actively leading does not mean the same as coerce
His position alone coerces other to join him, at which point he is actively leading.
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Yep. Public school teachers/coaches/administrators are in a position of authority and should not be indoctrinating anyone in their beliefs
High school coach says run 10 laps, you run 10 laps
Give me 50 push ups, you do it
Coach says Let us pray “wELL hE DiDnT FOrCe AnYOne”
Add the near constant push for everyone to be a team player
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Your understanding is wrong
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I don’t believe anyone can read about the cases and look at that photo and not understand that school children are being coerced to pray by a paid agent of the state. That is exactly what the first amendment was meant to prevent. Other states were anxious about the religious proclivities of colonial Massachusetts, and wanted to avoid that.
So i see that case as a hideous case of judicial overreach.
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Agreed. While Roe v Wade got the most press (rightfully so), at least it had some legal underpinning that we can all debate. This was judicial overreach to cater to the evangelical base. We can expect the satanist rituals for high school kids to see how this plays out for them.
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One huge problem with the ruling is that I can’t see the Supreme Court, despite the precedent, deciding that Satanist rituals after high school football games are OK. But what happens if some coach wants to perform them? Will the Court just refuse to take the case (whichever way the lower court decided)?
It’s interesting that we never run into this with other faiths. We never hear about Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Catholics, Unitarians,…desiring to force others to follow their religion. It’s always the evangelicals.
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My impression was the Catholics were most likely to be pro-life, but one Google source I just checked says protestants and Mormans are considerably more likely.
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I’m not entirely surprised, but even within Protestant faiths most don’t want to force everyone else to share their faith. Ever heard of the Presbyterians trying to force everyone to get into the catechism? Doesn’t happen, even if they are pro life.
Probably depends on definitions. Tons of people identify as Roman Catholic but dismiss significant chunks of the ideology, such as birth control being sinful.
If you limit it to people who attend services at least weekly and make a significant financial contribution (say > 5% of income) to church / religious charities my guess is that among those folks it’d be Mormon > Catholic > Evangelical > Mainline Protestant
it should be illegal to evangelize in this country
I somewhat disagree. If someone comes up to you or me on the street and wants to share their testimony, fine by me. We are free to tell them to F off. If they want to use their position as public employees to indoctrinate children, f that.
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Eh, that’s way too far in the other direction. Christianity requires evangelism, so prohibiting it prohibits the practice of Christianity. Plus it also restricts free speech unreasonably.
A reasonable solution is that the government cannot coerce people to listen. Leading students in prayer at a public school arguably IS coercion, when done by an authority figure.
I guess the current SCOTUS disagrees with me and most of this forum about the coercion aspect.
IFYP
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that’s the problem with Christianity. they can’t just practice in solitude, they must harass others
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Islam, too. They don’t do it much in the US because they don’t have the power to do so.
I get it. I am sometimes irritated by evangelists myself, and I am Christian so I imagine it must be even more annoying for those who aren’t.
But in a country with both freedom of speech and freedom of religion, it really ought to be allowed.
I think it is more that Catholics are less likely to want to tear up the Constitution to create a theocracy than Mormons and Evangelicals.
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Maybe a little of both.
As far as teachers & coaches leading prayers in school, I’d agree with you, but I think the topic I was responding to was abortion where I think many would like the fetus’s right to life enshrined in law.