The free practice of religion, as clearly specified in the Free Exercise Clause of the Constitution, cannot be prohibited for any reason (such as the location of the free practice). Persecution of Christians in the USA happens daily. Everytime a teacher is told not to bring their Bible to school, everytime a student who brings their Bible to school is told to put it away, everytime a university cuts funding to Christian groups and bans them because they violate unconstitution "anti-discrimination" policies, Christians are persecuted. Federal lawsuits have been filed to stop these types of things from happening, so please stop saying that they don't happen.
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You have the right to practice your religon. However, the government owns all public schools, and since it's their property they decide weither or not you can teach your religon at school. Christianity is not being persecuted because they are not teaching all the other creation myths in school. This arugment is just as vaild as saying right masterbaters are under attack because they will be arrested if they do it in public.
Okay, fair enough, provided a Satanist be allowed to do the equivelant. Oh, and provided atheists get to tell kids there's no God.
Persecution is denying you property rights and other legal rights; forcing you into highly limited jobs and/or paying you only a fraction of what others earn in those jobs; allowing people to assault you, steal from you, and burn your property without any expectation of justice being done; or just declaring you subhuman and treating you like vermin to be exterminated. THAT is persecution.not "persecution."
~David D.G.
A 30-second lesson in constitutional law: are the government. Point 2 applies in the context of this power so long as it's being used.
The core lesson in one easy sentence: "We all have the right to practice, but that means you sometimes can't abuse power."
You want real, anti-christian persecution? Come knock on my door proseletizing, I'll persecute the living shit out of you.
Oh, good. My religion require that I yell fire in crowded Christian mega-churches and that I murder religious leaders. Remember, CPTBman, you can't stop me from practicing my religion.
You forget the maxim, they are free to exercise their religion, their limits are, nonetheless, THE SAME RIGHTS OTHERS HAVE TO EXERCISE THEIR SAME OWN RIGHT. Second, don´t invent alternative bizarro universe. Nobody forbids you to bring a Bible to school, as long as it´s used for you and on your own, or with a group of people who have CHOSEN freely to do so. What they do forbid is to use it TO USE IT AS A TOOL OF HARRASSING OR UNFAIR PROSELITING. Second, don´t forget that the Universities are private institutions. If they don´t agree with the practice of their groups because they discriminate against people(and not thinking in homosexuals, who never join them, just some who discriminate women or minorities for example), they can feel free to use their money as they please.
Actually, it reminds me of an anecdote who occured to me exactly a year ago. When I was teaching Spanish in Tenessee, I befriended a very nice moderate Baptist girl who introduced me her cousin, the typical holier-than-thou idiot. He fancied me and I a little(don´t ask me why but I was not going serious). Anyway, he declared that the problem is that he didn´t date people outside his faith(I´m a Catholic)and I did know that his pastors didn´t yoke blokes to unbelievers. He suggested me to join one of his Bible classes and, eventually, convert, which I declined. To make the story short, I married later on my current husband, whose mother is an Irish Catholic and his father is a Greek-Cypriot and Eastern Orthodox(my husband himself is Catholic)and we encountered him again because we went to my friend´s wedding. When he saw me with my hubby, took me apart and asked me why I was so mean and hypocritical to marry an Orthodox and convert when he offered me to be saved. I clarified what happened and reminded him that it was he who imposed me to convert because he didn´t want to yoke to an unbeliever. Guess what?, he repeated a similar speech to this guy, saying, in all freshness, that I was the proof that he, as a Christian, was persecuted because I renounced to his "gift" of salvation(his Bible classes I guess). Of course, later on I learnt through his cousin that he was divorced from his "saved" Christian wife and that was very embittered since then but I guess that he is just another religious fundie.
Actually, Christians are given quite a bit of freedom, at least where I live (Alabama). In middle school, a group of Fundies tried to convert one of my friends (a self-proclaimed goth, and an avid Marilyn Manson fan) in history class. No one made them stop. And not only did they read Bibles, they gave me one and told me to go to church. No one made them stop, though I started to get a bit annoyed.
And It reminds me of yesterday too, when I had to explain to my cousins why a friend of mine stopped giving money to a NGO because they fired two of its members, one for being in favour of the Good Friday Treaty and the other for being married to a protestant. I explained that the same basis for not preventing that organisation from doing whatever they want(freedom of conscience and the fact that it´s a private organisation), applies to my friend. He´s a private institution himself who freely gives money to this NGO and, if he considers that they are not meeting the "morals" he considers right, he´s got as much freedom of religion and conscience to react consequently. Universities can be like my friend, private, and thus, put it clear that they will give money to the groups they consider to meet the expectations upon which it was founded. If public, they have to endorse the values of the nation they represent. And just for the record, 70% of all the lawsuits you mentioned have been unfavourable to the Christian groups, as you know. Freedom of religion is not freedom to impose your religion.
Typical fundie, being kept down by "the man" cause they can't forcefully (and quite often violently) prosylitize to anyone within earshot 24/7.
Well, then it should be fine for me to cast a magic circle, light some candles, and do spellwork in a public school classroom, hmm?
cannot be prohibited for any reason (such as the location of the free practice)
The only time your freedom of expression isn't guaranteed is when it grossly compromises someone else's rights. Children are compelled by law to attend school; it's not optional. Allowing teachers to choose a religion and practice it openly in class amounts to forcing that teacher's religious beliefs on the children. That's why it's not allowed.all religions are restricted from the classroom in this way -- except in Kansas, where Christianity enjoys a certain favoritism.
Yeah, but the majority of christians are getting raped enough by their church to afford the added raping from a private school.
Just a thought, slightly off-topic:
"everytime a student who brings their Bible to school is told to put it away"
Oh no, we can't have our kids being made to pay attention in class! They might learn something!
Can I perform the free practice of my religion at the end of your driveway every morning ? In the middle of the freeway ? On an Airport runway ? In front of your place of work ? Outside your church ? Inside your church ? On the 30 Yard line during the Superbowl ? Around your car ? On a railway line ?
No ? Well, looks like it can be prohibited then, doesn't it ?
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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