NetDoc said:
Not until you change the constitution making religion "illegal". Until such a sad day, our government can not discriminate based on religion!
As a father, I am EXTREMELY glad that my kids were exposed to the various philosophies during their high school years. They learned to adapt and to think critically. This is America: the melting pot, not the protected pot.
Kids being exposed to "various philosophies" is just fine with me. It's how they get exposed to them, and by whom that concerns me. I was referring to religious zealots deliberately proselytizing other people's children, in an effort to capture their minds and hearts against their parent's wishes.
I was referring to multi-million dollar corporate coercive ad campaigns aimed at children to get them to buy products that are even bad for their health, and in some cases are even addictive, just for the sake of money.
I was referring to teachers and principals and coaches who think it's their right and duty to push their own religious ideals onto the children they are responsible for teaching, without anyone's oversight, or consent.
And to a lesser degree I was referring to you, too, who puts on a real nice 'dog-n-pony show' for other people's children at school so as to make them go home and pester their parents to join the scouts, rather than your going directly to the parents, where you're bound to be asked some more difficult and inquiring questions. I don't really have anything against the scouts, or you, but I do believe that you should be presenting your organization to both the parents and the kids. I think it's a bit underhanded and somewhat coercive to play to the kids at school, get the kids all into it (which is easy for an adult to do) and then force their parents to have to tell them no if they happen not to agree with the Boy Scout's policies.
It's easy to manipulate children. That's exactly why religious zealots and other groups with such coercive agendas go after children, rather than going to their parents. They know if they go to the parents, they'll be taken to task for what they're really up to. And it's for this reason that I want these groups kept away from the schools. Hiding behind freedom of speech doesn't cut it, because we're talking about kids, here, and not adults. Adults can handle the responsibility that comes with free speech, because they're experienced enough to recognize the lies and double-talk and coercion that people with negative agendas have to employ to make themselves appear other than what they really are. But children don't have that experience, yet, and just as we'd protect them from the manipulation of adult pedophiles, and their lies and deceits and tricks, we need to protect them from unscrupulous ideological predators, too, who are so bent to spreading their ideologies or making money that they'll stop at nothing, including coercing and manipulating and brain-washing children, their own as well as yours and mine.
