Tennessee atheists win right to distribute literature after schools give Bibles

Not sure if this story should be in the religion board but.....


Tennessee atheists win right to distribute literature after schools give Bibles to students

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/...rature-after-schools-give-bibles-to-students/

An atheist group in Tennessee won the right to distribute literature at an elementary school after the school allowed the Gideons group to distribute Christian Bibles to students.

The Friendly Atheist blog reported that the Tri-State Freethinkers group in conjunction with the ACLU challenged the decision by Casey County School District Superintendent Marion Sowders to allow the Gideons to distribute copies of the New Testament at the county’s three elementary schools.

The Freethinkers and the ACLU sent the school district a letter demanding equal access and, surprisingly, the request was granted.

On Friday, the group was allowed to leave copies of the book Humanism, What’s That?: A Book for Curious Kids by Helen Bennett.

As with the Gideons, actual group members were not allowed to contact students, but the books were left for interested students to pick up and peruse.

Some Christian parents expressed outrage. Carmen Foster contemplated keeping her kids home on Friday, but changed her mind.

“I work hard everyday of my life as a mother to teach my kids what we believe,” she told WKYT. “If I don’t have enough confidence to send them out in the world, then how strong am I with what I’m teaching them.”

“Whether we like it or not. Our kids are going to go out in to this world. They are going to come across these situations. This is a good opportunity to teach them how to handle it,” she said.

 

With 'ZOMG my rights are being trampled on!' faux outrage?

Heaven forbid they come in contact with someone not of the same religion or no religion for that matter.

I'm certain once the Church of Satan begins to distribute their Bible the school will have no choice but to shut them all out.

 

Religion shouldn't be taught in school nor should religious materials be distributed to kids. If parents want their children to learn about their religion they should be the ones teaching them. Atheist literature being given to kids shouldn't worry them either too because sooner or later the kids will grow up and they'll choose either to be religious or embrace atheism.

 

Well and why not? If bibles are allowed to be distributed other documentation should too. But you're right Rainman, school and religion should not be mixed.

 

I don't have a problem with it either to be honest and if bibles are allowed to be distributed then they can't really stop anybody else doing the same.

It's got to be fair to everybody so you either say no to the bible and everybody else, or yes to the bible and yes to everybody else. It's as simple as that in my eyes.

 

I guess next week it will be the Muslims to bring the Quran to the school. Let's see the outrage on that!!

Perfect reason why they should not have religion in school at all, unless it was a private school, then they can do whatever they want, cause the parents are paying for it. But public school should be religions free. There is no room for creationism and made up fantasy stories about Adam and Eve and the inbred children that they had. No talking snakes and 72 virgins in heaven waiting for you when you die in the name of your religion.

 

I think the Gideons and atheists should distribute their literature in hotel and motel rooms where it has been historically for years. These are some of the things that you should be able to count on in this world...smirk! Leave those kids alone...like the song says..

 

I'd like to see that too. Will they even be allowed to distribute the Koran to kids? What reason would be given?

In Florida when satanists expressed an interest in distributing pamphlets in schools the quick response to that was to ban the distribution of bibles [to schools] so kids wouldn't get the satanists religious materials. Same thing would happen if Muslims wanted to hand out Korans to kids [in schools].

 

Kids are still too young to have to deal with things that not even adults understand, so that material should be kept of school, that seems common sense to me.

 

This post made me laugh so hard haha. I agree with this completely, though.