From: thatcher@vcd.hp.com (Garen Thatcher)
Subject: Re: Sex Education in Public Schools
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 23:31:17 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard VCD
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

christopher stone (cstone@husc8.harvard.edu) wrote:
: In article <C0p9Iy.Avr@vcd.hp.com> thatcher@vcd.hp.com (Garen Thatcher) writes:

 <<<<My original post deleted>>>>
: 
: 1) The Puritans were not seeking religious freedom for anyone but themselves.
     
     All I am trying to say here is that religion is a very important
     part of our national history. Under the guise of "seperation" there
     are some who are tying to REMOVE the religious aspect and therfore
     rewrite the history books. I am not sure which is worse, rewriting
     the old books or burning the new ones. Both seem to accomplish the 
     same thing.
 : 
: 2) If MANY MANY people believe in a God, then why can't they inculcate
: religious values at home, where they can be most successfully transmitted?
: Ah, you will object, the schools conspire against us by telling our kids
: our religious values are wrong.  *BUT THAT IS PRECISELY THE POINT*.  Religion
: menas nothing if it is not constantly questioned and challenged.  Without
: being challenged, religion is nothing more than a "dead dogma," to quote
: John Stuart Mill, and not a living, breathing, meaningful truth.  The role
: of the family and household is to rebut, and most emphatically not *hide*,
: these challenges to religion.
:
   I am not sure why you think that religion mean nothing if not challenged.
   Does that mean that my relationship with a God (none specified) is not
   meaningfull unless there are those who are telling me that God does not
   exist and that I am fooling myself? This is not the case. If you truly
   feel that this is true, please call me or Email me. I would like to 
   talk to you personally about this. I do not need persecution in order
   for religion to me meaningfull. You are very misled about this.

: 3) IMHO you are confusing the free exercise of religion with the compulsory
: exercise of religoin.  IMHO, people should be able to *voluntarily* pray in
: school.  But voluntary means just that: voluntary, and not an officially
: sanctioned event with time set aside specifically for the purpose of 
: praying.  I do believe that the 1st amendment allows, and indeed even would
: endorse, things such as before-school prayer groups as they are voluntary
: and not coercive.  But time set aside during the day for organized prayer
: is coercive because it sends students the message that *one specific creed*
: is officially sanctioned.  People who are against condom distribution claim
: (perhaps correctly, perhaps not -- I haven't decided) that such
: distribution gives official sanction to sex.  Please apply the same reasoning
: to school prayer.  Organized prayer gives official sanction to a particular
: creed, in violation of the no-establishment clause of the 1st amendment
: which the Founding Fathers themselves wrote.
   
   Who said anything about mandatory prayer. I grew up with it, you did 
   as well. Did it mess you up? NO!    What I am talking about is the
   removal of religious significance from the textbooks and replacing it
   with "alternative lifestyle" information. 
   THAT IS THE ISSUE!


   GAREN THATCHER