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In NJ where I live, Muslims, Hindus, and Christians live together in a very small space. My Christian faith is right, I know I'm right, and I try my best to convince all of them that I'm right. I am in the majority. Does that mean I should use taxpayer-funded schools (which those Muslims and Hindus also paid for) to preach my Christian beliefs to others? I completely understand your logic, which says firmly YES! I want to say yes too. However, what if the situation changes and some new Neo-Protestantism schism sweeps the nation? What if higher birth rates among immigrants means that Hindus or Muslims have the majority in some distant future? Then by the same logic, they, as the majority, are free to preach every day in school to my children, using my tax dollars to pay for it. That would be completely unacceptable to me, and--I suspect--you as well. So, in the end, we compromise--we all agree to keep religion out of classrooms, even though we are in a position of power now, to protect against if we lose power in the future.

Does this compromise make me a bad Christian? What do you think? Thanks for your comments, you're truly helping me organize/refine my political thoughts.

The less you compromise your Christian values the more you will love your neighbors of all races and religions.

Dr. Benjamin Rush was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a close friend of Thomas Jefferson. he said the following about religion in the classroom.

"I beg leave to remark that the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid on the foundation of religion.
"Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.
"Such is my veneration for every religion that reveals the attributes of the Deity, or a future state of rewards and punishments, that I had rather see the opinions of Confucius or Mohamed inculcated upon our youth than to see them grow up wholly devoid of a system of religious principles.
"But the religion I mean to recommend in this place is that of the New Testament.
"It is not my prupose to hint at the arguements which establish the truth of the Christian revelation.
"My only business is to declare that all its doctrines and precepts are calculated to promote the happiness of society and the safety and well-being of civil government.
"A Christian cannot fail of being republican...for every precept of the Gospel inculcates those degrees of humility, self-denial, and brotherly kindness which are directly opposed to the pride of monarchy...
"A Christian cannot fail of being useful to the republic, for his religion teaches him that no man 'liveth to himself'.
"And lastly a Christian cannot fail of being wholly inoffensive, for his religion teaches him in all things to do to others what he would wish, in like circumstances, they should do to him." -- Dr. Benjamin Rush, Thoughts Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic, 1786.

His ideas were once upon a time employed in US schools. The Bible was the cornerstone of all education.

Harvard, Yale, Princeton were all founded to teach Christian principles. The first President of Princeton said "Cursed be all learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ."

Today schools have implemented the very thing that Dr. Rush feared, Godless secularism. The worst possible approach. We are suffering greatly for it. It must change.