Huh, good point. They can put up the 10 commandments, but they have to be in the original Hebrew.
You know, I started school in the mid sixties. I lived (still live) in a very small, conservative, town, where the ruling family were holy rolling Baptists. This family stopped us from getting a movie theater because no one would build one without promising to only show G rated movies. They owned the only grocery store and at that time did not sell alcohol.
Even here there were no 10 commandments in our schools. I fail to see how they are going “Bring Back” something, that at least in my admittedly anecdotal experience, was never there.
Right, and those kids whose parents refuse to sign won’t be singled out, mocked or ostracized at all.
Mooslims. Case closed.
I’m one of those guys that likes to play with electricity and fire while standing knee deep in a pool of salt water and gasoline… if I had kids I’d sign the form just so I could send them to school with different religious texts and beliefs everyday few days… you know send them to school once with a hair shirt and a discipline let them do proper Catholic Penance 
Your kids wouldn’t survive a semester. Or they’d grow up to be standup comics.
When I first read @Nightaudit’s comment I was afraid that they were saying that this made it ok but, after reading the rest I don’t think that was their point.
But I certainly agree with you. Like @Sylvanz, I started school in the mid '60s and we prayed in school. I can still remember the teacher saying that if the student or their parents didn’t want them to pray, they didn’t have to. At five years old, I didn’t have a real opinion on Christianity. I kind of assumed it was true because everyone said it was but it wasn’t something I ever thought about.
But I certainly didn’t think the teacher’s reassurances actually meant that it would be ok to refuse. Even then I knew what would happen.
I thought it was odd that the text stated that the parents/ guardians of the student need to sign a permission letter before their children can pray/ read religious texts… when I get home I pull up the text on a big screen and read it again… maybe I missed something. You would have thought that they would have made it so you had to opt out… but you are right about the other thing… creating an environment where kids that don’t pray are singled out.
Yes, we prayed for our milk and snacks. I even remember the prayer. I’ve noticed, though that religion seemed more pronounced when my kids were in school. There were prayers and borderline sermons at supposed sports meetings, and the whole high/middle school marched to the firehouse for prayers and sermons after 9/11. There was more. It just wasn’t stuff I was exposed to when I was in school.
Undoubtedly, its very easy t write laws that don’t specifically favor any religion but instead rely on the cultural dominance of Christianity in our society to do the work for them. The 10 commandments law for example isn’t promoting Chistianity its promoting “American Heritage”. They are totally open to putting up any verse from the Koran that are part of our traditional American Heritage, but as luck would have it there just don’t happen to be any. Another example is the football prayer at center field. The Supreme Court decision would also support a Muslim coach who took the center of the field and had the entire team and hundreds of audience members bowing to Allah, but there is no way that that could actually happen given US demographics.
Or be taken in by CPS.
If you’re going to play, play. Send them to school with a goat to sacrifice. Put peyote in their lunchboxes. Give them snakes to handle for show-and-tell.
Funniest thing I’ve read in a long while! I’ll be subscribing to your news letter.
Someone get the Satanic Temple on the line, stat!
I can’t wait to see who’s version of the Big Ten they insist is the correct one!
Catholics and Lutherans generally prefer the 10 Commandments as set out by Augustine and the Eastern Churches and Protestants follow the 10 Commandments as set out by Origen.
All these “Let’s play cutesy with the new laws and drive them up the wall!” proposals usually don’t work out in real life. What usually happens when this is tried is a combination of selective enforcement and public harassment.
Of course. But it’s still funny to think about, and this is the Pit, after all.
I’ve done my small part to keep secular spaces secular. Years ago, an evangelical co-worker started holding Bible studies in a jury deliberation room at lunchtime. I went to my supervisor and asked when I could start holding my atheist study groups in the jury deliberation rooms. The Bible study cohort was moved out of the courthouse. Mission accomplished.
And I’d have definitely thought about bringing my pet snake to school for faux religious show-and-tell… if I’d had him when I was still in school!
What do the kids do that aren’t praying. (besides getting the evil eye from their teacher and praying classmates)
I always just find something of interest to look at while the praying is going on. I never pretend to go along.
My formative schooling years were in Salt Lake City. So regular public praying did occur. I always thought it was amusing to catch the prayers who were peeking to see who wasn’t praying.
In my school we had the option of standing up in front of everybody, explaining why we aren’t participating and leaving the room. I went to school in Northern Idaho and no one one ever did that, for obvious reasons.
My school also had religious student assemblies disguised as singing groups, trick basketball shows, puppet shows, magic shows etc. which usually consisted of 20% second rate shows and 80% preaching.