The US was founded on the concept of freedom of religion and in a large part because the early settlers werent' free to practice their religion- so it seems proper that its one of the rights we hold most dear. I believe some of the obsession with it is because there are factions that want to take it away - that want to impose their concept of religion on our kids at school, and in our laws and who state they want to make the us a one religion country.
--Beth, Pseudo usenet cop Merlin MTB, BikeE AT, RANS gliss, Trek R200, Kickbike Owned by Kavik (Samoyed Boy) and Toklat (Keeshond Boy) Anchorage, Alaska ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen Collins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CF-Community" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2002 6:58 PM Subject: Reiogius argument in the US... Why? > I've decided that now's the time to stick my nose in here and ask why > this concept of state-church separation is SUCH AN ISSUE in the US? I'm > fascinated to know the historical background of the matter, as certainly > here in Australia, it's simply not an issue at all. For example: > > * AFAIK, most public schools Australia-wide no longer have a "religious > education" curriculum (although mine conducted a very broad-based one > when I was in early Primary School back in 75-76). I certainly haven't > done such a program in any of my schooling since then; > > * the church-run schools (i.e.. Catholic, Protestant, etc.) all run > their own compulsory religious education curricula, but parents who send > their children to these schools accept this. As an example, I am > "agnostic" (for want of a better word), but my daughter will be > attending a Church of England run school as of next year, for no other > reason than the excellence of its academic record. She will attend > religious education classes there and if she has questions of her > teachers or me, I hope we can answer them in an unbiased way; > > * many of the evangelical/charismatic churches in Australia run their > congregations out of school halls on a Sunday (mostly). Nobody seems to > care. Certainly nobody I've ever met, and I consider myself to have a > circle of friends that run the spectrum of faith/political > leaning/general tolerance/race; > > * the government-run (mostly) national broadcaster, the ABC, has a > significant religious component in its broadcast schedule, with weekly > broadcasts of faith-related matter on radio and television > (http://www.abc.net.au/religion/). These broadcasts would appear to be > principally Christian-centric, but there is certainly a component of > other faiths. Again, I have certainly never encountered, nor heard of > any broad objection to these broadcasts; > > * to draw a Superbowl parallel, if a known religious entertainer was to: > - perform at one of the large government-owned/managed stadiums; > - at a major (non-concert) event such as an NRL (Rugby League)/Super 12 > (Rugby Union)/AFL (Australian Rules) final or a cricket test match or > one-day game (all events regularly drawing crowds in excess of 20-30000 > and up to >100000); > - perform a work that could be interpreted as having a faith-based > meaning; > I truly don't think it would even be noticed; > > * the arguments that reach the media over US school districts enforcing > evolution/creation based curricula being taught would simply never > happen. Basic Darwinian evolutionary theory would be the rule, almost > without exception here. > > * I could certainly not envisage a significant number of members of > Australian society becoming upset enough over any of these issues to > ever take the matter to the courts; > > Just interested to know what it is I'm not getting about this whole > argument. > > Steve > ======================================================== > Stephen Collins, Technical Consultant - ACIS (Australia) > Allaire Certified ColdFusion 5 Developer > > Work : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Personal : [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ICQ UIN : 56321783 Yahoo! : trib > > Are you building your best Body-for-LIFE? > www.bodyforlife.com > > ______________________________________________________________________ This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-community@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
