On the other hand, interestingly enough, in my church--and I went to a fairly pious denomination (the Disciples of Christ). I can't ever remember anybody ever talking about the Genesis creation story as though it was literally true. It was a nice myth which told a nice story about our "theological" origins, but it had nothing to do with science, and was not in competition with it. It is bizarre to see this new breed of religionists going to the mat over something so benign as evolution. My hunch is that it belies something much stranger and much more dangerous underneath all of the rhetoric. Perhaps it is the last frantic, radical gasp of their fear of loss of Christianity's hegemony over culture. When people are afraid of losing their power (or a world view which has power when they personally don't have power) they can do some crazy and dangerous things. I personally don't find anything wrong with a number of religions living in community with each other (I'm a shop-worn veteran of the pew myself), but Christianity has been a bad neighbor for several centuries now and some of its adherents are having a dickens of a time discovering that its days of "glory" are over.
Stan Duncan
>
> Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 23:41:25 -0700
> From: "Max B. Sawicky" <sawicky at epinet.org>
> Subject: Re: Religion and schools: a query
>
> Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> >I have a query. What is the evidence that schools *used* to
> >teach religion and no longer do? From 1935-1947 I attended
> >first a rural grade school, then a small town high school. I
> >received no "religious" instruction, I never experienced school
> >prayer or a moment of silence, and no one ever challenged
> >the correctness of evolution.
>
> In my public elementary school in New Joisey, we had a recitation of
> the Lord's prayer and a bible-reading every morning, from
> kindergarten until the day the Supreme Court said no more.
>
> Doug
> >>>>>
>
> We had a prayer every a.m. that couldn't have had the
> slightest meaning to anyone.
>
> I don't think public schools have ever taught religion.
> Maybe in the south, but I wouldn't know. I'm a Jersey
> guy too.
>
> In a perverse way they are lending it a significance
> it wouldn't otherwise have, by treating it like it is
> radioactive. I'm referring to episodes where kids
> write book reports about the Bible, or mention
> god in their commencement addresses, or meetings
> in school facilities after school that get people in
> an uproar and rouse the ACLU to fruitless actions.
> The kind of stuff Nat Hentoff write about.
>
> mbs