Bring Bible to School Day Should be Illegal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would never encourage my child to participate. We are far, far from Fundie Christians. We are Christians, but more spiritual than religious. We are more the UU type, although we attend a Unity church now. My kids are exposed to many spiritual paths at our church. That said, I disagree that kids should be prevented from bringing a Bible to school. That's exactly the response that the crazy Focus on the Family Southern Baptists want. They are going for the persecuted Christian angle. Also, are we going to start banning kids from bringing all religious material to school? Can you imagine the outrage if we banned the Koran from backpacks? That's just silly.

I say let them have their Bring Your Bible to School day. Teachers should just treat it like they would any distraction. You cannot have it out during class. If you want to read the Bible quietly when you are finished with class work or during lunch or recess. Read it. I don't see any problem with that. Read with an understanding of history, the Bible is actually an interesting read.

This should be a non issue.

While your thought is a reasonable one, unfortunately, there will be those in the classroom including the teacher, who may not be so reasonable. Some kids may feel it is their sworn duty to point out errors in another child's religious readings.

As a Christian, I don't feel this is the right way to go. If you want to discuss religions from a historical perspective that is fine or even quietly reading at lunch/recess, but for anything else in the classroom, the chance for proselytizing is just too great.

OP. I agree. I'm Jewish (hence my extra sensitivity to this issue), and am aware that some Christians feel they are compelled to spread the Gospel to "save" non-believers. I also suspect that parents who encourage their children to bring them bibles will be more likely to follow this then non-religious parents who choose not to participate - and these more religious children have no doubt be told it is their duty to "help" non-believers. This bring-your-bible-to-school day is ripe with opportunity to make children of different religions feel "less than" - or even scared about hell - and I hope it turns out to be a big failure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would never encourage my child to participate. We are far, far from Fundie Christians. We are Christians, but more spiritual than religious. We are more the UU type, although we attend a Unity church now. My kids are exposed to many spiritual paths at our church. That said, I disagree that kids should be prevented from bringing a Bible to school. That's exactly the response that the crazy Focus on the Family Southern Baptists want. They are going for the persecuted Christian angle. Also, are we going to start banning kids from bringing all religious material to school? Can you imagine the outrage if we banned the Koran from backpacks? That's just silly.

I say let them have their Bring Your Bible to School day. Teachers should just treat it like they would any distraction. You cannot have it out during class. If you want to read the Bible quietly when you are finished with class work or during lunch or recess. Read it. I don't see any problem with that. Read with an understanding of history, the Bible is actually an interesting read.

This should be a non issue.

While your thought is a reasonable one, unfortunately, there will be those in the classroom including the teacher, who may not be so reasonable. Some kids may feel it is their sworn duty to point out errors in another child's religious readings.

As a Christian, I don't feel this is the right way to go. If you want to discuss religions from a historical perspective that is fine or even quietly reading at lunch/recess, but for anything else in the classroom, the chance for proselytizing is just too great.

I think the really sad thing is that these kids aren't sharing the "Good News" or even the message of Jesus. Jesus would never have been ok with making another person feel less than. I think he would be really disappointed in "Bring your Bible to School" day. He was about compassion, inclusivity, and love. Really, his message was and is very simple - Love each other. There is no "and" or "but" or "except". Just love each other. His message is the same as all of the great spiritual teachers. People have been adding and taking away from his words for generations for greed and power. There is nothing wrong with sharing the message of Jesus as long as you are truly sharing his message - Love each other. That's means we are to love every single person with whom we share this planet. It doesn't matter what religion, race, gender, sexual orientation,.... We are called to love. Period. It is not loving to bring your Bible to school in an effort to make people feel bad about their own spirituality, or lack of spirituality.

[Anonymous]

I guarantee you the same people supporting this expression of religious freedom would be picketing outside if a bunch of students brought their Korans or their Vedas to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guarantee you the same people supporting this expression of religious freedom would be picketing outside if a bunch of students brought their Korans or their Vedas to school.

I bet you're right. Every time I hear a fundie say "this is a Christian nation" - often while defending a Christian prayers in public settings - I cringe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guarantee you the same people supporting this expression of religious freedom would be picketing outside if a bunch of students brought their Korans or their Vedas to school.

I am the pp who thinks kids should be allowed to bring their Bibles and that this whole thing should be given as little attention as possible. This is exactly why. When a child from another religious faith chooses to bring in his sacred text, we had better not hear a word from the Focus on the Family cult. The last thing we need is to provide fuel for the "we're so persecuted" religious right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why isn't this against the law? This group is encouraging children to bring their (overwhelmingly Christian) bibles to school on Thursday. I thought there was supposed to separation of church and state in this country. Now were going to have kids trot out their bibles to show (and imply) that other kids (say Jewish, or other religions) are wrong?

If I had school-age kids, I'd keep them home that day. (I'm Jewish.)

https://focusonthefamily.webconnex.com/co-bybts2016?gclid=CKmMn_GTwc8CFcRkhgodLeMIdQ#refcd=374701&utm_source=googlesearch&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=branded&utm_campaign=bybts

Great sarcasm. You had me going there for a while.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would never encourage my child to participate. We are far, far from Fundie Christians. We are Christians, but more spiritual than religious. We are more the UU type, although we attend a Unity church now. My kids are exposed to many spiritual paths at our church. That said, I disagree that kids should be prevented from bringing a Bible to school. That's exactly the response that the crazy Focus on the Family Southern Baptists want. They are going for the persecuted Christian angle. Also, are we going to start banning kids from bringing all religious material to school? Can you imagine the outrage if we banned the Koran from backpacks? That's just silly.

I say let them have their Bring Your Bible to School day. Teachers should just treat it like they would any distraction. You cannot have it out during class. If you want to read the Bible quietly when you are finished with class work or during lunch or recess. Read it. I don't see any problem with that. Read with an understanding of history, the Bible is actually an interesting read.

This should be a non issue.

UUs aren't Christian. Apparently you're ignorant of the tenets of your own church.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The supreme court has already ruled that students have the right to pray in school, to start religious clubs in school, and to talk about their faith in school. There is a difference between the school/government promoting religion and private citizens promoting religion.

As long as the students are not actively disrupting class, this is protected free speech.

^ This.

You people having a collective conniption fit are amusing, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would never encourage my child to participate. We are far, far from Fundie Christians. We are Christians, but more spiritual than religious. We are more the UU type, although we attend a Unity church now. My kids are exposed to many spiritual paths at our church. That said, I disagree that kids should be prevented from bringing a Bible to school. That's exactly the response that the crazy Focus on the Family Southern Baptists want. They are going for the persecuted Christian angle. Also, are we going to start banning kids from bringing all religious material to school? Can you imagine the outrage if we banned the Koran from backpacks? That's just silly.

I say let them have their Bring Your Bible to School day. Teachers should just treat it like they would any distraction. You cannot have it out during class. If you want to read the Bible quietly when you are finished with class work or during lunch or recess. Read it. I don't see any problem with that. Read with an understanding of history, the Bible is actually an interesting read.

This should be a non issue.

While your thought is a reasonable one, unfortunately, there will be those in the classroom including the teacher, who may not be so reasonable. Some kids may feel it is their sworn duty to point out errors in another child's religious readings.

As a Christian, I don't feel this is the right way to go. If you want to discuss religions from a historical perspective that is fine or even quietly reading at lunch/recess, but for anything else in the classroom, the chance for proselytizing is just too great.

I think the really sad thing is that these kids aren't sharing the "Good News" or even the message of Jesus. Jesus would never have been ok with making another person feel less than. I think he would be really disappointed in "Bring your Bible to School" day. He was about compassion, inclusivity, and love. Really, his message was and is very simple - Love each other. There is no "and" or "but" or "except". Just love each other. His message is the same as all of the great spiritual teachers. People have been adding and taking away from his words for generations for greed and power. There is nothing wrong with sharing the message of Jesus as long as you are truly sharing his message - Love each other. That's means we are to love every single person with whom we share this planet. It doesn't matter what religion, race, gender, sexual orientation,.... We are called to love. Period. It is not loving to bring your Bible to school in an effort to make people feel bad about their own spirituality, or lack of spirituality.

As a Christian, I love your definition of who Christ is and the message. For me, there is no dispute what He truly represents. While I agree with every tenet of Christ's resurrection, there are those who do not and any discussion among children who do not understand this concept can be met with disdain, unbelief, and anger. Unless the child who professes this can be articulate in this argument, they may cause more harm than good.

There is nothing wrong with spreading the word but bringing it into the classroom is, IMHO, not a good idea. At this time, I still don't think it's a good idea (though I'm ALWAYS open to a good persuasive argument).

I think it better that a young child exhibit his Christian beliefs by action and deed, and the rest will follow as there will be those who are curious why one is the way they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would never encourage my child to participate. We are far, far from Fundie Christians. We are Christians, but more spiritual than religious. We are more the UU type, although we attend a Unity church now. My kids are exposed to many spiritual paths at our church. That said, I disagree that kids should be prevented from bringing a Bible to school. That's exactly the response that the crazy Focus on the Family Southern Baptists want. They are going for the persecuted Christian angle. Also, are we going to start banning kids from bringing all religious material to school? Can you imagine the outrage if we banned the Koran from backpacks? That's just silly.

I say let them have their Bring Your Bible to School day. Teachers should just treat it like they would any distraction. You cannot have it out during class. If you want to read the Bible quietly when you are finished with class work or during lunch or recess. Read it. I don't see any problem with that. Read with an understanding of history, the Bible is actually an interesting read.

This should be a non issue.

While your thought is a reasonable one, unfortunately, there will be those in the classroom including the teacher, who may not be so reasonable. Some kids may feel it is their sworn duty to point out errors in another child's religious readings.

As a Christian, I don't feel this is the right way to go. If you want to discuss religions from a historical perspective that is fine or even quietly reading at lunch/recess, but for anything else in the classroom, the chance for proselytizing is just too great.

I think the really sad thing is that these kids aren't sharing the "Good News" or even the message of Jesus. Jesus would never have been ok with making another person feel less than. I think he would be really disappointed in "Bring your Bible to School" day. He was about compassion, inclusivity, and love. Really, his message was and is very simple - Love each other. There is no "and" or "but" or "except". Just love each other. His message is the same as all of the great spiritual teachers. People have been adding and taking away from his words for generations for greed and power. There is nothing wrong with sharing the message of Jesus as long as you are truly sharing his message - Love each other. That's means we are to love every single person with whom we share this planet. It doesn't matter what religion, race, gender, sexual orientation,.... We are called to love. Period. It is not loving to bring your Bible to school in an effort to make people feel bad about their own spirituality, or lack of spirituality.

As a Christian, I love your definition of who Christ is and the message. For me, there is no dispute what He truly represents. While I agree with every tenet of Christ's resurrection, there are those who do not and any discussion among children who do not understand this concept can be met with disdain, unbelief, and anger. Unless the child who professes this can be articulate in this argument, they may cause more harm than good.

There is nothing wrong with spreading the word but bringing it into the classroom is, IMHO, not a good idea. At this time, I still don't think it's a good idea (though I'm ALWAYS open to a good persuasive argument).

I think it better that a young child exhibit his Christian beliefs by action and deed, and the rest will follow as there will be those who are curious why one is the way they are.

And fright.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The supreme court has already ruled that students have the right to pray in school, to start religious clubs in school, and to talk about their faith in school. There is a difference between the school/government promoting religion and private citizens promoting religion.

As long as the students are not actively disrupting class, this is protected free speech.

^ This.

You people having a collective conniption fit are amusing, though.

Exactly. Nothing remotely unconstitutional/illegal about this whatsoever--in fact, as PP noted, students have constitutional right to bring bibles to school.

I say this as a former Christian who would never participate in such an event.

[Anonymous]

What's scary is there are some people out there in DCUMland who think that the simple act of bringing a book to school rises to the level of a constitutional crisis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guarantee you the same people supporting this expression of religious freedom would be picketing outside if a bunch of students brought their Korans or their Vedas to school.

I bet you're right. Every time I hear a fundie say "this is a Christian nation" - often while defending a Christian prayers in public settings - I cringe.

And conversely, the people freaking out about this would have no problem with Muslims praying at school.

Plenty of hypocrisy on both "sides" here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would never encourage my child to participate. We are far, far from Fundie Christians. We are Christians, but more spiritual than religious. We are more the UU type, although we attend a Unity church now. My kids are exposed to many spiritual paths at our church. That said, I disagree that kids should be prevented from bringing a Bible to school. That's exactly the response that the crazy Focus on the Family Southern Baptists want. They are going for the persecuted Christian angle. Also, are we going to start banning kids from bringing all religious material to school? Can you imagine the outrage if we banned the Koran from backpacks? That's just silly.

I say let them have their Bring Your Bible to School day. Teachers should just treat it like they would any distraction. You cannot have it out during class. If you want to read the Bible quietly when you are finished with class work or during lunch or recess. Read it. I don't see any problem with that. Read with an understanding of history, the Bible is actually an interesting read.

This should be a non issue.

UUs aren't Christian. Apparently you're ignorant of the tenets of your own church.

This is not a religious forum, but I feel like your ignorance warrants a response. You can be a member of a UU church and be a Christian. Or a Jew. Or a Buddhist. Or a Muslim. Or Hindu. Or Atheist. Or..... That's kind of the point.

[Anonymous]

Bringing a Bible to school to read privately is OK.

Speaking about your religion with anyone else is where the lines get crossed.

This enters really murky waters.