A bit of a churchy rant. . .

I don't consider myself an activist. I am just one witchy mom with a blog. However, there are things that I just feel have to be discussed, for example this and that. I don't agree necessarily with the headline that reads Children have rights too! I grew up in a household where my parents would tell me I have only the rights they grant and guard for me until I am of age, but I digress.

These particular subjects hit a couple of sour notes for me. 1.) No child should go to school and be told that the faith that they hold is either not a real faith or the wrong one. 2.) I find it absolutely ridiculous that the adults in these cases are nothing short of bullies.

In the First case with Christopher Turner, as far as I can see this particular child does nothing in particular to bring attention to himself except celebrate Samhain. He even attends church. In fact, it is his teacher who brought the whole thing to light with her lecturing about paganism being a false religion. She went as far as to corner the child and humiliate him in front of his peers, actually she persecuted him and then demanded that homework be centralized around her religious convictions. She drilled him about paganism, and as friend brought up, it is a federal law that School Officials can not ask anyone about their religion in this manner. Things from there went down hill for this child for crazy little things that have absolutely no meaning. I mean, really, since when is it a schools business to punish a child for speaking Spanish on a bus with other Spanish speaking children? Really? He got in school suspension for that? What about the other children who were speaking Spanish on the bus? Were they suspended as well? Or was this just all about bringing as much suffering to someone who was different as possible?

As far as things stand with this particular case right now, I find to be completely out of line. A parent who has a child in school who is being bullied like this should not have to do anything other than call the school principle to get the situation resolved in a timely and fair manner. It should not take an entire spiritual community to flood officials with phone calls and emails for the right thing to happen. The right thing for the right reason should not have to be pressured into manifestation like this. Last I heard there is going  to be a meeting about this situation between school officials and this family. I hope that this situations resolves well without lawyers.

On a personal note, when my eldest was in first grade, we experienced this sort of persecution. It came about innocently enough. They were having a discussion on Harry Potter and the teacher made a point to tell the kids that witches were not real. Well my little one stood up and said: " that's not true! My mom is a witch!" Yup my little one outed me. From that point in time he was picked on by other students  over my beliefs and it was blatantly ignored by the adults. I didn't know about this until my son started crying in the back of the car on the way home and by that point in time it had been going on for weeks! When I asked the school principal and his teachers about this, they became hostile and suddenly ignorant of the situation. The thing you have to understand is that this was a small charter school. Literally, a one room class environment. How can five adults not hear forty children taunting one child about his mother's faith in a small building? I can't believe that nearly ten years later, this sort of thing is STILL going on and being ignored.

As far as Church being brought into the school. . . that's a big no no in my book. In my mind, school should be a place where we teach our children how to think. School should not be a recruiting ground, not for religions, not for the military and heck not even for Boy/ Girls Scouts. NO one should be placed in to an environment of learning and made to be a second class citizen because their faith is different or for any other reason.

In the second case, are we to stand by and accept the hypocrisy of this whole anti bullying campaign??? When my daughter was in elementary school, there were anti bullying posters all over the place, yet some of the biggest bullies in that place were the teachers and staff themselves! How are we to teach that bullying is unacceptable if the adults themselves can't lead by example? Do these adults even realize that they themselves are engaging in bullying? Are they really that truly fearful of that which is different that they forget that they are supposed to be setting a good example? Or are they counting on us being a meek little minority faith that we won't stand up and fight back?

On a personal note: Dear Gods, please help us save ourselves from the fanatics and fundamentalists. Give us strong spines that we may stand up and do the right thing for the right reason without becoming bitter or jaded. Let us be strong willed and even tempered.
Thanks and Love you muchly.