Re: Gay California teachers come out in the classroom

[DonaldH675@aol.com]

John asks,
>For example, can the government schools teach that God says that sodomy is 
>wrong? 

That's an easy one!  No, a public school can't teach that God says sodomy is
wrong.  But it can teach that some religions hold that belief.  Likewise, the 

schools can't teach that people of African descent aren't actually human, 
although the fact that some religions hold that belief (the World Church of 
the Creator, for example, and other so-called Christian Identity groups) can 
be discussed.

Every religion -- and by religion I mean specifically "belief in and 
reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor 
of the universe, and systems grounded in such belief and worship" (American 
College Dictionary) -- makes a truth claim.  Publically funded schools cannot 
mediate those competing truth claims.

Refraining from endorsing one particular religious view does not amount to 
espousing another or competing religious view -- hence the impossibility of 
satisfying Doug Wilson's wish for an account of "what this worldview is from 
the defenders of it, or the enforcers of it."  We have many standards, many 
theologies, many philosophies, and many worldviews.  It's not a simple binary 
at all but an extraordinarily complex mixture of contingencies, compromises,  
dissatisfactions, and agreements.  At the risk of repeating myself and boring 
others, I can only reiterate that we all pay for public education because we 
have established, as a nation, a public interest in universal education 
available to all, which we fund through taxes.  That principle may not always 
hold: democratic action changes laws all the time.  Knock yourself out.  

Melynda Huskey