School Prayer

Idolizing the flag is just around the corner...

(The corner we've already turned.)

Dear John,

I have no objection to Comparative Religion as an obligatory academic component of Public Instruction. In that context, every American student will learn about prayer, meditation, contemplation and the relationship between the creative impulse and the fundamental creative energy of God/Universe

Indeed, I would like to see an obligatory Comparative Religions course as pre-requisite for high school graduation, and also encourage another Comparative Religions course as pre-req for middle school graduation.

However, judging by those Americans who claim to pray most, I have NO faith in formulary prayer that does not go hand-in-hand with ardent service to The Common Good and fervent determination to expand one's awareness/compassion.

Judging from the political behavior of the GOP's Christian Base, I am dead-set against any specifically "Christian" curriculum these aggressively ignorant Know-Nothings would design for Public Instruction.

Why? Because imposed "goodness" becomes Evil.

Here is the pathway by which Impossibly Pure "Goodness" -- particularly when imposed on others -- takes a satanic turn.

"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.  The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization.  We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”  Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander by Thomas Merton - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton

Pax

Alan

On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 7:44 PM, john tarantino <john_tarantino@bellsouth.net> wrote:

----- Original Message -----

From: Tom Thompson, Jr.

To: TOM T

Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 9:51 AM

Subject: Fw: 11:00AM

-------Original Message------- I’’ve never read Mary Had a Little Lamb poem written this way before...! The poem is at the bottom. Please put the exact time you read this. It is mystical--honest. This message works on the day you receive it. Mary Had a Little Lamb Mary had a little Lamb,  His fleece was white as snow.  And everywhere that Mary went,  The Lamb was sure to go.  He followed her to school each day,  When it wasn't against the rules.  He made the the children laugh and play  To have the Lamb at school  Then the rules changed one day,  Against the law it became.  To bring the Lamb of God to school  Or even speak His name.  Every day got worse and worse,  And days turned into years.  Instead of hearing children laugh and play,  You heard them crying tears.  What must we do to stop the crime,  That's in our schools today?  Let the Lamb come back to school  And teach our kids to pray.  -Unknown A blessing is coming to you in the form of a new job, a house, marriage or financial break through. Don 't ask questions just forward to eight people and trust God!   (Alan here... "Don't ask questions."  What?!?)