New Pledge of Allegiance

[Monkey D Luffy]

> Since the Pledge of Allegiance and
> The Lord's Prayer are not allowed in most public schools anymore
>
> Because the word "God" is mentioned....
>
> A kid in Arizona wrote the attached
> NEW School prayer.
>
> I liked it....
>
>
> Now I sit me down in school
> Where praying is against the rule
> For this great nation under God
> Finds mention of Him very odd.
>
> If Scripture now the class recites,
> It violates the Bill of Rights.
> And anytime my head I bow
> Becomes a Federal matter now.
>
> Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
> That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
> The law is specific, the law is precise.
> Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.
>
> For praying in a public hall
> Might offend someone with no faith at all.
> In silence alone we must meditate,
> God's name is prohibited by the state.
>
> We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
> And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
> They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
> To quote the Good Book makes me liable.
>
> We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
> And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
> It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong,
> We're taught that such "judgments" do not belong.
>
> We can get our condoms and birth controls,
> Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
> But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
> No word of God must reach this crowd.
>
> It's scary here I must confess,
> When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
> So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
> Should I be shot; My soul please take!
>
> Amen
>

[GhostontheNet]

Blame it on the decline of deism and the lack of realization that many religions have a concept of one supreme God. Seriously, a lot of the parts of this list that are accurate are more socio-cultural than they are legally mandated. Frankly, you can still walk to the school library, the bookstore, or even Walmart or Target and pick up a Bible off the shelf, and nobody will even prohibit you from saying grace and reading your Bible in lunch hour.

[Monkey D Luffy]

I think you can only get them at christian bookstores actually.

[uc pseudonym]

This issue is one that is often sadly clouded. I intended to not post, but since it has been raised I will attempt to provide some general information. There is not a law that forbids praying in schools. As far as I know, there has never been, and if there was it was certainly overturned as unconstitutional. What the law does forbid is public schools having administration-led prayer. Student organizations can host prayer meetings, Bible clubs, whatever they like, so long as participation is voluntary.

Admittedly, some schools have gone too far and tried to enforce this rule beyond its intent. But these have universally been reprimanded and forced to allow personal prayer. As the saying goes, prayer will be alive and well in schools so long as students have to take exams.

To be blunt, I am glad that there is no longer official prayers. I am certain that they would become meaningless phrases that could just as easily belong to any praying religion or only expouse the goodness of the human spirit and the like. Or, for that matter, it is likely that the teacher/administrator praying would have very different theological beliefs than I do, which would lead to difficult situations.

If anyone draws issue with something I have just posted, I would be happy to enter dialogue with you via PM. I feel that this post was necessary in order to provide information on an overly politicized subject, but it is possible that I have gone too far. In any case, I wish to remind everyone that political and theological debate are both not allowed, and that this thread will be locked if such ensues.

[GhostontheNet]

I think you can only get them at christian bookstores actually.

You haven't been looking hard enough and you don't know the Dewey Decimal system. Go to 200 in the nonfiction section and you will find a couple of Bibles as well as a host of material on Christianity. Similarly, most secular bookstores have a Religion section with a lot of Bibles and several Christian books.

[Monkey D Luffy]

Well I think that America is a horrible country when it comes to christianity and politics. I almost dont think "under God" should be said because most the people that say under God are God hating liberals!

[Angel37]

In all honesty, the "official prayer" led by teachers was researched by moi for a Government project. What I found made a great point.
Our founding fathers left England because of religious persecution- AKA they were forced to worship the way the king wished them to. A school led prayer does the same thing- it perseucutes someone's freedom to worship who they please. Even though kids were were allowed to not participate in the prayer or even walk out, everyone knows "not going with the crowd" is a very scary thing for kids in school. They could even get picked on by other kids for leaving! To prove this, I reconstructed the school led prayer in my Gov. class for my report. It opened alot of eyes. Prayer's a great thing for an indiviual, but forced prayer causes more harm then good.

[Mithrandir]

Well spoken, Angel37 - thought we expressly discourage debate on topics of this nature, and generally don't let it get very far in the first place. Mostly because of posts like this, which add nothing but gasoline to an already flamible topic:

Well I think that America is a horrible country when it comes to christianity and politics. I almost dont think "under God" should be said because most the people that say under God are God hating liberals!

Since mature conversation doesn't appear to be possible, this thread is closed now. Move a long, nothing to see here.