Bibles in Cumberland County

Hey, for fear of being labeled a Sexual predator, I haven't peed on a table leg in years! :mrgreen:

 

So, how would cult be defined for practical purposes? Not from a Christian standpoint, but from a legal standpoint? We can't even do it in this thread! I hardly consider Scientologists or Mormons cultists. I actually find it kind of insulting that those are the "cults" that came to mind for some.

Jester, you want to tell people all about your religion, but you don't want to hear about theirs. You are perfectly happy having the bible available at school, but noooo - keep that Book of Mormon away? We are discussing having the materials available for young enquiring minds, nobody said your kid has to complete a mission, marry his HS sweetheart, and tote 6 kids in the back of his Suburban... GOSH that DOES sound like a horrible cult!! lol

Seriously tho - we are not talking about indoctrinating, just having the books there *if* they want to take one and read it, flip through it, whatever. It could be a bible, a book of mormon, L Ron Hubbards latest novel <wink>, The Watchtower, Koran, Kaballah, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Wiccan literature, whatever. Not, say, a pamphlet from C3. Just general relgious literature.

 

No, we are becoming a more tolerant society.

 

It's "Merry Christmas". It's always been "Merry Christmas". No one should be offended by it. No one ever was until a few years ago or so. This "tolerance" issue is about as over rated as "political correctness". If I have to tolerate things I don't particularly believe or like, than "Merry Christmas" should be tolerated WITHOUT the big STINK about it. A friend of mine said he was going to to go in all the places taht don't use the words "Merry Christmas" and wish every person in the place "Merry Christmas".

In the words used by my fellow comrades in the USMC, "What are they gonna do? Shave our heads and send us to Okinawa?"

You wanna believe what you want, go ahead. Whose stoppin ya? But quit whinin about what has always been a tradition.

 

Court ends Bible distribution in school


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080109...r_kids_suit;_ylt=ApzW2Gd3echrLPCYtefIfjdH2ocA


St Louis, Elementary-aged students

 

That's unconstitutional! The court has effectively prevented US citizens from the free excersise of religion, something specifically forbidden in the First Amendment...

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

 

I don't believe so. When reading the article they "were passing out the books". Passing out and having access to them in the library are two different things unless it is being taught in the class or used as a reference. Being taught in a class could mean either Religious or Non.

Grace

 

How is that? Is not the judge's ruling preventing the Gideons from the free excersise of their religion?

 

I would say that the judge's ruling is confirming my rights to not have to be confronted with the Gideon's religious exercise.

If a person's desire is that his children not be confronted with a differing perspective on religion, and the child is confronted with it at school, where did the Gideon's right supercede the other's rights?

 

Where did your rights supercede's the rights of the Gideons?

 

Yes, these are Elementary Aged Students not High Schoolers.

 

The two paragraphs below are from the link provided by Cleopatra:

ST. LOUIS - A rural school district's long-standing practice of allowing the distribution of Bibles to grade school students is unconstitutional, a federal judge has ruled.

For more than three decades, the South Iron School District in Annapolis, 120 miles southwest of St. Louis in the heart of the Bible Belt, allowed representatives of Gideons International to give away Bibles in fifth-grade classrooms.

As can be seen above they were distributed and the school administrators allowed Gideon’s Internal to give them away in fifth grade. Big distinction between the Gideon’s passing them out and the free exercise of religion.

See below:


http://www.adl.org/PresRele/CvlRt_32/2430_32.asp


Q. May public schools allow outsiders to distribute religious materials on school grounds? A. No. Public schools may not allow outsiders to distribute religious material, including Bibles, to students on school premises.


Q. Do outsiders have an unlimited right to distribute religious materials on public property near a public school? A. No. While outsiders may distribute religious material to students on public property off school premises, school officials have the right to implement reasonable restrictions. These restrictions must be content-neutral and not treat outsiders distributing religious material differently from outsiders distributing other types of material.


http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/tools/studentrights.asp


It is important to note, however, that public school teachers may use the Bible in instructional ways—as literature, history, comparative religions, or ethics—in the classroom. This was the holding of Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39 (1980). For this reason efforts to ban the Bible and religious books from public school libraries failed. It is only formal, structured prayer and formal, structured devotional use of the Bible in public schools that are forbidden under the First Amendment as an establishment of religion.


Grace

 

Please see my last Post.

Grace

 

That is great Hat. But moving away from the physical piece that is the bible. We should also have the right to challenge the teaching of Evolution.

 

Sorry but I don't see the distiction. In Christianity (and especially for the Gideons), one of the tenets (the practice of the religion) is to make known to others the contents of the Bible. The distribution of the Bible is the practice of the religion of the Gideons. The school, in allowing the Gideons to distribute the Bibles, were following the First Amendment. The judge, in ruling that the school cannot allow the Gideons to distribute the Bibles, are, in effect,. forcing the school to violate the First Amendment.

Please explain how these FAQs supercede (word of the day) the Constitution.

 

They summarize the Supreme Court rulings for those not wanting to read the whole ruling.

Grace

 

Then the Supreme Court has violated the Constitution. It wouldn't be the first time.

 

Sometimes they interpret the Constitution differently than individuals would like for them too.

Grace

 

Yes, I agree that evolution is a theory, not a proven idea. That said, it has stood up, in my mind, to rigorous examination using a scientific method. If an alternative is willing to undergo the same scrutiny, I'm all for alternative explanations.

BTW, I'll admit to having unassailable doubts, scientifically, with the Great Spaghetti theory..

 

And sometimes they interpret it in spite of plain English (the faily recent ruling about Imminent Domain comes to mind).