Posted on 03/14/2008 8:39:03 AM PDT by bs9021
Anti-Catholic Education
by: Malcolm A. Kline, March 14, 2008
The faithful are increasingly likely to face hostility to their beliefs in secular educational settings, the Catholic League’s 2007 Report on Anti-Catholicism shows:
• On February 21, 2007, “A substitute teacher wiped the Ash Wednesday ashes off the forehead of a student at White County High School,” the League reports. “When the girl and her classmates protested, they were berated by teachers.”
• On April 19 in Lake Bluff, Illinois, “A middle school teacher gave an assignment to her students pinpointing who was responsible for the Holocaust and listed Pope Pius XII along with Himmler and Goebels.” ...
• On June 25, in Columbus, Ohio, “A federal judge ruled that employees whose religious beliefs conflict with the political positions of their labor unions cannot be forced to pay union dues. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit by a Catholic schoolteacher, who refused to pay National Education Association dues because of the union’s pro-abortion stance. The teacher sued Ohio’s State Employment Relations Board after the board ruled that only members of religions with historically held objections to union membership....
In the old days, “Don’t make a federal case out of it!” was an exasperated plea that meant a matter was no big deal. In this age, such a recourse is about the only way that Catholics, or other people of faith, in the current circumlocution, can actually exercise their religious freedom in a country that was founded with that very liberty in mind...
(Excerpt) Read more at campusreportonline.net ...
This will spill over into Christian belief teachers also.
I believe they target the Catholic education because Catholics have always stood against abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, etc. — a lot of the things that they want to believe in.
In short, Catholics have God. These teachers (if you want to call them that) do not.
That sub is lucky her father didn't wipe the sub's forehead off his head.
Pope Pius was on the wrong list then. He and his Church saved 860,000+ Jews from the camps: more than all other organisations and private individuals combined.
That’s what I was thinking. That sub had NO BUSINESS even touching a child much less doing something like that. It’s so easy to be charged with child abuse these days.
What an idiot.
Catholic ping
school ping
Sad, sad, sad
If anyone besides my wife or I lays a hand on my child there had better be a very compelling reason.
If the "reason" offered is that the person who did was just in the mood to disrespect my child and Jesus, I would make sure they never touched anyone's child ever again.
I think they target Catholic education because they do a better job of educating children than the public, union controlled, schools. They feel threatened, and have for quite some time.
Ideology is a distant second.
Just remember what substitute teachers go through from students. I'm sure they thought they were just being "hazed" as the sub, and thought that the "Ashes for Ash Wednesday" explanation had to be a joke.
Catholics are going to go out and riot now.
(Sarcasm)
This teacher was in America, where one out of ever four people is Catholic.
If you are an American and have never heard of Catholicism, you lack the mental resources to be a substitute dogsitter, let alone a substitute teacher.
I mean, what could be sillier?
Your argument, for starters. I would probably refrain from characterizing Biblical practices as silly, moreover.
I substitute taught at one time for a short period of time and I NEVER would have dreamed of touching a child nor requiring them to wash something off their face. If I thought there was an issue of discipline, to the office they would go.
If some student claimed it had religious significance, then I would give them the benefit of the doubt. That was not her call to make.
I find it highly unlikely that ANY sub in this country had not heard of Ash Wednesday, considering two things: Her age (being old enough to substitute teacher) and the fact that Ash Wednesday has been marked on calendars for decades, including this year even. My current 2008 calendar has it marked and it’s just your generic calendar bought at Border’s.
She was WRONG, period. End of story.
Don’t forget, looting, burning cars, and chopping off people’s heads and other body parts.
Wideawake - I never implied that the teacher might have never heard of Catholicism. I said that there are a lot of people in the United States who have never heard of the particular practice of putting ash on a forehead on Ash Wednesday. Secondly, I never characterized any practice as silly. I wrote from the point of view of what a teacher, who had never heard of this practice, would have thought--that the kids were being kids and making up a story.
Metmom - Same as above. I never said they hadn't heard of Ash Wednesday - only that they were probably unaware of the practice of putting ash on a forehead. I also specifically made the point that I was not addressing the physical contact issue. (For that, they were definitely in the wrong.)
In short, the author of the piece, and those who have been reading it, have been reading it from the point of view of someone acquainted with Catholic practice and assuming that "everybody knows that". They don't. In fact, I just did a tour of my office to find out how many had ever heard of or were acquainted with any practice involving ashes on Ash Wednesday. I only found five people out of eleven who had ever heard of the ashes/forehead practice and most of them qualified their answer as a guess.
So that a secular teacher educated in secular schools teaching in a secular high school with no religious background whatsoever (as far as we know) may have reacted that way (other than the touching) is not unlikely to me at all. And if that is the case, it certainly wasn't Catholic-bashing. Dumb maybe, but not anti-Catholic.
We know that the retention in the faith rate for children who attend government schools who have been raised in active Christian homes is abysmal! Worse still, is that those who do remain active and profess to be Christian hold beliefs that could never be considered Christian! ( Yes! I have links!)
Surely, the consequences of sending a Catholic child to government school could not be any better than for Protestant Christian children.
For Catholic and Protestant Christian teachers, why are you abetting, aiding, propping up, and pushing forward a system that is officially godless? How can you justify teaching only part of the truth? How can you justify supporting a system that in every class, throughout the entire curriculum, and all textbooks has thoroughly scrubbed all reference to God and God's plan?
Why aren't you using your talents to build up Catholic and Protestant Christian schools so that children can be taught the WHOLE truth? Geeze! Surely the children know that what they are receiving in the government schools is not in accord with Christian belief. They can only come to one conclusion: Christians will support what they know is a lie for a paycheck!
I hope you are not attempting to sneak in a little bit of Christian philosophy into your classes. If you are, you are teaching the children that Christians are sneaky.
Surely the children will figure out that the NEA stands for everything that is anti-Christian, yet their Catholic and Protestant teachers are sending money to this organization every year, and even ask the godless NEA to be their **representatives**! What lesson is this teaching all the children about Catholics and Protestant Christians and their integrety?
As I see it believing Catholics and Protestant Christians have only two moral options:
1) They can vigorously, actively, and flamingly reject the godless agenda of the government schools and refuse to have anything to do with the NEA. ( Of course, they will likely be fired!)
Or...
2) Quit!
Anything less than the above is teaching children that Catholics and Protestant Christians are sneaky, will send money to the godless and anti-Christian NEA, support teaching only part of the truth, will support others who teach outright lies, are too timid and weak to protest, and be hypocrites for a paycheck.
Also,,,A Catholic or Protestant Christians MOST important mission field is their own children. Their second most important mission field is the children of their congregation! If their churches will not step up to help, they they need to do it themselves. It is THAT important!
If you turn your child over to Cesar don't be surprised if he returns home a Roman!
As a kid (and a Protestant), I attended a Catholic private school. I offended the entire class on Ash Wednesday by refusing to have the ashes put on my head. I didn’t know what it meant, and I didn’t want to get dirty. I doubt that my parents knew what it meant either.
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