Dennis Kruse, an Indiana state legislator, believes it is perfectly fine to use the force and power of government to convert the children of non-believers to his religion. He has a plan that would have schools to force children to recite the Christian’s Lord’s Prayer unless their parents explicitly said no.
So if you are an 17-year-old atheist, Muslim or you are Jewish, and you don’t get specific instructions by your parents to the school administrators, you better recite the prayers of the religion of state Sen. Kruse.
That is unbelievable. This isn’t a theocracy and Kruse and others cannot and should not use the power of the government to convert others to their religion. What is he afraid of exactly? Why can’t he compete in the marketplace of ideas? Would he want a school requiring children to recite the Islamic Koran? Of course not.
I noticed that earlier state Sen. Kruse pushed creationism in public schools, now with the obvious intention of just getting children to believe his own religious beliefs. Where has the secular Enlightenment-based republic that Madison, Jefferson and Paine gave us, gone?
By the way, cable news commentator Lawrence O'Donnell is calling for President Obama not to take the oath of office on the bible. I agree, we are a secular/Enlightenment based republic. He should take the oath of office on the Constitution, the document that he as the president is trusted to defend. He is not trusted or given an oath to defend the bible.
O'Donnell is right, the bible endorses slavery and other evils. President Obama doesn't believe in these evils and neither does pretty much any other Christian fundamentalist in America. It has nothing to do with the foundations of our secular republic.
Our government and nation isn't an arm of the Christian religion, no matter how popular it might be, especially in states like Georgia. The Constitution is a document that has nothing whatsoever to do with the bible. There is not one right or liberty mentioned in the bible that is in our Constitution.
No freedom of speech, press, due process or right to assembly in the bible. In fact the bible even imposes the death penalty for those who worship other religions or supposed gods. People have a fundamental right to promote and discuss their religion, they don't have a right for religious symbols and images to be involved when the president of our secular republic takes the oath of office.
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