Should children recite the Lord's Prayer at the start of every school day?

2013-02-11T20:05:14Z

I saw this on Facebook recent - a graphic with only the above question on it. 'Like' for yes, 'Comment' for no.

I'm too chickenshit to response directly to the friend who posted it (he's someone I work with who I do not know very well), so I will do so here.

Short answer: no. I cannot believe this question is even being asked any more. Not because I hate Christianity, or hate Christians. Religion is important to them, and I can respect that. However, this is a problematic request for a few reasons.

Canada is a multi-cultural country. This means that we have people of various races, with various beliefs, living as citizens here and raising their children. Many of them are not Christian, and will raise their children under a different religion (or under no religion). Having a Christian prayer in school will give those children the impression that 'this is the NORMAL religion and mine is weird or different'. Also, I am certain that the families in question consider their religion as important as Christians consider theirs. Privileging one over the other as if to say 'this one is BETTER' is not right (at the very least, we shouldn't put this attitude in the heads of impressionable children).

For the record, stating that 'well, it's OUR country, not theirs, they should adapt to our culture or GTFO' is so wrong that I don't even want to address it. However, even if it were true, the Christian religion is not a part of the Canadian culture.

I know that Christianity is the majority religion and that it's become sort of second nature for many Christians to normalize it as a part of (everyone's) every day life. But religion really isn't something that should be broadcast far and wide in everyone's faces as if we all were a part of it (or should be a part of it). The forced normalization of the Christian religion - it being in your face whether you like it or not, being pushed as something we all need to adopt - is the reason why there is why so many people have such a negative attitude towards the religion in general (well, that and the prejudices). It comes across as smugly self-righteous and rigidly controlling.

In reality, religion is a personal thing, and each person has the right to his/her own belief system. It's fine to be open about it, but to push it onto others as the 'normal' or 'right' thing is obnoxious.

So... yeah, no thanks. Keep it out of the public school system, okay?

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Random facebook rant

2012-11-19T21:43:45Z

So, I support gay marriage, want a cure for cancer, believe that child/animal/domestic abuse needs to be wiped out, and I love my mother/grandmother/siblings/friends/*insert important type of person*.

However! I can do this without clicking 'like' on a picture someone posted on Facebook! Or reposting it! Or... whatever else is related to it!

I mean, it's cool that people want to post images supporting their favorite causes, or proclaiming how much they love the important people in their lives. I seriously don't mind this, sometimes I even smile when I see it and think 'aw, that's sweet' before browsing on. Because everyone's different, and just because I don't like to post that stuff doesn't mean that no one should.

What I find irritating is when the picture or the description of the picture says something along the lines of "Like & share this if you love your grandmother! Keep scrolling if you hate her and wish she dies and are a terrible person, blah blah blah, whatever".

This is obnoxious, because - well, duh, I love my grandmother! Most people freakin' do! I mean, there will be some who don't, but we're talking about something that is going to apply to a vast majority of people. The clumsy attention pandering and obvious mentality of "I want my picture to get spread across the internet so I'm going to try and make it so that people feel guilty for not sharing it" really get on my nerves.

Me scrolling past your picture doesn't mean I hate my grandmother, or don't want a cure for cancer, or think animal abuse is okay, or whatever else you want to put on there to try and force others to share. It means I don't like sharing every random ass thing that pops up in my notifications.

So... stop it. Seriously. Don't share this crap. Let it die out quietly, and hope that it helps to discourage at least one attention whore from this guilt-tripping BS.

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Should children recite the Lord's Prayer at the start of every school day?

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