[net.religion] Some of us Christians don`t like school prayer either

govern (05/11/83)

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Date:Wed, 11-May-83 13:28:10 EDT

It really surprises me that people who don't want the "Godless
Communists" in our school systems teaching their kids about sex and
evolution are willing to trust them to teach their kids about God.

	(A note about my biases:  if you want a label, I'm an
	evangelical, which means my theology is fairly
	conservative-protestant, but I'm not into Jerry-Fallwellism
	as either a political nor a social outlook.  I also don't
	have kids, so I probably shouldn't be arguing about this
	issue anyway, but I'm against the traditional
	implementations of prayer in schools.)

Separation of church and state is one of the traditional Baptist
virtues, but it's been rather loosely applied in recent years.

Most people I know who want prayer in public schools look at the
moment of silence as a temporary substitute until they can get the
real thing back.

I am opposed to prayer in the schools, both because it imposes the
views of the teachers on students who don't share those view, and
because it asks teachers to teach things that they themselves don't
believe.  Teaching kids that religion is a bit of hypocritical
ritual to be done after saluting the flag is neither a desirable
goal nor a good way to teach religion.  Better to teach the kids at
home.  It would be nice if the schools could take a unbiased view of
religion, which in my opinion includes acknowledging the religious
(or non-religious) origins of many of the values they teach.
(This also affects teaching of evolution, but does not mean "equal
time for Creation Science".)

				Bill Stewart