RE: Government Schools, Modernity, & Beauty

["Mike Lawyer" <mike_l@moscow.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: debismith@moscow.com [mailto:debismith@moscow.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2002 11:12 PM
To: vision2020@moscow.com; DonaldH675@aol.com
Subject: Re: Government Schools, Modernity, & Beauty

Once again, I would point out that CONTROL, not belief, is at the
center of the argument re: secular vs "religious" schooling. As a
mental health counselor, I worked with many adults who were
attempting to leave their judgmental, invalidating religious
upbringing behind them. Many of my clients were young adults who
were indoctrinated into a world view which left them clueless---
these were NOT public school graduates, but those who were given
few choices and little ability to make decisions beyond good=my
parents' religion and bad= everything else. The premise of the
Constitution of the USA is that individual rights prevail----freedom of
religion, freedom of dissent, freedom of CHOICE----too bad for all
those who wish to impose their religious righteousness on the rest
of us. Get patriotic, for Diety's sake, and worship your way while I
worship mine. If you want your children mind controlled by your
religion, go for it. I just take exception when you want my children
to follow your rigid, righteous, dogmatic and judgemental view
points....
Debi Robinson-Smith
debismith@moscow.com

Dear Debi,
It is nice to read your letters and to see that, except for a few emotional
outbursts, you are a very intelligent and thoughtful person.
However, you don't seem to be reading the Dougs very carefully. Nothing
you've said above, about freedom of choice and where you get to send your
kids to school, has been in any way denied by the Dougs. In fact, one of the
Dougs said he wouldn't mind if there were private schools of every stripe on
every street corner (or something like that). People should get to choose
where they send their kids to school...Hey, that's just what you said.
The Dougs are also not disagreeing with you when you say, "worship your way
while I worship mine."
It appears to me that the problem is trying to put these two ideas together
in the same brain. Many of us have a compartmental brain. We think worship
is something we do on Sundays and education is what we do on Monday through
Friday early in the day. Worship and education are two different parts of
life that never get together, or at least shouldn't ever get together. But
what the Dougs are saying is that all of life is filled with the
ramifications of what we think about God-worship. If we worship Allah, it
will show up in how we live our lives-every day, all day. If we worship
modernism, it will show up in how we live our lives-every day, all day. If
we are Christians, it will show...oh, you get the point (I hope). Washing
dishes is a religious experience. Going to school is a religious experience.
Chatting with friends is a religious experience. All of life is related to
God and is religious in nature-including education.
Since this is true, when you say that people can worship when they want, in
the way they want, there is a basic misunderstanding that this means on
Sunday mornings. But worship pervades our lives, everything we say and do is
immersed in worship. When a woman worships the god of self-preservation and
assertion and a Christian comes along and says that she must bow her knee to
Yahweh and his Christ, she gets all worked up. The Christian has just
"forced" her religious beliefs on another and this violates freedom of
religion (or so the saying goes).
But this is exactly the kind of thing the Dougs are saying is happening in
the government schools. The Christians believe that God does matter and that
he does have something to say about all of life, and every area of life, and
the government schools are saying that this is not so. They are making a
religious statement and demanding that the Christians submit to their
religious viewpoint.
The Dougs agree with you that "if you don't like the system, get out." They
would agree with you when you say that everyone should worship the way they
want. Where they disagree with you is that they don't think they should have
to pay for your worship. You should have to pay for your own worship and the
Dougs should pay for theirs.
When you require, on penalty of loss of property, that they pay for your
religious education you are doing the opposite of what you espouse. You are
requiring that they worship your god, or at least financially support your
worship.
While preaching freedom of choice, you are happily expecting that everyone
pay for your choice. While preaching freedom of religion, you are happily
expecting that everyone pay for your religious beliefs. The Dougs are simply
trying to get you to see and admit that this is the case.
Also, while the Dougs think in a certain way with respect to philosophy and
religion I haven't noticed them trying to force you to change the way you
think. They seem to be pretty consistently allowing you to think the way you
want. They are just trying to get you to act consistently with the way you
say you think.
I hope I haven't made things muddier than they already were. But it seemed
that you were missing the Dougs points and that maybe I could help.

Mike Lawyer