Tim May wrote:
There is no way any proposed laws will force Jewish kids to pray in certain forms.
(I say this not as a defender of the Christian Right, but in the interests of truth.)
Due to my advanced age, compared to most of you, I was attending elementary school in the State of Virginia before the Supreme Court struck down school prayer (circa 1962). I vaguely recall a kind of prayer at times, which anyone was free to ignore. Obviously a child will feel social pressures to conform...but such is life in many ways.
The Jew in our class was specifically exempted from school prayers. Seth Schrager--I remember his name somehow--was excused from Christian activities, like building manger scenes and reenacting Christian parables in school plays. Actually, we didn't _want_ any Christkillers in our school plays.
Personally, I'd rather see school vouchers, or, even better, a complete withdrawal of public funding for schools. Let the Zoroastrians send their kids to whatever school they like...and let them pay the freight.
--Tim May
Huh? Since when has school prayer had anything to do with religion? Its about indoctrination. If you force someone to say something day after day, or even hear it day afterday, after a while it stops representing a idea, and starts representing a truth. The pledge of allegiance is a prime example. Ask a school age kid "does america have liberty and justice for all?" and they will quote back without thinking the pledge of allegiance "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all" Long after they stop forcing you to say it you still remember it. You still believe that america is "a nation under god" and has "liberty and justice for all" whether or not there is any evidence at all to support it. That is the beauty of it, there need be no evidence of liberty at all just like there is no evidence that terrorists and kiddie porn collectors are running rampant on the internet. Just like there is no evidence that the economy is worse than it has ever been. Just like there is no evidence that 2/3s of the crime in america is committed by teenagers.Just like there is no evidence that you have a 50% chance of being killed when you leave your house. People hear these "facts" day after day on tv but are never offered any proof but im sure if you ask most people "how is the economy" they will say "worse than it has ever been". Say something 3 times and it becomes true. forget my last post about only taxing some churches, tax them all. --bucky