YOUR AD HERE »

Distribution of religion in public schools is wrong

MARINA LARSON, RURANCH

RE: Gideons ask local students: ‘Would you like a free Bible?’ (SDN, May 24)Someone in our school district is missing the point when they allow distribution of the Bible on school grounds.The Bible is not properly likened on any level to a dictionary or material received from a college recruiter. To suggest that it is demeans and trivializes the significance that the Bible has for many people and forgets history.One sound reason for separation of church and state, including the absence of religious instruction from public schools, is to avoid peer pressure on students to accept religious teachings different from that of their parents. If someone is giving out Bibles, or the Koran, or any other religious book in school, and your friend takes one, there is an automatic pressure to join in.No one to my knowledge has ever been harassed, or ostracized or burned at the stake for failing to accept a dictionary or the information about Colorado State University. People have been so treated throughout history for failure to accept a religious teaching.The practice of allowing Bible distribution under the guise of limited access should stop, and if that means we have to give up free dictionaries and hold our college night off-campus, so be it.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.