Separation of Church and State

Let's get it right....

One of the issues to arise in the debate in Texas over school curriculum and textbooks is the Separation of Church and State as mandated in first Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

Those who are against the inclusion in textbooks of any mention of God, religion, or the Judeo/Christian foundation of our country use this mandate as their trump card. If the State is not to be involved in religion, then we need to sanitize everything that our children are exposed to in school.

What these folks fail to realize is that they are trumping with a card that grants people the freedom of religion: The First Amendment to the United States Constitution (part of the Bill of Rights) prohibits the making of any law "respecting an establishment of religion", impeding the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.

The key phrase is the “free exercise of religion,” and that freedom is given to everyone. If I believe in God, I am free to say so. If you don’t believe in God, you are free to say so. I can’t make you shut up, and you shouldn’t have the right to make me shut up. I shouldn't try to force my beliefs on you, and you shouldn't force yours in me. Simple as that, until the PC police get involved.

Banning any mention of God or religion is not going to make either disappear. And by including pertinent reference to religion and our Christian heritage as a nation, children are not being forced to believe in God or religion; they are merely being exposed to some facts. And if those children return to a home that is Jewish or Muslim or some other religion, or headed by Atheists, the parents can clarify that those beliefs they read about in school are not the beliefs of this household, but they are to be respected.

Share your thoughts here, keeping in mind that we will respect diverse beliefs.

Could We Find a Middle Ground?

The state of Texas is in a flap about curriculum content for social studies and science classes.

At issue is whether new social studies textbooks should include information about the religious influences on people who had historical significance. All of us who even faintly remember our American history know that religion and religious beliefs played a large role in history. That is an undisputed fact. Some members of the Texas State Board of Education want the textbooks to include information such as a the fact that during the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin called on the delegates to utilize prayer as they considered how to build the framework of the constitution.

People who wear their religion on their sleeve and think everyone else should, too, are pushing for those facts to be included. They are also pushing to include the Christian belief of creation versus evolution in the science textbooks.

People who are a bit wary of those people, and maybe rightly so, don’t want any mention of religion in textbooks. They believe that if it is written that George Washington was a Christian, that somehow that is endorsing a particular religion. Some of these people also believe that the mention of a religion is imposing that religious belief on students.

How absurd is that? If I tell you I am a Christian does that mean I am saying you have to be a Christian, too?

An integral part of educating young people is to encourage a broad world view and critical thinking. A Christian, Muslim, atheist, Buddhist, or Jew should be able to read about another religion without feeling threatened. And if a threat is perceived, then maybe that says something about the person doing the reading.

Hopefully, there is a middle ground between these two groups on the Board and this issue will be resolved in such a way that it benefits the students, not a faction.

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As always, I am open to another point of view. What do you think about this issue?