Religion in Schools

The advocates of putting religion in public schools, be it the Commandments, prayer, etc. would have everyone believe the forces of evil are plotting to keep God and religious beliefs out of public schools. The truth is that the reaffirmation of separation of church and state of the past thirty years has been in response to the excesses and abuses of dominate religious groups. It has been to protect religious freedoms of the minority and to prevent establishment of state religion.
Growing up a member of a minority religion in a small eastern Dakota town during the fifties, I recall many instances of discrimination, coercion, insensitivity, and stigmatizing. I recall proselytizing prayers over the intercom every morning at school. Many of those prayers I found to be insulting and demeaning to my beliefs. I remember preachers and evangelists being brought into the schools with mandatory attendance. When I objected, I was told, “It won’t hurt you.” When our parents objected, we were forced to sit at our desks in study hall and given extra work to do to “keep us out of trouble.” While in the lower grades, I was devastated at being placed in a poor readers group despite the fact that I was an avid reader having read every book in the local Public Library that the librarian would let me check out. I later realized the teacher had separated by religion not by ability. Traveling later in life, I realized these were neither isolated nor unique, but were commonplace. In fact they were minor compared to other schools in other parts of the country.

Which religion isn’t the issue. It depends on which one is dominate in a community. Phrases like; “What can it hurt?” display insensitivity, narrow-mindedness, and all too often hostility and intolerance toward differing beliefs held by others. Believing they are doing it for everyone’s good in order to “save” everyone, religious denominations, especially those with messianic and proselytizing missions, by their nature must constantly push the limits as they attempt to impose their views on others until we either acquiesce or draw the line. Wherever that line is drawn they will continue to push it back claiming evil plots and violation of religious freedoms. The Founding Fathers were right in separating church and state. The Bill of Rights was inserted to protect the individual from the tyranny of the majority. It’s a necessity to protect religious freedom. The passion and fervor of their religious convictions too often blind people to the right of others to their own beliefs. They can’t understand why something they hold so deeply should be offensive to someone else. The irony is that many of these same religious denominations originally came to this country to escape the religious persecution, which they are now promoting and perpetuating.

Every religious denomination claims exclusive access to heaven and the truth. All others are seen as doomed heretics. It’s impossible for them all to be right. But, it’s possible for them all to be wrong. Given the repressive, hateful, evil, disastrous results throughout history whenever one religious denomination does gain political control, it’s probable that they all are wrong. The conflict between competing religions is itself a fertile seed bed for the creation and promotion of evil. Add to that mix the struggle for political dominance and the results will be exploitive, explosive, and disastrous.
If you remove the divisive, dogmatic, self-serving interpretations, the core values of love, compassion, forgiveness and tolerance are at the core of most religions. Maybe God in all his wisdom has shown us the Way. But, man in his earthly struggle for identity, power, dominance, and self-righteousness has become lost and blind to the message. Does not the Gospel tell us that “God is Love.” That Love is a verb not a noun.

If we could rally around those points we have in common instead of the divisive, dogmatic, sectarian approach now being perpetuated, we wouldn’t need to turn schools into religious battlegrounds. It’s a battle that helps no one but harms and diminishes everyone. Respect for others is the only lesson which, when learned, can hold a Democracy together. How can we expect the young to learn that lesson if our churches, religious leaders, and other adults appear incapable, unwilling or even openly hostile towards doing so.