God In Public Schools

[socalscout]

Let me preface this by saying that if every Catholic could afford it, their children should go to Catholic School. As a former Catholic school student I agree that God should be taught...by Catholics and Catholics only. Granted there are some Catholic schools, Notre Dame for example that need to convert to Catholicism but it can be controled by the Bishop not the government.

This is where I have a problem with any reference to God in public schools. Hear me out.
Who will teach our children about God in school? How will prayer time be explained? What God will be taught, Vishnu, Kishna, Budha(Though not technically a God),Allah, Thor, Zeus or the Trinity or all the above?

What do we think will come if an over zealous teacher imposes his/her faith as truth to our children when the topic comes up? Of course this can happen now but it would be covert as oppposed to actually being a curriculum. All I need to have is a teacher start talking about Papal authority and how they disagree. Impressionable minds see an authority figure making sense about their faith and doubts will be seeded. How about a good friend talking about how to pray to Mother Earth or something?

My last fear is allowing government to dictate or control religion in public schools. I realize that Humanism and Darwinism(not Evolution, big difference) are probably being taught in our schools currently and they can be construed as religion but I have a means to combat that in my examples and education of my Faith with my children. I have a major problem with government having a hand in anything, let alone God in schools. Look at Pelosi and her misleading views on Church doctrine and abortion. Imagine if she was a school teacher but worse yet we know that the last acceptable discrimination in America is against the Catholic Church so where would our representation be in public schools?

Am I being paranoid? Your thoughts.

Edited April 30, 2009 by socalscout

[Sirklawd]

i've had the same worry. Mostly because I hardly trust anyone to teach the faith correctly, including most Catholics. (theres a reason religious education classes are pushing kids away)...

Idunno, but maybe a healthy dose of philosophy in highschool could atleast teach kids to think more critically instead of becoming this sort of "sound-byte" culture that we have now.

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='socalscout' post='1852833' date='Apr 30 2009, 01:17 AM']Let me preface this by saying that if every Catholic could afford it, their children should go to Catholic School. As a former Catholic school student I agree that God should be taught...by Catholics and Catholics only. Granted there are some Catholic schools, Notre Dame for example that need to convert to Catholicism but it can be controled by the Bishop not the government.

This is where I have a problem with any reference to God in public schools. Hear me out.
Who will teach our children about God in school? How will prayer time be explained? What God will be taught, Vishnu, Kishna, Budha(Though not technically a God),Allah, Thor, Zeus or the Trinity or all the above?

What do we think will come if an over zealous teacher imposes his/her faith as truth to our children when the topic comes up? Of course this can happen now but it would be covert as oppposed to actually being a curriculum. All I need to have is a teacher start talking about Papal authority and how they disagree. Impressionable minds see an authority figure making sense about their faith and doubts will be seeded. How about a good friend talking about how to pray to Mother Earth or something?

My last fear is allowing government to dictate or control religion in public schools. I realize that Humanism and Darwinism(not Evolution, big difference) are probably being taught in our schools currently and they can be construed as religion but I have a means to combat that in my examples and education of my Faith with my children. I have a major problem with government having a hand in anything, let alone God in schools. Look at Pelosi and her misleading views on Church doctrine and abortion. Imagine if she was a school teacher but worse yet we know that the last acceptable discrimination in America is against the Catholic Church so where would our representation be in public schools?

Am I being paranoid? Your thoughts.[/quote]
When I went to public school God was still present and taught by protestants, which is exactly why we had catholic schools.

[KnightofChrist]

God has a right and a place at the forefront of schools.

[rkwright]

[quote name='socalscout' post='1852833' date='Apr 29 2009, 11:17 PM']Am I being paranoid? Your thoughts.[/quote]

I think you're paranoid given America's move in the last 20-30 years to eliminate God altogether from civil society.

Its going to take nothing short of a miracle to get public schools to even teach the idea of God anymore - regardless of whose god it is.

[tinytherese]

It's hard to just elminate God totally though, even in a secular academic world. I attend a secular women's college and people's religious beliefs both past and present can come into play studying subjects such as history, literature, (medical ethics) in science, psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, art, and music.

[tinytherese]

[quote name='Sirklawd' post='1853593' date='Apr 30 2009, 05:21 PM']Mostly because I hardly trust anyone to teach the faith correctly, including most Catholics. (theres a reason religious education classes are pushing kids away)...[/quote]

I didn't learn much from attending catholic schools from preschool through high school. EWTN taught me what I needed (and still need) to know. Some teachers of theology are not even qualified to teach theology. I had one who just had a minor in religious studies but was really trained to be a history teacher. He once told us that the Church didn't believe in Purgatory anymore. The head of the theology department at my high school had his ph.d. in biblical theology from Notre Dame and he said some occasional unorthodox stuff, but who would be taken more seriously someone with a doctorate or a tenth grader?

[add]

Public schools cannot eliminate God from civil society.
So long as babies are born, men and woman marry and loved ones die religion; catholic religion will thrive and flourish.
Life and death hold hands with the almighty and is interconnected by the Holy Spirit to each one of us.

[Slappo]

[quote name='KnightofChrist' post='1853683' date='Apr 30 2009, 02:56 PM']God has a right and a place at the forefront of schools.[/quote]

Yes, God does, but heresy does not and that's what is being referred to. The fear of wide spread blatant heresy taught all throughout school.

I think that religion should not be taught in public school until this country becomes a Catholic country with a Catholic government, but I also think that God should not be banned. Prayer should be allowed to be done even in groups in public schools. If God were to be taught in schools, the only God that I could condone being taught is the Christian God found in the fullness of truth in the Catholic Church and that is not the teachings our children would get if God was taught in public schools.

[Jesus_lol]

last time i checked, all the extremely hostile anti christian athiest people i know came from religuous schools, beware of backlash.

one of them is a good friend of mine, and i can tell, there is nothing you could ever do that would convince him to set foot in a church again, much less convert. that must have taken some serious work by some seriously crappy teachers to pull off something like that.

[Resurrexi]

I think that all public schools should teach Catholic theology and try to convert the children to Catholicism, and that if a parent doesn't want their children to be proselytized and taught Catholicism, that parent ought not to send their children to public schools.

[Hassan]

I still don't know where you all get the idea that God is not allowed in public schools.

At my school there was a morning Bible study and a FCA meeting. There was also a Muslims student things and the Muslim kids could go to a big empty conferent room to do their prayers duing lunch and stuff. I myself kept the Benedictine hours.

So long as it is a student run event, you can do what you want. You can meet before school and pray the rosary. Whatever.

To those of you who want to go beyond that, let's see how much you detest this religious protection when Christian students in Muslim majority school districts get to sit quietly while the teacher leads the other students in a prayer testifying to the oneness of Allah and the Prophethood of Muhammad, or an Evangelical teacher leads all the other students in prayers that everyone will accecpt Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Davior, renouncing the traditions of man and seeing that only a personal relationship with Jesus saves.

If your children want to pray in their free tiime, by all measn let them. But please butt out of the religious beliefs of other parent's children.

[Hassan]

[quote name='Resurrexi' post='1856424' date='May 3 2009, 10:43 AM']I think that all public schools should teach Catholic theology and try to convert the children to Catholicism, and that if a parent doesn't want their children to be proselytized and taught Catholicism, that parent ought not to send their children to public schools.[/quote]

Public schools?

[KnightofChrist]

Government schools

[dairygirl4u2c]

i don't mind God being taught in public school, in some sense, or mentioned. as long as it doesn't start crossing the line into the government espousing God or a certain religion etc. some people say it's impossible to teach it etc without going that far, and i respect their opinion.

but with that said, the real problem, aside from the state espousing religion, is christians etc not being consistent. if it's okay for God to be taught, t should be okay for other beings or ideas to be taught, yet they are ones often who would not allow for that. and hte lack of consistency or open minded ness or evenhandedness or whatever, is just wrong. all (wihtin 'reason') or nothing, that's the right way, the fair way, etc.