Since when do pagans have religious freedoms?

[elfs]

Via Ed Brayton comes this charming little story out of Virginia. It seems that the school system there has an open forum policy on teacher-parent communication folders (we get these from Yamaraashi-chan's class every week; Kouryou-chan's school just uses email), which basically says that any parent who has a child in the school may put non-commercial public notes into the communications folder. This has mostly been exploited by the local churches to advertise upcoming church events.

Last week, however, a local pagan group wanted their own flier put into the backpacks. The uproar was predictable, and loud. One parent wrote to the school board: "They [the school officials] aren't endorsing or sponsoring this? Then it shouldn't have been included in the Friday folders. The Friday folders have never been used for any thing other than school work and school board and/or County sanctioned/sponsored programs... A 'pagan ritual' is an educational experience my children don't need." A local minister said that this was clearly "another sign that Christians ought to leave the public schools."

Here's the punchline: the policy was put in place by Jerry Falwell's legal group. It seems that a church wanted to advertise their "vacation bible school" in the communications folders, and the school board was refusing to let them until Falwell's Liberty Counsel stepped in and threatened a lawsuit.

Second punchline: this happened only two months ago, and was a big deal at the time.

How amazingly short the memories, and narrow the minds.

Comments

[adaveen.livejournal.com]

You know, Elf - I'm so fed up with these religious right folks. They make me want to just weep or get violent, but you just can't let it get to you. Violence is never an answer and weeping won't help.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

To answer the question in the subject line, since way the hell before a certain Rabbi walked the earth. And if Jerry wanking Fallwell doesn't like it, he can go rot in the private hell he has surely created for himself.

I don't know if I've told this one where you can hear it or not... I don't know if you remember the story of the Good Samaritan? It would do Mr. Fallwell well to remember that a Samaritan was a good old-fashioned Baal-worshipping PAGAN... and that the Rabbi, who had full creative control over his story (no studios saying more sex here!), deliberately chose that character as the person his audience was supposed to love. Not the likes of Mr. Fallwell, who is probably the next best thing to a Pharisee we have in this beloved yet desparately screwed up country of ours.

[blaisepascal]

Please cite a reference to the idea that Samaritans were "good old-fashioned Baal-worshiping PAGANs". Every soruce I've seen say that the Samaritans were (and are) an early offshoot of Judaism that ended up not getting along well with what became mainstream Judaism. Their beliefs include there being a single deity, which is the same one spoken of by the Judaic prophets. A major difference in belief between Judaism and Samaritism is not who God is, but rather where His temple should be.

[tagryn]

I believe you're correct on the Samaritans:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritan

Historical discussion of the worship of Ba'al is complicated, though, since the Ba'al of Carthaginian origins was far from the only deity given that name through history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

I *know* that I should assume stupidity before malice. I know it. But in cases like this, I find it hard to credit this entirely to stupidity. Some of the people reacting must know exactly why there's an open policy.

The Christian minister's response was actually fairly reasonable, given his goals. "Oh, right. I guess they can do that if we do this. Well, the only way around that is to use private institutions, so we should stop using public institutions." I don't support his goals, but his methods are okay.

I wonder what the result of this furor will be, if anything.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

What blows my mind is the woman who wrote, "The Friday folders have never been used for any thing other than school work and school board sanctioned programs." Either she believed that the church materials she received in previous weeks was either (a) sanctioned or (b) so much background noise that she could ignore, a sign her community was (in her mind) "healthy" in much the same way that we don't notice when we don't itch. The pagans made her itch, and now she's reacting.

[velvet-wood.livejournal.com]

A local minister said that this was clearly "another sign that Christians ought to leave the public schools."

Are you familiar with the saying, "Don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out?" That was the first thing I thought when I read that line. Looking at it personally, my son would be happier and probably get a better education if every religious nutcase pulled their (thoroughly brain-washed by the time they start kindergarten anyway) children out of public school. I feel sorry for the poor kids, but there's not a hell of a lot you can do for them, anyway, except hope they go to college and eventually realize the depth of bullshit in which they've been immersed their entire lives.

I really don't think that would be in our best interest

[norincraft.livejournal.com]

To me, this is disturbing for a couple of reasons. It presumes that by self-segregation we will avoid conflicts and it also assumes that the consequences are minimal.

I don’t think that’s true.

The sort of people who believe at every turn comes the assault on Christianity are, in large part, the same people who believe Global Warming is just hoax cooked up by the “liberal media”. They are the same people who work under a view that we are divinely guided to the war in Iraq. Avoid the argument only puts off the inevitable.

Additionally, it is very much worth reconsidering their influence, which is far beyond what their number would suggest. Other than the schools normally open to homeschooled students, there is a college specifically for homeschoolers (Patrick Henery College (http://www.phc.edu/academics/internship.asp) for Christ and for Liberty) with interships (http://www.phc.edu/academics/apprenticeship.asp) to government offices. If you look at the list, it’s heavily skewed to the right. And the numbers of interships are also far beyond what a school of that size, age and caliber would suggest. Again, avoiding the argument only puts off the inevitable. Only then, it will be with people who have experience and access you and your kids don’t.

[(Anonymous)]

My understanding of the term "pagan" is simply a religion that is not officially recognised. However dictionary.com has some ideas:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pagan

I don't believe hedonistic for a second which leaves a couple interesting options:
"Polytheistic" which is hardly evil.
"A religion other than Christianity, Jewish and Muslim" which is again hardly evil. (Hindu?)

I'll stick with my definition.