Great Britain does have good things that I admire very much, but their entire approach to religion from about the Reformation onwards is not one of them. Many groups left there and came to USA precisely so they could practice their religion the way they wanted, and not the way the British government wanted.Just as an FYI, many atheists are in favor of a secular religious education as the Brits do it. It makes more atheists.
Another difference between the U.S. and the U.K. in regards to religion that shouldn’t be overlooked is that the United Kingdom is officially a Christian country, where Christianity (in the form of the Anglican Church) is the country’s — including the government’s — official religion, while United States is officially a secular country with no officially government-sponsored religion.Lots of great posts here! Perhaps it’s not surprising that people who frequent a religious website know roughly twice as much as the average American does about religion.
@Tis_Bearself, that’s very informative and an interesting analysis. It’s interesting that two countries that have a lot in common should be so culturally different on this issue.
In addition to that, even when they don’t avoid it, a public school in US that brings up a certain religion is prone to bad publicity, protests, or even a lawsuit if they say anything about a particular religion that is incorrect or perceived as denigrating to that religion. We have also had cases where a kid was given an assignment to write an assignment about another religion, or answer a test question about another religion, and parents objected and it went viral, especially if the other religion was non-Christian. For example, a calligraphy assignment was given where students had to write out some verses of the Islamic Q’uran and parents objected to their kids having to do that because to them it was like praying Muslim prayers.Hence, government (public) schools in the United States tend to avoid anything that has a religious context, lest someone sues them for violating the separation between Church and State.
What does this class lessons consist of? Is it the Bible only? NT only? Or various other scriptures? Would you call it a comparative religion class or just a Christianity class? Could you also give a brief description to the reception of the class by the parents? Thanks!Our local public school system offers Intro to Scripture classes as electives.
No, you scored more than twice what the average person who took that same test on the internet scored.It asks 15 questions. I scored 15 out of 15. The questions are very basic! The thing that got me thinking was that after I’d completed the quiz it told me that I scored more than twice as highly as the average American
I am old enough to remember when the Lord’s Prayer was recited prior to the start of class in the am until the Supreme Court nixed that. I also remember that it caused problems IMHO. The few Jewish students we had were made to go stand in the hallway. The few Catholics were made to say the Protestant version of the prayer or we got our butts tanned with a paddle.Religion is a very hot-button topic in US public schools.
So it’s protestant in nature, then? For example, they use the King James, NIV, or some other non-Catholic translation, correct? No linkage of the Bible to the Sacraments & the Catholic Church, correct?Intro to the Hebrew Bible/OT: Course is a survey of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament with an emphasis on the history of the Nation of Israel, including some prophetic literature. Without indoctrination or bias for/against any religious groups, this course studies the contents of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament as it relates to history, geography, literature, culture, art, and ethics.
Intro to the NT: Without indoctrination or bias for/against any religious groups or denominations, this course studies the contents of the New Testament is it relates to history, geography, literature, culture, art, and ethics. Students survey the New Testament with an emphasis on the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth and the development of the early Christian Church.
I think the real issue is that SOME schools are removing the moment of silence and actively dismissing religion, contradicting religion, and/or undermining religion.This is why religion doesn’t belong in public K-12 schools. I don’t know why people struggle with this concept the way so many do.
In USA, it’s primarily Protestant fundamentalists who “struggle with the concept” because Catholics have such a long history of having their religious practice vilified by public school teachers, they simply started their own system of schools and don’t expect much of anything from the public schools.This is why religion doesn’t belong in public K-12 schools. I don’t know why people struggle with this concept the way so many do.
I agree in part. However, two points:Schools should teach facts and reasoning and critical thinking skills. They don’t need to get into all the rest.
Of course there are facts in life that religious people don’t want taught in public K-12 schools. Those things can be negotiated, to an extent, I suppose. But not on the basis of religion. That will fail.
For those who want their children’s schooling to be reflective of and in alignment with their particular religious beliefs, then they should send them to a religious school that does that.
Exactly. I read about a teacher who made it a class rule that it was only acceptable to say “gesundheit” after someone sneezed and that saying “God bless you” was against class rules.or when getting rid of religion is taken too far,