"Real meaning of life...stuff" - Daniel Jackson
Monday, March 27, 2006

Interesting link here.

 

According to this website, a little boy brought his Bible to school, and wanted to read the Bible and discuss it with some friends on the playground at recess.

 

Now, assuming for a minute that this is a tremendously devout 10-year-old who cannot go a full six hours without reading his Bible and talking about it (I assume that he must spend pretty much every waking moment of free time studying the Bible, and just can’t get enough of it, otherwise, what difference would a 20-minute recess make?)

 

I will address this question and their argument with all of the serious consideration it deserves:

 

This is not a constitutionally sound policy,” Kellum explained.  “Recess has long been regarded as non-instructional time, and students may read or discuss a wide range of literature—including the Bible—during such periods.”

 

So if recess isn’t “school time”…and thus the school has no authority to restrict activities on the playground…then by extension, the school has no responsibility for what happens on the playground.  So:

 

1)      If a group of kids are sitting on the ground in a circle with their heads together and eyes closed tightly, praying for the souls of their poor, benighted commie teachers, the school is not responsible if they get trampled to death in a game of tag gone horribly awry.

2)      If the Bible study leader calls another little boy’s mom a “whore of Satan” because she is divorced, the school would not be held responsible if the offended child takes a sharpened stick and pokes it into the “Christian” child’s eye.

3)      If a group of students form a Pagan coven and decide to perform a ritual during recess and accidentally summon an elemental spirit that gets out of hand and destroys half the student body, the school has nothing to say about that.

4)      If the Christian children single out a child they view as non-Christian and decide that they have a Christian duty to save that child’s soul, and begin hounding him day and night, never giving him a moment’s peace until he finally is moved to convert, well, that’s none of the school’s business either.  After all, the school has no grounds for interfering with a student’s religious duty to convert the wicked on their own time.  Woo Hoo!  Recess is now open season on non-believers!  Go get ‘em kids.  Don’t forget to tell them they’re going to hell.

5)      Sikh children who have been prohibited from the religious practice of carrying their ceremonial daggers with them at all times must now be allowed to do so on the playground during lunch hour.  I guess that will make the Christian witnesses’ job more interesting.

 

But wait just one cotton-pickin’ moment.  When I was being indoctrinated by Christian Fundamentalists, they told me I had to memorize my Bible so that when the Commies came to take it away from me, they’d have to chop off my head, and then I’d REALLY score the big after-life brownie points.

 

Don’t they believe that anymore?  Were they wrong about that?  Or is this kid just a poser?  You mean to tell me that he’s ten years old and hasn’t memorized enough of the Bible to keep himself busy for a 20-minute recess?

 

Sounds to me like some parents have been a little lax in the training of this young, Christian warrior.  He doesn’t have the tools and the skills he needs.  Enough of the coddleing nonsense.  Those parents need to home-school him until he can recite 20 minutes worth of material.  He probably needs a little “chastisement” as well.  He probably just hasn’t been properly taught to respect authority.

 

I mean, next thing you know, he’ll think that the rules that apply to everyone else don’t apply to him.  He’ll think he doesn’t have to adhere to any kind of social norms that require him to take other people’s feelings and needs into account.  He’ll start thinking that his point of view is the only one that matters…

 

…ooops.  Too late.

Monday, March 27, 2006 2:48:41 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [2] | #
Thursday, March 30, 2006 11:09:27 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
I've got to disagree here, at least with the way you've presented your arguement on this posting.

I could not imagine telling a child that he can't read his Bible during recess. I was one of those kids at various points in school. As long as the child is not harming anyone, then he should be able to read it.

Now, reading the Bible and discussing it with other people does not give him license to:

1) Threaten other people
2) Abuse other people

So, the child should still have to respect the rights of others; if they don't want to enter into a religious discussion, then Bible kid shouldn't force it. The child has no more right to call another child a 'heathen going to hell' than he does to call him a 'bastard' or an 'asshole'.

Teach the kid to be respectful of others, but don't take away his chance for personal reading and contemplation of whatever he'd like to read. (Granted, porn at a public school probably doesn't fall into this category, but that's for another posting.)
Thursday, March 30, 2006 11:57:48 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
karen,

For the purposes of my post, I was assuming that it wasn't just bringing the Bible to school that was the problem...as I've never encountered a school that has a problem with kids bringing their Bibles to school.

I guess I should have made that more clear in this post...although I've addressed it in other entries so didn't belabor it here.

Hell, we were GIVEN Guidion New Testements in school when I was a kid. They brought them into the schools and distributed them.

In my experiance, the only way you could be told to leave your Bible or religious tracts at home was if you were being disruptive.

I assume that the only way this kid would be made to leave his Bible at home is if there was a history of him being disruptive or harassing of others and using his Bible for that purpose.

Lord knows, I brought a LOT of religious material to school when I was a kid, including my Bible. Nothing was ever said about it by any school official...and I was pretty obnoxious about it too, as that was the way I was taught to be.

My assumption is, that the kid was being obnoxious and odious about his religion.
kemaris
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