Keeping God Out Of The Public Schools

By Susan Thompson on January 8, 2010, 4:11 pm

There has been a long standing debate over God and the public school system. Some want to allow prayer in school others want to eradicate any mention of God, any God, in curriculum. In fact, many schools don’t celebrate “Christmas” or wish a “Merry Christmas” simply replacing it with “Happy Holidays” or celebrating the Holidays.

Purpose of Public School

According to a study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 78.4% of Americans identify themselves as Christians (any religious faith that believe Jesus was the son of God), 4.7% were classified as other religions (including Jewish), and 16.1% as being unaffiliated, either because they didn’t believe in God or because they did not classify themselves as one religion.

Since all of the public is allowed to attend a public school then the school must serve the public which includes Christians. non-Christians, and those who don’t believe at all. The purpose of public education is to teach subjects not Theology. The trouble comes when we try to incorporate some God into the curriculum or daily class time and end up offending someone.

Big Push

Since they added, One Nation Under God, to the Pledge of Allegiance, there has been a push to add a little more God to the public education. For reasons stated previously, this would be a bad idea. The chances of alienating someone from their class based on their religious beliefs is too great a risk to take.

 

That’s not to say that having God included in a child’s education is a bad thing, it’s not. But it should be limited to religious education classes at their church, temple, or synagogue, or education from family and friends. There is no issue with having a child silently pray before lunch but making every child take a “moment of silence” would open the door for a religious take over of the schools.

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