DeSoto County, MS schools praised for halting prayers in school

[cleanhippie]

DeSoto County, Mississippi, is a small county with rich history, that has sparked some controversy and may spark more in the future. The county sits directly underneath the western Tennessee border, and was named for Hernando DeSoto, the Spanish explorer, who is rumored to have died there. The controversy: prayer in school.

The DeSoto County School District, in response to a call to halt prayers over the PA system at football games and other school functions, is being praised by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The FFRF had complained by letter to school district officials that Supreme Court decisions prohibiting school sponsored prayer had been violated.

http://www.goddiscussion.com/75706/desoto-county-ms-schools-praised-for-halting-prayers-in-school

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1st Amendment, for the WIN!!!!

[muntrv]

1. Prayer in public schools is Biblically incorrect.

Quotation from Matthew;

Matthew 6:5 - 7

5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites : for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

Jesus says you must definitely not pray as the hypocrites pray.

6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen : for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

[cleanhippie]

2. Oh sure it is. You are just not reading that in the proper context.

:sarcasm:

[struggle4progress]

3. It took about fifty years for Engel v. Vitale to trek 900 miles or so from DC to DeSoto:

I guess it's been moving along about ten or twelve feet an hour

[_ed_]

4. Don't pray in my school and I won't think in your church

.

[AlecBGreen]

5. wow, stay classy

.

[_ed_]

6. You think we should have prayer in schools?

I suppose your "god" is the one we're supposed to pray to, as well.

If thinking that we should keep all unproven superstition (whether alchemy, religion, or astrology) out of the classroom makes me classless, then classless I'll be. School is for learning facts through deductive reasoning. Churches are where people do the opposite.

[AlecBGreen]

7. I have no issue with the separation of church & state

My issue is with your insinuation that churchgoers dont think.

[cleanhippie]

8. Well, from a non-believing perspective, you don't.

You have even told us, explicitly, that you see the disconnect between reality and some of your beliefs, yet you continue to believe them.


So, whats the problem then?

[cleanhippie]

11. No response, Alec?

[darkstar3]

13. If I may interject.

I don't know about anyone else, but when it comes to discussion boards and other disjointed conversations, I think it's usually good to wait 24 hours before...how to put this...starting the Jeopardy music.

[cleanhippie]

14. Oh, alright. I guess waiting only 14 hours is unreasonable.

[_ed_]

9. That isn't an insinuation

It's a statement of fact. If you think that Jesus was a real person, or that Mohammed flew to heaven on a winged horse, or that eating pork is prohibited by some deity, or that red wine and crackers can turn into flesh and blood, then you simply can't be thinking. A rational examination into any claims by any faith tradition would lead you to assert their falsehood. Otherwise, you wouldn't be thinking: you'd be going on faith.

If churchgoers engaged in higher-ordered rational inquiry, there would be no churches.

[cleanhippie]

10. "If churchgoers engaged in higher-ordered rational inquiry, there would be no churches."

And we have a WINNER!!!!


Give the man a prize.

[darkstar3]

12. Don't blame the one who repeated it.

It's an old phrase that has even made its way onto t-shirts.

It brings up an interesting point, though. Ask ten different people what they believe the moral of the Adam and Eve story to be, and you'll get ten different responses. Some will tell you that story warns against pride, others that it warns against defiance, and still others will come up with twisted explanations for how the story explains that women are the lesser sex. But, with all of those different ideas, one thing remains the same:

Knowledge is not a universal good.

One of the foundational stories of the faith, told to children, showcases the idea that some knowledge is unacceptable to even pursue. These children grow up, have children of their own, and may well tell them that they are "too smart for their own good" and that "it's easy to think yourself out of believing, and that's what faith is for." (Direct quotes from a family member, btw.)

So you see, that simple sentence expresses a very nasty truth: That a great many believers think that knowledge can be a bad thing, and are afraid to spend too much time thinking about their faith, lest they lose it.