Separation of Church and State?

We hear all the time of the separation of church and state. The ACLU makes quite the living from either threatening to sue or actually suing different towns and districts to prohibit not the establishment of religion but seemingly the free expression of religion.

I generally want the latter – not squelching of the expression of any religion but allowing more (i.e., more speech is generally better than less speech!). The only time that I would have a problem with the free expression of religion is in those cases where their free expression and insistence of theirs infringes on mine….Islamofascism comes to mind. But ignoring that for the time being, more is generally better.

Also, as far as we are talking about "in general", I’m not in favor of what is often governmental hypocrisy. Being of the Christian faith, often I see the removal of any artifact of my faith removed from schools on the idea enforcing the prohibition of religious establishment.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this in one of my local papers:

To be truthful, I have no idea if the Laconia School system censors the "free expression" of religion at any time. But let’s take the idea that this is "any school" at "anywhere".

Does now calling a Halloween party (from the Christian All Saints Day eve or the pagan All Hallow’s Day) the "Fall Festival" make it non-religious? Does this inclusion of the occult – Tarot Reader / Fortune telling, even if just "a fake for the party" – not meet the level of "religious"?

Just asking and just a thought…..

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http://oudler.livejournal.com/#item623 James D. Wickson

I am an atheist who believes firmly in the separation of church and state and is usually supportive of the ACLU on religious issues. You have a valid point. While I myself do not believe that card reading is inherently harmful, I must declare that the school might be guilty of promoting a sectarian view of Tarot cards. This would indeed conflict with the non-Establishment clause. A case can also be made and I’ve already seen some comments elsewhere to that effect that the school is stereotyping a cultural artifact.
http://newsbyus.com/more.php?id=A8407_0_1_0_M
When the mainstream press covers anything related to Tarot cards, they rarely tell the reader that Tarot cards were originally created for playing a Whist-like card game and were not originally created for divination. They also never tell readers that people still play actual card games with Tarot or Tarock cards. As a player of Tarot card games myself, I would be opposed to public schools leaving students with the impression that Tarot cards are only to be used for the occult or for fortune telling. There is a legitimate place for Tarot cards in the academic world. Here’s an example of how Tarot or Tarock cards can be treated for educational purposes: http://www.chgs.umn.edu/museum/responses/kobe/index.html
While I have dabbled in Tarot divination myself once in a while and still do mainly for fun, I do not feel the public schools are the proper place for a sectarian use of these cards. The schools should inform students that Tarot cards exist, they were originally created for card games, and the people, mainly in Europe, still play games with Tarot decks. They of course should mention that divination is a common usage but they in fairness should not endorse it.
See my article “What is Tarot?” for further background
http://oudler.livejournal.com/#item623
http://booksbypatrick.blogspot.com/ Patrick Roberts

interesting… an unintended, genius aspect of democracy is that the state of the government will represent the state of the people. We needn’t impose any particular religion on our government. Whether or not our government is morally stable will reflect the moral stability of us, the people. So how are we doing?
http://booksbypatrick.blogspot.com/ Patrick Roberts

interesting… an unintended, genius aspect of democracy is that the state of the government will represent the state of the people. We needn’t impose any particular religion on our government. Whether or not our government is morally stable will reflect the moral stability of us, the people. So how are we doing?