The whole judical system has it's kinks. Fortunately, "rulings" are expressed in "opinions" and as such, can change over time.

Steve

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From what I have heard and seen. The money would be given to parents to do with as they choose in picking a school. If the parent picks a religious school, that is their choice. If the parent picks a arts based charter school, that is also their choice. In my opinion, the state is not supporting a religion because they are giving the parents the money to make their own choice on where to educate their children. Thus not directly involving the government subsidizing religion.

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A sticky one, I admit. On the other hand, you could argue that the government is subsidising religion because it is allowing taxpayers' money to be spent on religious education (i.e. it is not excluding religious schools from the voucher scheme).

IMHO this is an important issue of principle in any genuinely democratic country, not so much on account of Christian denominations but because other religions can - and in the UK have - argue that subsidising one sort of religious education but not another amounts to discrimination. Last year a Muslim school in West London hit the headlines after it was discovered that it had been teaching the kids various hardline beliefs, e.g. that capital punishment should be imposed for adultery and that limbs should be amputated for a number of minor crimes, some of which aren't even crimes under English law. As I remember, this school was not in any way state subsidised (it was a private school which the parents paid), but it did have a licence from the Department of Education, which basically certified that it was delivering education which met the standards of this country.

At the other end of the scale, Rastafarians smoking cannabis as part of their religious practices have often complained they are being discriminated against by the drug being illegal.

So how do you deal with religious beliefs that directly contradict the laws and customs of a given country? With difficulty in many cases, and it gets even more difficult when you bring religion into state education. That is why I would prefer to see 'faith schools' kept out of the state system altogether. Private ones are OK if they meet the required educational standards and if they are not teaching the kids anything which contravenes the criminal laws and socially accepted norms of the country in which they operate, but if anyone tells me that my taxes should be spent teaching kids a 'religion' that makes women wear bin liners and executes them for doing things which aren't even illegal in civilised countries, then the words 'over', 'dead' and 'body' come to mind...

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I also like what you wrote...however in the Pledge Allegiance is to the Flag of "The United States of America". Canadian and Mexican's are not refereed to as American's. Even though Canada is over the United States of America and Mexico is below - all of the Universe is "Under God".

I would love to comply with your directive, but Soupy Sales got all mine.

You're much funnier than Soupy. Whatever I have left is yours.

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