Ten Commandments In Public Schools

May 13, 2013 Subscribe · Forward Why Everyone Should Oppose Ten Commandments In Public Schools – Especially Religious People Christianity is under attack! The sense of Christian victimhood has been ramping up in recent months. While conservative Christian intimidation by the rising acceptance of gay marriage has been more in the spotlight, a recent case of Ten Commandments plaques in an Oklahoma public school system has become a new rallying point. Every classroom in the Muldrow, Oklahoma district has a plaque with the Ten Commandments affixed to the wall. Recently an atheist student named Gage Pulliam contacted the Freedom From Religion Foundation, who then wrote a letter to the district demanding that the plaques be taken down and warning that they represent a violation of the U.S. Constitution. Pulliam, who originally wanted to remain anonymous and has now revealed his identity, told Patheos that he and his sister have now faced verbal harassment and been threatened with violence. He explains that his intention is not to attack Christianity as local pastors and Christian students have insisted, instead Gage says: "I want people to know this isn't me trying to attack religion. This is me trying to create an environment for kids where they can feel equal." That seems fair. And he is, of course, completely right that the plaques should be taken down. The establishment clause of the First Amendment is clear in this case. Posting The Ten Commandments in a public enterprise such as public schools or courtrooms does establish a religious privilege for Christianity (and maybe Judaism... but not really) -- especially when unaccompanied by similar central texts from other religious and humanist traditions. But even more compelling to me, as an ordained minister and practicing Christian, is the religious argument for why it is so important not to have the Ten Commandments plaques. It was, after all, a religious argument that made the case for the establishment clause in the first place.  Continue reading... SHAME: Builders Bulldoze 2,300 Year Old Mayan Pyramid Don't Judge A Book Of Mormon By Its Cover Transcendence Or Immanence? School Outraged Over Request To Remove Ten Commandments Plaques From Classroom Walls Pope Francis Names Hundreds Of New Saints It Took Him Four Years, But He Wrote Out The Entire Bible By Hand Pope Francis Names Hundreds Of New Saints The Radical History Of Mothers Day Psychic Responds To Criticism Over Falsely Predicting Amanda Berry's Death School Outraged Over Request To Remove Ten Commandments Plaques From Classroom Walls HARRY BOYTE Wilderness Politics: Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change In the face of the climate crisis, many express panic. The biblical story of the years in the Wilderness, in which the fractious and "stiff-necked" people of Israel agreed to a covenant with God and created a new way of life, offers solutions to the challenge. Continue reading... ALISON OWINGS Racist Redskin: Resolving Anglo Ignorance About Naming Natives In the evolving American consciousness, where there's growing support for illegal immigrants who want U.S. citizenship and for gays who want wedlock, the same impulse apparently does not recognize that the word redskins is reprehensible and offensive to (most) Native Americans. Continue reading... PETER A. GEORGESCU Defeat, Humility, Joy A remarkable book about Russian monks, published last year, reads like something from the middle of the 19th century. You feel transported back in time to the era of Russian faith that gave birth to Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Yet, the non-fiction tales collected in "Everyday Saints" are entirely contemporary. Continue reading... ALI A. RIZVI Why I Call Myself an 'Atheist Muslim' Just like Judaism is a religion that can exist independently from Jewish ethnicity or Jewish culture, Islam is a religion, and even though Muslims are ethnically and racially varied, there really is such a thing as a Muslim culture that can exist separately from Islam. Continue reading... RABBI MARC SCHNEIER Shavuot and the Chosen Shavuot, holiday commemorates revelation at Sinai when the Jews were chosen by God to receive the Ten Commandments, will commence Tuesday evening. This idea, that the Jews are the chosen people, is one of the most misunderstood concepts in history. Continue reading... Received this from a friend? Sign up for alerts from The Huffington Post here. Unsubscribe here. Huffington Post, 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003