Saturday, September 01, 2007

Religious Speech and Religious Freedom Being Attacked

A Federal District Court has ruled in favor of a Pennsylvania school which barred a parent of a kindergarten student from reading from the Bible as part of a social studies assignment. This assignment was supposed to have no content restrictions, but the school felt that to read from the Bible was too proselytizing. In this assignment the students were supposed to be able to share their interests and learn about other's interests. In this case, one of the student's interests was the Bible and he asked his mother to come and read some of the Bible. Part of the assignment included an invitation for parents to come and read part of their child's favorite book. The child's teacher instead suggested that the mother read a book about "witches and Halloween".

This is yet another example of an attack on religious freedom when it involves Christianity and the Bible. It is also an attack on freedom of speech when it involves Christianity or the Bible. I would be willing to bet that if the child had wanted to share about the Muslim faith or an interest in sorcery, then it would have been allowed. It probably would not even have been questioned!

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1 comment:

Dr. Russell Norman Murray said...

There is at times a scary trend in western society to work against Christian values. In Canada we have same-sex marriage and legislation that is supposedly supposed to guarantee that ministers can refrain from performing same-sex marriages. However, a pastor at church stated that locally there has been pressure from authorities to not turn away same-sex couples. My solution, which my pastor agreed with, is in the future, if needed, is for ministers and churches in BC to not perform legal weddings, but to only perform church blessings/weddings. Actual weddings would be civil and those that wish to have Christian weddings could do so within Biblical standards.

Thanks!:)

Russ