My column runs every Wednesday in the local section and on Thursdays and Fridays in the local South Orange County papers. Let me know what you think of my column this week and post comments (you can leave your name or post anonymously). Mention the topic.
2 comments:
Carol
I appreciated your answer to the question of students, especially elementary students, and their right to prayer and discussing God at school. I believe they are protected both under the freedom of speech of the First Amendment and a section of the No Child Left Behind Act. (section 9524) See Link below. I enjoy your column and read it regularly.
Judy Turpen
OC Register Subscriber
http://www.ed.gov/searchResults.jhtml
Ms. Veravanich—
I’m objecting to your response about god-talk as discussed in the Sun Post News on November 9th.
You must be religious, and that seems to have impacted your response. Talk about religion is nothing like talking about football; that was a very anti-intellectual analogy. Talk about religion is often talk about gruesome topics. While this may be approved of in private schools, public schools should be religion-free as much as possible.
I attended a catholic religious service last week. The married deacon did the preaching. He talked about how his 4-year-old son was wondering if the dead rat he saw went to heaven. The deacon said he responded that he wasn’t sure of that part of god’s plan. The little boy said, according to his father, that he hoped the dead sparrow he’d seen didn’t go to hell. “I want to stay here with you, dad.” Four-year-olds should not have to be thinking about death and separation from parents and eternal suffering and “what might come hereafter.” Likewise first-graders. Then the deacon read what some might consider inspirational, a passage from the bible about how citizens were arrested and “tortured with whips and scourges” because they wouldn’t eat pork. “They cried out as they neared death” from the floggings, the reading went on. This was the face of religion as presented last week in the church where I grew up, and I think that reading was given in catholic churches world-wide.
People (like yourself, apparently) have become so accepting of religion they often ignore its bizarreness. When my daughter was in the 3rd grade, she was in an after-school program at a Methodist church. When they redecorated the church and replaced the crucifix, they took down the old one and stored it against a wall in the room where the kids played. This was an extremely realistic full-size sculpture of torture and bloody murder. I could see the kids sneaking fearful looks at it. That was a heart-breaking scene.
A friend teaches a class in religion on Sundays. He told me that he really enjoys directing the kids in the stations of the cross. The kids get dressed up as roman soldiers to flog, several times in this 20-minute play, the jesus character. Other kids dressed as soldiers do the nailing, the stabbing in the side, etc. Teaching 3rd and 4th grade kids to act out scenes of horror?! This, to me, is child abuse.
Don’t lose sight of the fact that many Americans and people across the globe see religious stories as fantasies, myths. Because so many religious stories are drenched in blood, and are made up, it makes them all the sicker.
You had too little information to reach the negative conclusion about the teacher. You either had added information from the mother that you didn’t share with your readers (that’s unprofessional journalism and/or academics that wouldn’t get you a D in a decent high school), or you added your own religious convictions (poor journalism and academics). Religion should be kept out of the schools and other government institutions as much as possible. The separation of church and state is one of the great triumphs of our American Constitution.
Who knows what that poor little first grade boy was saying to the other kids, what stories his impassioned and angry mother fed him. He’s the tragedy in your column, and you should have, and should now, address that.
Mike McLane
949) 466-2332 Cell
949) 492-2323 Home Office
fax 949-492-2323
33302 Marina Vista Dr.
Dana Point, CA 92629
McDot3@cox.net
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