RedPhoenix122: SilentStrider: non-story, overzealous zealots.

I'm trying to figure out why people are pushing so much religion in school. Is it because if they don't hammer it in to their skull while they're young, they'll never want to believe? Or just afraid of what an open mind might think?

The story is from NC.

FirstNationalBastard: "I'm hoping it's just some idiot trying to scare me into shutting up"

So, she does think it's Christians, then?

I'm not saying it's Christians.....but it's Christians.

The scary thing is that being in the NC mountains she may get accidentalled by a hunter. I hope she's OK.

Greek religion was taught through out my growing up in a public school system in San Jose, CA. How is this different?

muck4doo: Greek religion was taught through out my growing up in a public school system in San Jose, CA. How is this different?

Orthodox Christianity?

Here's a tip: Don't be an outspoken Pagan in the Bible Belt and not expect harassment.

No matter whether you're in the right or not (and she is), you're going to get harassed. It's like going into the lion's cage with a steak wrapped around your leg and complaining that you got bit.

You knew the nature of the beast (that is, fundamentalist Christianity) going in.

muck4doo: Greek religion was taught through out my growing up in a public school system in San Jose, CA. How is this different?

Really man? Are you that dense? No one objects to religion being taught as a facet of history. What people object to is the promotion of the religion. Handing out Bibles on campus amounts to this. Surely you would be fine with your local schools passing out the Quran? Would you then say, "Well, I was taught Greek religion so this is OK"?

Of course you wouldn't. Now STFU and GBTW.

muck4doo: Greek religion was taught through out my growing up in a public school system in San Jose, CA. How is this different?

If they want to teach Christianity as part of a mythology curriculum, that's totally cool with me.

F*ck off, hyper-religious freaks.

If the people threatening her were Muslims, the FBI, DHS, and every other LEO group would have ahard on for no-knocks raids and extreme renditions.

Deport the extremists.

Spencer lives in Boise, Idaho

Well, there's your problem right there.

Christians are morons.

/So are pagans.

So this mom is going to raise her child as a pagan? Disgusting.

At least Christians have the excuse of being brainwashed as children. Pagans in general are "converts". They have no excuse. They're just morons.

ib_thinkin: shivashakti: Here's a tip: Don't be an outspoken Pagan in the Bible Belt and not expect harassment.

No matter whether you're in the right or not (and she is), you're going to get harassed. It's like going into the lion's cage with a steak wrapped around your leg and complaining that you got bit.

You knew the nature of the beast (that is, fundamentalist Christianity) going in.

And stop wearing such short skirts; you're just asking for it.

And don't take a stand for anything. Just stand in the background and let people's who interests aren't your own make decisions for you.

If you don't want to be holocausted, don't be Jewish!

duh.

I like how we're just saying Pagan now, as if there is just Roman catholicism and everything that isn't.

The article left out the best part of this story: that when confronted about handing out the Bibles, the school said that THEY weren't handing them out, they were donated and anyone could take one, and it wasn't the school promoting religion because any religion was allowed to donate.

So the woman brought in some pagan spell books to give away and the school freaked out and shut the whole 'donation' program down.

The article made it look like the woman was some kind of aggressor here, but really she was calling the school on their bullshiat and seeing if they'd go all-in herp-a-derp.

shivashakti: Here's a tip: Don't be an outspoken Pagan in the Bible Belt and not expect harassment.

No matter whether you're in the right or not (and she is), you're going to get harassed. It's like going into the lion's cage with a steak wrapped around your leg and complaining that you got bit.

You knew the nature of the beast (that is, fundamentalist Christianity) going in.

This is just up the road from where Eric Rudolph was arrested by some rookie cop that didn't get the memo, so I actually take your point.

shivashakti: Here's a tip: Don't be an outspoken Pagan in the Bible Belt and not expect harassment.

No matter whether you're in the right or not (and she is), you're going to get harassed. It's like going into the lion's cage with a steak wrapped around your leg and complaining that you got bit.

You knew the nature of the beast (that is, fundamentalist Christianity) going in.

People don't have the right to break the law, even if they really really want to. M'kay?

I dunno, given that her actual religion isn't given apart from "pagan", she's probably a neopagan, i.e. someone that shouldn't be throwing stones as far as "idiot" is concerned. That shiat makes the most gullible Christian look as canny and skeptical as Lex farking Luthor.

//Death threats still obviously inappropriate, though.

yelmrog: muck4doo: Greek religion was taught through out my growing up in a public school system in San Jose, CA. How is this different?

If they want to teach Christianity as part of a mythology curriculum, that's totally cool with me.

Honestly, they pretty much do. They don't bother with the actual bible, generally, but that's because relatively little of protestant theology actually comes from the bible. Hell is largely the invention of Alighieri via Inferno, which is on the reading list, Satan is largely the product of Milton, and Paradise Lost is on the reading list, the actual morality that most of Christianity that's not an actual priest or other academic follows is probably a mix of Locke and Hume, who both come up in the course of reading assignments fairly frequently.

I mean, I guess if you're under the illusion that the bible itself has more than a symbolic connection to the way modern Christianity works you can pretend that it's being ignored by schools, but if you're under that illusion you're also, well, wrong. Very little of modern Christianity is bible-related, if it was then Christians would still be acting like they did in the middle ages when it was almost the sole Christian text, which I think we can pretty much agree they do not.

RedPhoenix122: SilentStrider: non-story, overzealous zealots.

I'm trying to figure out why people are pushing so much religion in school. Is it because if they don't hammer it in to their skull while they're young, they'll never want to believe? Or just afraid of what an open mind might think?

To use the prayer in school arguments...

The child of a religious parent can pray when they wake up, pray at breakfast, while waiting for the bus, on the bus to school, at any moment during school when they are not otherwise required to be paying attention, on the way home from school, when they get home, do their homework, eat dinner, and before they go to bed. This doesn't even include Sunday/Wednesday church services.

The parents of kids who want prayer in school are not the least bit concerned about their children being "allowed" to pray as they know perfectly well their child has ample chances to do so.

They can't make your kid pray though. They can't make you take your kid to church. What they are counting on however is that peer pressure and social stigma will have your kid go along to get along so they can make your kid pray all with the goal of having that kid come home and ask "Why don't we go to church?"

Kids are impressionable and easily manipulated and that is why people try to use school systems to force their beliefs on them. This is not limited to religion.

That's Christian love for you.

"Yew don't know me, but Ah know where yew live..."

"Dale? Is that you?"

/not even trying to be obscure

Pagans are equally stupid but obviously less interested in imposing their fairy tales on the rest of the population. Point pagans.

RedPhoenix122: SilentStrider: non-story, overzealous zealots.

I'm trying to figure out why people are pushing so much religion in school. Is it because if they don't hammer it in to their skull while they're young, they'll never want to believe? Or just afraid of what an open mind might think?

It's because they haven't read their bible? In which Jesus teaches the necessity of the separation of church and state.
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Just give away copies of The Spiral Dance by Starhawk.

J. Frank Parnell: I like how we're just saying Pagan now, as if there is just Roman catholicism and everything that isn't.

No kidding!

To be fair, the Roman Catholics normally would not attack pagans like this. The Burning Times are over, and the Roman Catholic leadership in most sees are adamant that they will not let them happen again. For every Evangelical or Protestant crackpot out there who wants to relive the Salem witch trials, there is a Franciscan or a Jesuit who is committed to correcting for a few hundred years of atrocities.