Dear Editor,
Regarding the June 6 Editorial column of the Leader that referred to the issue of the Lord’s Prayer being recited in three of the schools in our area: Your sentiments are certainly in keeping with the environment that Christians find themselves faced with today. God must be kept out of the schools and society in general at all costs, because the Bible is “exclusive”.
A little while ago a Catholic school board was lambasted by the media and the Minister of Education for allowing a pro-life presentation in one of its schools that was considered offensive. “Just the facts,” was the outcry, even though all the facts say that an unborn baby is a person, not a “blob of tissue”. Here’s another fact: ISMSS (Institute for Sexual Minority Studies &Services at the Uof A), the organization responsible for the website for provincial GSAs, provided links to pornographic material on the website, available to K-12 students. The Minister’s response was to have the links removed, sweep the issue under the carpet, and thank ISMSS for their amazing work. The media? Silence. Public schools must be completely neutral, right? No one in the school must feel offended. Just the facts, you say. But wait, the theory of evolution is offensive to Christians… why is it in the curriculum? Christians are offended by abortion, why is it promoted as a “choice” and a “right”? If you are so concerned about neutrality and facts, you must be extremely alarmed by the Ministry of Education’s push to embed “gender fluidity” into the curriculum, a theory that is as fact-based as the unicorn they use to introduce it to kindergarten students, and will be incredibly harmful to children. So, what’s a Christian with children in a public school to do? Pull them out of class when the offensive material is being taught? A father in Ontario requested the opportunity to do just that, but was refused by the board, who stated that it would be impossible because the material in question was “embedded” in the curriculum, and to have students leave the class during the offending lessons could be “offensive” to the students left behind. Well, if we apply that logic to the situation in our school division, wouldn’t we have to see the student opting out of reciting the Lord’s Prayer as being “offensive” to the Christians in the class? It has become abundantly clear that “inclusiveness” is strictly a one-way street. Someone once said: “Discrimination never goes away; it just changes direction.” The political climate today confirms this.
The banning of the Lord’s Prayer from schools is just one of the final steps of phase 1 – the de-Christianization of society. Congratulations to Leader staff for “calling it.” I must warn you, though: be careful what you wish for. I commend those who fought to keep God in the classroom, and those who sacrifice so much to have their children taught in a Christian environment. And to those who would deny the Bible and, by extension, their faith and their God – is that worth the risk?
Respectfully,
Carl Werkman
Bloomsbury
