LOTD
Since when did freedom of religion mean you ought to pray at a flagpole? And I guess homeschoolers aren’t kids.
I had the pleasure of dropping off my daughter early at school last week to participate in the “See you at the Pole” student initiative, in which kids were allowed to stand in silent prayer around the flag poles of every American public schools.
It made me wonder how different our perspective is on freedom of religion today versus the past. I counted a scant six kids standing around the pole on a beautiful warm autumn morn and some visiting home-schoolers, with at least one teacher stopping for a short prayer before the 7:45 bell.
I have heard that about 20 percent of this region attends some church. I would have expected at least that ratio at the middle school’s pole. Are we so mortified at being seen in praying in public? Was that the case in the 1940s or 50s? I don’t think it was.
Did we all stop caring at some point and allow the religious intolerant to remove our school prayer and freedom of expression under the guise of “separation of church and state”? Do we secretly want God out of the picture until we need Him?
I hope the “See You at the Pole” program continues. I pray that it becomes so popular that kids overflow into that big, new parking lot. I pray most of all that all these middle-schoolers find their way to our churches in Weare and become the new generation not ashamed to spread His message to everyone who will listen, maybe even their parents.
MICHAEL DUBE
Weare
3 Responses to “LOTD”
 Comment by christine October 10th, 2007 at 2:49 pm |
“under the guise of “separation of church and state”?” Ugh. What an idiot. |
 Comment by sam October 10th, 2007 at 2:58 pm |
Kids have been doing this for years, and still no one cares at all except the Christians who have to insist that we’ve removed prayer from school even while kids still somehow manage to pray if they want to. This is covered in the Bible in the verses that say, “Go ye now out to the commons where thou so oft eateth thine lunch on those days whence my father makes nice weather for thee. Get thee now to thine flagpole and prayest thou openly and conspicuously. Clamoreth thou loudly about thine prayers insisting loudly that you are of a right to do even as no one continues to care that thou prayest.” |
 Comment by Andrea October 10th, 2007 at 6:06 pm |
Ah yes, because church attendance is the real litmus test of how many “true Christians” there are out there… I don’t go to mass pray ins just on principle. |