What are your thoughts?

My friend's son (a Christian) was given a reading assignment. The assignment was to read any book they wanted and report it to the class.

Her son read the book of John in the Bible, stood up in front of the class and proceeded to report on it.

The teacher stopped him.

He wasn't in front of the class shoving religion down anyone's throat. He was a kid who loved God and the Bible and just wanted to share what he learned.

My friend was livid.

Another scenario happened at my daughter's winter concert.

There were Hannukah songs but no Christmas songs; just songs about snowmen and chestnuts! Apparently, no songs about Jesus were allowed to be sung. Why not? That's what Christmas is about. If Jewish people are allowed to sing their Hannukah songs, why not Christians?

What do you make of this?

Most of the world is going to hell in a hand basket - so to speak. I'll probably get flamed for this but who cares. Anything that has anything or wording about God is now under attack. IMHO

Satan is trying to twist everything. It is a sign of the times to me. Everything seems to be getting worse. Guns and killing in schools - just a mess. I think the child should have been given the chance to give his report on John. I also think that there should have been some songs with the mention of Jesus in them.

Ohh I'm going to be shot down for this too but personally if you don't believe in christ then you have no right to celebrate Christmas. Christmas is about the birth of Christ, celebrating that everything else (the peace and goodwill) comes because of him. Hannukah is fine because that is the Jews celebrating their festivel.
I had to step in once when a muslim lady was abusing a checkout operator for wearing a cross on her collar. She said that how dare she show the cross as she found it offensive. The man behind in the line then went onto say to her that he found her headdress insulting and offensive so she should take it off..... Don't ask me how I diffused it all I could do was distract them enough to get the lady through the checkout.

It just seems to me that everyone is too scared of 'offending' people with what they have to say about their religion and yes to me that is the devil suceeding in his work. When I'm feeling intimidated and wondering whether I should say 'excuse but I am a christian and I find that offensive' then I think of tha girl at columbine who proclaimed Christ even though she knew she would be shot if she did. She is always gives me inspiration.

I also think it is time that Christians stand together and refuse to back down.

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To me it sounds as if maybe the teacher was protecting herself. She probably got confused by all the rules teachers need to follow in the classroom anymore!!! but my opinion is she got it mixed up. The rules applied to her...not her kids.

I think that's a hard position for the teacher. I know that when I taught, we had to be so careful about the things we said and the things we did in the classroom. However, we also wanted the classroom to be inviting and welcoming to all students of all beliefs. December was always a fun month because we could openly talk about Hanukah, Kwanzaa and Christmas. We could openly discuss the religious beliefs, learn something new about them, and celebrate them. But that was harder to do throughout the year, especially if you were Christian. It was almost as if, all other religions were given a stage to show off and learn something from, but Christianity was to be censored. For example: Easter. We could not talk about the actual meaning of Easter, but could talk about bunnies and frogs and spring....that's NOT Easter!

If it were me, I would have let him finish.

All in all, I believe every religion under the sun is tolerated but Christianity. Plain and simple and I'm very angry. I believe it's not tolerated because it exposes our sin nature and no one wants to look at that. Some people may have a hard time completely surrendering their lives to Christ as Christianity proposes as well as the thought of a Savior and that we can't save ourselves. Perhaps, the thought of not being in control of one's own life is where the intolerance stems.
Thanks for your thoughts and responses ladies. I'm in agreement.

Apparently, as long as you're not an atheist, freedom of religion is tolerated pretty well.

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Coming from the non-believer perspective, so you understand that I don't put any faiths, Islam, Judaism or Christianity, on any higher pedestal than another:

If children in public school are having a holiday concert and they are allowed to sing Hanukkah songs, then they should also be allowed to sing Christmas songs. I have no problem with children being taught religious diversity as a part of a social studies/culture curriculum. They should NOT be taught "religion" in public school. They should not be taught WHAT to believe. That's up to the parents, the churches, and the private religious schools. But it is wrong to allow the songs of one faith & not another.

As far as the kid reading the book of John for his book report, I have to wonder if he and his parents have rocks in their head. The teacher wanted him to read a BOOK. The book of John would be more like a chapter of a larger book. I think it's more not following what the assignment was. If it was an english class, the teacher was probably asking for information along the lines of "what was the author trying to say here" or "explain the use of metaphors." But, with the line pretty much clearly drawn in the sand about not bringing religion to school, I have to say that it was pretty...ummm...ballsy of him to do that. I agree it put the teacher in a very awkward position and I'm just kind of surprised the mother didn't guide the child to pick a more appropriate book for a public school reading assignment.

I don't buy into the whole thing that Christians are claiming to be under such persecution now, that they are under attack, that everyone else gets their way but them. This country is majority Christian, we have a born-again evangelical president who claims that God appointed him, and there has been far too much of a tilt towards the religious right in politics from years. What you're seeing now is simply a backlash from the moderates and from the left trying to level it out again. If you want to see Christian persecution, go to any number of 3rd world countries and you'll thank your lucky stars you are as free as you are here to pursue your faith and cram it on other people without being whacked upside the head or just flat out beheaded.

Non-christians who celebrate Christmas are generally celebrating it as a secular holiday - really as the winter solstice. The example of the muslim lady beratiing a checkout girl for wearing a cross was also very wrong of her. It's no different than her wearing her headscarf, which is questionable in many areas too - like in France. The muslim lady was WAY out of line and, I have to hope, an abberation.

Overall, to answer the title of this thread, I think freedom of religion is tolerated in this country very well, compared to other countries. I think freedom FROM religion in this country is darn near impossible.

Anytime religion comes into conflict with the public education system the teacher is pretty much put in a lose / lose situation. If she let him read part of the Bible her job could have been put on the line. She probably should have had each kid tell her what book they were planning on reading before hand. And truthfully the mother of the boy should have called to ask if it would be allowed before he invested so much time on it. I would have.

These parents were unhappy and I can see why but, truthfully, how would they have felt if another child stood up and read from The Book of Morman? Or from the Book of Shadows? Or another other book from any other religion out there? Heck, I've met parents who would get upset if you read from Harry Potter in a classroom. It is all from the perspective that you come from. If your Christian than you're going to notice more when your religion is picked on. If you're a Wiccian, you'll be more sensitive to those issues.

I have also noticed that Christians are getting the bad rap most of the time. And this is coming forma Muslim.
I was brought up in the UK and learnt about christmas, Easter, took holy communion, to this day still know the Lords Prayer! It is a religion and the days like Easter are days of the christian religion. i think it is impossible to celebrate the event without mentioning that it is about!
I am really FOR teachign religion in schools, we in England were taught Christianity, judaism, Islam, buddism, Sikhsm, Hinduism. So there was no preaching, it was just the facts. I think people are scared of teaching becoming preaching, but with the proper guidleines it cna be done and I think it would build greater tolerance between religions if we did.
A good example of ignorance is after 9/11, Sikhs were attacked for wearing turbans, because people thought they were muslims!!!
As for the muslim lady saying the Christian shouldnt wear the pin, that is wrong! Jesus is named as a prophet in our religion and it looked up to very highly. I have no poblem in saying "Happy Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays" because Dec 25th is the Birth of Jesus. so say it like it is!! hannukha is in its own time and place and Christmas is in its own! If somebody says "Happy Christmas" to me, I just say itback, is it really that big a deal!!!

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As an atheist, I have no problem with public schools teaching a "world religions" or "religious culture studies" class. Teaching ABOUT a faith system is entirely different than embracing one and expecting kids to go along with it or remain silent. I think it would increase understanding & tolerance of others' differences. These sort of classes are available in some high schools, and generally available at the college level.