Parents Challenge School's Bible Classes

Fox News ^ | 02/12/05 | Associated Press

[coffeebreak]

There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution about a 'seperation of church and state'. Go back to NY if you don't like the schools in Shenandoah Valley, Mr & Mrs. Ward!

[NormsRevenge]

I got a better place for them ... Hell. express service

[Paleo Conservative]

Maybe they should move back to New York?

[Dinsdale]

As long as the busses are available to take kids to their parents church of choice I've got no problem with this.

If it's only one church then they have a big problem.

[BenLurkin]

"shock and disbelief"

Mom is a creep, in my opinion.

[sociotard]

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.

[coffeebreak]

Maybe they should move back to New York?

Of course. If you don't like things where you live,you move to somewhere else. They don't have to move back to NY, but they should leave.

[Steel and Fire and Stone]

Let me get this straight. These parents object to the fact that OTHER PARENT'S CHILDREN voluntarily participate in a Bible class OUTSIDE the Public School grounds, at NO COST to the public?

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:

"YOU CANNOT STUDY RELIGION OR PRAY!"

Talk about "fighting words"!

SFS

[CAluvdubya]

They can always move to Victorville, CA. Then their little darlings can take part in mock gay marriages!

[Popman]

Another chapter of "The tyranny of the minority" mentality

Don't like your kid going to Bible class?

Option your child out or move back to New York

[microgood]

Go back to NY if you don't like the schools in Shenandoah Valley, Mr & Mrs. Ward!

Well said. Needs to be repeated.

[stompk]

I'd be shocked if I found out my kid was being taken off the school premises without my permission too.

I want my kids in church, but I'd be surprised to find out about it after the fact.

they should be able to opt kids out though. I wouldn't want mine bussed to mosque on the precedent set by forcing this.

[Cronos]

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.

If they don't want their children attending the classes, they should be allowed to remove them and the article SAYS the classes are voluntary. What's the Ward's problem? If they don't like it, ok, remove your kids Mr & Mrs Ward. Why prevent it for others???

[4CJ]

"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.

Oh, the humanity! </sarcasm>

[Peace will be here soon]

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.

[PzLdr]

When I was a kid growing up in the '50s, I attended public schools here in New York. Every Wednesday afternoon we were excused from our classes to attend religious instruction at the local Catholic Church to study for First Holy Communion and, later, Confirmation. No one objected.Hoe times have changed.

[tallhappy]

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.

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.

[Aetius]

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.

[Cicero]

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.

[Choose Ye This Day]

Wimps. Try seminary at 5:30 a.m. like the kids out in the "real" world.

:o)