We need God back in the schools. It is of no use to educate our children, creating active, imaginative, smart minds, if we send them out into the world with no coping skills and no moral compass. We are spitting kids out of America’s school system like new cars from an assembly line — robotic, scientific empty vessels.
We are creating socially challenged generations who are discovering it is hard to cope in the cold, cruel world, not to mention during their challenging school years. Why? They need the foundation of faith – a faith of their choice — during their formative years. They deserve the freedom to discuss God at school, especially since many do not get this opportunity at home.
We are doing a great disservice to our nation’s children, and our nation in general, if we do not give our children a designated time during every school day to reflect, reason, and hear basic tenets from religions of their choice. It is through these tenets that children learn how to treat others, even those with whom they disagree, with dignity and respect, not to mention how to navigate life’s trials and tribulations.
It’s time for those of us who believe in freedom of religious discussion in schools to stand tall and take action. We are letting the social left dictate whether a few moments of soul searching — from any faith or no faith — can take place during school. For those who believe in the First Amendment – “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” — it’s important to understand that our children have this right, deserve this right, and are inherently born with this right. We can reclaim this right for them.
Contrary to popular belief, the Supreme Court is not the final say on matters in our country. Just because the Supreme Court keeps making erroneous decisions about separation of church and state, such as Reynolds v United States (1879) or Everson v Board of Education (1947), based not on the Constitution but on a wildly misinterpreted letter of Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists, it doesn’t mean it cannot be addressed again through the legislative branch.
Let’s break that down for a moment. We should not make judicial decisions in our country based on random letters of founding fathers or founding presidents or any president. That was never our founders’ intent, nor should it be ours. Our founding fathers did not want one man’s opinion dictating the rights of Americans. They considered this to be tyranny. That’s why our founders wrote a specific, enumerated Constitution — the first of its kind. They wanted specificity. Our judges are sworn to make judicial decisions based on our United States Constitution, not on handwritten personal letters or social trends (even Thomas Jefferson wouldn’t have wanted this).
The United States Constitution states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. These are the first words written in our Bill of the Rights — the very first words — hence their paramount importance. Our founders knew that upon this freedom to exercise religion, and the unparalleled importance of a faith of one’s choice, rested the cornerstone for not only life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but for the survival of republicanism itself.
Yet the Supreme Court ripped faith, an intrinsic freedom, and a vital coping skill, from our children’s developing years based on a letter from a founding father who wasn’t even at the Constitutional Convention. This decision, which resulted from the deliberations of nine Supreme Court justices, single-handedly took away the very essence of human spiritual development, and a basic constitutional right, from our children.
And we just let it stand. We said, “Oh well, that’s the final decision.” Defeatism, especially based on fallacy, is the downfall of our republic and our citizenry’s ability to cope, co-exist, and maintain equilibrium.
By no means should a government-run public school mandate a religion upon a child. But on the other hand, by no means should a government-run public school deny a child the freedom to seek the God of their choice.
Children are not robots. Children are humans with souls that need to be nourished and guided. Our nation’s children deserve a routine time in their school day to enter into a discussion about the God of their choice, or no God, voluntarily. Fifteen minutes a day, kids should freely be able to congregate to the room of their choice, to the God of their choice or to no God at all. This is their freedom to exercise their 1st Amendment right.
It is a mission that will take years, yet it can only be achieved one day, one person at a time. Accumulatively we can accomplish this goal. We must not rest on our laurels. We must seek one another and unite. This basic human right can be re-established either through the legislative branch or, better yet, through state sovereignty. States need to declare, and practice, autonomy in this area. Of course this tide will only be turned by #YourVoiceNow.
No child should be forced to worship a God in school and no child should be forced to deny their God in school.
This is their 1st Amendment right. Let’s get it back for them.
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