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Students Free to Thank Anybody, Except God(Maryland students allowed to thank anyone *except* God?
Fox News ^ | 11-22 | Laurel Lundstrom

Posted on 11/25/2004 8:19:25 PM PST by Personal Responsibility

Maryland public school students are free to thank anyone they want while learning about the 17th century celebration of Thanksgiving — as long as it's not God.

And that is how it should be, administrators say.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: thanksgiving
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I am not overly religous by upbringing or nature but this is just downright disturbing. Teachers are not allowed to teach that the pilgrims thanked God? This somehow constitutes government imposing religon?

I am sure there are many of you who will be upset at the fact that the PC crowd does not want to teach religon. That is fine with me. Believe what you like. What really kills me though is this subtle rewriting of history by editing God out of these kinds of events.

This week a teacher was not able to teach the Declaration of Independence due to religous references contained in it? (Link was on drudge, I will provide it if anyone asks) They can't teach that the pilgrims thanked God? And the kids can't thank God themselves?

What is this country coming to?

I have to wonder if the muslim kids are told they cannot thank Allah? Or if the ban is just on the Judeo-Christian beleivers? My money is on the latter, muslims being the PC crowd's group-du-jour.

Orwell may have been right, he was just off by 20 years. Up is down, Black is white, but I do *NOT* love Big Brother.

1 posted on 11/25/2004 8:19:25 PM PST by Personal Responsibility
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To: Personal Responsibility

Orwellian. Exactly -- and it has got to stop.


2 posted on 11/25/2004 8:20:23 PM PST by BenLurkin (Big government is still a big problem.)
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To: Personal Responsibility
Hey p.c. thank this


3 posted on 11/25/2004 8:24:11 PM PST by al baby (she stuned my little beeber)
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To: Personal Responsibility
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...."

What that means is that a Government bureaucrat has no right to force you to practice a certain religion and that a Government bureaucrat has no right to prevent you from practicing your own religion.

The only way to stop this nonsense is to file lawsuits whenever these people violate the First Amendment.

4 posted on 11/25/2004 8:31:05 PM PST by Polybius
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To: Personal Responsibility
This somehow constitutes government imposing religon?

Sure it does.

If a student brings a bible to class that, supposedly, constitutes a breach in the "wall" of separation.

Conversely, if a school denies a student the right to speak of God that also constitutes a breach of that same "wall" as well as a breach of free speech. The school is open for a law suit here.

There's also the fact that religious persecution in Europe drove many people here to practice their religions as they saw fit. Leaving that fact out of the Thanksgiving discussion is also leaving out basic facts, and that's called malpractice.

5 posted on 11/25/2004 8:33:24 PM PST by Noachian (A Democrat, by definition, is a Socialist.)
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To: Noachian
If a student brings a bible to class that, supposedly, constitutes a breach in the "wall" of separation.

I would disagree. If a teacher brought a bible to some class, opened it to his favorite passage and read it to the class, thats breaching the "wall of seperation". The teacher works for the school.

If a first grade student who hails from a devout christian/jewish family is called on in class to say what he is thankful for and he says "I want to thank God" in his reply, is that a breach?

Try this example. A 7th grade (13 year old) student brings a bible to school in his bookbag. During his English class, the bible falls out of the bookbag. The kid sitting next to him has been raised as an atheist. A)Does the atheist have a lawsuit because he was exposed to a bible on school property?

B) If he does sue, does the devout kid have a countersuit on grounds that the government is preventing his practicing of religon?

Common sense says no to A. If yes to A then yes to B. Reality says yes to A and even if yes to A then no to B.

That is just not what reality is though. Its sad, but it is true.

6 posted on 11/25/2004 8:46:17 PM PST by Personal Responsibility (Up is down, Black is white but I do *NOT* love Big Brother)
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To: Personal Responsibility

So I guess the teachers are supposed to say the Pilgrims happened to wash up on the Massachusetts coastline for whatever reason. Religious freedom had nothing to do with it? When the first kid raises his/her hand asking what a Pilgrim is, will the answer explain that they were a religious group? The whole thing is just crazy!


7 posted on 11/25/2004 8:48:34 PM PST by rdl6989 (4 More Years! 4 More Years!)
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To: Personal Responsibility

When will they learn...
for in Him we live and move and have our being.
God gives us every precious gift. If they don't thank Him now - will they talk to Him when the gifts are removed???


8 posted on 11/25/2004 8:59:05 PM PST by Peace Is Coming
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To: Personal Responsibility
If a teacher brought a bible to some class, opened it to his favorite passage and read it to the class, thats breaching the "wall of seperation". The teacher works for the school.

You have one half of it, but the converse it true as well.

In today's legal climate if a student brings a bible to class and reads it that student can be removed from class.

It doesn't have to be a bible, it could be a Christian tee shirt or a Christian book cover. Any mention or reference to religion is viewed as a breach of that mythical wall.

That's exactly what is happening in the Maryland school system. Those school administraters know the "mood" of the judiciary in respect to religion.

Now as far as the second part of your post:

A)Does the atheist have a lawsuit because he was exposed to a bible on school property?

Yes, he does because anyone can bring a lawsuuit at any time if he feels that he was in some way injured.

But (and this is a big BUT), the freedoms that we enjoy in the First Amendment supercede any litigation that would hamper those freedoms.

9 posted on 11/25/2004 9:16:07 PM PST by Noachian (A Democrat, by definition, is a Socialist.)
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To: Noachian
It doesn't have to be a bible, it could be a Christian tee shirt or a Christian book cover. Any mention or reference to religion is viewed as a breach of that mythical wall. That's exactly what is happening in the Maryland school system. Those school administraters know the "mood" of the judiciary in respect to religion.

This is exactly the problem. The climate is exactly the opposite of what common sense says it should be.

Now as far as the second part of your post: A)Does the atheist have a lawsuit because he was exposed to a bible on school property? Yes, he does because anyone can bring a lawsuuit at any time if he feels that he was in some way injured.

We know this. Thats not the gist of the post and I am confident you know that :)

But (and this is a big BUT), the freedoms that we enjoy in the First Amendment supercede any litigation that would hamper those freedoms.

And yet I can see a time where that is no longer the case. A time not so far from now.

10 posted on 11/25/2004 9:32:41 PM PST by Personal Responsibility (Up is down, Black is white but I do *NOT* love Big Brother)
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To: Personal Responsibility
...exactly the opposite of what common sense says it should be.

That's true, but we're not talking about common sense unfortunately, we're talking about activist jurists who are not held accountable for their actions, and make up law as they go.

It seems that we now have a "legal caste" made up of judges and lawyers who study case law outside of its relationship to constitutional law.

And yet I can see a time where that is no longer the case.

I hope so, but I'm doubtful. Once law is made it's difficult, but not impossible, to change. Also, the emphasis now on who is to be selected for the Supreme Court takes away the true cause for our rogue judiciary - the Congress.

Bush may appoint conservative judges, but there's no guarantee they will remain conservative without a watchful Congress.

Like you I'm hopeful for the future, but guarded in the present.

11 posted on 11/25/2004 9:52:53 PM PST by Noachian (A Democrat, by definition, is a Socialist.)
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To: Personal Responsibility

Sickening.

Idiots are educating our children.


12 posted on 11/25/2004 10:17:15 PM PST by Rocky
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To: Personal Responsibility
I am very glad our daughter is the local parochial school. We still have Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

Of course, she has started to genuflect to the statue of Lincoln in Lincoln Park. Good Republican upbringing ....

13 posted on 11/25/2004 11:10:36 PM PST by sphinx
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To: Personal Responsibility
I am not overly religous by upbringing or nature but this is just downright disturbing.

Where have you been for the last 40 years. This is the status quo mindset in most public schools.

14 posted on 11/25/2004 11:13:33 PM PST by Always Right
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To: Born Conservative


15 posted on 11/25/2004 11:14:25 PM PST by Coleus (There is Plenty of Room For all of God's Creatures, Right Next to the mashed potatoes!)
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To: Personal Responsibility

The whole situation is littered with irony.


16 posted on 11/25/2004 11:15:46 PM PST by jwalburg (Those buried included children still clutching toys)
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To: rdl6989
So I guess the teachers are supposed to say the Pilgrims happened to wash up on the Massachusetts coastline for whatever reason.

Well the story today is that the Pilgrims were oppressed homosexuals and came to the US so they could openly engage in homosexual acts and get married....

17 posted on 11/25/2004 11:17:03 PM PST by Always Right
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To: Personal Responsibility

THERE IS NO WALL. When will the simple meaning of the 1st Amendment be set aright. There is no wall. It doesn't say it and it doesn't mean it. It's not there. Do yourself a favor and read this article.

http://www.noapathy.org/tracts/mythofseparation.html


18 posted on 11/26/2004 12:16:13 AM PST by Oreo Kookey (How, indeed, do we click our tongues at beheadings and look the other way from abortion? I weep.)
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To: Always Right

I am only 35 :)

I always voted Republican just because the democrat candidates seemed wishy washy. I work in NYC and was there for 9-11. I started to immerse myself in politics etc...directly thereafter. I only found Free Republic on the web a short time ago, and I am glad to have found it. I always thought it was just me who was going crazy at the hypocrisy all over the place.


19 posted on 11/26/2004 8:31:22 PM PST by Personal Responsibility (Up is down, Black is white but I do *NOT* love Big Brother)
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To: Personal Responsibility
Okay, what would you do if you were a student and the administrators told you this? The first thing I would do - having been properly schooled in "Question Authority" - would be to thank God as loudly as I could. What are they going to do, kick you out of school? I can just hear the conversation with my parents.

"You got suspended from school again! What for this time?"

"Praying."

Someone please show me how to turn the clock back, if only for a little bit. I want to go back to high school and torment the administration so more.

20 posted on 11/26/2004 8:38:32 PM PST by BJungNan (Stop Spam - Do NOT buy from junk email.)
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