USA: Getting God out of the Schools.
Since the Pledge of Allegiance and The Lord’s Prayer are not allowed in most public schools anymore-because the word God is mentioned, a kid in Arizona wrote the following prayer…
NEW SCHOOL PRAYER .
Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd.
If Scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now.
Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That’s no offense; it’s a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.
For praying in a public hall
Might offend some with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God’s name is prohibited by the state.
We’re allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
They’ve outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.
We can a pregnant Senior Queen,
And ‘unwed daddy,’ as our Senior King.
It’s “inappropriate” to teach right from wrong,
We’re taught such “judgments” do not belong.
We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed.
No word of God must reach this crowd.
It’s scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school’s a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; my soul please take!
Amen
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Hare Krishna Prabhu
Please accept my humble obeisances
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
I have got a job of a teacher in a school in my village and I have given Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is to the principal of the school and Krishna Book to his wife. I gave one Path of Perfection to an 8th class student. They are all liking the book. Can you please tell me Prabhu what are the things that I can do in the school to introduce at least some students to Krishna Consciousness?
Hare Krishna Aman Prabhu
This is very good news Prabhu.
I think the main thing is you should become as much a pure devotee of Krishna as you can yourself and by your good example many students over time will become interested in Krishna consciousness. I think you can not push it very hard in the beginning at least and at the moment you need to concentrate on actually becoming a very good teacher and teaching then whatever subjects you are supposed to be teaching according to the curriculum. But the way people become devotees is by association with devotees. So if you just become a very good devotee yourself then the people you associate with like the students and other teachers, gradually over time they will also become devotees because of your association.
So certainly you take the opportunity of talking about Krishna and distributing the books when you can but don’t push it too hard. Let it come naturally. Try to distribute prasadam somehow. Association with devotees, taking Krishna prasadam, hearing the kirtan, these are the ways the people generally come to Krishna consciousness. To the general public the philosophy of Krishna consciousness is not that attractive initially. So you can not expect much success by just preaching, first you have to make them qualified to hear by association with devotees, by taking Krishna prasadam and by hearing the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra.
So your main business there is to instruct the students in Krishna consciousness. That is a great opportunity, because the young people, they are the most open to Krishna consciousness, but you will not be able to do this if you loose your job. So my advice is to take it very gently right now as you are just starting and do not ‘rock the boat’. Do what you are expected to do, teach the subjects you are supposed to teach, and at the same time try to become as good a devotee as possible yourself and pray to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna for inspiration as to how you can inject Krishna consciousness into your students.
So I think the main thing now and for the next 6-12 months at least is to do the job well and keep the job and then only gradually you can introduce more and more Krishna consciousness. It has to be done in a very gradual way and you will automatically understand how to do it after some time. So don’t push it at the moment.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhu
Please accept my humble obeisances
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Thank you very much Prabhu for giving me such a nice advice as you do always. I consider myself unlimitedly fortunate to be getting your association. I will do everything as you have said and as Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krishna give me inspiration. Actually I got this inspiration to not push too hard in the beginning and now you just confirmed it. So I will not risk losing my job until I have some better alternative and try my best to keep myself in Krishna Consciousness and become more and more Krishna Conscious by following yours and Srila Prabhupada’s instructions.
More proof that through God, all things are possible and all things work for the good of those who love Him. I’ve seen this poem several times through email and various websites and each time I read it, I hurt for this once great country. It is sad to think that the nation that was founded on Christian principles yet allowed the freedom of religious practice has fallen so far. The Founding Fathers would be rolling over in their graves to hear how the persecutions of Christians in America ranks so high in the world. There are more missionaries in this country than all others combined. We need a wake up call. Even so, God has it handled. He is Lord and Master and I for one will not bow to the wishes of this world to renounce my faith. May the joy that God has given me through His Spirit strengthen my faith and lead others to share in His kingdom. Amen.
Prayer is not forbidden or even discouraged in school; people pray there all the time. What is not allowed is for the state to tell people what prayer they have to say. This is quite a paranoid fantasy from the Christian right. They were quite happy to force Native American children to practice Christianity for a hundred years. I’m so tired of this…
What a great poem and yet instead of getting people really thinking about what is going on in the world you get nit-wits who want to bitch and pick fights.
The lack of religious beliefs has turned the world into a cess pit and that is fact.
As a Psychology student I get marked down if I mention God/Jesus Christ because ‘where is your proof’ – well where is their proof that God doesn’t exist. ‘experts’ have tried to disprove God for a very long time and still have not managed, on the contrary prooof of Jesus does exist and the (real) Christian faith in itself proves God exists.
Proof is irrelevant to faith. Faith is holding the desire to be right over the desire to have truth. Faith requires avoidance and denial of any contradictory evidence. Truth requires the ability to have oneself dis-proven. Truth seekers actively seek opposing evidence.
No faith has a monopoly on truth because no faith is dependent solely upon empirical evidence.
cute poem. She failed to mention that christianity is not the only religion in the USA. If she wants prayer in school, then include all religions not just hers.
MIke, I believe that all religions are implied. I came across this this web page when searching for ideas for a propagandist essay for 7th grade, but I just had to comment, that’s probably why I am not showing my name. I am LDS (Mormons; yes, we are Christians) myself and in our religion, which we believe to be true, we believe that God sees everybody equal his eyes. I think that all religions are implied in that poem, because most of the time, the author uses the word/name, ‘God’ and not ‘Jesus Christ’, meaning that God, or in some cases, ‘Gods,’ is the same. The author may be Christian, hence the use of the word/name ‘Lord,’ but that does not mean that only his religion is being supported, but all religions. And people in my church don’t hate or despise those who don’t believe what we do, but just do not believe it. Like, I have three friends that are Hindu, but that does not mean that I believe in Hindu, or vise versa, we communicate through chat messages, and email. We are good friends, despite our religions.
Anyway, I hope this clears any confusion for you, MIke, and you do not have to believe or even listen to what I have said, just to let you know.
Please send this to everyone who you have an e-mail connected to .
Jesus is calling for our repentance we have a nation whose banning the Word of God from our schools from our work from all public places. And you wonder why our nation is in such turmoil in trouble financially. You take the word of God and the praise of God, away and you have nothing. They tried to take “IN God we trust” off of our money,
But yet we shall through our faith lead a repenting nation whose deeply repented of their sin and choose to turn away from the path they are on and choose the path with God.
I need each and every one of you out there who reads this e-mail to e-mail me a prayer of repentance from your own word in the spirit of the Lord. Do not plagiarize, Do not copy or rewrite somebody else’s work only from the spirit. Write down e-mail these request for repentance for our nation. To me at Bryon earthlife@Comcast.net
When I receive them I will catalogue them in a book form and e-mail you a copy. Let us help our nation understand that we need to repent as a nation , Bring GOD into our heart to give God his kingdom here on Earth. As we pray on earth as it is in heaven.
For this is our solemn oath as believers in God, and made by the hand of God’s Word. Through the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. We may repent as a nation under God, and kneel in his presence and glory forever amen, amen,and amen !