Jesus H. Christ!

First and foremost I want to talk about this article from a local online news source called, The Van Wert Independent:

Couple seeks religious classes in VWCS

Van Wert independent/contributor content

Both Crestview and Lincolnview school districts have had voluntary off-site religious programs for elementary students for a number of years; now a Van Wert couple is seeking to establish a similar program in the Van Wert City Schools.

To judge interest in the project, an informational meeting has been scheduled for this coming Monday, December 13, at 7 p.m. in the First Federal Lecture Hall of the Niswonger Performing Arts Center. One purpose of the meeting is to inform the public about the creation and implementation of a religious education program designed to benefit elementary students at Van Wert City Schools.

The meeting will also serve as an opportunity for the public to ask questions, to volunteer, and to otherwise provide input and insight for this project.

The program is known as “Cross Over the Hill” and is a voluntary Christian education program designed to provide Van Wert elementary students with an opportunity to learn about the Bible and the Christian faith.

“We have witnessed the benefits of such a release time program through Crestview’s Heritage Bible School and also Lincolnview Bible Board,” said co-founder Jill Putman. “After much prayer and consideration, we would like to bring these opportunities and benefits to the students of Van Wert elementary schools.”

The basic premise of the program is similar to that of the Crestview and Lincolnview programs: parents would voluntarily enroll elementary-age students for a period of time each week to be taught about the Christian faith. 

“The law allows for a period of release time during which children can voluntarily engage in religious education during the school day,” co-founder and local attorney Shaun Putman explained.

“A lot of work has already gone into this project,” said Jill Putman. “We have studied various other religious education programs, spoken with the leaders of these programs, met with numerous school administrative officials and the school board, launched a public relations component to ‘Cross Over the Hill,’ and are in the process of requesting 501(c)(3) status as a non-profit corporation.”

District residents are invited to the informational meeting, and further encouraged to contact Jill Putman at 419.238.5963 if interested in volunteering or if they have questions they think might not be answered during the informational meeting.

  

     Why in the world are we taking these kid's a step back on the evolutionary scale? I know, I know...it's optional. Shouldn't the Christians be allowed to do something like this in a country founded upon the belief of religious freedom? Sure. Does that make it right? No. 

     Think about it this way, in my little town I'd say Christians make up the majority. What that means is that  A LOT of parents are going to run out and sign their kid's up for this shit. Christian parents seem to have a rather funny way of forcing their beliefs upon their small children and then turning around and preaching free will. 

                                                       

     A child's mind is similar to clay. It is formed by the hands that touch it. One day this last summer my wife and I took our daughter to the park. While we were swinging on the swing set a little boy who couldn't have been older than Ten years old came up and asked my wife if our daughter knew about Jesus yet. This shocked me. This little boy asking such a serious philosophical question. To this boy there was no doubt that Jesus and God actually exist. There was also no doubt in the child's mind that Santa, The Easter Bunny, and The Tooth Fairy, really exist. He believes all this without question because, well...his parents told him so. See where I am getting at with this? My daughter is about to turn Three. I could begin telling her about The Flying Spaghetti Monster that lives in the sky and loves her with all it's sauce and noodles. If I kept it up then one day my daughter would do something extremely similar to what that boy in the park did to us to someone else. Still don't believe me? It happens every day in different parts of the world. Why do you think more people from the middle east are Arabic? Because that is how they were brought up. You can get a child to believe that  a fat man in a red suit flies in a sleigh pulled by magic flying reindeer to deliver presents to the whole entire world in one single night. Trust me, religion isn't that hard to get a child to accept. 

                                           

     What is wrong with a child learning religion at such a young age? Plenty of things. For one they are more likely to grow up and become adult Christians who will look something like this:

                                           

     Once the child reaches adulthood it's a struggle to attempt to implement reason into the persons life. One of my favorite shows on T.V. is House M.D.  House, played by Hugh Laurie, once told a patient, "If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people.". There is so much truth in that statement that it just makes me grin. 

                                      

     So here we are now in the year 2010 taking away valuable learning time where kids could be learning reading, writing, math, or even science and instead teaching them about how the world was created in 6 days and how a man lived in the belly of a whale for 40 days. Instead of teaching American history and geography we are teaching them that they are sinners in need of salvation from a man who was nailed to a cross and then rose from the dead to save the world. Rather than teaching them individuality, we seem to be content with teaching them to be sheep. 

                              

     One thing I wonder is what kind of Bible studies will they be doing? Will they be learning that if a woman is teaching the boys anything that the woman is sinning and will burn in a fiery hell because of it?      1 Timothy 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

Will they be teaching verses like this?       – Deuteronomy 23:1

No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord. 

How about this?      – Ezekial 23:19-20

Yet she increased her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth when she engaged in prostitution in the land of Egypt. She lusted after their genitals as large as those of donkeys, and their seminal emission was as strong as that of stallions.

Maybe this??        – Deuteronomy 21:18-21
“If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.” 

      I think the Bible should come with a little warning label similar to this: 

                                                                     

And please do not give me the whole, "That's the OLD TESTAMENT argument. 
                                 Matt. 5:17-19:           “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”

That's from Jesus himself. 

                               
  
   Yeah, that guy. 

So here we are now making these "Bible classes" for children with minds like clay. Forming them into what their parents want them to be. I wonder how many children will be forced to attend by their parents. I wonder how many children will accept their parents asking them to go for fear of being reprimanded.  I wonder how big of a distraction this is going to be for the other kids in school. Hell when I was in junior high school I was sent home multiple times for wearing a Marilyn Manson t-shirt. No vulgar images or messages. Just a picture promoting the band. I always found it funny that kid's walked around with W.W.J.D. shirts and bracelets but my Marilyn Manson stuff was deemed unacceptable.  

Then again at that same school I was forced to stand with my nose in a corner in the hallway in the morning for refusing to recite The Pledge of Allegiance. Just the other day I overheard a conversation at Shell gas station between a clerk, who is also a substitute teacher, and a truck driver. The clerk was complaining (woman) about the school saying that she could not force them to recite the pledge because of the words "in God we trust", and that she had to allow them to stand in the hallway during the recital. She was basically angry because she couldn't force kid's into saying something that she herself believes to be true. I do believe that her story would have turned out a little differently if the school kids asked to recite an Atheist quote every morning. Anyone agree?


     Well folks, this is all I got on this one. It's damn near 3:30 in the morning and I truly need to get some sleep. 


Check back in next week. The title for next weeks blog post will be, "Debunking Christianity". Should be a good one.