Judge Halts Bible Giveaway at Missouri School.
When I was a freshman in college, the Gideons gave away Bibles on the campus of Miami University. Because I wasn't a Christian and didn't bring a Bible to college, I began to read the little Bible that the Gideons gave me. I was appreciative for it. I'm sure it played some role in my conversion, so I'm probably bias.
I see nothing wrong with a community wanting Bibles to be handed out to their fifth graders. I think it is about time that we start to empower communities to make decisions on how they want to educate their children and what they want to educate their children on. There can be general standards that the government expects to be covered, but there should be liberty for the community to decide other subjects they want their children to learn. However, we are continuing to go the wrong way when it comes to education. The federal government is now involved in local education.
If you live in a Muslim community, you should expect the public school to have a Muslim slant. Same for Christian, Mormon, etc. However, we live in a society where every school is expected to have an atheistic slant. True tolerance isn't what our society exemplifies. Our society holds up a standard of individualization and intolerance. You can believe whatever you want as long as it stays in your house of worship or home. If it comes out of those designated places, it will not be tolerated. However, true tolerance would allow whatever religious belief to be expressed in the public arena. We need to be careful to adhere to what the founding fathers intended (not because the founding fathers said it but because it is a good principle) and not have the public arena force people to be of any particular religious persuasion. Exposure isn't forcing.
It doesn't violate anyone's rights to have free Bibles handed out. People should have the option to refuse them. I just wonder what kind of person sues a school because the Gideons tried to hand them a free Bible. Baffling. You can offer my kid a free Koran or Book of Mormon, I won't mind. We would probably read through it together. Well, if he was in fifth grade, we would.
Watch out for the potholes.
