Am I a bad person for forwarding this back with comments?

[jayctravis]

I think my aunt just forwards this crap without even reading it. This was a long spam chain-letter interspersed with animated gif's of religious scenes. It's supposed to be the "rewritten" pledge of allegiance since schools are now "prohibited" from mentionging God. My additions are in parentheses.



Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule


(of course it is against the rule to have organized prayer in a public school where religion is neither required nor an excluding factor. Personal prayers may be said in a public place without a lot of outward show.)

For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd.

(untrue, if this purports to say that everyone agrees)

If Scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.

(except in a private religious school)

And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now.

(Only if you think the government watches you *that* much)


Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.

(Prayers spoken as part of a curriculum belong in a specific church-run school. Since public school does not discriminate as to the religious persuasion of the student body, it is unfair to allow any indoctrination in a government-funded resource.

Personal prayer is no problem at all. God can hear you even if you don't speak out loud.)

For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the state.

(no it's not. It's on our money, if you mean the word "God" instead of a specific named one, which would violate the rule that the government has of establishing or endorsing any specific religion. You know, church...(line)...state.)


We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.

(Liable for...what...have you been ticketed for using the Bible as a reference in your school work?)


We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong,
We're taught that such "judgments" do not belong.

(It's not the school's place to judge, it's up to the individual parents to sort that out.)


We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd.

(My public junior high school had a King James Bible that anyone could check out, along with literature and fiction about witches, vampires, and totem poles.)


It's scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:

(I thought your point was to say it out loud?)

Should I be shot; My soul please take!


(You feel the need to remind God to take your soul at the end of your life?)

Amen

Jesus said,
"If you are ashamed of me,
I will be ashamed of you before my Father."

(Jesus had many wise things to say)

[beam me up scottie]

1. I've seen that!

You handled it much better than I did.

Great work debunking the reich wing talking points !

[Lost-in-FL]

2. Yes and No...

Not a bad person for forwarding it back but a really bad person for making me read such crap from your aunt... :+ ;-)

You did very well!

[OldLeftieLawyer]

3. You're a much better person than I am

I'd have just written "Bite me and don't ever send me such crap again."

<saluting>

[Maat]

14. And this from an esteemed lawyer, who teaches so well!

I'm horrified!

:o

But I might have said it myself .. to my in-laws .. who send me this stuff.

What I do is send something from Rev. Barry Lynn, J.D., of Americans United for Separation of Church and State back, with a "Isn't Barry great? I'm so happy I set up that monthly contribution."

Somehow, I never get a reply back.

:evilgrin:

[Warpy]

4. I admire your restraint

I'm afraid my reply would have been a lot more astringent.

I hate this crap written by fundy preachers, "Look at what the innocent little children are saying." It's always 100% pure garbage.

[Frances]

5. You did a good job in my opinion.

I think the person who wrote the email either does not read the words of Jesus and is therefore ignorant of Jesus's teachings OR else the person is deliberately falsifying the message of Jesus.

I would add that Jesus said:

"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." (Matthew 6: 5-6)

I would also add that Jesus said:
"Judge not, that ye be not judged.
"For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
"Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
"Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of they brother's eye." (Matthew 7: 1-6)

[trotsky]

9. Yes, Matthew 6:5-6 is the clincher.

Very hard for the bible-bangers to dance around that one.

[Bluerthanblue]

6. not wrong at all- I would add

as you alluded to- that Jesus' instruction about prayer was that it was to be done in PRIVATE- he said, (according to the bible) that you should go into your closet and talk to God- leave the long, verbose prayers for those who like to make a 'show' for their own sake- standing on corners, with big phylacteries, claiming how pious they were-

No one has outlawed prayer in the school- it happens all the time- genuine prayer is often something no one else notices- and if you are truly speaking to God- (and not to an audience) no one else should hear it-

Second, reciting scripture didn't mean a whole lot to Jesus- Living the word DID- as he illustrates in the parable of the Good Samaritan, (who was NOT reciting scripture, not 'overtly' religious, and not considered by the 'religious leaders of the day' to be someone that any God 'fearing' person should hang around with, never mind commend-

Jesus also called those who make a big show about 'the law' and practicing their faith in public, 'White washed sepulchers'- people who clean the outside of the cup, but inside lives all kinds of rotten crud.

Jesus' most angry, and frustrated words were spoken to those who used their outward demonstrations of 'religion' to be-little others, manipulate them, and grow 'rich'-

"Christ"ians are by definition, people who associate themselves with the teachings and life of Jesus- not 'scripture' 'doctrine' or 'dogma'. He lived his gospel- No one is stopping anyone from living that same gospel out today in america- What is being controlled is the shoving of someones idea of 'righteousness' down the throats of others- Something Jesus doesn't approve of either-
If one really reads his words, and looks at his life-

I'm glad you took the time to counter this kind of hate mail- and fake oppression.

and you are right- Jesus did have many wise things to say- including "Render unto Caesar, what is Caesars"- in other words, pay your taxes, and keep the government out of you 'faith'.

[Jane Austin]

7. Good Job!

In my old age, I'm afraid I've become impatient. I would have been more likely to have said, "What crap!"

Your way is better. :)

[waiting for hope]

8. I liked this one best...

(It's not the school's place to judge, it's up to the individual parents to sort that out.

If parents became more involved in their children's' lives, perhaps we wouldn't have such a culture of corruption......I'd love to bitch slap Delay's, Abramoff's and Frist's parents for raising such scum....
:nopity:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. Inform your aunt that most of the U.S. NEVER had school prayer

It was limited to the South and to parts of the Northeast that were paranoid about the influx of Catholic and Jewish immigrants.

A lot of the younger fundies don't know this--they think that the early 1960s Supreme Court decisions wiped out a universal, long-standing American sacred tradition.

I was a schoolchild myself when these decisions came down, and the reactions of me and my classmates were, "They have required prayers in school? They have required Bible readings in school?"

[jayctravis]

13. And the thing is...

I actually attended a private Lutheran school up to second grade. The church was nice...they did make an attempt to draw us more into the church and my parents attended pageants and social functions, we just never went on Sunday.

I'm very proud to have been raised Lutheran, even though I'm not an overtly religious person.

[funflower]

11. Ask her when it became illegal to pray or talk about God in school....

It's only illegal to FORCE someone else to pray (or pretend to do so) in school!

[NMMNG]

12. You are not bad for returning it with comments

You would have been bad if you had kept silent about that abominable reich-wing drivel. Crap like that requires correction.

[Zookeeper]

15. Too many people mindlessly forward stuff like that, thinking...

that it's "cute." I like the fact that your response required actually reading and thinking about that drivel.

As far as religion being suppressed in public schools, tell that to my three kids who have all been harrassed for being "non-believers" as early as the second grade. (Including, "My parents said to tell you that YOU'RE GOING TO HELL!!!!") Feel free to pass that along to your aunt.

[CarbonDate]

16. I replied to my brother....

...when he forwarded me some right-wing crap....

"Really, Aaron; this 'evil liberal atheist' spam is beneath you...."

And it is beneath him; I was surprised to get that kind of crap from him. I guess he saw the Navy SEAL in the story and, being a sailor himself, it appealed to him.

I'll spare you the clap-trap.