No School, Public or Private, Should be Allowed to Teach Religion

Since my opponent has not said otherwise, I shall beginning with my own arguments against the resolution, in an effort to prove my position: namely, that schools in general should be allowed to teach religion. For clarity, I will not be arguing that public schools should be allowed to teach religion, as these schools are bound by federal law to respect a separation of church and state as rendered by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. For that reason, I will assume this discussion refers to public and private schools within the United States, and therefore seek only to prove that private schools in America reserve the right to teach religion to students. Secondly, I would like to acknowledge that I myself am an atheist. However, being an atheist does not keep me from recognizing the value of being free to practice religion, instill one's values in one's children, or choose the school with whom you agree with most in terms of its curriculum. And, once again, note that I am not debating whether public schools should be allowed to teach religion: that I will grant to my opponent. However, the resolution explicitly includes private schools, which is the aspect of the resolution that I disagree with and will disprove with the following arguments. The first primary and most compelling argument in favor of allowing private schools to teach religion is the freedom of religion, which is a constitutionally guaranteed right provided by the First Amendment. Just as a public school is bound by the First Amendment to avoid teaching religion to children, so are private schools free to do so within its walls. Private schools offer many people the option of teaching their children about what they believe is history, which they would otherwise not receive in a public school. In addition, while the First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion (which private schools, as private organizations, are entitled to), the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees that no citizen may be discriminated against on the basis of religion. Banning the teaching of religion in private schools would theoretically discriminate against those who wish to open private schools with the goal of teaching religious studies to students. Both of these Amendments are instrumental to the success of the United States, and James Madison stated that he regarded the freedom of religion as the "Father of the Bill of Rights"[1]. Secondly, proposing a ban on religious studies in private schools seems also to contradict the freedom of speech aspect of the First Amendment. We must remember that a public school differs largely from a private school. A private school is nothing more than a group of individuals who contract teaching out to another person. Parents have a large amount of control over what their children are being taught. Since a private school is a business, there is also the question of whether it is allowable to put the government in charge of business practices. Clearly, as the purpose of the United States government is to protect an inalienable right to property, it is certainly necessary to keep governments out of micromanaging private schools. Thirdly, for an atheist to argue that theists do not have the right to educate and practice their religion in private schools is equally as shameful as when the theists argue that public schools should teach "science" like Intelligent Design. This is simply a reverse of the problem that many atheists find themselves in: that theists are trying to impose their values on others by an intermediary force (i. e. the government). In this case, it is an atheist attempting to impose his values on theists saying that religion is unallowable in all schools, regardless of whether they are publicly funded. If religious education is not allowed in the public schools, it must be allowed somewhere else, and private schools provide that outlet. At this point, I will stop putting forth arguments. I am curious to see my opponent's arguments in favor of the resolution in order to see if I have misunderstood the question in some way. At this point, I cannot foresee a reasonable argument in favor of banning religion from private schools. ------------------------ [1] = . http://en.wikipedia.org...