No one is trying to rip your religion from you and no one can stop you from praying or believing what you wish, but when you offend others, then it becomes a problem.

wHY ARE PEOPLE BEING SO BLIND TO THE FACT THAT NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO WE ARE GONNA BELIEVE IN GOD AND SHOW IT AT SCHOOL?

Why do we have the speration of church and state? It is to keep our state free from corruption of the church, not to keep church free from the corruption of the state. Public schools are part of the state. Thus there should be no type of religion in public schools.

Devoted/Lauren:
U worded that nicely, and u did a better job than I did in the past. Amen 2 u.

I am a devoted Christian, but I am strongly against forcing my beliefs on people. God wants us to have the choice. He doesn't force us to believe in Him.

However, I do believe you should be able to freely discuss your beliefs in schools. As a Christian, I love to talk about my faith with others. For those of you who are not Christians, I know sometimes we get a little zealous, but it's just because we care. We know the truth and we want you to consider it.

If anyone ever wants to talk to me about Jesus or any other questions you have about Christianity, you can e-mail me at theunderground87@aol.com or you can IM me. I would love to talk to you.

-Lauren

Reiligion, in all forms must be diveded from the satate. This means there should be nothing affiliated with religion in schools. We must keep our public schools free from the corruption of religion.

First, no one is deprived of his/her right to pray in school. Anyone can freely pray during and after school at his/her leisure, so long as it is not disruptive to the rest of the students. Students are regularly permitted to form religious groups in their schools without repercussions, as these groups meet before and after school.

Madalyn Murray-O'Hair fought to remove forced prayer from public schools, and nothing more.

There is legislation currently being debated and voted upon in Congress which would allow large groups of students to impose their religion upon all other students. This legislation sets aside time for them during school activities, and deprives all those who do not adhere to the majority view from participating in said activities for whatever amount of time this "student-led prayer" lasts. To anyone knowledgeable of the Constitution and the founding fathers, this is clearly illegal.

"In God We Trust," as was initially explained in the article, has its roots in the mid-19th century, however its officiality tends to have a foothold in the McArthy Era, when "Atheist" was widely seen as a synonym for "Communist." The phrase is neither based upon secular notions nor is it a phrase of unity.

Article 11 of the U.S. Treaty of Tripoli of 1797 begins, "As the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion..." This is and was an official treaty of the USA and, thusly, should provide evidence that this nation is NOT a Christian nation.

For those who believe that prior to the removal of forced prayer from public schools that times were better, let's have a look at what times were like before 1963. Segregation was alive and well. The McArthy Era, wrought with deep fear, had made its impact. How about further back? Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, in one of the worst terrorist attacks in history. Further? Slavery was abundant in the 1800's; are we to say that a world of slavery was infinitely better than that of today?

Religion is a personal choice, not meant to be a federally-imposed idea. All religious morals should be taught by parents, as it is their duty as parents to guide their children in whatever way they see fit, however right or wrong many of us may see their personal choices to be. Morality and religion are not mutually-inclusive, however, and schools can easily teach right from wrong. This is in the form of law, philosophy, psychology, sociology, world history (remembering the wrongs of the past can hardly be discounted), etc.

We all know the negative impact a unilaterally forced idea of religion has had on civilizations in the past. Ever heard of the Inquisition? A trust in God has never been proven to work on the scale many of you claim it will work. How about we trust in people, the true founders of this nation? How about we work for real solutions, not grasp for straws in a pile of sand.

To nsyncgirl: your reference to someone trying to get religion programming off the air. That is a fabrication undoubtedly created in order to add to the disorderly opposition to the separation of church and state. You are likely referring to the FCC petition RM2493, which had nothing to do with Madalyn O'Hair:

[From :]http://www.atheists.org/visitors.center/rm2493-resp.html]:

"In 1974 two small radio operators, Jeremy D. Lansman and Lorenzo W. Milam, filed a "Petition for Rulemaking" with the FCC "In the Matter of (1) Revision of Rules Permitting Multiple Ownership of Non-commercial Educational Radio and Television Stations in Single Markets; and (2) Request for "Freeze" on all Applications by Government Owned and Controlled Groups for Reserved Educational FM and TV Channels; and (3) Request for "Freeze" on all Applications by Religious 'Bible,' 'Christian,' and other Sectarian Schools, Colleges, and Institutes for Reserved Educational FM and TV Channels." The Petition was mailed to the FCC on Dec. 1, 1974, received by it on Dec. 5, and clocked into the Rules and Standards Division on Dec. 6, 1974. It was given the file number R.M.-2493.

According to the petition, these two gentlemen were merely seeking a more balanced procedure for securing broadcast licenses. Part of the petition had nothing to do with "banning" religious programming, but merely to limit the special considerations and privileges given to religious broadcasting over secular, nonreligious broadcast outlets when considering such licenses."

The FCC rejected the proposal. If you don't believe an article by an atheist, go to http://www.fcc.gov and search for information; you'll find an official statement that corroborates the aforementioned.

I noticed your board read jesus in school not religions in school.

ok as some of you know i am very against religion mixing with school. now im all about people doing as they wish, and being free, but im also about everyone feeling as though the belong, and by mixing religion and school, you almost close the circle for so many people to feel like they belong. my friends and i dont discuss religion just becuase we are so diverse with our religions, and we are going to like each other no matter what religion each of us are. just one more thing....take it as you wish.... dont pray in my school, and i wont think in your church.

The issue is not your praying privately it is have school wide prayer times or religion classes that do not represent all religions and there for are biased

If I am praying quitly to myself, what is the big deal; I am not preaching! I have the right to practice my religion just as much as my friend who thinks (according to her religion) that eating meat is wrong. She doesn't eat school hamburgers or anything: is that her preaching her religion? I am not corrupting anyone; I may try to share Jesus with them but most of the time I pray to myself.

To nsyncgirl and others, I admire you guys's enthusiasm and desire to worship God. This is something we as believers are called to do. There comes a time and place, however, where we must worship God privately in our own hearts. You're very right, there is a lot of injustice in the world, but oftentimes becoming too involved in the wrongs of the world can detract us from our own faith and loving others regardless of how they may treat us unfairly.

Religion and belief is relative. Evryone had their own beliefs and tolerances. If their not tolerant of your beliefs then so be it. There's nothing you can do except turn to your own god for guidance and support. You shouldn't concern yourself with minor things like this just your walk with God if you hear what i'm sayin, if not then its cool.

I am assuming that your school is not much different than mine: public. I can gaurntee you that when you learn about the other religions, besides Christianity, your teachers and text books are not preaching you their beliefs. Does this mean they should learn about Christianity? No. Why? Because Christianity hasn't made that big an impact as religions that have been around much longer. I am currently taking European history and we learned about Lutherans. We learned about Luthereans because they broke away from the Catholic church, not because of their beliefs. Since most of the US is Christian anyone who taght it to a class would have a bias towrd it and that is a horrible things.

And as to the fact that you would pray at school. Should this be allowed by administrators and tollerated by piers? No. It should not be tollerated in school because when yu publicy pray you are, in a way, preaching your religion. And religion should have no corruption on our learning.

Hey! I am loving some of my replies. I haven't been on here in a long time, so Tommy how can u tell me to shut up when I haven't been replying in months? Whatever. For those who support me, thanks, it means a bunch! It is inspiring! I have recently been taking discipleship training classes, and my witnessing techniques are much better.
Peace out,
N Syncgirl

THere is no rule that you cannot discuss on your own time religion and such, but you cannnot force someone else about religion. WHen learning about other cultures you learn about their religion(s). The teacher doent give a preference (or shouldn't).
And comparing a muhammad (I can not spell it either) is a living preist like person I think so its dif than jesus and is in the current news. It good to here about the groups involved in the contraversy so we do not hate muslims just because other people attacked america. Teaching current news is dif. than teaching religion.
Christianity is strayed from in some classroom settings because Christianity is the 2nd largest religion and america is mostly christian too. They dont want to look like they are spending too much time on something that people could say 'you are teaching it becasue you are one'.
I think that is good teach about other cultures for understanding. WE know our culture already. I dont want our society to turn into the situation that is/was in Afghanistan. There were only religious schools and they tought their view ("fundementalist" veiw) of the religion and trained people to be suicide bombers. You might say were are a long way off from that. but everything starts somewhere and religious freedom is the reason for our coming to this country (minus native americans).
I think that in a perfect setting you should be able to take a religion clas that teaches the UNBIASED history and practice of all religions (well ALL religions would be hard to do without a progressive class) I also think that peple should all be albe to have their own prayer groups but not just christian groups. I htink that this would promote understandin adn some of the underlying hatred developed through centuries would fade away.
I just dont want to be told im going to hell for not being a good enough Christian (or not being one). (people have told me that before. I do not think that my community could handle having all religions treated with respect. our principle told my friend she couldnt wear her wichan necklace becasue it worshiped the devil. #1 he lets people wear crosses so it is a doulbe standard. #2 its not worshiping hte devil. #3 if the wants to worship the devil she has the right too!
so those are my views.

I dont think that its anything to laugh at someone if they pray in school. I love Jesus with all of my heart, soul, and mind. If that means going through some hard times only to have it all worth while when I get to Heaven....then so be it!!!!!!!

I know where you're coming from JesusFreak3. That does seem to be the way Christianity is portrayed. In the background of all other religions.

By the way , I have seen Left Behind and it is a great movie. I've seen other's similar to it too. Maybe you have heard of it , but if you haven't there are 3 other really good films on the Rapture . Revelation is one of them. Sorry....can't think of the others. I know one of them has Gary Busey , and has a sequel connected with it. I also happen to know that one of these films is going to be released sometime in the theatres. Peace!

I agree with what you say. In my school we spent maybe a week on Christianity but I dont believe Jesus was discussed in full like Muhammad (sorry for incorrect spelling). Why is that? Jesus is as important as Muhammad. We spent alot of time on religions, especially budhism. We watched a two week movie on Budhism. But never did we see a movie on Christianity, such as Left Behind which portrays Christian life in end times. I believe every religion should be discussed and you can pick your own. I am a solid christian which feels that Christianity is the only true religion but you can chose your own. If you want to discuss religions or cults with me, please message me. I love talking bout this type of stuff.

Some of you have posted replies to me, & I've seen you in other posts. And here's what I ahve to say.
Enjorlas, tommy HOW DARE YOU BE SUCH JERKS TO nsyncgirl? SHE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG.
Second, enjorlas, God's a HE.
3r, theBIBLE gived proof of what God hates.
EVERYONE has to face God in the end, tommy. And for the usaved, it will be terrible.
Nsyncgirl, don't listen to all the peeps that are being rude. Keep on believing & express yourself freely.
THESE BOARDS ARE FOR RAVING. FREEDOM OF SPEECH. IF YOU DON'T LIEK WHAT PEEPS WRITE, DON'T READ IT. DUH.