tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606201113344523885.post512415735215194424..comments2024-03-28T00:46:19.476-04:00Comments on Religion & American Law: Opening societal debate through the free exercise rightBrantley Gasawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894338478934982958noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606201113344523885.post-71580312564735228612016-04-05T21:53:19.058-04:002016-04-05T21:53:19.058-04:00I completely agree with both of you. I don't t...I completely agree with both of you. I don't think that religion has a place in schools and no religious materials should be allowed to be distributed. By opening up the school as an open forum for religious materials the school is violating the Establishment Clause by allowing religious messages to be publicly presented during the school day. However, like you've both said, the school already allowed the bibles to be distributed and makes no mention in their rules that religious materials are restricted, so in order to not form an establishment they must allow any other religious materials donated to be distributed until they change the policy and restrict religious materials being distributed at all. To allow the bibles and not allow the materials from the atheist group and The Satanic Temple would undoubtably constitute an establishment of religion by the school by only allowing the views of one group to be displayed. The religious message doesn't matter when dealing with neutrality and I agree that the argument cannot be made that TST's material can be restricted because it goes against Christianity since Christianity just as equally goes against the teachings of TST. Sara G.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01321061951171721833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606201113344523885.post-4153125482526797602016-04-05T15:23:03.107-04:002016-04-05T15:23:03.107-04:00I agree with both you Caroline, and Kaily. Becaus...I agree with both you Caroline, and Kaily. Because other religious groups could hand out their materials, when the school district tried to prevent the Satanist group from handing out their materials, they were clearly showing preference to more traditional American religions such as Christianity or Judaism. Because of this, since the school seemed to be preferring most religions over this Satanic religion, there was a clear establishment of religion in this school system, which since it is public is part of the government. In this case I agree that if the school chose to allow religious groups to distribute materials, all religious groups should have that same right, no matter if they are in the minority or majority. I do think that generally, religion should have no place in public schools generally because children are so easily influenced. I think that I was wrong for religious organizations to use the space of the public schools, during school hours, to advance their religious agendas and I think that in the future a movement should be made to disallow religious groups from handing out materials on school property during the school day.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18302745607127414159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606201113344523885.post-70059324005633537642016-04-04T23:01:04.870-04:002016-04-04T23:01:04.870-04:00Caroline, I am in complete agreement with you. Th...Caroline, I am in complete agreement with you. The public school in Colorado was already allowing for some religions to distribute literature to their students. Thus, in order to respect the Establishment Clause, and not favor certain religions over others, all groups must be allowed to distribute literature. Although Satanists are arguably “disparaging to other religions” I think this could be said of all religions. Meaning, every religion clashes in one way or another. For example, Christianity is a monotheistic religion where there is only one God. Thus, does Hinduism “disparage” Christianity because it is a religion believing in many Gods? I highly doubt this to be the case. To that end, Satanists prioritize individuality and believe that oneself is the most important person, a God if you will. So, although religions will never agree with one another, how can the government, with the Establishment Clause in place, say which religious principles are valid? Furthermore, I think there is much validity in being exposed to viewpoints which are not commonplace and even possibly hurtful. The importance of being exposed to opinions we don't agree with is being able to articulate why we don’t agree with them. To strengthen an argument you must dedicate time in trying to understand the other perspective. Thus, to shelter students from this experience of being exposed to all religious literature is to hinder their ability to practice making opinions and being able to articulate them.Kaily Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09201823993557019181noreply@blogger.com