The Bible in Schools
Hello again, good reader. Welcome to this week's Christian Views Symposium, brought to you by Cross Blogging.
Each week Lennie posts a question for everyone on the entire planet to answer. Usually, not quite that many actually do answer the question. However, everyone is certainly welcome to answer! You can answer in the comments at his blog, or just post your answer on your own blog. He encourages answers from all readers, not just Christians, so feel free to weigh in each week -- I do. This week's question:1. Should the Bible be taught in Public Schools? If so, how?
2. Should prayer be returned to Public Schools?
Oh, I think he's got the can 'o worms open and ready for this one. I think my response is either going to be roundly ignored or viciously attacked -- we shall see.
To put part of this question in perspective, Lennie provides us with a link to a discussion in Texas about including the Bible as a historical document and viewing it as history. Ah well, let's have it this one, then, shall we?1. Should the Bible be taught in Public Schools? If so, how?
To answer this one, I have an idea whose time really has come. It's sort of an old, archaic idea, but it's one that works very well. How about letting the parents of each and every school district in the country decide this one on their own? What's wrong with that idea? Why should it matter to you, wherever you live, if the students in Oscoda, MI study the Bible in school (unless you live in Oscoda, of course)? How and why does that affect you in any way? The only way it could currently affect a person somewhere else is with tax money, and there's the problem. First step should be to completely abolish the federal department of education and let local governments pay for their own education systems. Then each local government could decide what they wanted to do with their own damn money. As long as the federal government gives money to every single school district in America, education will forever be screwed up. People in Washington, DC, do not know how to spend money for the people in Texas or New York. They shouldn't have anything to do with that money-spending decision at all. If we got the federal money out of education and a local district decided to teach the Bible in school, you wouldn't have to take it -- you could simply move to the next district over. You could band together with people of like mind and teach however you people wanted to teach -- that's what this country was all about when it started. If a group got together and voted to teach Buddhism in school, that would be fine, too. No, not Islam, because that's a subversive religion that actively seeks the death and overthrow of the American government. Unfortunately, if you leave the federal funding in place for education, there will always be problems with any mention of the Bible in schools. The federal government would not be able to mandate that the Bible be taught in school, because there is a prohibition against establishing one state religion. However, the federal government, if it actually followed the Constitution, which is clearly does not, is absolutely free to ALLOW any religion in school that each school wanted. So once again, schools are currently free, under the US Constitution, to teach any religion they want, because the first Amendment says that they can. And yes, I am well aware that the federal judges who disagree with the Constitution and the ACLU strongly oppose any mention of any Christian religion in schools, especially anything related to the Bible -- but that doesn't mean they can't do it. How should it be taught? Any damn way the school district wants to. If they want to have a Bible History class, there's nothing wrong with that. If you and your children don't want to participate, opt out of it, or move somewhere else. One of the most powerful avenues we have in this country is the ability to vote with our feet. If enough people do not support an idea of government and they move away, that government will collapse -- which is a good thing.
2. Should prayer be returned to Public Schools?
This part really gets the same answer as #1. If a school district wants to, they absolutely have the right to do so. That right is specifically guaranteed by the US Constitution. And yes, I know the ACLU and many judges do not like that. One of the things I find rather interesting about the federal judiciary is the changes that they apply to the Constitution over the years. From the 1500s until the 1960s, people prayed in schools. The Bible was often the ONLY "textbook" found in many schools. Suddenly, in the 1960s, this was "Unconstitutional." Why in the hell was it perfectly constitutional for almost 200 years, but suddenly became unconstitutional? What amendment added in the 1960s repealed the first amendment? The logic behind such decisions just astounds me. The only answer, of course, is the "living document" doctrine -- for those not familiar with it, it's a doctrine that federal judges often use to mean that the Constitution means whatever I say it means, no matter what's actually written there, nor the actual intent of the authors. The first amendment specifically outlaws a federal religion. It doesn't prevent anything else. In fact, as Thomas Jefferson once mentioned in a letter to PA, if a STATE wanted to declare an official religion for that state, THAT WOULD BE LEGAL under the first amendment. Of course, that's just an example, because almost all states have a similar instruction in their own constitutions. Prayer is perfectly legal under the US Constitution. Schools can include it in any way or shape they want to. Sure, the federal judges might rule against them, but that doesn't make them right. Individual school districts should make up their own rules. The people in an area should decide for themselves what sort of education they want, NOT the federal government. Why is it that smaller class sizes are always touted as wonderful (they have no measurable effect), but larger management, larger districts, and larger federal control of these classrooms is always good?
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