Dear God

Dear God, why is their violence in our school?

     Did you know that we have been in this constant battle of allowing religion in school? We didn’t always allow God in school. We actually fought to have religion in school and then fought to remove it from school. Why is this?

     If you look back in the archives of Time magazine, you will discover that some states struggled with the concept of allowing God in school. It’s similar to legalizing marijuana. One article from the 1930�™s was about the states that finally permitted religion in school. They mentioned that more states at the time were fighting to permit religion in their schools.

     So, religion was finally in school and then people fought to remove it. A battle ensues between science and religion, prayer in school, and arguing about saying “Under God.” Does it really matter? What child actually cares if someone is religious or not? I do not believe it matters because people of various cultures attend school. Various cultures practice different faiths. Not all faiths have a deity nor does everyone pray the same way.

     When I was in elementary school, I never believed that anything like that mattered. I prayed in school and I never felt a ruler slap my wrists for doing so. I never heard a parent yelling at me about faith. I was slapped once by one of my classmates for saying, “Oh my God!” From then on, I figured that faith is nobody’s business. You and I are not entitled to tell people what to do or what to believe.

     I roll my eyes at people who protest saying, “Under God.” Seriously, it’s not going to harm anything. Is someone afraid that God may smite us for excluding him from the pledge of allegiance? Is someone afraid there will be a curse for saying God?

     While we have people trying to remove religion from school, we have people trying to remove science in return. If you use scientific terminology about body parts in Idaho, people have a conniption fit. People go on a tangent if Darwin is mentioned. How do we expect students to evolve if they go to school to learn nothing? Why not teach world faith and science? Students are the people who will be running the world after you die. Think about that.

     The argument about not allowing God in school causing violence is invalid. We did not always have religion in school according to an article written in the 30�™s. Forty years after that article, the first known school shooting in the United States happened in the 1970�™s. This was after a huge struggle to allow religion in school.