SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES URGED TO “STAND UP FOR FAITH”
By FITSNEWS || The Palmetto Family Council – South Carolina’s leading social conservative advocacy group – is promoting this Thursday, October 16 as “Bring Your Bible To School Day.”
“Have you noticed the recent headlines about students being told they can’t pray or read their Bibles during free time at school-even though students do have that right?” the group wrote in promoting the event. “Here at Palmetto Family, we believe that the Bible has a powerful message of hope and love for humanity; it’s something that should be celebrated, not banned. We also believe in the cherished freedoms our Founding Fathers fought to give us.”
Naturally as strict church/ state separationists, we’re opposed to such co-mingling, right?
Not really …
To the extent government should be involved in education (and we have a decidedly limited definition of that extent), it should permit students the freedom to worship as they please during their free time.
Naturally we oppose compulsory group prayer in government school settings, but if a student wishes to bring their copy of the Bible (or the Koran) to school and read it on their own time – they should be allowed to do so.
Here’s the larger issue, though: This conversation wouldn’t be nearly as polarizing if parents, churches and communities were allowed to play a more prominent role in the education of our future generations. Millions of parents – including one who wrote this column for FITS earlier this week – are ready to invest the time and energy necessary to ensure a much brighter future for their children than anything the government system is providing.
Unfortunately, the government has decided that these parents should be prevented from keeping even a portion of the tax money they pay into the failing “public” system to pursue these options. To the status quo, parental involvement (well, involvement extending beyond the perpetuation of its politically correct indoctrination) is something dangerous – something that needs to be discouraged at every turn.
In a recent piece for National Review, Kevin D. Williamson hit the nail on the head in describing a proposed government assault on the homeschooling movement in Connecticut.
According to Williamson, Connecticut’s government-run schools want to force homeschooling parents to present their children for regulation inspection to ensure that their “social and emotional learning needs” are being met.
Wow …
“Contrary to all of the sanctimony surrounding them, the government schools are in fact the single most destructive institution in American public life, and they are the bedrock of the Left’s power, providing billions of dollars in campaign contributions and millions of man-hours for Democratic campaigns,” Williamson wrote. “But they do more than that: They are the real-life version of those nightmarish incubator pods from The Matrix, and home-schooling is a red pill.”
Indeed …
Homeschooling – and other forms of parental choice – are threats to the establishment because they deprive it of the two things it covets above all else: Money and power. The ability to limit competition – and free thought.
Wait … you thought the government-run school system was “for the children?” Yeah … right.
Anyway … we support “Bring Your Bible To School Day.” And “Bring Your Koran To School Day.” And “Bring Your Book of Mormon To School Day.” More importantly, we support the right of individual parents, churches and communities to use more of their own resources to educate children.
Because while it’s great at indoctrination, government-run schools are terrible at education … (especially in the Palmetto State).
RAPID REACTION
Maybe try reading it instead of using it to make political statements? @fitsnews: "Bring Your Bible To School Day" – http://t.co/IskQiNB5QN
— ? John Moock (@JRMoockjr) October 15, 2014
75 comments
What if your bible is the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster or the Satanic Bible? Are we still good there?
Yawn.
The fact that you took the time to type that is illuminating all on its own.
Anton LaVey in 1969. Can’t remember much about it, but I’ve read a long time ago.
“Have you noticed the recent headlines about students being told they can’t pray or read their Bibles during free time at school-even though students do have that right?” the group wrote in promoting the event. “Here at Palmetto Family, we believe that the Bible has a powerful message of hope and love for humanity; it’s something that should be celebrated, not banned. We also believe in the cherished freedoms our Founding Fathers fought to give us.”
Well, no, actually I haven’t noticed the headlines, but then again, I don’t read the right wing rags that the tunnel vision folks pass as news sources. In fact, I don’t read the left wing rags that are offered as news sources either.
Here in Clarendon, I, too, believe the Bible has a powerful message of hope and love.
I can’t think of a better example to display our cherished freedoms from the Founders than to point out the existence of this forum and the Palmetto Family Council’s efforts to use it in order to whine and bitch about a non-existent problem.
(admits to knowing nothing about lawsuits regarding prayer in schools, proclaims it a non-existent problem anyways)
Let me rephrase to satisfy the anal retentives:
I know of no concerted government effort to deny a student the right to carry a Bible, read a Bible, believe in the word of God or deny the existence of a God.
On the contrary I know the Constitution provides for those rights despite Palmetto Family’s protestations.
(admits to not researching or reading any articles about lawsuits/complaints regarding prayer in schools, declares the status of prayer in schools to be a non-issue because he hasn’t heard anything about it)
Admits to recognizing a bible thumping right winger when he reads the inane posts of same.
(he typed, desperation creeping in)
You sound dumb. But then why wouldn’t you?
Scroll down to the bottom and click on my link about what’s going on in Houston
If there’s anything in that piece that references Bibles carrying or Bible reading in schools then I must have missed it.
Oh, S. Texas is one of the last places I’d worry much about trampling on Bibles and Religions.
Just in the general trampling on religious freedom vein, not specific to this case.
Don’t worry about Jacke. He never researches anything beyond Wikipedia. I did a google search. Found exactly one law suit by the family of a 16 year old who claims the school would not allow him to read the bible on his free time. The school says there is more to the story but are prohibited by privacy laws from discussing them. There are no pending law suits, and I can find no action by a school to prohibit its students from reading the bible..
The bottom line is this politics and nothing more. There is absolutely zero persecution of Christians in American Schools. For god sake 80% of Americans say the are Christians. This is just made up by right wing nuts. Its political season. Lets work up the religious right and get them to the polls.
By the way, these are the exact same people who would be very happy to go through the school’s library and pull out all the books they find offensive, like Harry Potter, The Origin of the Species, and the Koran.
Why would the Koran be allowed in a school library but the Bible isn’t?
1) Please to list those school libraries in which the Bible is prohibited (don’t confuse absent with prohibited please).
2) Please to list those schools in which the Bible is absent as a matter of policy.
Both are permitted in the school library. They are books.
Prayer/reading a holy book by the student him/herself during free time is absolutely protected under the Constitution. If you want your public school to do the praying or reading of holy books for you though, you can go shove it.
You ever read that verse that says people who make a big deal about praying in public have their reward, and that you should pray in private if you want God to hear you? Yeah, me neither.
Kudos to the tweeter, but many Christians wouldn’t be Christian if they couldn’t use the Bible as a prop to attention whore with. Besides, if they don’t use their kids as a proxy to shove their religion in other peoples’ faces, what else is their child going to do at school? Study for their tests? Do their homework? Pfft.
EXACTLY bro. Christians in the Bible were secret about their faith, well except when they were walking around spreading the gospel to anyone they met.
There’s a difference between sharing your beliefs and flaunting them for attention.
I’m pretty sure “TAKE YER BAHBUL TO SKEWL TO SHOW DEM LIBRUL ATHEYUSTS DEY KANT OH-PRESS US!” has very little to do with sharing beliefs.
Not nice to mock blacks. Bet you call your black friends niggers, don’t ya?
“TAKE YER”
Pretty obvious I was going for redneck-ese over ebonics, but hey, whatever gives you an excuse to say the n-word, right? :)
Anything to throw around the racist label these days.
(supports lawsuits where atheists refuse to stand during pledge of allegiance because it contains “under God;” accuses Christians of flaunting beliefs for bringing bible to school)
Your posts make no sense, man.
supports lawsuits supporting atheists refusal to stand during pledge of allegiance because it contains “under God;”
Anyone has the right to refuse to stand during the pledge of allegiance for any reason whatsoever. What, do you want gubmint to send troops into the classroom to make Billy stand?
But yes, I can see how an atheist would not want to say the “under God” part. Would a Christian like it if the pledge made references to Muhammad?
Should we also bring up that “under God” was actually added to the pledge in very recent history?
accuses Christians of flaunting beliefs for bringing bible to school
It must be really hard for you not to mischaracterize what someone says, huh?
Some kid bringing his Bible to school is not a big deal. I knew kids that did it in my school. Who cares? A bunch of kids being goaded by their parents to take their Bible to school on a specific day to “show those filthy non-believers?” Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s just to flaunt it.
They have the right to bring their Bible, even if it is just to flaunt it like some kind of accessory, I’m just calling them bad Christians because the only reason they brought it was over shameless self-promotion. Otherwise, they’d bring it the next day. And the next. And actually read it. Yeah, I’m sure most of those kids will totally do that, right?
I’m not even saying there aren’t atheists or Muslims or Jews that also flaunt their beliefs, or share them, or what have you. I’m just calling out the Christians in this instance for doing it.
(denies refusing to stand during pledge of allegiance is flaunting atheists’ beliefs insists bringing bibles to school on a certain day is)
denies refusing to stand during pledge of allegiance is flaunting atheists’ beliefs
I’ve seen Libertarians refuse to stand for the pledge because they dislike the notion of pledging to government. I guess those guys are automatically atheist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2BfqDUPL1I
Not standing during the pledge isn’t flaunting anything. Telling someone who asks you why you didn’t stand isn’t flaunting anything. Telling people why you didn’t stand completely unprovoked would be.
Bringing your Bible to school isn’t flaunting anything. Telling someone who asks you why you brought your Bible to school isn’t flaunting anything. Telling people why you brought your Bible to school completely unprovoked would be.
Logic is hard.
(believes bringing a bible to school on a certain day means kids will be telling everyone why they brought it without provocation; somehow also believes someone willing to publicly sit down during the pledge of allegiance won’t tell everyone why he’s sitting down)
For god sake get over it. Anybody can bring a Bible to school. This all made up. No school is preventing anyone from bringing a Bible to school.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/5/teacher-banned-fifth-graders-bible-during-free-rea/
Muslims use the Koran to rape, murder and pillage families, communities and countries while slaughtering Christians.
A Christ denying hater like you has an orgasm over that, don’t ya?
There’s been plenty of atrocities committed in the name of Jesus Christ too, if that’s what you’re asking.
You should read your Bible, plenty of talk about stoning gays and adulterers, dashing babies on rocks, killing rebellious children, etc. Much more “progressive” than Islam, amirite?
As I said many times before here, Christianity has been dragged kicking and screaming into modernization. Islam has suffered basically the exact opposite. But hey, there’s a religion out there that’s even more primitive, close-minded, and barbaric than yours, so it’s all good, right?
So thats it? “stoning gays” has got you upset.
I don’t care if you smoke dope while your boyfriend packs your ass.
I mentioned killing children and babies, but “teh gay” caught your eye? Hmm…
I mentioned all of those because they actually happen in Islamic theocracies. They put adulterers and gays to death, and there are plenty of “honor killings” of children.
If anything, Muslims are stuck in the Old Testament. No, wait, I can’t say that. They cut the hands off of thieves and masturbators (Mark 9:43). They’re partly New Testament too.
(doesn’t understand metaphors)
(doesn’t understand sarcasm, or apparently anything else I’ve written thus far)
Smirks, you usually try to argue intelligently but your biblical reference shows that your not even trying here. Mark 9:43 is an admonition to a believer to cut off his own hand if it causes the believer to sin, not a criminal sentence for monkey spanking.
That one was mostly meant as a joke. My main argument is that modern Muslim theocracies act very much like people did in the Old Testament. People did what they did in the OT under the belief that God wanted them to do it. In modern times we see this as barbaric, if done in modern times, but most Christians look back on the OT as “Oh, well, things were just different back then.”
No, Christians don’t just say “…things were different back then…” they realize that the God who spoke the world in to existence had a reason for all that happened even if we don’t understand it. We also understand that Jesus’ sacrifice changed the rules for all time. Muslim’s current doctrine (written about 650 CE) doesn’t have a “second chapter” .
they realize that the God who spoke the world in to existence had a reason for all that happened even if we don’t understand it.
You’re basically saying “God works in mysterious ways.”
Either way, the OT is chock full of God talking to people, God sending angels to do stuff, God destroying cities (or that one time he flooded the whole friggin’ place), God sending plagues to the Egyptians, God directly punishing or killing people for doing something he doesn’t like. It’s chock full of strange rules about not boiling a baby goat in its mother’s milk (Exodus 23:19), cooking bread with human feces (Ezekiel 4:12), how you can make animals have striped/speckled offspring by having them mate in front of branches, because genetics don’t real (Genesis 30:37-39), and what to do if a woman stops her husband by grabbing his dick. (Deuteronomy 25:11-12).
The whole story of Noah doesn’t make sense. Two of EVERY animal? How does he get the animals back to their respective areas? What about inbreeding? Wouldn’t most plant life die after being submerged in water for days? If rainbows occur naturally, wouldn’t God have to fundamentally change the laws of nature to make them suddenly happen? Reading scientific breakdowns of what Kent Hovind or Ken Ham believe and how incredibly dumb their theories sound makes it really seem that anyone trying to answer these questions is really just grasping at straws.
You’re right, that’s pretty far beyond my understanding, or for that matter, anyone’s. Reason would dictate that people millennia before us were a primitive, naive, superstitious lot who would believe some crazy shit from the village elders, and most likely it got even crazier as ancestors passed it along to their descendents, almost like one very long game of telephone.
I’ll close with this: If you really believe that God spent days eradicating nearly all of civilization with a flood that required, according to Christian logic, the suspension of multiple rules of natural law, but can’t be bothered to, oh, I don’t know, snap his fingers and make cancer no longer exist, and this is okay “because mysterious ways,” then I don’t find your belief system envious in the slightest bit.
You need to re-read the story of Noah, contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t “two of every kind of anima”l.
What kind of a god would God be if you understood everything he did?
There are plenty of people who do believe that every word of the Bible is to be taken literally, …..well, except the things that apply to them.
there is always someone like Gay Boy above who sinks to this level..always has to be “that guy”
The problem for those who “commit atrocities in Jesus’ name” is that those “Christians” are violating the very doctrine and words that Jesus spoke. The other 2,099,999,975 of us generally avoid things like crusades, suicide vests and raping preteen girls in “God’s name”
No True Scotsman.
Irish, not a Scotsman.
(quotes text written thousands of years before Jesus was born regarding acts committed by Jews as evidence of Christian atrocities)
We can spring forward to the “Holy Crusades” quickly before Smirks does. The problem with his argument is that no where in the New Testament does any off that stuff appear as doctrine. The perversion of religion is well established.
The Crusades were an attempt to free Jerusalem from an unprovoked Muslim attack and conquest. The Christians in Syria Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon were being murdered/forcibly converted/forced to pay a tax to be a Christian after the Islamic conquest. People seem to forget that part. Smirks and his ilk defend Native American attacks on white settlers in North America as the Native Americans merely defending their land/territory since they were there first. When a group of Christians attempt to free their fellow Christian brethren from a horrific Muslim conquest, they’re bad, because, well, they’re white christians.
Eh, the crusades were about a lot more than freeing Jerusalem but I’ll let that slip to quickly move the argument along. Next, we’ll talk about the inquisition – which you won’t find in that second part of the story either.
The Crusades were initially started when the Christian Byzantine Empire asked for help from the Pope/Catholic Church to free Jerusalem from Muslim hands after it had been conquered. The first Crusade, and several after, were primarily motivated by an intention to free Jerusalem from Muslim hands. Even subsequent Crusades had the intention of liberating areas with Christian populations from Muslim rule. Things routinely got off track because of culture clashes between the Eastern leaning Byzantines and the Western Catholics.
The Fourth Crusade resulted in the Western Catholics looting Constantinople, which resulted in the leaders of the Crusade being excommunicated for harming fellow Christians.
And let’s discuss the inquisition. 3,000 to 5,000 people were killed over 140 years. A terrible misguided part of Christian history, but this is an example of fallible people perverting scripture to further their own means. That pales in comparison to the number of Christians killed during the Muslim conquest of Egypt alone- and those muslim conquerors were not perverting the Koran, but following it to the letter.
The perversion of religion is well established.
Indeed, this ‘Bring your Bible to school’ idea is yet another example.
Why does anyone need a proclamation to bring their Bible to school. Oh wait, I forgot there is an election in less than 3 weeks.
(ignores the fact that people still read and take lessons from the Old Testament)
Yeah, but as I’ve tried to point out, the 2,099,999,975 of us who are sane and actually believe understand that “eye for an eye” has been rescinded and “love one another as I have loved you” has replaced it.
Again, No True Scotsman.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman
Also, again, Christianity has undergone massive amounts of influence over the years to the point where a lot of doctrine is outright ignored or not practiced much in order to make it more modernized. I mean, for fuck’s sake, we used to kill people for being witches in this country. Now we just call them crazy Wiccan nutjobs.
It amazes me that Christians point to the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Queda, ISIS, Hezbollah, or historic actions of Muslims, as “typical Muslims” and then exclaim with great frustration when someone calls Westboro Baptist Church, Pat Robertson, Jeremiah Wright, or historic actions of Christians “typical Christians.” It either works that way or it doesn’t work that way.
Christianity is ultimately an example of what secularism does to a religion, whereas Islam is an example of what fundamentalism does to a religion. There was a time when the Middle East actually contributed to the advancement of civilization. Now all it contributes to civilization is largely sucking fossil fuels out of the ground and religious nuts breeding higher numbers of extremist groups.
I would kind of like it if we didn’t go down the path of fundamentalism, theocratic rule, and ever-stricter interpretations of religious texts so that we don’t fall down the same pitfall, because Europe and the US are largely the frontrunners of scientific advancement and would be crippled by religious fanaticism.
“live one another as I have loved you”
I’ll keep this in mind the next time a Christian says we should treat someone as a second class citizen because their religion says so.
It amazes me that Christians point to the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Queda, ISIS, Hezbollah, or historic actions of Muslims, as “typical Muslims” and then exclaim with great frustration when someone calls Westboro Baptist Church, Pat Robertson, Jeremiah Wright, or historic actions of Christians “typical Christians.”
Get back to me when Pat Robertson et al. start kidnapping people and sawing off heads.
(thinks because people read and take lessons from the Constitution, they believe a black person is 3/5 of a white person)
I was about to say people don’t look at the Constitution as a religious text, but I forgot the Tea Party exists.
Still:
“I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”
-Thomas Jefferson.
seems like our own little Emily is changing her posting name again..
Let’s not forget the larger world of ethics and morality that people don’t seem to tap into.
Christianity as does Judaism has many, many elements of moral thinking. i.e. doing the right thing, treating others as you would be treated, admitting a mistake, telling a friend you are sorry, not stealing, not hurting others.
You do not need religion to be a good or moral person. You just have to have a set of moral values that you use every day. The 10 Commandments are simply rules for good, honest living. They prevent conflict and order a person’s life. There is nothing religious about the 10 Commandments. You do nave to be religious to be a decent person because we have seen that being a religious person is no guarantee of being a decent person.
Being religious has nothing to do with professing a relationship with Jesus Christ and being a Christian.
Obama professes to be a religious man however you will never hear the name Jesus Christ off of his lips. You are more likely to hear Allah or Muhammed and his love of Islam.
That is okay except Obama dosen’t practice any of the elements of moral thinking you discussed.
Good post.
Just because he is black, does not make him a muslim. Get a brain shithead.
Why not? They think him being black automatically makes him a Kenyan, even though his long form birth certificate is available.
You made that “inference” ya lying POS.
Following your logic moron, just because he is the pResident he has the best interests of this country in his heart.
WE know that is not true. Even a fucking moron like you doesn’t believe that.
The only people that don’t believe he has the best interest of the country at heart for the right wing nuts trapped in the Rupert Murdock echo chamber
correction—-you do NOT have to be religious………..
Might ought to have a “bring your Bible to work day” in Houston, while they’re at it, they probably could use a copy of the U.S. Constitution. http://www.chron.com/news/politics/houston/article/City-subpoenas-pastors-sermons-in-equal-rights-5822403.php
have you noticed the headlines about nurses in Dallas getting Ebola? that’s right. it is US government policy to infect nurses with Ebola and i think this is wrong. We at the Institute for Secure Infectious Safety (ISIS) appreciate your support on National ‘Don’t Ebola Me Bro’ Day. Go to school and don’t get Ebola today. (donations are tax deductible and we don’t pay any either)
Obama wants Americans to get Ebola. It is another way to punish America for what he believes are our past sins.
Most parents are not cognitively or emotionally equipped to handle schooling of their offspring.
While it is good to have input from different sources, will this not create chaos in the long run? How will we know whether a kid has achieved a milestone? As a bright brat, I was allowed to take advanced courses. I think bright kids can have less structure because they are self-motivated. Less bright kids need more structure.
I think Bibles etc are OK in school as long as there is no discrimination. And if the kid is an athesist, there really, really should be no discrimination. Can you guarantee this ?
Several students bringing bibles to school obviously means that athiests will receive F’s on their next chemistry test.
I think all we need to do is compare the success of Connecticut’s education system to South Carolinas. The results speak for themselves.
In as much as the Bible and the Torah pervade the idioms of western literature and actions of western civilization, at least until Atheism and Humanism rise up (in the case of history) digging to primary sources, an accepted scholarly practice, ought to be accepted, IF our children’s learning IS a REAL PURPOSE of our educational system.
.
OTOH, if indoctrination to the village (of idiots) is US Dept. of Ed’s choice, then expect bans by the spineless.
I support the Palmetto Family Council in this. They are about the only sane ones left.