<<Your right not to pray in school takes away my child's right to pray in school.>>
What you're incensed about, Bob, is the loss of your right to the assertion of primacy represented by your religion, your Jesus, being touted to all and sundry in school, including to me, personally, to my emotional detriment.
Because it is a simple misstatement of fact that your children can't pray in school. They can. And mine can meditate, or think about a good deed to do after school, or about fudge, or about anything they want to. There is plenty of down-time in a school day. How about study hall? How about when your child gets to class early, she sits and prays? In fact, let all the Christian children pray in their down time, I say, instead of getting up to all sorts of horrid behavior toward your daughter and other children. Is it atheists being mean to your daughter? It would surprise me if the answer was yes. The four loveliest, kindest, and (among the) smartest children in my son's 4th grade class were my son (of course!), two (atheist) boys who were his friends (and came to his wedding!), and the lovely little girl who is now my daughter-in-law, who was Catholic at the time, but grew up. What's happened is that your delegates just can't force their prayers down my child's throat they way you deep down feel is right that they should be able to.
Under your dispensation, Bob, how long would a public school teacher last who took a few minutes each morning to read from John Stuart Mill or other atheist text?
You write:
<<A child of atheist parents may have to listen to a prayer, but has to grant the right for the christian to pray. Fair enough?>>
Let's turn it around and see how it strikes you:
"A child of Christian parents may have to listen to some rationalist, secular critiques of religious thought and history, but has to grant the right for the atheist to explain to the children that there ain't nobody home but us humans. Fair enough?"
It is amazing how thoroughly agenda determines opinion on some matters. |
