Posted on 02/12/2005 8:17:20 PM PST by coffeebreak
STAUNTON, Va. — When Heather and Logan Ward's son entered public kindergarten this fall, they were shocked to discover that pupils were taken from class to a nearby church for weekly Bible lessons.
The Wards moved to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley (search) from New York four years ago, and were unaware of the tradition that has remained in Staunton and other rural schools for more than 60 years.
"My reaction is exactly like the reaction of those who come here from a different place — shock and disbelief that we have Bible (search) classes in public schools," Heather Ward said.
Now the Wards and other parents are asking the school board to eliminate or modify the program, which shuttles first-, second- and third-graders to churches during class time for voluntary half-hour Christian lessons and activities.
But the would-be reformers have run into staunch resistance. More than 400 people showed up to weigh in on the issue at a contentious school board meeting in December, and more than 1,000 signed a petition urging the school board to keep the classes.
The six-member school board is scheduled to decide the issue Monday.
Jack Hinton, president of the local private group that offers the lessons, attributes the opposition to a small minority, many of them newcomers to the valley. Without religious classes, he said, "kids get into trouble and have no moral structure on which to combat drugs, sex, pornography and all that."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I got a better place for them ... Hell. express service
Maybe they should move back to New York?
If it's only one church then they have a big problem.
"shock and disbelief"
Mom is a creep, in my opinion.
In our area, we use "release time", meaning high school students can leave campus and spend a class period in bible study. It's quite popular, and since the state doesn't pay for it, I think it's a fine program.
Excuse me, but the need to move to Korea or Cuba to get the sort of Stalinist dictatorship that would prohibit such innocents from praying or studying the Bible at the church of their choice.
There's no problem there. The Wards just live in the wrong country.
They argue that children who opt out are stigmatized and have little to do while their classmates are in Bible classes, taking away precious time for academics in the age of standardized testing.
And what about the poor Christian kids who are being stigmatized by the Wards opposition to them worshiping in the freedom that the Constitution guarantees.
Put another way: What right does ANY ADULT have to effectively walk into a school, as the Wards are doing, and point their fingers at a child and say:
Talk about "fighting words"!
SFS
Don't like your kid going to Bible class?
Option your child out or move back to New York
Oh, the humanity! </sarcasm>
I have no idea of what these people are upset about. It is a "voluntary" program.
I wonder if they would be upset if they also had a "voluntary" program where kids were taken to a mosque.
Something tells me they wouldn`t be piping up about it.
No one's forcing their kids to go.
These people want to dominate and control everything and one thing they don't want is any Christianity at all.
They are essentially totalitarian.
Exactly. If they don't like it, then they should move back to where their fashionable views are more widely held, and stop trying to impose them where they are not.
This, in a nutshell, is the reason why there is a national culture war -- because the Left can't tolerate that their views are not policy everywhere, and cannot countenance a situation where their ideology becomes law only in the relatively few places where it has enough public support to do so democratically.
It really quite comical to hear people speaking of the 'Religious Right' wanting to impose their values. I mean, which is a true imposition of values; putting measures like bans on gay marriage/civil unions before the people to decide and vote on, or running the courts and getting as few as 5 people to do for the Left what it can't do in Congress, or in most state legislatures, or in direct votes via ballot initiatives.
There's something basically disgusting about moving into a community and then trying to change it because you don't like the way they do things. That would apply to any of the established customs. If you don't like it, don't move there.
A friend of mine told me that she and her husband are moving from Vermont down to a large-scale housing development for older people being built on a lake in Appalachia. I suspect there will be more and more of this, as Florida and the coast get more crowded and expensive. Bound to be some culture clashes, I should think.
Wimps. Try seminary at 5:30 a.m. like the kids out in the "real" world.
:o)
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