.M. Ivler
Former Candidate for Congress (CA-46, 1994)