Letter from Slim Wolfe
Church and State – February 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
Maybe when we’re looking at schools, religion, and the first amendment we should fully define the terms. “Respecting an establishment of religion….” Well, if you don’t prohibit the free exercise thereof, aren’t you in a sense respecting? And what is religion? The study and promulgation of belief systems or a bunch of colorful displays and popular tunes? And if religion is well enough established to maintain millions worth of real estate, does it need to further establish itself through taxpayer-funded schools whose attendance is compulsory (except for the right or the diligent?). Maybe if some of our religions didn’t have such a consistent history of conquest and conversion and persecution of dissidents we wouldn’t find such a bad taste in our mouths at the very thought of them.
In public elementary school we had to recite “the lord is my shepherd,” en masse, a fearful mumble of cowed kids, as I recall, a meaningless, unpleasant ritual which left me with the feeling that religion was for sheep. I don’t even recall that any effort was made to translate the prose into kid-accessible English, it was just an exercise in mass submission. Apparently this particular practice is no longer allowed but even the singing of songs can have the flavor of mass submission if the songs seem to relate to some sort of mysterious omnipotent God-thing. At least they might have selected some of the more charming holiday material, like the villancicos of medieval and renaissance Spain, which might teach a bit of higher-level musical skills. And likewise, ceremonial traditions like the Posada or the passion plays, which some of our local churches present have at least some authenticity and meaning beyond the plastic elves and reindeer.
Despite efforts of Martha’s childhood schools to offer a mixed bag of holiday traditions, reports are coming in that it’s getting harder by the year to find Hanukkah or Kwanzaa at the big-box retailers. Sheep take comfort in uniformity. They don’t need a Bill of Rights.
Slim Wolfe
Villa Grove
