Raise the Hammer

Mr. Rathbone -First I'd like to say that if this has happened to your children or any children within the Public System, it's intolerable. It should have been addressed by either the school or the board. (Yes, dream on. These kinds of situations never are addressed at all unless a student is physically injured.)

But I'd also like to point out to you that the shoe can be on the other foot. If you have a preponderance of students with a Public school that are of one faith, you can have other students being labeled incorrectly as "Heretics, Godless Hoodlums, & Satan Worshipers". I've seen that happen too. That shouldn't be happening either! This is what happens when you have One Right Answer to all the questions.

There are some main stream religions with lists of books that are permitted to be read by follows. In some instances, it's easier to list the books that are permitted than attempt to list the huge number of books that are not permitted. How do you balance the requirements of those religions within a secular society in an Educational institution?

One of the best teachers that we every met would not teach evolution with the Public Elementary System because of his personal faith & beliefs. We could balance that situation because he was such an amazing teacher, but both evolution & intelligent design were not presented equally with the classroom that year within the Public system.(As I recall, neither was presented at all, which is a big gap in basic education.)

Hamilton Public School Board dealt with the situation of proselytizing in Public Schools about 2 years ago. So it was happening then, & some people took offense. I can't say that I blame them. This destroys the essence of separation of church & state, & is a blatant insult to any other students & parents in the presence of, or absence of religious faith. The Public School System guarantees students freedom of religion, but it also guarantees them freedom from religion.

For the record, we are 4th. generation Humanists. This group allows belief or lack of it in a Supreme Being. It came into being during the horrors of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, & rapidly spread throughout Europe & N. America as the virtual slavery of most of the population became common place. It came into being because the absence of comment or pity from all major religions toward entire generations of men. women & children (especially children) who had nothing but thankless hard work & indentured servitude. Children did not go to school & because of their legal status, were treated as Animals. The same was true of women. It became increasing obvious to many that the Churches as institutions either could not or would not institute any sort of social change or stand up for basic human decency for the majority of their followers.

World War 1 contributed to the growth of Humanism. Men can home to find the same grinding poverty & human misery that they had left. They were physically maimed & mentally scarred after fighting for 'God & Country'. You cannot feed your children on medals & ribbons. No one stepped up for them or their families. Perhaps someone should have?

Jesus did have compassion for " The least of these" & did "Suffer little children to come unto me." He cared!

Perhaps we should just understand that large institutions, religious or not, by nature cannot/do not care because it is not perceived as their 'job' to do so? If we want across the board change, we cannot look to our Churches for assistance because they will not cross the lines of their own denominations, & dogma to 'Work Well & Play Well With Others'.