Listen to the children...

[livingentity]

New School Prayer

(written by a child in Arizona)

 

Now I sit me down in school

Where praying is against the rule

For this great nation under God

Finds mention of Him very odd.

 

If Scripture now the class recites,

It violates the Bill of Rights.

And anytime my head I bow

Becomes a Federal matter now.

 

Our hair can be purple, orange or green,

That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.

The law is specific, the law is precise.

Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.

 

For praying in a public hall

Might offend some with no faith at all.

In silence alone we must meditate,

God's name is prohibited by the state.

 

We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,

And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.

They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.

To quote the Good Book makes me liable.

 

We can a pregnant Senior Queen,

And 'unwed daddy,' as our Senior King.

It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong,

We're taught such "judgments" do not belong.

 

We can get our condoms and birth controls,

Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.

But the Ten Commandments are not allowed.

No word of God must reach this crowd.

 

It's scary here I must confess,

When chaos reigns the school's a mess.

So, Lord, this silent plea I make:

Should I be shot; my soul please take!

Amen

 

 

[theist]

I going to send that around if its ok.

[Priitaa]

L.E., Thank you for this. On a personal level I appreciate it.

 

In general, I am not sure how I believe about prayer in public school, only becuase they focus on that prayer to be one of Christianity and not other faiths, certinaly not ours. I remember when I was in about 6th or 7th grade, they stopped saying an offical prayer over the PA system and just gave a moment of silence. Now this I find agreeable and promote. That way there is no religious prejudice and even Hinduism and Hare Krishna's can quietly pray to Krishna where no one can criticize.

 

Even the removal of the 10 Commandments in front of the courthouse, I had mixed feelings about it. Some religion is better than no religion at all, yet one of those commandments is "thou shalt not have any graven images." Of course, we know what that really means, but they do not, as they don't have enough knowledge to understand the difference between a concocted, made up 'graven' image, and a genuine murti or Deity of Krishna based on shastra. But I do get a little fearful that in time all religion will fade from this country since its mostly Christian, and then all havoc will break loose.

 

Unless we start preaching again, but those times of brining in large numbers of new devotees to join the temples thru sankirtana have changed. At least for now. So I am not sure what my opinion is on all this for the moment.

 

Would like to hear others feedback on it so maybe I could see various perspectives.

[livingentity]

a time of silence each morning for each child to pray in their own way.

[livingentity]

on another site. I thought it was interesting and very telling.

[Priitaa]

Oh L.E., I do think it is very interesting and very telling. I like it and on a personal level, agree. We are the open minded ones, with such great faith in our fellow man (or woman) that we tend to so trustingly believe as we honor all prayer to God, that is what they mean too. Especially in public schools which are not parochial school systems but intended for 'everyone.' So this is my concern, not the other. I think they, once again, mean only Christian prayer should be allowed in the public schools, etc., and not even Jewish, what to speak of Buddhist, what to speak of Hinduism, or the Hare Krishna deovtees. But the fact that prayer in general is not allowed, this concerns me and I am glad you posted what that student wrote! It shows a decline in religiousity in general, which I find as a real concern. We need to pick up our bookbags again! /images/graemlins/smile.gif (And I was awful at skp. ha But I recognize it as important.)

 

I do agree that silent prayer would be a good idea.

[trupti]

you can pray anywhere you want. you can pray in class, who is going to know??? only you and bhaghvan. that is it. i dont beleive in prayer in school at all. no religion should be taught in school. the more secular the better. i know for sure, that when i have kids, they should not have to hear christian prayer, or any other prayer that is not what they beleive.

i dont wanna hear it - period.

if you want to pray no one has to know about it. you can do it in middle of a test, in middle of lecture, in middle of the lunch line-where ever! it does not have to be announced or a time does not have to be set aside. when ever you want to pray you can.

 

it does not just go for us, it goes for all the religions.

say your lords name in your heart, taht is all that matters!

[theist]

Well the Republican party has been pushing for a school voucher system for years but the Democrats keep blocking it.

 

A voucher system would mean school choice for everyone. Poor kids could go to private schools of their choice. Secular or religious, its nobodies business.

 

As it is now a rich family pays taxes to maintain the public schools. If they want to send their kids to a private or religious school they must pay again to that school. So they pay twice.

 

A poor family can't do that so they are forced to accept what ever education the state gives them. No choice. With a voucher system they would receive money to pay the tution for a school of their choice. So poor kids could go to the same schools as wealthier children.

 

The teachers union donates big money for the Democrats to kill such ideas. They say it would take money from the public school. What it would do is make the public schools compete for the money and if they didn't do a good job educating kids then the kids could go elsewhere. Of course those same teachers could get jobs at these new schools but the union would lose its monopoly on power, and that they don't want to give up.

 

Vouchers would result in diversified field of educational oppurtunities with every school having to adhere to constantly keeping their standards high.

 

The atheist would have no problems with religion being in the classroom and the religious would have no problems praying as they wished in their own schools.

 

Education should be decentralized. Do you really think it is a good idea for 300 million people to have only one source for knowledge, and that being the government approved brand? This is mind control at its most fundemental level.

 

What we have now is the Haranyakasipu, atheism only, approved system of education.

 

Did you know that in every public school in the country the school nurse can make an appointment for your child to leave school and go to have an abortion? On school time WITHOUT THE PARENTS EVER BEING TOLD EVEN what to speak of even asking for the parents permission. The parent will never know. You think your daughter is studying in history class and she is really at planned parenthood having her fetus scrapped out of her womb.

 

Just another reason I hate the friggin' Demoncratic party.

[livingentity]

and it makes me sick to hear it.

 

Did you know that in every public school in the country the school nurse can make an appointment for your child to leave school and go to have an abortion?

 

 

[Priitaa]

Wouldn't that be illegal? Thats disgusting! And violates all sorts of rights, parents rights, religious rights, but I bet all the care about is abortionists rights. Ugh. I bet they could be sued tho. I wonder if anyone ever tried.

[livingentity]

the law would probably say it violates the child's right of freedom. This is sick...what kind of lesson in life that this teach the children...it teaches them that life is cheap and disposable is all.

[theist]

sneaked it in. Oh the alrm was sounded by all those right wing conservative types that the leftists always like to trash. But the liberal media kept it quiet.

 

Two school districts here in California have decided to not go along so they expect to be sued.

 

The argument goes like this. Some children don't have to kind of relationship where they can talk openly enough with their parents, and then their parents might say no which would be a violation of the childs rights. So better not to tell the parents.

 

These people are personified evil. I am not saying the Republicans are all devas by a long shot. But please NEVER vote Demoncratic.

[Guest guest]

If the conservative angels want to stop abortion then they should educate people about abstinence. Or they should restrict people from having sex with out getting married.

 

All the "demoncratics" are trying to do is clean up the mess people create their lives.

 

No body is forcing them to abort their babies, but they do it because they want to save their asses in the future.

First teach them about abstinence, then talk about how abortion is violating babies rights.

 

Just trying to battle abortion will not solve the problem. It will just overpopulate the world.

 

[stonehearted]

Guest: If the conservative angels want to stop abortion then they should educate people about abstinence. Or they should restrict people from having sex with out getting married.

 

This is a nice idea, of course. However, without real spiritual culture, such education will have very limited success. The focus of material life is sense gratification, with sex generally at the apex; without developing a taste for a superior pleasure, it simply becomes trouble to give up the inferior form of pleasure. It's made even more difficult when the culture is saturated with sexual images and messages. Srila Prabhupada says that unless one is situated in transcendental consciousness, "however powerful he may be in controlling the senses by artificial repression, is sure ultimately to fail, for the slightest thought of sense pleasure will agitate him to gratify his desires. A case in point is Saubhari Muni, who was able to artifically restrain his senses for 10,000 years but was forced to yield to sex desire.

 

In the third chapter of Bhagavad-gita, even Krishna says, "Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows the nature he has acquired from the three modes. What can repression accomplish?"

[theist]

Of course babhru is not suggesting that one should try to wait for marriage even though the desire may be strong.

 

Actually conservative Christians have been fighting to have abstinence( as no sex before marriage) taught in the public schools sex education classes for years.

 

The schools being controlled by the left have fought them at every step, favoring handing out of condoms and abortions to school children instead, calling it more practical.

[Guest guest]

Here is a site you might like to check out if you are interested in the voucher issue or about the control government has over our education in this country.

http://www.sepschool.org/

 

Govindarupini