There’s been quite a buzz out there in cyber-land about getting God “back in school.” To me, it occurred to ask, “Did he quit, was he ejected, or did he just fail out because he got it all wrong?” [BTW, I wasn’t struck by lightning or crushed by a meteor for saying that – He’s got a sense of humor. Yeah, someone had to create humor.] I mean, it’s practically impossible to learn anything new if you already know everything. Believe me, I went through my entire teenage years knowing everything and I didn’t learn anything for almost a decade! Seriously though, we live in a country that was founded almost primarily on religious freedom (I’ll get to that soon). So, putting God in school would be contrary to that, because not every religion sees God as their deity – or deities. Really, what I’ve been led to understand is that those who want God in school are looking for their version of God in their school and that everyone else should allow them to proselytize the gospel of “if I don’t like it, then you’re not religious enough.” Frankly, what I’ve really noticed is that when people say that we need to let God back in school, they really mean that they want Christian values taught in school. Wow, schools are for teaching children things like reading and writing. You get your values primarily from your upbringing (parents).

Before I go off, I want to just say that if I refer to God as He, it’s just like saying mankind, it’s just a word. Personally I do think God is a male because, insofar as the scriptures are concerned, God did a lot of things that only a guy would do. That’s not a topic for this post. I’ll have to get to that later. In the United States, freedom of religion is a constitutionally guaranteed right provided in the religion clauses of the First Amendment. Specifically, the only regulations that would take place over religion would be to ban such religious practices as human sacrifice or self-immolation. There have been some amendments that also specify that there is to be no preferred religion either. Nowhere in the first amendment does it mention that a religion is specific to God, per se. In short, if you’re asking to put God in school, you’re asking to change one of our most fundamental rights. It is, after all, the first amendment to our constitution. To be clear, and this is why, perhaps, people may be confused as to why God is not permitted in public learning institutions, it wasn’t until 1925 when the Bill of Rights was “incorporated” to include all states, that it was official that the Bill of Rights applied to all states. Originally, the Bill of Rights was implied for all laws, but interpreted more narrowly to apply only to laws enacted by congress. That wasn’t the intention of the BOR, but needed to go through legal channels to be more clearly and decisively disseminated. Either way, it’s clear that our religious beliefs are to be coveted as basic freedoms. It would be just as bad to put religion in public schools as it would be to make a law that says you can’t say that you love Jesus. Yes, there are laws that limit your free speech. You can’t shout, “fire,” when there isn’t one and you can’t verbally threaten to hurt another. Yes, you have free speech, but there are consequences. So, you’re not disallowed to tell someone you love Jesus or God, but you aren’t allowed to tell someone how, when, where, and why you do unless you are in an appropriate venue for that. Incidentally, that’s just about everywhere and at any time, so don’t go thinking that you’re being picked on because of your religious beliefs. You’re being protected, and have been since the very beginning – and that’s why we don’t want religion in schools.

So, what of it? I mean this God in school thing. Do you think that having God in schools will help our children learn? Do you think it will help them to be safer in school? Do you think that the teachers will be happier and be able to teach more effectively? Listen, religion doesn’t make you smarter, learning makes you smarter. Private school kids tend to do better because people who pay for school are just more involved and put a higher priority on education. I went to Catholic school. I learned because I was afraid of the consequences of not learning. And yes, it makes you want to do bad things. It’s not the topic of this article, but it’s true. You can’t scare a person into behaving. You can only scare them into behaving for you. Seriously, if you think religious environments are safe, you can start by asking the children that have been abused by the clergy how safe that environment is. And, while we’re at it, I will just refer back to scaring people into behaving: God wasn’t able to scare them enough to not molest children. I mean, how vicious can you get as a guardian. After all, God did essentially wipe out the entire world with a flood because people weren’t behaving. That’s a bit harsh for an omnipotent being who technically, could have just fixed it and not have to kill everyone to start over again. You know, omnipotent, unlimited power, able to do anything – I’m just going by the definition of the word and what the bible says. I’m also not here to make fun of your beliefs. Trust me, I have lots of my own, and I care not to discuss them with you. I get blank stares from my family and friends. Not that they’re crazy, they’re just, well, mine!

Religion in school isn’t going to stop the terrible things in school. If you really want to go toe-to-toe, I’ll tell you that most, if not all, of the most terrible things that have happened in this world in the last 2000 years have been driven by religion. I can’t name one time where there was a war started by atheists because the “other guys” weren’t heathen enough. And guess what, those guys who flew planes into the World Trade Center thought that they were doing God’s highest duty – eliminate the infidels!

It would be a great idea if we could spend a little more time in our education system teaching children about ethics and justice. It might be helpful if we were able to teach in more gentile ways. But I think it’s much more important to send your child to school with a sense of morals and ethics that we the parents teach them. It’s not a teacher’s job (you know they’re called teachers) to instill values in their lessons. They’re there to help children learn, and hopefully, if they’re really special people, help the student learn to love learning. I’ve had hundreds of teachers in my life, but I only really remember a handful. Those were the people who fired my imagination and taught me to love learning. With a solid love of learning, you have no limits for smarts, but you might not have any ethics or morals. If you want religion in schools, teach it at home. Teach your children to love learning about spirituality and the robust history and moral lessons of The Bible, Qur’an, Gnostic texts, anything, just help them get enjoyment and excitement from it or they will resist it. Frighten them with it, and they will rebel. What you teach at home will follow your children everywhere they go. Even in countries where you are forbidden to have any religion at all, what’s in your heart and mind can NEVER be taken away. So, God is only in school if you say it is. If it’s not, then you must not be bringing Him with you. Nobody can check your bag for God, so you’re free to take Him with you anywhere you’d like. It’s one of your most basic rights as an American.