What public schools in the US are churches on the weekends?
Can't pray in school?
- Thread starter ThankQ
- Start date
My elementary school.
They would hold church services on Sundays in the gymnasium. The church and school were completely separate entities, but the school still allowed them to use the space.
Allowed them? Or rented them the space? Various hotels I've worked for had religious services held in their meeting rooms which were rented out. That didn't make the hotel a church.
Jan
I guess it depends on how you define church. For the time that people are gathering and worshipping, it's a church to them. They don't say, "I'm going to rented gymnasium." They say, "I'm going to church."
As long as the service is being run by someone other than school officials, there's nothing wrong with that.
This is part of the "separation of Church and State" issue. The religious extremists want organized prayer in public schools because they see the public schools as a ready-made indoctrination network.
Of course it's false that prayer and Bibles are not allowed in school. When I was in school, we had a moment of silence every morning, which anybody so inclined could use for prayer. Anybody could also carry around a Bible if they wished. In fact, in High School, I took a course on the Bible; it was called "The Bible As Literature."
As far as the tee shirt issue goes, it shouldn't be a problem; it's a student doing it, not the school.
Of course it's false that prayer and Bibles are not allowed in school. When I was in school, we had a moment of silence every morning, which anybody so inclined could use for prayer. Anybody could also carry around a Bible if they wished. In fact, in High School, I took a course on the Bible; it was called "The Bible As Literature."
As far as the tee shirt issue goes, it shouldn't be a problem; it's a student doing it, not the school.
Thespeckledkiwi
Vice Admiral
Question; if a teacher is found praying during quiet time during class but not conducting prayer with their class, should they be dismissed?
I would generally think no, yet I have no examples either way.
Since we can reasonable assume that many teachers have quietly prayed during school hours, and since we can more than reasonably assume that were any teacher fired over this we would be certain to hear about it, I would guess it hasn't happened yet--or recently.
A
Amaris
Guest
I wouldn't think so, no. Praying privately to oneself causes no harm or incites no disruption to anyone.
This is why I think picking and choosing is not a good idea; in my opinions, uniforms should be worn in schools. For those students whose parents can't afford them, I think there should be help like there is for breakfast/lunch assistance, but the instant the school gets into allowing THIS message and not THIS one, they're in a position of judgment that in my opinion is way too much power for a government institution. At least with a uniform, it's not about a government institution weighing in on what speech it likes and what speech it doesn't...it's a simple matter of, do you have the approved clothing or not?
As for prayer in school...I can understand why teachers and school officials can't lead prayer. But students should be free to express their faith in any way that does not create a major disturbance. (The clothes thing, however, is a reasonable exception because SO many offensive things can be worn to school, as well as the fact that clothing can be used to display gang affiliation unless tightly controlled, not to mention decency standards.)
Incidentally, I would rather send my future children to private school...both for faith reasons and the fact that I do not believe in or trust the ability of the public school system to maintain a good environment for learning in a LOT of respects.
J
Jetfire
Guest
God gets blamed for some horrible stuff...when are people going to take responsibilty for their actions.
When I was in school we had a bible study session(a teacher needed to be involved to be official school club) after school and would meet at the flag pole and pray(just us students)...no one died or got hurt or was upset.
When I was in school we had a bible study session(a teacher needed to be involved to be official school club) after school and would meet at the flag pole and pray(just us students)...no one died or got hurt or was upset.
It works just fine in my county.
No one got upset that you know of. People could have been upset and just decided to keep it to themselves.
Just saying.
I think that uniforms should be economical- think of the amount of money clothes- even second hand ones cost. The students that couldn't afford a uniform should be few and far between, unless whoever negociated the uniform contract is a complete idiot. And sometimes you can wear some of your own clothes I think- black pants or something.
I thought my public education system was almost garbage, but I do think that the system gives people the experience- good and bad- for dealing with all sorts of people, similar to the average work environment. There are so many religions, it doesn't make sense to me to have teachers lead prayers etc. in school. I'm religous, and I wouldn't have cared for it, as a lot of prayers are just a few lines repeated... Nothing stopped me from silently praying every day before I ate my lunch.
Though a lot of my problems with others in school was due to racists, not religion... usually.
As long as it's not during class hours and it isn't being forced on anyone, there is nothing wrong with it. People are free to assemble (within reason) wherever they want.
I didn't say otherwise. I just wanted to point out that, simply because no one told him that he upset them, doesn't mean he didn't upset anyone.
As long as the church group was paying for the use of the space, there's nothing wrong with that. And the school was not a church, the church met at the school - a big difference.
Totally wrong. That's like saying the bully does no damage because the weakling refuses to fight back.
The Left looks at schools that way. You need look no further than Lexington schools or Obama's Safe School czar to understand why.
I agree with your other statements. A child can pray during a moment of silence or simply collect their thoughts. In school the Bible is simply another book.
In neither case is the government forcing a religion on anyone.
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