From: "Robert G Lewis" 


"Ellen K."  wrote in message
news:c57ej1t9ic14qubrqsersodjr7afnmb4jj{at}4ax.com...
> "Jingle Bells", fake snow in places like SoCal, shop-till-you-drop and
> probably even decorated trees are non-religious.  "Oh come let us adore
> him, Christ the Lord", and "Born is the king of Israel"
are religious.
> Anybody without an agenda can see the difference.

I would hope so  .

>
> I agree that public schools should not be mandating any religion, that
> has been my point.  Probably today this doesn't happen any more anyway,
> my experience was from some 50 years ago.  I think it would be OK as
> part of the current emphasis on multi-culturalism to include curriculum
> units on holidays celebrated by different religions if this could be
> done without promoting any particular one, because it would contribute
> to increased tolerance.

I'm not as certain that certain groups are not trying to infuse their brand
of Christianity in to the schools but this is the deep south . I
definitely suspect their motives here. I've always  considered an academic
discussion of religion to be good for the school system and people in
general. Too bad so many of us fail to try and understand other viewpoints
( and some of us go overboard trying to understand those viewpoints
).

>
> I also think it would be OK for tax dollars to be used by religious
> schools for non-religious purposes, for example to meet laws requiring
> mainstreaming of handicapped children.  I guess the folks opposed to
> this see it as a slippery slope.
>

I am very concerned about the 'slippery slope'  and where the line should
be drawn ( or even IF it can be drawn). Would a private school be required
to mainstream handicapped children ? Not that that's relevant to your
argument about using the money for non religious purposes. I'm afraid that
if we start using 'public' money for 'private' schools then we could wind
up with a whole new set of educational rules and a bureaucracy to enforce
them. Personally I'd like to see the public schools fixed.

Bob Lewis

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5