When teachers forbid children talking abt Godwanting them to talk about witche

That is so wrong. We do have religious schools here in Canada, a lot of Roman Catholic schools, and we are also getting that way here to. We have the Human Rights Commission that says any life style is right unless it is Christianity. I have also seen what has gone in the States, since the 1950s or rather the 1960s when the hippies came in and believed in nature, etc. Now they are in power. Things are going to get worse before they get better and sometimes I feel as if there is a point of no return. I hope it does not get to the point when Christians will actually be killed as they are in the Islam and pagan countries and people would be cheering.

Dear suspenseful, I really don't know what you are talking about. Most countries in the Western World are still Christian countries. If you look at the last census in Canada most of the population is either protestant or catholic. The numbers are about evenly divided. Then comes the Muslim population with 1.5% of the population which at 35 Million Canadians works out to 525 00, then the Jewish population which is about 1% or about 350 000. Then there are equally small numbers in percentage of Sikh and Hindu. So do not fear no one is going to hunt you down and burn you because you are Christion. Also things work a little different her than in the USA. After all we are a different country.

The trouble is that it was not a whole bunch of them atheists got together and picketed the schools or marched enmasse to congress and said "We demand that no mention of God in the school" It was just one person complaining that his or her son or daughter was being offended by hearing prayers. But then you have the rub, even if a whole bunch of Christians got together and picketed thre schools or marched enmasse to congress and said, "We demand that God be allowed in the school", and if one person complainted that his or her son or daughter was being offended by not hearing prayers, the government would not do anything about it. So it really is not fair.

no its not fair that this started with just one silly person and then we have got so politcal correct that it really sometimes I want to puke!. They dont say a prayer at this school but take 30 secs of silence to say toyourself what you will.

That is what it seems like, talking to yourself like the Pharisee did when he was in the temple. I would bet a lot of people in that moment of silence are not praying to God to bless the ceremony or whatever, but are thinking what they are going to have for dinner.

That is what I figure. Whenever someone here on myLot says that Wicca is just Satan worship, all the Wicca members get together and gang up on him or her. So it is a religion. Actually humanism is also religion, worship of man, and atheism worship of nothing, if one wants to get into particulars.

It sure is. And it is much older then you think. I heard there was such a thing in the 18th century and many of the upper crust belonged to Satanist organizations. It does make you scared, does it not?

Oh and don't forget Satanism..Thats a religion now too!!!!Haha....

The trouble is that by allowing other religions to have their special days, wear their special insignias, and maybe talk about how Allah protected a Muslim child out in the desert, how Buddha held a Chinese kid become calm, and yet forbid a Christian child talk about baby Jesus in the manger (I have no idea what he wanted to say or what his parents wanted to say) you are being discriminatory. The reason they give is that maybe the Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan, Atheist kid does not want to hear about Christ and yet Christians are not allowed to discriminate. They have to hear about those other beliefs. Do they want the Christians to forsake Christ and follow another religion? I think they do. In some cases, Christian parents have to pay a large tuition to get their children to attend private schools or home school them. OH and I heard there are also Hebrew schools for Jewish children and I suppose in the Chinese schools they teach about Confuscious. And I gather that if a parent does not want to have their child know about God, they could turn off the Tv when they sing "God Bless America," But what if the child wants to know about God? It does make it rather strange to me.

I know in Colleges and Universities they have religious studies. But I think in schools, unless it is a particular religious schools, they can teach simple things such as Sikhs wear turbans because, Brahmans worship many gods, Jews are waiting for the Messiah, just like when I went to school, many were Christians or nominal Christians, but we did learn basics like Jews going to church on Saturday, the Roman Catholics wear crucifixes around their necks, not trying to convert *(you live your life and show by example and or you invite them to church)but giving them a little information so they know what to expect. But if the bible is read in school, the teachers think they are converted. HOwever I know that I listened to the Lord's Prayer and yet my heart still was wrong until I went to the church I go to now.

Well I totally agree with you it wasn't about the history then leave it out of the classroom or teach all of them an you are right about most woman that were burned at the stake they were not witches but I strongly believe if you are going to teach one teach them all

sounds the same way I grew up also we were taght a little of everyhing but also taught to respect them no matter race ,creed , relgeion, an to respect people for who thy are not what they are

Ah but that following orders did not excuse the German soldiers who sent the Jews to the Nazis under Hitler's regime, didn't it? I also doubt that the government said you cannot talk about God or Jesus Christ in the school. After all, what happens if they start talking about the Pilgrims, or what they used to call part of North America, King James's Land, and then talk about King James authorizing the Bible? Do they then make up their own history, just like the Communists used to do in the Soviet Union? Do they get rid of the history books, and since Gutenberg invented the Printing Press and the first thing he printed was the Bible, maybe they should go back to writing on wood tablets by hand since they do not want anything to do with the Bible. You see, if you get rid of Christianity, you may as well go back to the times when the things that Christians got rid of come back. And I do not want to see that happen.

Well I happen to be a Christian but from what I heard about the interpretation of the old Celtic religions, how certain pagan beliefs are very similar like with worshiping nature, and the fact that so many people are a mixture, it seems those religions came from the worship of nature or the creature rather then the Creator. So no one could say "I worship Ceres," since there would be others who said "what, i worship Freiga (excuse the spelling) since the old Greek religion and the old Nordic religion are not official anymore, so they kind of combine them along with the Old Celtic religion and call it Wicca. It would be easier for them to turn to Christianity and avoid all that confusion.

Oh yes she surely met a bad ending..I know that wherever she is she knows that now....Like you if i would have stayed at my 13th year mindset, i would be in trouble now..LOL

[b] Amen, Slick! You are 100% correct. I actually saw O'hare once, in a local grocery store we apparently both frequented. She spotted the crucifix I had hanging around my neck, & I'll never forget the loathing on her face. It literally stopped her in her tracks. I also caught her on her local access channel show once, with someone else, smearing Christians. I prayed for her, but there are some people even God lets go, if they push Him away hard & long enough. I wasn't at all surprised at her sorry ending. Here's a tidbit about her that I found revealing. She said she became an atheist at the age of 13, & had never changed her mind (or much of anything else) since that day. I think she was at least in her late 50s when she made that remark, & I thought to myself, "My goodness! I remember a lot of things I thought when I was 13, & I'm sure glad I don't have that mindset now! I've matured a lot! (Whew!) Something hurt that woman's soul horribly at that time, & it is to the child who was somehow warped at that time that I reach for when I try to forgive her. I saw a glimpse of that little girl, once. A reporter noted that churches would send carolers to her home at Christmas, to share the Christmas spirit. "What do yo do when that happens," he asked. Her reply? "Oh I love the songs! I just turn out my lights & listen!" So now, I ask God to take that hurt child & forgive her sad soul. Imagine the force for God & goodness a person of her dedication could have been! It makes me cry for her. Maggiepie "WHERE'S THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE?"[/b]

No it was not that. The teacher did not want the child to tell a story of the Bible or to show how much God had done for him. But she wanted the child to tell a story about witches like the kind that fly on broomsticks. It was like when I was in elementary school, if there was a rule about separation of church and state, taken to the extent that that teacher decided (no Bible, no talk of God, etc.) if that teacher had lived back in the 1950s and a child decided to tell about Moses and the Burning Bush, or how we helped the poor people by giving money on Sunday," that teacher would have told the child to tell a story about Bambi, or Snow White.

You're welcome. You made a lot of sense in that you agreed that a belief in something becomes a religion. Of course I never liked Harry Potter, because I have two sons who when they were small wanted to take chances like wanting to jump down the basement steps (concrete floor) and who knows what they would have done if they read about Harry Potter flying on a broom, probably would have gotten on a roof and jumped off to see if they could fly. Besides getting whopped by the whopping willow would have been dangerous.

And thank you for the best response..

At least that is according to the Bible, which, as all religious books, were written by men.

I think the parents should be the ones who decide unless it is how to make a bomb and how to overthrow the government with violence type of literature. I cannot see how a teacher can deny a part of American's heritage that came from the Bible and want to replace it with a fairy tale story of witches like Hansel and Gretel. I mean what values are they telling the children and how long has it been going on? No wonder we have discussions from people who say there is no God or blame God for everything. They learned it in the public schools.

Maggie, you and I usualy agree on most things. But i feel the need to challenge you on something here. "have no right to force non-witch children to read that stuff," I take personal offense to that. There is something you should understand about the Wiccan religion, we don't "force" ANYONE, or even persuade people to "read our stuff". We don't preach to others, we don't recruit and we don't try to drag anyone in to our faith. In fact, most of us are very private about it and the only way you are going to find out about us or our faith is to ask one of us. One of the tennats of our religion is that there is no one right path for every one and that one's spiritual journey is as individual as each person and we all must find the path for that journey on our own, no one can lead us to it. Yes, there have been court cases and we finaly won our battle for recognition in the 80's. Next to Judeism, we are probably one of the most persecuted religions in world history.

And they do do it to Muslim as we aren't allowed to make salaat in class either you know? I feel public school is not the venue for religion anyway but one should be free to practice his/her religious beliefs as he/she chooses..

Simple. The teacher thinks even saying the word Bible or the word Christ is teaching religion. She was not against religious teachings, she was against Christianity so I suppose in her school, you could talk about worshiping trees or adoring the sands of the sea or polka dot dresses as long as you do not mention Jesus Christ, the Bible, etc. Actually in America, you do not have an official country religion, so no one from another country can say "ah you are American, therefore you are a Jehovah Witness " unlike someone from England, they assume you are Anglican until you say otherwise.

Read my comment above yours and it explains all you asked in your response.

That is what I figured. If Wicca is considered a religion, why does the teacher forbid anyone sharing their Wiccan beliefs, or their Muslim, Buddhist, Shinto, Jewish beliefs? I am sure that each has their own holy book, the Muslims have the Koran, I think the Shintos have Confucius, Jews have the Torah. Yet it seems that only Christianity is singled out. That is unfair and surely in the case of Islams, there are probably hundreds in America who would want that to be the official religion of the country.

I am afraid that is the problem. I am not an American but I read so many things that made me wonder about this Obama and also about what he might do. Unfortunately what he did was what should have made Americans not elect him, but they were more interested in having an anti-Bush and believing that race is more important then morals and that a good voice and glib manner can make up for inexperience and bad decisions. I hate to see what America will be in four years. I certainly do not want Communist China to be the financial giant in the world. I do hope that Americans can fight for the Constitution while they still can.

Oh I think she interpreted is that it is all right for children to be Muslims, Buddhists, Pagans, Wiccas, Shaosts, Taosts, worship trees and grass, as long as they are not Christians. I do not know if she forbade another child who was Muslim from telling a story about Mohammed. Besides I am the type who believe that much of our culture comes from the Bible, and if you take that away, you might as well say "Thou can kill," "Thou can commit adultery" etc. Kill meaning murder, of course. It also depends on whether the teacher believes the Bible stories are true. I would suppose if someone took her to Israel and showed part of a wall that Solomon built, she would not believe it. She probably believes that Hercules and those ancient Greek gods were real, though.

We really should be hard on teachers and principals. All they need to do is to read the Constitution. I know it refers to not having a major official belief in the States and I am not an American. And I think they have to get over their idea of being sued. There are a few organizations that will stand up for them if they say that it is all right for a child to read a passage from the Bible or to sing "Jesus Loves Me." The desire of those against the Bible, is to take not just the Bible out of public life, but what it stands for. And once they get of the Bible, they will start on the Koran, the Talmud, and other religous books until they get the immoral world where "every man does what is right in his own eyes,' with no fear of being reprimanded and punished.

We have private Christian schools and some parents home school, but for some children especially children with non godly or Atheistic parents, they only heard about God when the principal said the Lord's Prayer. And I am sure that once they got home, their parents would turn off the radio when there was a religious program, or make sure that they drive so the children cannot see a church. So those kids never had a chance and by the time they are teen agers, they are lost.