Saturday, February 4, 2012

KEEP THESE OUT

Religion is a private affair.

Yours, mine and the strange guy sitting right behind the bus driver.

Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, a rabbit's foot, tigers - worship whom or what you choose or choose not.

But in a democratic society, do any or all or none of that in your heart or in your home or in your synagogue, cathedral, mosque, shanty or bomb shelter.

We human critters all long to find some grand explanation for the Great Unknowable Mysteries.

Fine.

Just don't tell me about it.

Don't lecture or proselytize or preach at me.

It's really unbearable and it's against the grain.

Which brings us to the lovely story in today's Vancouver Sun about Evangelicals roaming the halls of local schools.

Make no mistake.

These good folk are exactly that. They seem kind and beneficent. They are involved with kids in sports and drama projects.

But they have one singular and completely inappropriate purpose - to persuade children of an especially vulnerable age that their chosen religious path is the One and Only, etc.

What baffles me about this story is how school and school board administrators allow this to continue.

Perhaps you can explain.

And if you are tragically lacking in understanding, you may think that I am saying something dreadful and blasphemous about Christianity or any other religious belief system.

I am not.

These beliefs are private and personal and they have no business being "taught" in our public schools - no matter under what apparently benign guise.