The purpose of Our Conscience weblog is to facilitate a greater discussion and understanding of church and state separation in our community and in others. Underlying this is the value that each individual should be allowed to follow the dictates of his or her own conscience without influence, coercion, or direction from the State when it comes to matters of religion.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Here we go Again...

The following is in response to this oped published in the Joplin Globe Aug 20th 2006.

To bring it closer to home, more than 30 years ago our children could speak the name of God and/or Jesus in our public schools. Those were simple times, remember? The largest problem was chewing gum or throwing paper wads.











"The Bath School disaster was a series of bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, USA, on May 18, 1927, which killed 45 people and injured 58. Most of the victims were children in second to sixth grades attending the Bath Consolidated School. The bombings constituted the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history, claiming more than three times as many victims as the Columbine High School massacre." link

We have graduated several levels since then, and we did it by barring prayer and God’s word from our public schools.

That would be really bad if it were true. Here is what court have banned:

"State officials may not compose an official state prayer and require that it be recited in the public schools..." ENGEL v. VITALE, 370 U.S. 421 (1962)

In the United States, any name or book can be freely expounded upon except the Bible and our Lord. And we wonder, “where do the bad guys come from?”

The suggestion is that being religious protects a person from immorality. If that were true the following would have never happened:



















And you might not find data like this coming from federal prisons:

Protestant: 27.38%
Catholic: 30.61%
No Preference: 12.55%
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Federal Bureau of Prisons, Census 04-11-2000

Today’s secular society prohibits our children from being taught what caused Cain to kill Abel, and killing continues.

Is there a police man in your house preventing you from teaching your children about religion? Do you need the governments assistance?

"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."
-Thomas Jefferson