This is the great drama of the public school system. God is de facto out of the picture. A Washington and Lincoln are real persons. Whereas for God, well too bad! A God of so little importance is not worth the bother and can never be regarded seriously as the Creator of heaven and earth by an average student...
Pastor's Corner
Low Sunday
(April 15, 2012)
Atheists say that they did not really force God and prayer out of public schools.
They are still practiced but simply by individual students’ initiative. What was removed were state-written and state-mandated prayers, state-mandated reading of state-chosen Bibles, and official endorsements of particular conceptions of God. These changes were unequivocal victories for the religious liberties of children and parents.
Of course, we Catholics cannot rejoice much about the twisted vision of the faith poor Protestants get from their polyvalent, divisible and infinitely variable creed. Yet, at least, they reject the principle that God is a foreign body who is to be kept in the cupboard and that you bring out as a scarecrow or opium to superstitious people.
This is the great drama of the public school system. God is de facto out of the picture. A Washington and Lincoln are real persons. Whereas for God, well too bad! A God of so little importance is not worth the bother and can never be regarded seriously as the Creator of heaven and earth by an average student. In other words, the public school system does not foment the religious liberties of children, it foments atheistic beliefs, which are no liberties but slaveries.
This is the main reason why the Catholic Church has always formally forbidden parents from sending their children to a non-Catholic school when proper schools are available. “Better to suffer poverty and loss of your own life than send your children [to such] a school” was the mind of Pius XI in Divini Illius Magistri.
But, these things are perhaps not heeded because they do not reach us. We think that “ideas do not really matter”. And, so, God has allowed things to hit closer to home with violence and murder and destruction in our schools. A famous preacher’s daughter, a few years ago, explained the process of de-Christianization in our education system.[1]
In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. Let's see, I think it started when Madeline Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body was found recently) complained she didn't want any prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Then, someone said you better not read the Bible in school... the Bible that says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said, OK.
Then, Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). And we said: an expert should know what he's talking about so we said OK.
I spare you the worst since the litany goes on into the mire of modern day mire. Do we not know now why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill their own classmates."
The author’s conclusion is worth meditating.
I believe that God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman that He is, I believe that He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand that He leave us alone?"
Footnote
1 Extracted from www.ecclesia.org.
