Religion too personal for school (woodbine) 5.16.02

Tradition is wonderful, isn't it? Gives us all something to do over and over again without considering why. Like Christmas trees. Where do they come from? Not the Bible, that's for sure.
Tradition makes it easier to claim outside forces or wicked little malcontents are oppressing us and trying to destroy our way of life when they insist we follow another tradition like the separation of church and state. That's a little regarded American tradition established to PROTECT everyone's right to worship at the altar of their choice without the tyranny of the majority forcing its views upon us.
We tend to lose sight of that and assume it is only the atheist or the communist that somehow wants to keep religion out of our very secular, very public schools, but it isn't. Anybody with religion on their mind should want to keep religion sacred and out of the secular arena.
Woodbine will be holding their graduation today after a bit of a tussle over whether or not it was cool to be singing the Lord's Prayer at graduation ceremonies for what has been described as quite a long time. "It's the will of the majority," they say and shouldn't the majority be able to promote whatever religion they feel is best? No, because religion is personal and no one is abusing you by not allowing you to force your views on them.
It isn't right for the Lord's Prayer to be recited, sung, pantomimed, acted out with puppets or animated by "Simpsons" creator Matt Groenig in a public school ceremony. Most people know this on some gut level when you ask the question right. "Would you mind ME forcing MY religion down YOUR throat?" Then they get it and mind very much.
Before that, we are treated to endless rationalizations about why it is OK for the majority to make their religion dominant though the term "mob mentality" has never been a compliment.
Keeping school and religion separate should be sacred to all of us and the reasons should be clear as well. Since they have once again gotten lost in the shuffle, I will be happy to go over again why it is to every single American's advantage in the long run to not force religious beliefs on other people. Primarily, what comes around goes around and if you want to maintain your right to worship or not worship how you want to, don't open the secular door to religion because you cannot control who is going to want to walk through it next.
There are plenty of religious people out there who think women should keep their mouths shut, do what their husbands tell them and stay out of the work force and they are not all Islamic extremists in foreign lands, some of them call Jesus their Lord and live right here in the U.S.
We could waste time on the details of the Woodbine case, but that is a mistake. The issue does not require a discussion of the ICLU sticking its nose into local affairs. They were asked for help. Enough said.
We could get into the debate about whether two students should be allowed to cause this much strife. Well, the size of the group complaining doesn't make them right or wrong. Civil Rights leaders, abolitionists and black people in general were in the minority when it came to seeking freedom and equality yet history has proven their rabble-rousing to have been justified.
Jesus himself was in the minority, did that make him wrong?
Religion in our public schools is a bad idea not because there is anything wrong with religion, but because we all have our own ideas about that should remain inviolable.
Every time someone tries to justify squeezing some religion through the cracks, we end up with a situation like we have in Woodbine where rational thought is lost in tangents and minor details.
We could address the ICLU sticking its nose into local affairs as if they were outsiders who should mind their own business. But they were asked in.
We could get into the debate over whether two students should be allowed to disrupt a tradition the majority seem to be into, but numbers don't determine who is right.
We could talk about how this got started because so many kids wanted to keep the Lord's Prayer in the ceremony when the school board was planning to cancel it.
We could get into a debate about whether or not anyone is being forced to sing religious songs when they could have simply chosen not to participate.
But the fact remains that in the United States we took it upon ourselves to keep our religion and our government separate because we didn't want anyone getting between us and God and now suddenly we have it all backwards and think the separation of church and state is the problem.
Well, the only thing keeping this country from going over the edge into the same kind of whacked out religious fundamentalism we see so clearly in our enemies is that occasionally people like the Skarins and the Iowa Civil Liberties Union take it upon themselves to make some noise.
It is the easiest thing in the world to not rock the boat, but it isn't very American. Sitting on the sidelines and letting events roll over us is not what our Founding Fathers were preaching about, why should we feel differently today?
I subscribe to something Jesus himself said about public prayer and that is it's preferable one should pray at home in private than loudly and publicly so as not to confuse grandstanding with faith
We tend to overlook those parts of the Bible when we are getting our religion on, don't we?
Suggesting the Skarins should have just decided to sit this one out due to their conflict with singing the Lord's Prayer isn't very American in my book.
Should kids who don't like getting beat up by jocks stay out of gym class? Perhaps students who don't agree with the majority political view should stay out of debate club?
Maybe students who don't agree with the majority religious view should just go start their own special parochial schools. Oh wait, that's what we're supposed to do when we WANT to have religion in schools. Hmmm, I guess alternatives DO exist.
In spite of the rhetoric of those who claim the majority of Woodbine residents are being oppressed by the whims of the very few, the Skarins were right, the court knew it, the Woodbine school board knew it before the fight started and it took some guts to do something about it.
- Greg Jerrett is a Nonpareil staff writer. His column runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays. He may be contacted at 328-1811, Ext. 279, or by e-mail at gjerrett@nonpareilonline.com.