pastortalk pastortalk a weekly dialogue with a local pastor on the news of the day by carl gene wilkes startext mc compuserve internet compuserve com this week s thoughts last week the supreme court refused without comment to hear an appeal by rensselaer in school officials desiring the distribution of bibles in their public schools rel a lower court had banned the local gideons an international bible distribution group from passing out bibles to fifth graders the aclu s barry lynn was quoted as saying that the court s action protected the religious neutrality of our public schools he also said that schools must serve students of all faiths and none schools were not to be a bazaar where rival religious groups compete for converts according to lynn several gideons men who are responsible for putting bibles in hospitals and hotels are members of our church they tell of similar stories where they are only allowed to distribute bibles on sidewalks around the schools but cannot go inside the schools they tell of mild harassment by parents who do not want their children receiving a bible from a stranger they are willing to continue their work at a distance but find the school s position somewhat disheartening i understand rationally and logically the court s position and i can see the sense of fairness for all groups but on the other hand when does neutrality become nihilism when does plurality turn into no position at all i see a couple of ironies here one is that we can pass out condoms but not bibles in our schools think on that one for a moment the other is that while we are seeking religious neutrality in our schools countries like russia who by the way practiced religious neutrality for the past seventy years are making the bible part of their public school curriculum when i was in st petersburg in march the church we worked with had trained over public school teachers to teach the bible and the government had requested hundreds more i recently heard a medical doctor who is president of the gideon chapter in moscow tell how they are eagerly invited to the university of moscow to distribute bibles to the students and are given class time to explain its contents i remember seeing a photograph of this doctor holding a bible and speaking to the university students standing under a statue of lenin now that s ironic i admit two things we are a pluralistic society and all faiths have equal footing this is what our country was founded on to allow every group on school grounds could create a bazaar like atmosphere each city must work to be inclusive of all religions and provide a hearing for them i know i said two the vitality of religious faith is not dependent upon whether or not the public arena acknowledges it as valid however and you knew this was coming i believe disallowing the distribution of the bible by law abiding caring adults in our schools only signals once again our culture s movement away from a singular base from which we as individuals and as a nation can make moral and ethical decisions what do you think mail box let me know if you do not want me to print your letter or your name good column re time coverstory about teen sexuality i agree with moral education from home but some homes don t have the kinds of morals i want taught one family i worked with smoked dope as their primary family activity another acted like incest was ok families no matter where they are are often a lot sicker than we d like to believe from john hightower mc john i agree that the home ain t what it used to be and some homes are not the place to learn value based sexuality i still believe that this is where the church can come into play i know those families you speak of may not come to a church to seek information but the help does not need to be in a church building i believe that the youth from the families you mentioned will probably disregard the value free information at school too writer s note the views of this column do not necessarily reflect the views of members of or the church legacy drive baptist church plano tx
