Lawrence
Resident Mitch Harb has been fighting an uphill
battle to get the bible taught in public schools.
With the majority of the world believing in God
it only seems logical that we educate our
children with knowledge of religion. Moses,
Jesus, Mohammed, and Buddha were real historical
figures who shaped the world around them and
effected change throughout history on a much
larger scale than John Kennedy, Harry Truman, and
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Major wars have been fought over religion, and
still are today. Entire countries and millions of
cultures focus their society around religious
rituals and beliefs. Why are we not teaching
these very important history lessons to American
children? The answer comes to us from the
smallest number of people in the world who have
dominated this debate for the last fifty years.
They are atheists and those who mistakenly
believe that removing religious teachings from
public schools means respecting all religions.
Sanitizing our schools form the knowledge which
dictates the domestic behavior of every major
power in the world only leaves American kids less
equipped to be citizens in a global society.
We are doing a grave disservice to our children
and Mitch Harb is right, we ought to be teaching
religion, not just the bible, to all our children
so that they have a better understanding of world
events. How can we truly respect other cultures
and other religions if we do not know what they
represent? Most people in America today do not
even understand the basic beliefs of the Jewish
or Muslim religions which dominated the major
military conflicts in the world.
I laugh when I hear ignorant people at Christmas
time saying we shouldn’t have nativity
scenes on state property or Christmas plays in
public schools because we might offend Jews or
Muslims. Here’s a news flash for those of
you who do not pay attention, religious Jews and
Muslims are hardly be offended by a play about
Jesus or a nativity scene. They both believe in
Jesus as a profit of God. They just don’t
believe he was the son of God. Respecting
religion and other people’s cultures means
being exposed to them and understanding them. You
can not respect another culture or religion if
you don’t know anything about it.
The most fascinating part of the biography of
Malcolm X was the detailed account of the Muslim
religion. Should we not teach Malcolm X in
history class because the motivation behind his
actions were based on religious belief? And if we
teach Malcolm without teaching about the Muslim
faith aren’t we missing the point of his
legacy? True believers in Judaism, Muhammad,
Buddha, Jesus, etc. wouldn’t be offended by
other religions being celebrated at all, because
they all believe in tolerance.
Oh, no, there’s that word again. Tolerance.
It is so fascinating that we have gone from
freedom of religion and freedom of speech as a
basic cornerstone of our nation, to corrupting
that philosophy to be freedom from religion and
freedom from speech. Mitch Harb is on to
something here and it shouldn’t be
overlooked. More knowledge is always better than
less knowledge.
We are promoting atheism today by sanitizing our
history classes and purposely leaving out the
largest influence on world culture today,
religion. By refusing to teach religion I argue
that we are actually breaking the constitution by
respecting atheism. If the atheists and their
defenders want to be on the same equal playing
field in this debate as the Catholics, Jews and
Muslims, to say that they are offended by
religious symbols because of their BELIEF, then
they can’t have it both ways. By purposely
ignoring all organized religion, even as
historical fact or it’s influence on modern
culture, we are robbing future generations of the
tools they need to deal with a global economy in
the world arena.
I am not advocating that teachers lead their
class in prayer. And I am certainly not saying
that schools become the training ground of
tomorrow’s’ religious leaders. But, how
can we expect our children to understand the
constitution itself without first understanding
the religious beliefs of James Madison, Thomas
Jefferson and the people who were motivated to
write it? Colonists came to the new world fleeing
religious persecution. What does that mean? Can
any seventh grade, public school child explain
the religious differences between the colonists
and the King of England? You know they
can’t. It’s not allowed to be taught in
public school.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, George
Washington, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln,
Kings and Queens of past centuries, Emperor
Hirohito, Christopher Columbus, every explorer
including the astronauts, the crusaders, the
inquisitors, all the great leaders of world
history, were all influenced by religion, and all
having made their major decisions based on
religious beliefs. Those decisions have had
lasting effects on the world and future
generations. How do we learn from them if we do
not understand them? True, teaching the bible,
Jesus, Moses and Mohammed in a historical
perspective might just interest some child enough
for them to follow a religion on their own. But
that’s OK. We are a free country and we are
supposed to promote that kind of free thought and
free choice.
In the mean time, the majority of public school
students will be better world citizens and will
understand what it means to truly respect another
religion or culture. They will better understand
the constitution. They will better understand the
motivation of societies that go to war or
cultures that act much differently than we do.
They will even have a better grasp of right and
wrong, why our political leaders and our courts
invoke God before conducting business, and why we
have blue laws.
Freedom of religion is no freedom at all if
children, or even adults, are unaware of what
different religions mean and what they stand for.
Freedom of religion, as it was framed in the
constitution was not intended to wipe religious
teachings and symbols from public schools and
government buildings. It was intended to protect
the different religions from a government which
might make it illegal or, dare I say politically
incorrect, to espouse ones belief in a public
place. Separation of church and state is a wall
of separation that protects religious
institutions from the menacing hand of government
not the other way around. Madison and Franklin
wrote at length about religious communities
springing up all
over America where people of similar faiths live
and teach the beliefs they choose without
government prohibiting them. That was the whole
reason we fought a war with England for our
independence. We’ve come a long way from
that principle haven’t we? And look where
it’s gotten us.
Mitch Harb is right and I hope he takes his ideas
to the highest politicians
and courts in the country. No telling how many
people will listen. In the age of freedom from
religion and freedom from speech he probably
won’t get too far. But that doesn’t
mean he shouldn’t try. After all, it was the
workings of one woman, atheist Madeline Murray
O’Hare, who sued to have all prayer and
religious teachings taken out of public schools
in the first place. Maybe it will take a Mitch
Harb from Lawrence to put some common sense back
in.
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