When that money is spent on issues that Christians don't support you don't understand why they get upset?
Well, welcome to representative democracy. Not every dollar spent by the govt is ever going to please you. There's always going to be someone unhappy with what's happening with tax dollars being spent here or there, no matter what we do. If you fancy a libertarian utopia with no taxes at all, set one up on a private island. If it pans out for ya, I'll be your first citizen. Try to make it some place with good surf and lots of bikinis.
That said, I dunno what "issues" you're talking about. If it upsets you that your school doesn't teach Christianity, pull your kids out and home school them. For my money, I'd like to see schools be neutral on the issue of religion. I've got mine, you've got yours, let's leave em at home.
As Art and 1911 Guy put it more elonquintly than I, Christians to a large extent are feeling under siege.
Sorry to hear you feel that way, but I feel like non-Christians are under siege too. Welcome to the club. The difference is, I don't want the govt to pick one side or the other.
Disallowing thanking God at a graduation ceremony is the norm now.
You can privately thank whomever you want. But public schools aren't the place for officially endorsed prayer. They usually have a moment of silence wherein you can either pray to God, Allah, Jehova, The Great Spirit, or just think about which girl you're gonna try to nail at the graduation party. Let's be clear--as long as there are math tests and gym class, there'll always be prayer in schools. But it'll be private and not a public official leading a prayer for Christians that leaves the Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, as second class citizens. You obviously can't please everyone, so just leave it the hell alone.
Read a textbook some time, you wouldn't even know the pilgrims were Christians by reading some of them. That is a relevent fact that is just poof! gone.
Lots of salient facts have been left out of history books for years. But I really doubt anyone gets past 1st grade without knowing that the reason the Pilgrims came here was to
get away from a place that had a govt sanctioned religion!
Helmetcase, you can mock or down play the influence of secularism and its values free teachings all you want. The fact is that our schools teach a form of cultural relativism that only seems to find the bad in the United States.
The only thing I'm mocking is the ludicrous idea that without a Christianic centric focus that kids won't learn to understand the ethical implications of current events, history, and world affairs. That's obvious--and so far, unrebutted--bunk.
Cultural relativism? That's a pretty sophisticated topic. Schools should teach that most complicated events and issues have two topics or sides to them. I managed to learn a lot about the good of the United States too. One of the most cherished things I learned that was good about the US was that you were free to believe in whatever faith you cared to, without the govt endorsing one over any other. People like you (sorry to say YOU, but heck, let's face it, we're pretty much on the opposite sides here and I don't think that's overly confrontational) are trying to change that. I'm resisting that change. It's that simple.
If it is a parents job to instill values then maybe it should be a parents job to teach about procreation and birth control methods.
It's a school's job to teach kids basic biology and physiology. Too many kids don't get what they need to know at home. I suppose by your logic I could argue it's the parents job to teach math, history, current world affairs, and foreign languages too. Schools are where kids should learn, in any pragmatic sense we need them to be public, and they need to learn about their own bodies.
When your little Jonny comes home, if you want to teach him to never have sex...bully for you. But you're bound to be disappointed. How easily we forget what it was like to be a teenager, and how scary and complicated things like sexuality can be. That's one gun fight I wouldn't send a kid into unarmed.
The leftists want to put values in a box that have no real world connection. How can you have a sex ed class and not introduce when it is right or wrong for kids to have sex?
Kids are going to learn something about physiology and anatomy whether you want them to or not, might as well make sure it's handled by the professional educators. The right or wrong aspect is up to the parents. I see no problem with that. I do think that it's impossible to give a kid a highschool level education in gollydarned BIOLOGY and not discuss animal sexual reproduction. Forcing schools to ignore that topic would be foolhardy at best.
That is why the separation of Church and State is a lie. You cannot separate the human condition from government. Somebodies morality or philosophy is going to win out.
In some very real sense you're right, a certain philosophy has long since won out in this country--the philosophy holds that religious matters should be handled privately without the govt endorsing or espousing any particular view or faith. Thank heaven.
I don't want my tax dollars going to leftists who want to teach my children their philosophy about sex, their wrong headed views about the role of government or a whole host of other issues.
Sounds like homeschooling is the way to go for you, then. Because in a public school setting, you simply don't have the right to choose the political affiliation of the people who have teaching jobs. Hell, you don't even get to ask, and I'm glad about that. When it comes to sex (and it always does come to sex, these discussions invariably boil down to rightwingers inability to get comfortable with the very reality of human sexuality--it's always about stigmatizing sex), you get the final say. If little Jonny goes to school and the teach says something about any subject you disagree with, you can instruct him otherwise. If you wanna teach him that the Pilgrims actually came from Mars, knock yourself out. But I PROMISE you that little Jonny is going to smell a rat if you dicker about and try to deny the reality of human sexuality.
I simply don't buy into the idea that teaching kids about the realities and dangers of sex is "leftism". It's just smart policy. If you don't like it...great, but I want my kids to learn about their bodies and about the pitfalls therein, and I don't think you can use a religious qualm to justify denying all the kids out there an education--especially when their parents don't share your misgivings.
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