Is God coming back to public schools?

[rug]

Published: Oct. 23, 2011 at 3:30 AM
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Will a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court succeed in putting God back into the public schools, at least when classes aren't being held? A case rising out of New York City gives the justices a reasonable opportunity to do just that.

At issue in the case is whether government can ban worship services from school property to enforce the constitutional separation of church and state or whether the First Amendment's guarantee protects religious worship like any other type of expression.

Over the last two decades, little by little through a series of rulings, the Supreme Court has allowed more and more religious activity in public schools -- at least after class. But the high court has never ruled on whether public school districts must allow actual worship services in unused classrooms.

The new case out of New York focuses on that issue

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/10/23/Under-the-US-Supreme-Court-Is-God-coming-back-to-public-schools/UPI-93511319355000/?spt=hs&or=tn

[CTyankee]

1. It always struck me as odd that fundies complain that the U.S.S.C. "took God out

of the public schools." Aren't these the same people who say that God is omnipresent? If God is everywhere and with us until the end of time, there is no way that God can be banished from anywhere.

This doesn't make any sense at all...

[Sal Minella]

3. Reagan complained, "They've kicked God out of the schools."

What sort of puny God would disappear at the words of a tiny group of old men in black robes? Who would be interested in believing in such a God?

Why do the fundamentalists try to bully me into believing into an omnipresent, omnipotent God who can be obliterated from a building by a few words --

Students and faculty can pray inside school buildings any time they want to -- just not out loud in groups on school time.

The logical response is the bumpersticker: Can I teach evolution in your church?

[ButterflyBlood]

8. Reminds me of what a woman who ran a ministry to strippers said

and it wasn't a "repent or you'll go to hell!" type ministry, just basically expressing to sex workers that God loves them and cares about them and that she felt she was commanded to help their lives because so many people rejected them. But on her site she said something like "Our goal is not to 'bring God' to strip clubs, because there is no need. God is already there. Even in the most unexpected places, God is always there. And God doesn't need us to even acknowledge that."

[NMMNG]

10. I agree

If God is everywhere and with us until the end of time, there is no way that God can be banished from anywhere.

But somehow God the Great and Powerful still needs puny humans to defend him (sometimes with violence) and force him on everyone through compulsory prayers--at least according to the RRRWers.

[edhopper]

2. Of course they will

since the majority of the court is in favor of a Theocracy.

[Atman]

4. Maybe he'll show up at Career Day.

"Hi, this is my daddy and he is King of the Universe." It could be a hoot.

[Chih]

5. "The Good News Club had asked permission to use space in a school building after school hours..."

If school facilities are available for use after hours, they should be made available to everyone. Singling out particular groups for discrimination amounts to unequal treatment under the law.

FYI, I am an atheist.

[Goblinmonger]

11. That's the rule now.

If you let one in, you have to let them all. If you don't let any, you don't have to let the religious.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. God never left, at least in some places.

At one public high school I attended, they would lead prayers over the intercom and allowed a Bible class to be held, for which school credit could be earned. I'm sure that school wasn't the only one that defied regulations. There are plenty of places in America where religious people can ram their beliefs down the throats of everyone else. That, it seems, is what the God Squad means by 'religious freedom.'

[Jim__]

7. From a layman's perspective (non-lawyer) it does sound like Leval's decision ...

... flies in the face of Good News Club vs. Milford (N.Y.) Central School. Given that Leval is a circuit court judge, I'm sure it's more complicated than that.

[beam me up scottie]

9. Why, what did he flunk?

I know, I know...:spank: