School tradition and religion

[Wilpanzer]

Hey guys

I was wondering...In most of our Afrikaans schools, Christianity takes 1st place in school tradition, whenever we sing our school anthem, we also pray. At the beginning of each day, a teacher or pupil reads the Bible for the whole school to start off the day, and at the end, after all the announcements, a person also prays. It is also a tradition for the guys to stand up whenever we pray, because it shows respect for God and in the olden days it indicated the "man of the house". A preacher also briefly preaches on Mondays when we have a formal opening.

What do you guys think of religion linked with tradition? It may sound good for schools to embrace such devout Christian traditions, but then again, it also begins to become a habit. People only close their eyes to show respect, some guys stand in prayer because it's an obligation...and I believe a lot of people gain the perception that we only have to put God in a routine, they think that a relationship with God only entails praying etc. within a certain time frame. It could also possibly support the idea of separating your spiritual life from everything else, but all in all, I support the idea of embracing your religion as tradition, you just need to be careful to not make it a status, it has to exist within the borders of integrity.

[ccgr]

I haven't been to a Christian school but public schools are getting less tolerant of these actions.

[ArcticFox]

I went to a Catholic school from Kindergarten to 8th grade, and every morning we started the day with the Pledge of Allegiance and a few prayers.

The problem is that saying the same couple of prayers every single day does make it sort of automatic, and you learn the prayers by rote and just say the words and don't really think about it anymore.

[Wilpanzer]

I went to a Catholic school from Kindergarten to 8th grade, and every morning we started the day with the Pledge of Allegiance and a few prayers.

The problem is that saying the same couple of prayers every single day does make it sort of automatic, and you learn the prayers by rote and just say the words and don't really think about it anymore.

Indeed




Oh, and I forgot, I'm talking about our public schools. We don't have a lot of labeled Christian schools.

[Nate DaZombie]

I went to a Christian school, and I began to resent the habitual praying. I believe in a relationship with Jesus, not in religion. I pray because I'm talking to God, not because I have to. But on the other hand, I'd rather have forced prayer than these public schools that have NO tolerance for ANYTHING having to do with Christianity.