Recently I have been seeing a
lot about how “God isn't allowed in school.” Unfortunately, the
people that post or say things like that mean for it to say that
school violence wouldn't happen if God was “allowed”. There are a
few problems with that mindset, and I don't think the people who say
it realize the inherent contradiction.
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| Um, what? |
First of all, religion is
absolutely allowed in schools, as long as it is kept as an individual
experience or shared by those who already possess the same faith,
such as a group of students forming a religious club. Both employees
and students are allowed to carry religious documents (such as the
bible), wear religious paraphernalia (such as crosses), and pray at
any time to any deity. Private schools are allowed to be fully
religious institutions if they choose to do so. What is NOT allowed
is for government funded employees to proselytize to impressionable
children, using tax funded space and materials. That is a basic
necessity to maintain the separation of church and state.
Why is that separation
important? In and of itself it is defying a basic freedom: the right
to decide for oneself what to believe. Beyond that it has many more
repercussions; if one religion were endorsed by the government we
would all have to follow the tenets of it, regardless of whether or
not it was our own religion. Think for a moment about all the things
you have heard about others doing, for their religion, that you would
never even consider. Would you give up electricity?
Usually the people arguing
for this are Christian, and it never occurs to them that the
“government religion” might not turn out to be Christianity...
but I guarantee that if any other religion were taught in public
schools they would be outraged, and rightfully so – because it
would directly conflict with the personal choice of faith, a choice
the government guarantees to all people. NO religion should be taught
or endorsed over any other, when taxes from people of all beliefs are
funding the program. Therefore it is contradictory to say,
simultaneously, that you want religion in school and that you believe
in religious freedom.
I also want to address the
idea that people “not allowing God in school” would have any
effect. Isn't God supposed to be all powerful? Since when did
non-believers have any effect on what God can and cannot do? And if
God will support and protect those who believe in him, and who pray
for forgiveness for their “sins”, isn't he failing his promise to
them by letting non-believers “keep him out”? That doesn't seem
like an all-powerful and all-benevolent deity to me. No. If there is
a God, he chose not to intervene for reasons of his own. Tragedies
happen in places where god is “allowed”, all the time; in
fact, it happens far more in other places than it does in schools.
Doesn't that speak against their whole premise?
Anyway, the point is that a
government sponsored institution cannot include anything religious
because it will always be a belief not shared by some of the public
that same government represents. We are all guaranteed our freedom to
believe what we want to believe, regardless of whether or not it is
what the majority believe.
