All It Takes Is One Voice....

I don't post much about faith and religion because really I believe it is your own personal choice. How you get to God is your road to travel. That said, I will come out and say that Bill and I are an interfaith couple (Bill is Catholic, and I'm Jewish) raising our kids Jewish. Add the interracial mix of our family and it becomes an interesting road.

I don't know if it is because we live in the South, but I feel the contant pressure of Christianity. It is everywhere. I know some Christians will say we are taking God out of everything but I think everyone including myself needs to face the facts that our country is diverse and we need to try to respect all religions. We can learn from everything.

I have become a little less tolerant this pressure. It bothers me that at Emily's school (a public school) that have a Holiday Program (they don't call it Christmas Program) that they sing Silent Night and O'Bethleham. I think Frosty the Snowman is okay. She read a book last year called the Best Christmas Pagaent Ever which had a lot of references to Jesus in it. I kept my mouth shut.

That said, last year, Emily's elementary school PE teacher tried to start an Early PE Club which would start at 7:30 am. The PE Club was suppose to be an exercise club but if you read the pamphlet you sooned learned that the exercise was only a little part of the club - the rest would be talking about Bible and Character Building. There would be prayer. Whose Prayer, Whose Religion - of course the Teacher's. Let's not forgot the healthy breakfast they were serving - Chicken Biscuits.

My silent objections could not be silent anymore. This was a school club sponsored by a school teacher endorsing one religion over another. I took issue with it. It is against the law to have a school endorsement of prayer. I struggled over if I should say something. I didn't want Emily to be singled. We also feared retribution. But I could not live in fear when I felt that this was so wrong.

So I contacted the Principal who would look into the matter. I was the only one who complained about this club. No surprise there - we are probably one of very few non-chrisitian families. The school hemmed and hawed. Not sure what to do. I ended up getting the Anti-Defamation League involved. They wrote a cease letter to the school superintendent. Eventually it was decided that this club would only be a PE club. The club went on and Emily joined and had a great time.

This year, I waited to see what would happen. There are ways to have a religious club in school - it cannot be teacher involved. And at elementary school, it is really hard to have a club without teacher involvement. Another way would to have a local church sponsor the club before school - they would have to pay rent for the facilities. I wanted to see if this club would start up again.

It has but it is still just a PE Club. I cannot believe that one voice stopped this.

One voice, my voice.