Posted on 08/15/2016 7:22:54 AM PDT by Academiadotorg
You might not be surprised to learn that 84 percent of church-going Christians send their children to public schools. Nevertheless, you may be astonished to learn that half of all public school teachers consider themselves church-going Christians.
These two tidbits come from Barna Research. Nevertheless, we’ve had controversies throughout the country whenever valedictorians attempt to quote scripture or young students try to attach religious messages to candy canes at Christmas. These dramas unfold because frequently teachers do not know the rules governing religious expression in public schools, which allow all of the above to occur, according to Eric Buehrer, president of Gateways to Better Education.
For one thing, few public schools realize that January 16 of every calendar year is Religious Freedom Day, and has been since President Clinton proclaimed it to be in 1993. His successors, including the current one, have kept up the practice.
"For 21 years the U. S. Department of Education has issued religious guidelines starting with Department Secretary Richard Riley in 1995 in the Clinton Administration," Buehrer said on August 8, 2016 at the Family Research Council. Don't hold your breath waiting for reporters to ask Mrs. Clinton if she plans to continue the practice.
Buehrer runs workshops for public school teachers on Faith & Freedom in Public School that draw about 3,000 annually.
I always wonder what people think the words “congress shall make no law” and “nor prohibit the free expression” actually mean
When Bill Clinton first ran for president I heatedly debated people with whom I worshipped. They vehemently insisted politics and religion have nothing to do with one another. This was in Tennessee not far from where Gore used to live.
Part of our problem has always been worldly people calling themselves "Christian", but holding to liberal ideas. "Clouds without water", the Bible calls them.
“January 16 of every calendar year is Religious Freedom Day”
And you must keep Christianity inside the church for the rest of the year.
Actually it is, "Congress shall make no law regarding…" In other words, the First Amendment does not establish nation wide "separation of church and state" but rather prevents Congress, and only Congress, from making any law on the subject of the establishment of religion, for or against. The First Amendment takes the whole topic of the establishment of religion out of the federal jurisdiction and leaves the matter to the states to do as they wish. In fact, a number of states continued to have state established religions after the ratification of the Constitution. I am not arguing that this was a good thing, only that this is the actual meaning of the First Amendment.
Of every person I’ve ever met yammering about “separation of church and state” not one could actually recite, much less explain, the actual wording of the First Amendment’s establishment and prohibition clauses.
Are the schools not teaching the Constitution in civics classes anymore?
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