Re-Thinking Law and Religion

     Right now, I am studying to be a Social Studies teacher. I often think about what I would like to bring to the table as an educator. What difference do I want to make in the lives of the children that I will come into contact with? I realize that if I do not teach anything else, I would like to teach my children to be thinkers. Social Studies embodies geography, history, and government. As it is taught now, it is taught as fact. Geography teaches students that these are these continents, countries, states, cities, oceans and so forth. Period. Government teaches students that this is the law and this is how laws are made. Period.. History teaches students that this is what happened in your past. Period. What is missing in the social studies classroom is the intellectual involvement of the student. Each of these three subjects, are not facts set in stone. Rather they are human-made, thus imperfect and forever changing. It is the job of the educators, to make it apparent to their students that they must critically think and challenge the ideas that are presented in their textbooks as "fact"

       Interestingly enough, I say all of this to bring me to my main thought concerning so-called separation of church and state. When our First Amendment is taught in school, it is taught as somthing that is good and right, as all the amendments are with the exception of the Second Amendment and students are almost never challenged to question the so-call greatness of our amendments. As it relates to the Second Amendment, students are taught that the Second Amendment was important in the days that it was written into the Constitution, but students are NOT taught the importance of our Second Amendment rights today. Sorry for my ramble, I'm going to get to the First Amendment now.

      With all the war and strife over the differences between religions, we as people do not often think of religions as together with similar goals and similar philosophies. Rather we look at the specific differences and make them the most important part of religion. In reality most religions preach similar things as it relates to living one's life. They mostly say pray, respect your elders and your neighbors, don't lie, cheat or steal, and treat others as you want to be treated. Because of this thinking, America's founding fathers believed it was best for government to leave religion out equation. On the surface this is a fair appraisal of a situation, and seems to be the best idea. However we find that religion as a whole holds many awesome values, and when you separate religion from the laws that govern us, you in fact separate those values as well.

     We also see in the people of this country, a disregard for the values that religions hold. One in particular, is clearly seen in the way we treat people. When we make mistakes and do things seen as inappropriate, our law would have us accuse these people, put them on trial, and then judge them. Many religions, would say that only God can judge them, forgive, and treat others as you would like to be treated. However, we find in most social situations, that we do as the law does us. We accuse and judge. This is just a thought. Thinking is living, so my lesson lived today is through my thoughts.