An Email I have received

[bugslsu9]

I'm sure some of you have gotten this ridiculous email:

A dog had followed his owner to school. His owner was a
fourth grader at a public elementary school. However,
when the bell rang, the dog sidled inside the building and
made it all the way to the child's classroom before a
teacher noticed and shoo'ed him outside, closing the
door behind him. The dog sat down, whimpered and
stared at the closed doors. Then God appeared beside
the dog, patted his head, and said, "Don't feel bad fella'....
they won't let ME in either."

Keep in mind that this came from a very intelligent woman. She could have had her choice of law schools, but instead decided to go back to rural Louisiana and get married. Nothing wrong with that other than her husband hates everything but white, Protestant, heterosexual men, and it appears to have rubbed off on her.

Here is my response:

Of course they wouldn't. We have a thing called separation of Church and State. Quite frankly, the founding fathers did this deliberately. They were, by all accounts agnostic, and not overly religious men. Yes they had Judeo-Christian influences, but their overriding goal was to keep religion OUT OF GOVERNMENT!!!!!

I'm sure, by reading the posts, most of you are as sick as I am of getting this drivel. This is enough of this shit. If I get a reply from her, I will be sure to post it

[atreides1]

1. Use This Reply

Tell her that if God is in your heart then he's already with you, no matter where you are.

[WoodrowFan]

2. tell her

That Allah, Vishnu, Buddah, L. Ron Hubbard, and Gaia were also waiting outside and if you let one in, they ALL gotta come in.

[Hugin]

18. Well... There goes small class sizes.

So much for "No Child Left Behind."

;)

[Atman]

Wow, what a miserable, powerless god!

Can't even get through a doorway? He has to sit out in the hallway, yet he has time to bless rappers with Grammy's and ball players with playoff wins, all the while causing untold millions of children to rot in squalor all over the world, while a megalomaniacal liar drops bombs on the heads of hundreds of thousands more?

And people WORSHIP this guy? Jesus!

[Snotcicles]

10. A Mark Twain Quote

...a God who could make good children as easily a bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave is angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body; who mouths justice, and invented hell--mouths mercy, and invented hell--mouths Golden Rules and foregiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people, and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man's acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites his poor abused slave to worship him!
- No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger

[Az]

3. Sigh, so wrong

God is in the heart of every person that believes in him. They are allowed to pray anytime and anywhere they wish to. The only way god is prohibitted is that the school itself cannot tell its occupants to believe or pray to him.

[tanyev]

4. The reason dogs are not allowed in school

is because they might be disruptive and would certainly distract from the only purpose of a public school: educating our children. If, however, the families of the children who attend the school think that dogs are essential to life and wish to provide that experience for their children at home, I commend that.

[bryant69]

5. Saying the founders were all agnostic

Probably isn't accurate. At least not by our modern definitions of the word. Irreligious might be a better term (assuming it means what I think it means, that they don't believe in religion). Or to put it another way the Founders had a bigger problem with organized religion than they did with the existance of God or even of Christ.

But even that is a generalization as some of them were church-goers. And some were actually pretty agnostic.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Walt Starr]

6. You fell for their scam hook, line, and sinker. They framed the debate.

They framed it as a given that God has been left out of school which cannot be further from the truth.

Religion for individuals is GUARANTEED in school. In fact, prayer groups formed by the students are fine, religious symbols worn by kids are fine. Individual expressions of faith by the students are fine.

The ONLY place where the line is crossed is when a teacher, as a representative of the state, seeks to impose THEIR religious beliefs on a captive audience. The state MANDATES kids be there, thus representatives of the state cannot impose religion in any fashion upon those kids.

[gordianot]

7. This is wrong on another level.

God and whatever teachings the children had went into that school. The children did not have to be subjected to a State Religion.

[GumboYaYa]

8. You see, if you let one dog into school then everyone wants to

bring their dog to school. Soon enough all the dogs are fighting and making a general ruckus and the kids aren't learning anymore. Of course some dogs are bigger than other dogs and beat up the smaller dogs. Then the kids without dogs start getting picked on by the kids with dogs. Some even use their dogs to harass the non-dog owning kids. After a while parents of non-dog owning kids have to take them out of school and find a school where dogs aren't allowed.

All that just b/c they let one dog in school.

[Atman]

11. What a GREAT analogy!

Thank you. Loved it!

[BlueEyedSon]

14. (big smile)

[lastliberalintexas]

9. Your response is as wrong as the email

There is no law in this country that says that God/Goddess/Allah/Buddha/whatever is banned or forbidden in schools. The law in this country is that the school, by and through its administrators, teachers or other employees, can not attempt to indoctrinate students with a religious belief.

The student is free to believe as s/he wishes and can even practice her/his religion on her/his own time, even while at school. However, religious speech is treated like most other speech in schools, and can be regulated based on time, place and manner restrictions. For example, a student could not stand in the middle of a physics lesson and recite either the Lord's Prayer or the Gettysbug Address, as neither is appropriate for that class.

Any student is free to pray, meditate, etc.- the law does not forbid that. The law simply forbids the STATE from getting in on the act.

Fundies and right wingers need to be reminded of this, since they continually lie about these school prayer issues. So please don't buy into their argument that God is "banned" from schools, because that is not the case.

[bugslsu9]

19. We Read the Email differently

Your third paragraph is what I was talking about. The message from her email, as I took it was that teachers / administrators should be allowed to preach to their classes. Now, keep in mind, that I can read more into things than you (and should have been more clear about that) because I do know her fairly well. She has said in the past that she thinks administrators and teachers should be allowed to do just that.

That was the way I was looking at the email, and the way I responded to it.

[BlueEyedSon]

12. Betcha your friend is THRILLED that Allah is locked out with the dogs!

[Skittles]

20. LOL

OK that's funny. :D

[Stop_the_War]

13. Funny because DOG backwards is GOD.....

but really stupid because it is an attempt at mind control.

[BlueEyedSon]

16. Did you hear about the dyslexic insomniac atheist....

.... who lies awake all night wondering if there is a dog....?

[cry baby]

15. All the posters here are really on top of their game today!!!

All brilliant replies to an important original post. I am bookmarking this to use in my replies to the email like this that I get, if that is OK.

Welcome to DU, Bugslsu9!:hi:

[Snotcicles]

21. You would think God could handle that on his own n/t

[AP]

17. Tell her that God doesn't want to be in the public school:

"'Render to Ceasar the things that are Ceasar's and to God the things that are God's',''

Tell her that God is happy to let public schools educate children, and that the church is where you go for a religious education, and God is perfectly happy with that division.

Tell her that people who want God in the public schools are the people who have so little faith in God that they think that if they force religion on everyone they won't have to question their own faith. Tell her that God doesn't like that.

[BlueEyedSon]

22. How about a simple "God hates you!"

LMAO!

[seabeyond]

23. god is never shut out

it shows how this woman in religion doesnt get god

that is the sad, and the stupidity of that post