On the CBS Morning News, Ben Stein has editorialized that kids are godless because prayer isn't in schools. That makes about as much sense as forcing a square peg into a round hole. Kids who demonstrate godless behavior do so because structure and guidance are missing in the home. Period.
Public school should not be, nor was it ever conceived of being an academic funnel for fundamentalist religious indoctrination. The moment our government sanctions any specific religion it becomes a state-sponsored religion and every other religion becomes vulnerable to bias.
Ben Stein wants you to believe that kids nowadays worship pop musicians more than (or in place of) God. Ben believes this to be a new phenomenon. Faulty memory, Ben? John Lennon outraged the world in the 60's when he said the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus now." Every generation has an iconic musical anthem. Every generation questions secular versus sacred.
December 3, 1979, 11 fans were crushed (compressive asphyxiation) to death and 26 other injured at a sold out Who concert in Cincinnati, OH. No one was previously injured when the Riverfront Coliseum was used for revivals.
Mr. Stein, it is human nature to shun criticism. Parents do not want to be held responsible for their offspring's deviant behavior. These are the same parents who use TV as a babysitter, use Wii as a mentor, and never follow-thru on discipline when structure is not followed. It probably happens a lot because of absentee fathers.
Don't forget that the most common targets for terrorists isn't schools, but churches, temples and mosques. There have been more religion-motivated terrorist bombings than any other kind. Install a state-sponsored religion and you've opened the door to ethic purging.
Folks, stop spinning your culpability. Take responsibility of your parenting skills. The child you "cuss" around at the age of 9 months is the same kid in the principal's office for using foul language at the age of 12 (and hasn't a clue as to what he did wrong). A person raised in a household where disagreements are settled physically is the same individual with multiple arrests for assault and battery and spousal abuse. It's simple Karma: what goes around, comes around. You raise a hellion but refuse to take responsibility for your child's later deviant behavior. Once again, it's human nature. But abhorrent adolescent behavior will not be solved by simply placing prayer back in pubic school. To believe anything else is simply deluding yourself.
David D. Fihn
Hixson