Intellectual Defenestration

I guess what gets me going about this is the fact that the liberal masses are continually crying out for "separation of religion from state" - and what is not recognized is that the secular humanist agenda and worldview that is being promoted in public schools is exactly that - a religion - being foisted on unsuspecting people. Now for me and my house, this is irrelevant - we're schooling at home - but for many people ignorant of the true state of schools, this is a danger.

I find it amusing that the phrase that's usually used, "Separation of Church and State" is in fact quite accurate... people really want THE CHURCH, i.e. Christianity, to have no influence in public life at all. Of course humanists, homosexuals, atheists, wiccans, muslims, etc - these are just fine, and are voices that should be heard.

In order to correct this, Sean and Frank on the WCBM morning show asked how many times the Almighty was mentioned in George Washington's Thanksgiving proclamation of 1789. (at http://www.night.net/thanksgiving/kwash-11.html ). The answer was 15. It includes references such as "He" "Him" "His" and "Lord" in addition to "God Almighty". I'm not sure it's 15 times, but historically George Washington imbued it with religious (though non-sectarian) meaning.

they usually also don't mention that after the first thanksgiving indians died from diseases like smallpox or were murdered by pilgrims or forced to become slaves.

Public education has its roots in Christianity, in the idea that we're all born equal, that we're all equal in God's eyes, and therefor all (regardless of race, gender, creed) have the right to a (public) education. It's already a Christian mission, really, it's just not overt. If you want overt Christianity in your kid's education, you can send them to a (private) religious school.

Why do the loudly professing Christians always sound the least Christian in public discourse?

Romarkin (changing from Mad Raunter?) -

Yes, public education, at least in terms of being open to all, has been influenced by Christianity. And, if I remember correctly, much of the emphasis on being non-sectarian actually came about because of Protestant fears of Catholic encroachment.

What I specifically had in mind, though, was the influence of thinkers such as John Dewey, who saw very little need for Christianity, on state-run education. The MD school administration's intentional omission of even the mention of Christianity when teaching history is simply a logical extension of what Dewey & company believed. Perhaps I should have been clearer on that.

Never heard of John Dewey, so I read a little blurb of his bio as well as his Pedagogic Creed. In it, he argues for school as a social institution that encourages intellectual development of the student as a member of a social group, drawing from the groups collective resources and contributing his thoughts back to that group.

His creed would seem to imply that moral values are the product of reflection and social interaction by the individual rather than the acceptance of approved doctrine by any particular philosophy or religion. This does not mean that there is little need for Christianity, but merely that the student should decide for himself his beliefs through socializing and thinking.

MD's omission then isn't a logical extension of Dewey's philosophy. What the MD schools have done is to avoid flaming by non-centrist liberals.

But his creed that "moral values are the product of reflection by the individual rather than the acceptance of approved doctrine by any particular philosophy or religion" is in itself a doctrine of a particular philosophy and religion. In Dewey's case (see his 'A Common Faith' for further exposition), the epistemological and ethical foundations for life are grounded in the individual as he/she responds to sociological circumstances. This is not a neutral system, it is a system that is competing with Christianity (or any other system that grounds ethics outside the individual) in that it is a set of claims about how we are to live and view the world.

Dewey's last statement in his creed is that "the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of God." By "true God" and "true kingdom of God," he is emphatically not referring to the God of Christianity. Thus his beliefs are exclusive of Christianity and thus the MD school's ommission of the Christian roots of Thanksgiving are consistent with Dewey.