Re: Gay California teachers come out in the classroom

[John Harrell <johnbharrell@yahoo.com>]

Melynda Huskey,

Thank you for this post of bringing this thread back on track regarding the
issues of indoctrination.

Cheers!
John Harrell

--- DonaldH675@aol.com wrote:
> 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
> 


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