Handing out Bibles at a high school: Why do we keep doing this in Georgia?
Too many public schools continue to blur the church-state divide in Georgia
The zest with which Georgia schools test the church-state divide never fails to stun me.
I wonder if other states grapple with this issue or is this unique to the Bible Belt?
With the threat of litigation, public schools ought to think very carefully about allowing any religious group access to students and the possible charge of proselytizing on school grounds.
Yet, a north Georgia parent sent me a note that Bibles were handed out at her high school last week. She is a Christian and reveres the Bible, but doesn’t think the high school was the right place to hand it out.
Her concern mirrors my own: Our schools are attended by students of all faiths and traditions. All those faiths and belief deserve respect. We risk making many students feel like outsiders when we elevate one religion above all others.
Consider the 1656 warning by devout Baptist Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, on the consequences of mixing religion and government: “God requireth not an uniformity of religion to be enacted and enforced in any civil state; which enforced uniformity, sooner or later, is the greatest occasion of civil war, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus in his servants and of the hypocrisy and destruction of millions of souls.”
More than a century later, Thomas Jefferson allayed the fears of the Baptist Association that the newly birthed United States of America was planning to designate a national religion. Responding to the worried Baptists, Jefferson wrote, “The First Amendment has erected a wall of separation between Church and State.”
Many of you will argue that America was created as a Christian nation. But the 1797 treaty between the United States and Tripoli, written under President George Washington and signed by his successor, John Adams, says that “the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
But what about the phrase “one nation under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” on our currency? Both grew out of the anti-Communist fervor of the McCarthy era.
In 1954, politicians tacked “under God” onto the pledge; three years later, they engraved “In God We Trust” onto paper money. Concerns were raised even then about blurring the line between church and state, but no lawmakers wanted to risk casting a vote against God.
James Madison believed that the only way to preserve both religion and government is to maintain a safe distance between them. “The tendency to a usurpation on one side or the other, or to a corrupting coalition or alliance between them, will be best guarded against by an entire abstinence of the Government from interference in any way whatever, ” wrote Madison, “beyond the necessity of preserving public order, and protecting each sect against the trespasses on its legal rights by others.”
Madison got it right. Too many of our schools are getting it wrong.
Why?
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183 comments Add your comment
Bob
November 27th, 2009
10:29 am
What are the bible-toters worrying about?
They certainly are by far the majority in Georgia and the South. With churches on every corner, a large majority in the state-house, and state laws that represent their wishes (read liquor laws), they still find a need to offer bibles to students at schools.
I am old enough to remember when Pastor Louie D. Newton of the Druid Hills Baptist church fought against mixing church with the state.
The controversy at the time was over President Truman’s decision to send an ambassador to the Vatican. Truman, by the way, was a Baptist himself.
Missionary zeal is offensive to many of us. This type of thinking fits in with our problems today. Witness our attempts to convert the world to “Democracy” through what amounts to a crusade. Of course we have no problems in this country to worry about and some people never saw a war they did not like.
Bubba
November 27th, 2009
10:34 am
Whether the United States was founded as a Christian nation or not is irrelevant to this issue. The Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” How exactly does that sentence prohibit the handing out of religious material in schools?
Ignatius
November 27th, 2009
10:42 am
You hypocrites! You swear on the Bible in a court of law and put the Ten Commandments on top of your Supreme Court Building. You put “In God We Trust” on your money and “Endowed by Our Creator” on the Declaration of Independence. Your favorite TV shows all deal with law and justice. Oh, heavens no we cannot hand out Bibles. We don’t want our children to actually learn what morality is. We can’t have that! but we can indoctrinate them with the evolution theory. What a joke!
Jebus
November 27th, 2009
10:46 am
To devildog: someone asked for a Christian quote that said “agree with me or I’ll kill you”?I gave them one from Exodus. Don’t Christians quote the Old Testament? Isn’t that where the Ten Commandments come from that Christians are always trying to ram down our throats?
fieldofdreams
November 27th, 2009
10:50 am
Perhaps a movie allusion will help: In “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, some folks in Indiana are (unmistakeably) visited by a UFO. Nobody else knows about it, but the encounter changes them in ways they do not fully understand, and leads them to a Wyoming mountaintop, where they are transported off to another world. Meeting and following Christ is not unlike their experience. Is it any wonder that we feel so compelled to shout it from the rooftops?
Christians are Lemmurs
November 27th, 2009
10:55 am
The Bible was written by men, not by “God”. If the men who wrote the Bible were alive today they would look an awful lot like…L. Ron Hubbard. Please explain how humans who claimed to be divinely inspired 2 millenia ago have any more credibility than a man who claimed in the 1970’s to be divinely inspired? Christians are no less retarded than Scientologists. The only difference is that Scientology has not had enough time. Organized religion is a plague on society. It’s all a huge scheme to separate morons from their money.
fieldofdreams
November 27th, 2009
10:56 am
The real plague on society is sin.
I1this
November 27th, 2009
10:56 am
As a Roman Catholic I am a little concerned as to which one of the “christian” bibles was passed out? Remember “Christians”, there are multiple editions, none are exactly the same and none are accepted by each “christian” faith as cannon. Rather than bore you with the details, the “bible” is in its 9th edition from the time it was constructed (with numerous books not making it into one or the other). Translated into Greek by a bunch of egyptians. We don’t have editions 1-8 but based on the information we do have we know there are a sick number of errors (read the story of noah in each book and contrast), parts contradict each other (see the trinity, jesus at the temple, etc.) and parts where added or removed (idea of trinity was added to the bible to address the nature of god). In short any idiot who believes this book verbatum is a moron. If my child was handed a half complete math book, full of half truths and down right deception I wouldn’t stand for it. So I can’t say I would stand for it in any other subject. Either talk about all of it or none of it. And since the christians can’t handle the full truth, then we can talk about none of it.
KLB 129
November 27th, 2009
11:03 am
Here’s something – if a student doesn’t want the Bible, they have the freedom of choice to reject it.
fieldofdreams
November 27th, 2009
11:07 am
Jesus said His followers are salt and light, not morons and idiots; the day may come, however, when my freedom of religion is sacrficed on the altar of political correctness to appease those who can’t stand the light. When and if this day comes America will crumble before our eyes.
ScienceTeacher671
November 27th, 2009
11:07 am
IIRC, the reason the Catholic church formed schools in the United States is so that their children wouldn’t be taught the Protestant Bible and religion in public schools.
Maybe these groups should hand out Bibles at the local shopping center….
Really Now
November 27th, 2009
11:07 am
They give out condoms at school, why not the bible? Whats wrong with it? Did they preach to the child before they handed the book? Get over yourself and just accept that its the Bible and it was a gift over the Chrismas season. Deal with it and stop complaining.
I1this
November 27th, 2009
11:16 am
condoms are correct and true 99%. The bible is correct maybe 50% of the time. Condoms win.
“Oh god why have you forsaken me”……who exactly is he yelling to if he is god? What day was the last supper, and did jesus go to the temple in the morning or the afternoon? How was he able to get into jeruselum, eat the last supper, get picked up in the garden and then the next day he was in the temple?
Who discovers the cave is empty after reserrection? Who is in the cave waiting?
These are the problems with the bible folks both old and new testaments. Pick a book, each one is completely different at the key points.
Condoms are necessary..
Echo
November 27th, 2009
11:20 am
A few people keep mentioning this on here, so I have to ask…name one school in Georgia that is “giving out condoms”. I already know the answer to this. BTW, it isn’t against the constitution for schools to educate about birth control, so stupid to use that in an argument against school’s (government’s) promotion of a religious viewpoint.
montanadawg30
November 27th, 2009
11:44 am
At least in my state where I live now this isn’t going on.I left Ga. because this kind of crap goes on,the church is so involved in state functions and politics its not even funny. I was born and raised in Ga. and I can send my kids to school with the peace of mind knowing they arent going to have the Bible,Koran or any other religious texts crammed down their throats. Keep ‘em seperate hypocritical Christians,it’s why our great nation is here. Drink like fish on saturday worship on Sunday,what a load of baloney. You know who you are.
Bubba
November 27th, 2009
12:03 pm
Dear Echo: Please site the exact language in the Constitution that prohibits Bibles being offered at a school. And since you take issue (correctly) at the language that schools are “handing out” condoms, please be more careful in your own language that the “schools (government) promotion of a religious viewpoint.” Nothing of the sort is true.
Philosopher
November 27th, 2009
1:08 pm
Matthew 22:20-22(King James Version)
And He saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
They say unto Him, Caesar’s. Then saith He unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.
When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him, and went their way.
Please…MARVEL AND BE ON YOUR WAY!
Even Jesus, my hero, understood separation of faith and state.
sanborn121
November 27th, 2009
1:09 pm
it’s not rocket science, take God out of the schools and you’ve got the big mess we have today! Dysfunctional families galore!
Philosopher
November 27th, 2009
1:33 pm
Maureen- do you have a Philosopher filter?
Philosopher
November 27th, 2009
2:12 pm
sanborn121: When did schools become churches? And what are you going to do about the Jewish teacher? Or the agnostic teacher, or the atheist teacher, or the Moslem teacher? How will you knowwhat the teacher believes or will teach? SO how about we leave the religion thing to the God and the parents, OK?
As a Christian, the number one reason, I don’t want these people handing out Bibles and taking it upon themselves to “witness” to kids is because even among Christians, interpretations about right and wrong, how we should behave, how we should worship, and even what a Christian is, varies. While Jesus was on earth, he was a rabble rouser. He befriended crooks and prostitutes, lived among them, and loved them all. And he frequently chastised the self-serving, self-righteous religious rulers. He didn’t stand at the pulpit of a megachurch and rave and rant. He walked among the people. He entreated us to love EVERY man. He taught us not to judge until we are perfect. He said it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. He was the ultimate Liberal. Now, do you think THAT”S what the right wing conservative Chrisitians are out there to teach the kids…HECK, NO!!
6th Grade Teacher
November 27th, 2009
2:16 pm
Just ask about the local GCPS school that asked Islamic Leaders to come into the school to teach, yet “couldn’t find” a Chirstian Leader to do that same!
JTex
November 27th, 2009
3:10 pm
“I hate to say it but the Quaran IS already being handed out at schools along with groups that wants to destroy all Christians for their beliefs. Please look at the overall picture. If you think that Christians are the only one’s passing out Bible’s or other coorespondence, you need to look again.”
Really? Can you cite a source giving verifiable examples of this, or are you just being paranoid?
“You hypocrites! You swear on the Bible in a court of law and put the Ten Commandments on top of your Supreme Court Building. You put “In God We Trust” on your money and “Endowed by Our Creator” on the Declaration of Independence. Your favorite TV shows all deal with law and justice. Oh, heavens no we cannot hand out Bibles. We don’t want our children to actually learn what morality is. We can’t have that! but we can indoctrinate them with the evolution theory. What a joke!”
Let’s talk about jokes…One, you don’t swear on Bibles anymore if you choose not to. Try and keep up with the actual world and not what you see while watching Matlock and gumming your food. Two – as has already been pointed out, In God We Trust was added during the Cold War as a reaction to the “godlessness” of theh Communists. The reference to “our Creator” is a Deist statement – the Enlightment saw the rise of reason over superstition, and Deism, which posits a “natural” and rational God was very popular. Please look up “Ceremonial Deism” if you need to, for further explanations of various Deistic references in our traditions. Three – What exactly does “law and justice” have to do with Christianity? Are you implying that there is no law or justice without religion, or that morality does not exist without religion? You understand that the moral and ethical underpinnings of Western society originated with the GREEKS and are pre-Christian, right? Last – sigh…indoctrination with evolution theory…I can’t even begin to address the ignorance here…the words I would have to use would be too big for you to understand. In brief – many, if not most, Christians around the world have no problem reconciling the tenets of their faith with the SCIENTIFIC THEORY (please check the difference between your vernacular definition of theory and the definition that applies to scientific theories) of Evolution. And, in fact, science makes no attempt to claim that they SHOULDN’T coexist. Humean skepticism, which informs the positivist/realist hegemonic paradigm in the natural sciences today, demands that science ignore questions of the metaphysical (such as causality) and concentrate only on understanding better the processes by which the universe operates.
The world would be such a better place if people kept their religion in their private lives, and concentrated on their own behavior, rather than being so bloody concerned with forcing their religion on other people.
JTex
November 27th, 2009
3:25 pm
To Social Studies Teacher, who claimed the disparity between Christian and non-Christian topics in the 9-12 standards…you really should assume that people are going to check these things when you say them, so you should verify your facts.
From the Georgiastandards.org 9-12 World History standards:
Describe polytheism in the Greek and Roman world and the origins and diffusion of Christianity in the Roman world.
Explain the Great Schism of 1054 CE.
Describe the impact of the Crusades on both the Islamic World and Europe
Analyze the relationship between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Analyze the process of religious syncretism as a blending of traditional African beliefs with new ideas from Islam and Christianity.
Describe the political impact of Christianity; include Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV of Germany (Holy Roman Emperor).
Explain the role of the church in medieval society
Analyze the impact of the Protestant Reformation; include the ideas of Martin Luther and John Calvin.
Describe the Counter Reformation at the Council of Trent and the role of the Jesuits
Describe the English Reformation and the role of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
Sooo…basically, you are wrong. There are a number of other areas in which discussion of religion and Christianity would be inherently involved, such as the Renaissance. Let’s be honest as to what you REALLY want…you DON’T want other religions discussed at all. You DO want Christianity to be treated as if it is correct and other religions are wrong. You DO want to underplay the role of other religions in the development of the world – which is fairly arrogant, ignorant and short-sighted, particularly for a “Social Studies Teacher”. I know…how about we just teach history AS IT IS instead of attempting to turn it into a revisionist pile of nonsense.
sanborn121
November 27th, 2009
3:40 pm
Philosopher, how about teaching your children right and wrong so that when they are at school, they can say ‘NO THANK YOU” to the bibles. Oh yes, that just wouldn’t be politically correct.
sanborn121
November 27th, 2009
3:45 pm
to the agnostic, athiest and muslim teachers…deal with it! If you don’t like it, go to a country that supports only that belief. China:atheist, Pakistan:muslim. Most born in this country are tired of how we have pacified others for too long! We are a Christian nation. We were founded on Christian ideals.
Reality
November 27th, 2009
3:52 pm
I1this, to further illustrate your point I suggest they Google The Synod of Carthage.
Philosopher
November 27th, 2009
3:53 pm
sanborn121- What an arrogant, out-of line assumption…just the sort of thing I am talking about! My having a different opinion from you does not mean my children do not know right from wrong! My kids should not have to say “no” to someone handing out Bibles at school…THAT”S THE POINT!
Philosopher
November 27th, 2009
3:59 pm
sanborn121: Yes, by all means…let’s purge America of all non-whatever version of Chrisitans of the variety only YOU think is the correct one. And do we all have to be white, AngloSaxon, and blue-eyed? Hmmm, Ideas like that birthed the death machine that killed over six million Jews…How lovely!
Rachelle
November 27th, 2009
4:45 pm
We wonder why the world is in the shape that it is in. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light.
Linda
November 27th, 2009
4:48 pm
Dear George,
After the rapture, I usually have a cigarette.
Cletus
November 27th, 2009
5:39 pm
I don’t see a problem with letting religious groups hand out their religious tracts as long as all denominations are allowed to do so without discrimination. I do draw the line at letting the majority force teachers to lead state-sponsored incantations to their mythological entity.
Echo
November 27th, 2009
6:07 pm
Bubba, it’s the first amendment, read it or have it read to you. Sorry you aren’t familiar with the document. In a nut shell it basically says the government can’t promote any particular religious beliefs…that includes handing out chrisitian bibles at schools.
I don’t have a problem with schools providing condoms. I really wish they would have them available at the high schools, maybe then I wouldn’t have so many pregnant girls in my classes. I don’t filter what I say because I fear some may be offended, I pretty much tell it how I see it.
And btw, it’s CITE not “site”.
RC35
November 27th, 2009
6:22 pm
How ironic that, just a few weeks ago, libraries across America promoted “Banned Books Week” inviting people to read “banned books.” Of all the books in America, the Bible seems to be the one most banned these days.
Remember two things: First, this is a VOLUNTARY Bible distribution. Nobody has to take one.
Second, the same First Amendment that prohibits establishing a religion also forbids “prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” For four decades plus, the Supreme Court seems to have remembered only the establishment clause and forgotten the free exercise one. The two can coexist, and did, until the Warren Court kicked off the suppression of Christian expression.
Philosopher
November 27th, 2009
6:30 pm
Oh, PLEASE! Bibles are not “banned books”. You just have to hand them out somewhere besides public schools. A group so determined as to side-step the law and go after children is really scary…and I bet YOU would have been screaming bloody murder if a group had taken a bunch of Harry Petter books or “Twilight” books and handed them out for free at school. Stay away from impressionable kids- hand out Bibles to adults…all over the place. But leave the task of teaching religious faith to God and the parents. ONLY!!!
Philosopher
November 27th, 2009
6:32 pm
Potter, that is
Aquagirl
November 27th, 2009
6:50 pm
Maureen, after reading some of these responses, you should understand…yep, it’s a bible belt thing. Religious wackos here are forever ready to trample anyone if you don’t leave “their” country.
Sam
November 27th, 2009
6:53 pm
We Christians believe Bibles make wonderful gifts for everybody. So what is wrong with offering gifts to people?
JTex
November 27th, 2009
6:58 pm
Fascinating…while applying for grad schools I recently spent a year working at Barnes and Noble…we had three shelf sections that were nothing but Bibles…that’s pretty good for a “banned” book…a “banned” book that is among a small number of books that are excluded from all Bestsellers Lists because they habitually top sales figures. Do you feel silly now, or are you just…incapable of rational thought?
I don’t know how many ways it can be said. NO one is attacking religion in this country. Well, there are fundamentalist Christian types who are attacking other religions, but other than that…I just don’t understand how anyone can rationally argue that limiting the role of religion within public-funded institutions like the school system equates to “suppressing” Christian expression. It must be occurring in some tiny little part of the country, because, besides Georgia, I’ve lived in North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Texas…and there is certainly no shortage of “Christian expression” in any of those places. I’m a doctoral student at a University of Texas school, and not only is there an on-campus chapel that is decidedly NOT non-denominational, but there are dozens of Christian student associations that advertise on campus, hold their events on campus, etc. It’s absolutely ridiculous to suggest that Christianity is being persecuted…anyone who says so needs to climb down off the bloody cross…someone needs the wood.
No – the only people who claim this “persecution” are the fundamentalist bigots…those who believe that Christianity should be the state religion, and that everyone should either bow to their will or be relegated to second-class status. It’s the same people who see the phrase “Happy Holidays” as being offensive, or who aren’t satisfied with Nativity scenes at the hundreds of local churches, but demand that they appear at the County Courthouse as well, or those who don’t understand why a sanctioned prayer of ANY religion at a public school is inappropriate.
It isn’t about persecution – it’s about an ignorant and uneducated belief that says that if Christianity is not elevated to a position of superiority within the society, if it is not given hegemony over all of the citizens of the United States, then there is some conspiracy to destroy it. It’s ludicrous in the face of the number of Christians in this country, but then…the people who advance this nonsense aren’t interested in logic, or reason, or anything other than their beloved persecution complex.
And I say this, by the way, as a life-long Episcopalian. Contrary to the assertions of the back-water Baptists and barely literate Evangelical types, there are MANY Christians in this country who don’t demand that everyone bow to their rule. It’s only the idiots.
JTex
November 27th, 2009
6:59 pm
“We Christians believe Bibles make wonderful gifts for everybody. So what is wrong with offering gifts to people?
The same thing that is wrong with banging on someone’s door and demanding to know if they have a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” – a phrase which makes me want to vomit. It’s rude, it’s intrusive, and it’s NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS.
Echo
November 27th, 2009
7:19 pm
JTex pretty much said all that needs to be said.
willie
November 27th, 2009
8:09 pm
I made a comment and it is not showing so please excuse me if I posted the same remarks more than once
willie
November 27th, 2009
8:12 pm
JTex:
You have lost all credibility with the word DEMANDING. Surely you have been turned over to a reprobate mind and discussion with you is absolutely impossible.
What is a REPROBATE MIND? Print Page
Smaller Text | Larger Text
Q. What does the Bible mean when it speaks of someone having a reprobate mind?
(Submitted by: S. W.)
A. The King James Version of the Bible (KJV) shows three verses in the New Testament which use the word reprobate:
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Romans 1:28)
“Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.” (2Timothy 3:8)
“They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” (Titus 1:16)
Even if we don’t know what the definition of the word is, we can see from the context clues that it doesn’t mean anything of a complimentary nature! Someone didn’t like to retain God in their knowledge, so they became reprobate; men of corrupt minds are reprobate concerning the faith; someone denies God and is reprobate regarding good works. It sounds as if these people are not living the right way. They don’t seem to have a desire to please God. The result of their approach to life is this state of being reprobate.
willie
November 27th, 2009
8:17 pm
JTex:
What is a REPROBATE MIND?
Q. What does the Bible mean when it speaks of someone having a reprobate mind?
(Submitted by: S. W.)
A. The King James Version of the Bible (KJV) shows three verses in the New Testament which use the word reprobate:
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Romans 1:28)
“Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.” (2Timothy 3:8)
“They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” (Titus 1:16)
Even if we don’t know what the definition of the word is, we can see from the context clues that it doesn’t mean anything of a complimentary nature! Someone didn’t like to retain God in their knowledge, so they became reprobate; men of corrupt minds are reprobate concerning the faith; someone denies God and is reprobate regarding good works. It sounds as if these people are not living the right way. They don’t seem to have a desire to please God. The result of their approach to life is this state of being reprobate.
Steve
November 27th, 2009
8:37 pm
Each student should be able to receive a Bible and read it if they want. Maybe they would understand God better and the science teacher may get some interesting questions about how the world was created!
Old School
November 27th, 2009
8:55 pm
What is the big deal with giving Georgia school kids a Bible? According to most folks, they can’t read ‘em any way.
td
November 27th, 2009
9:09 pm
lol Christians
Rational Universalist
November 27th, 2009
9:28 pm
I’ve always wondered at the quirk of intellect that would lead modern people to believe that a collection of works that were assembled largely based upon the strength of various factions at the time that the collection occurred was somehow the immutable word of God. Even after that particular codification, the Bible that is claimed to be a literal representation of an omnipotent and omniscient being continued to change over the centuries. Even today, there are many different versions and translations.
It’s a problem with definition – the phrase “literal word of God” leaves zero room for variation. Either it IS or it ISN’T. Given the vast number of Bibles that exist today, with differences in language, interpretation, and even in the books that are and aren’t included, there is no rational way to conclude that the Bible is the literal anything. This position is a reflection of the ignorance and stupidity of those who believe it.
I’ve no doubt that the high-school graduates, high-school dropouts, trade school repairmen and other sundry members of the intellectual lower class will continue to cling to their belief that the “Bible”, which is demonstrably NOT a monolithic and singular creation, and can therefore not be the immutable word of ANYTHING, is, in fact, more reliable than the scientific and philosophical explorations of two thousand years…
Nothing we can do but pray that the gene pool squeezes this sludge out. Please – do the human race a favor and die off.
TomT
November 27th, 2009
9:45 pm
Do you have God in your life? If not you may burn in hell
Yanamom
November 27th, 2009
9:58 pm
ScienceTeacher671 – You need to look at the history of public schools, they were created as a response to Catholic schools, Catholic schools were not created in response to public schools. When the first Catholic schools were being opened in this country, only the rich could aford to get an education, Catholic schools changed that. Before that, being educated was only for rich kids, whose parents could afford tutors or private schools. Public schools were a response to the percieved threat of Catholic schools educating the poor. Non-Catholics were afraid that Catholic schools would not only educate the poor, but also be used to convert the children to the Catholic faith.
extremerightwing
November 27th, 2009
10:05 pm
I am not sure what all of the fuss is about. These Bibles are usually handed out for free without any coercion by the Gideon’s International. This organization is the one who places Bibles in hotels, hospitals, doctor offices, military bases, etc. Again this is a purely voluntary effort and not attempt is made to make anyone take a Bible. Usually the Bibles this organization distributes contain the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs.
Libs are always screaming about choice. Why not let groups like the Gideons establish a time they will be at the schools to hand out these Bibles if anyone wants one. If the students don’t want one, don’t take one.
If a school can allow condoms to be passed out, why not Bibles?