They may be religiously charged for some, and you can, of course, choose to make it a religious issue for all if you can take control of the engines of the state, but I think the point of our constitution is to try to keep people who might want to make other people's lives an issue of a religion when it is not logically a part of the religion, out of the business of forcing their beliefs on all.
I don't see the problem with books like Heather has Two Mommies. So families are different. Big deal. If you don't want your kid to know that, I'm sure you can opt out of having your kid read the book- but to allow religious forces to remove a book that is not per se about religion opens the door to removing books about divorce, food, holiday celebrations, and all sorts of other things. Almost all things tread on someone's religious belief- and the point of school is to tread on them all, WHERE those beliefs are not integral to the religion. I think we have to allow people to say "Don't let my kid read Heather has Two Mommies", or "My child should never be involved in any class parties" or "My child can't see a PG movie", and we give those students alternatives, but we don't change the whole school around to suit the few, or even the majority, just because it happens to be in their religious interest. That isn't what school is about. |
