I would disagree. All I live with these days is hope, and I see and live on lots of prayers.

Our school choir sang religious songs last week. They were beautiful and no one came and stopped them.

Our founding fathers' messages are still there in our documents, but they are slightly different than many realize. They spoke of a divine providence. That is what they believed was right for our country, getting away from social structures where rulers were considered deity, making sure our rulers were viewed as human, that the people knew there was a power greater than our rulers.

Those are is still in our documents and will always be there.

I have prayed in school and many other public places. Kids pray there all the time, but just not prayers commanded, their own prayers from their hearts and minds sent to our creator for guidance. When I was a teacher long ago I was told to say prayers and read the Bible before class, certain readings I would not have read if I had spoken from my heart rather than what I was commanded to speak. To me, that was not freedom of religion, and I am very religious and spiritual.

Love, Carol

I am very pro seperation of church and state. Prayer should not be mandated in schools; prayer, religion, and spirituality should be a personal choice, not something that's mandated. If kids want to pray in school let them pray, but prayer should not be forced. The kids that have "gone amuck" and shot their parents and classmates with guns are the rare exception, not the rule. It's just that cases like that tend to make the news, because like it or not, bad news sells. Strict discipline and corporal punishment will not automatically make things better; it will just put more pressure on kids and being under tremendous academic, social, and other pressures is in my opinion a major contributing cause to why kids "snap" and go crazy shooting up schools, ect. As a society we need to understand that putting too much pressure on our youth will have negative consequences. And one more thing, people pledge allegance to the flag and to their nation; has anyone considered the idea that we the people of the earth should pledge allegance to the universe and humanity in its totality.

Gordon said,

"has anyone considered the idea that we the people of the earth should pledge allegance to the universe and humanity in its totality."

Good idea. We are all stewards of the earth and need to reach out to others.

Carol

I'm in agreement with Gordon.
Being forced to do participate in a doctrine is unacceptable. Sitting in a class where various doctrines are discussed is educational.
I have known kids whose parents were preachers, become the worst in behavior. Perhaps it was rebellion. Being forced to go to church, to pray, to memorize scriptures along with the threat of hell fire for failure to comply is cause for resistance. Where is the free will?

Yes, it is true that kids need discipline, but like anything else going too far into the extreme is not good. If kids are too rectricted they tend to rebel and the more restricted they are the more likely they are to rebel. Coropral punishment only works because it teaches children to live in fear and behave themselves out of fear. Ultimately children should learn to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, not because of fear of punishment. As a society we need to get away from a fear based culture, fear based religions, ect.

Good post Gordon.

Freedom is freedom. It is not easy. There will always be those who take it to an extreme and hopefully they will be taken into account. There is little crime in some Communist countries, but I'll take freedom any day. It is all part of a balance, a difficult one we are all responsible for.

Carol

Everyone who has responded to our guest, Semmaste, has spoken well, I believe. Surely recent events are showing us that we can no longer think in terms of separate nations with different gods, but are all members of a universe guided by a single, Universal Intelligence, and that seeing ourselves as separate is where all our problems and wars are coming from.

Just me.

Ann

One of the neat things about pictures like this one is that you have to realize that there are no lines between nations. Such lines are artificial. they don't really exist.




Ann