School, Religion, and the End of Days
A few days back, I got involved in a disagreement about the pledge and it's "under God" content. While I personally don't see what the big deal is, I can understand how it might bother those of certain religions that worship [fill in the blank] instead of "God" and wish to not speak that portion of the pledge. I see our country's pledge as part of an American tradition that really has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with patriotism. So others don't.. clearly there's room to debate.
On May 8, another bill ("The Easter Bunny Bill") surfaced in my state that has to do alot to do with religion in school that came to be soon after Schools Supt. William Rearick of Tiverton (RI) prohibited a parents group from sponsoring a photo booth featuring the Easter Bunny as a fundraiser at a middle school craft fair. Instead, Peter Rabbit attended, which angered quite a few people. The bill is still under consideration, so I'm not going to get into details about it here. If you're curious, an article about it can be found here.
All of the recent talk about "God", religion, and school has me concerned because it really feels like the beginning of a much bigger issue. Ok fine, let's eliminate every last drop of religion from public schools - I hate to tell you folks, but it's pretty much done already. What's next, putting an end to Halloween or Christmas all together? After all, if it can't be displayed in schools, why would it be ok to display it at the mall, or on television? Where is it going to end?
There in lies my problem: so many of the holidays that are now celebrated in the US were originally founded for religious reasons, but have since mutated far beyond that (with Easter, Halloween, and Christmas being the biggest examples). Yes, there is still a small amount of religion attached to them, but there is also a huge amount of tradition... American tradition. I was raised Catholic, but have since stopped practicing, because I no longer feel that it does anything for me (enough about that already). I still celebrate most of the holidays though, because my family always has.. and so do 99% of those around me. It pains me to see how just because a small percentage of the public is unhappy, they feel the need to ruin it for the rest of us, by trying to take away that tradition... and over of petty religious differences of all things.
Is there really no reason why the various holidays can't co-exist? Why set about destroying what we have, especially with all of this talk about diversity when what we really need is more holidays, not less... a melding of cultures, not alienation. What happened to the days when we all used to just get along?
On May 8, another bill ("The Easter Bunny Bill") surfaced in my state that has to do alot to do with religion in school that came to be soon after Schools Supt. William Rearick of Tiverton (RI) prohibited a parents group from sponsoring a photo booth featuring the Easter Bunny as a fundraiser at a middle school craft fair. Instead, Peter Rabbit attended, which angered quite a few people. The bill is still under consideration, so I'm not going to get into details about it here. If you're curious, an article about it can be found here.
All of the recent talk about "God", religion, and school has me concerned because it really feels like the beginning of a much bigger issue. Ok fine, let's eliminate every last drop of religion from public schools - I hate to tell you folks, but it's pretty much done already. What's next, putting an end to Halloween or Christmas all together? After all, if it can't be displayed in schools, why would it be ok to display it at the mall, or on television? Where is it going to end?
There in lies my problem: so many of the holidays that are now celebrated in the US were originally founded for religious reasons, but have since mutated far beyond that (with Easter, Halloween, and Christmas being the biggest examples). Yes, there is still a small amount of religion attached to them, but there is also a huge amount of tradition... American tradition. I was raised Catholic, but have since stopped practicing, because I no longer feel that it does anything for me (enough about that already). I still celebrate most of the holidays though, because my family always has.. and so do 99% of those around me. It pains me to see how just because a small percentage of the public is unhappy, they feel the need to ruin it for the rest of us, by trying to take away that tradition... and over of petty religious differences of all things.
Is there really no reason why the various holidays can't co-exist? Why set about destroying what we have, especially with all of this talk about diversity when what we really need is more holidays, not less... a melding of cultures, not alienation. What happened to the days when we all used to just get along?