Strife767

I don't know what kind of ideal (to you, at least) theocracy you have in your head, but in this country, and this reality, to expect people to obey the law is not being "spoiled." Are you kidding me? Who exactly stepped over that line of controversy first? If the teacher didn't want to be the center of attention, he should have known his place. He may be a preacher too, but here he was at school. A public school. Not giving a sermon at a church. He brought it on himself, and I am glad that a student had the guts to stand up to him and to people like you to uphold the Constitution. "under god" was only added in 1954, you moron. It's a modern addition, snuck in during the Red Scare when everyone was afraid of conspiracy theories about Communist spies being everywhere. It has nothing to do with the values this nation was actually founded on. Did you know that the USA existed for nearly two centuries before that, or did you spend all your time thinking about God in your own history class? Of course, this is a completely unbiased statement made by someone who has a clear understanding of both the First Amendment, and has in no way prejudged or leveled ad hominem attacks against the student who stood up for the Constitution, not to mention catching his teacher in an outright lie. Just who do you think you're kidding? LOL, sounds like the "girls get raped because they wear skimpy clothes" type of logic. The _teacher_ is the one who did wrong (and illegal, at that). He had every right to stick up for himself, since he was right and the teacher was wrong. The teacher deserves every bit of controversy he gets from his blatant contempt for the Establishment Clause. He brought it upon himself. I'm glad it was made into a "mountain." It serves him right to see what happens when he starts telling public school students, children he is supposed to be teaching history too, that they belong in hell. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Anyone who thinks Matthew was an idiot in this circumstance needs all the help they can get, Kearnian or not.

Your generalization is no better. You know, 75% of the entire USA's population believes all this God nonsense, so it's not just Kearny, and on top of that, majority doesn't make right anyway, so how about you think a little before you express a sentiment right out of the fundamentalis mindset before you say something like that. You speak of Kearny the way fundies speak of "false cults" a.k.a. sects of Christianity they don't agree with. And that's within the same damned religion. I have lived in Kearny for 20+ years, and I would like nothing more than to see that teacher canned at _least_. He only broke one of the fundamental laws of the entire country. Anything less would set a very bad precedent (actually, not having to face any criminal charges is already by itself too soft, in my opinion. He did break the law, after all). Besides, the admission of guilt is right there, where he denied saying the incriminating statements, before he was proven wrong. Caught red-handed. If a teacher needn't even fear so much as losing his/her job for telling students, during class time mind you, of a particular religion that they belong in hell, what is going to stop any other teachers from fearlessly trampling on the separation of church and state in the future?

All that shows is that you have a completely false idea of what exactly is "the very thing that our life and laws are made of." things are just as they should be. When it comes to public school, at least. Church and state are to be separate, and public schools are part of the state. No one is forced into public schooling--enroll your kid(s) in private school or homeschool them if you don't like the fact that religion is _necessarily_ absent from public schooling, as per the Constiution of the United States of America. Nonsense. It is precisely because of kids like Matthew that the way of life in the USA is not at risk of being trampled over by religious zealots. As useless (and unnecessary) as such an action is, I fully support and encourage you and whoever else to do as much praying in your spare time as you want. On the contrary--it is people like you trying to push your god into schools! Not only that, but I bet you're enough of a hypocrite to demand your religion be taught in public schools, but would be outraged if Islam was taught as well. Nonsense. No one is trying to take your god out of your everyday life. Religion is a personal thing--that is why separation of church and state exists. Public school is no place to promote one's personal beliefs. You're just going to have to deal with that. That kid was 100% in the right. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Way to generalize an entire community based on the actions of one or more kooks. I pity you--you don't seem to realize you're taking a page out of the fundies' book with that kind of comment.

Adding my support for this kid--I graduated from KHS and am glad to see that there are people this age who don't put up with bullshit like that. More power to him--if there's ever an organized protest or something, someone let me know, because I want to be there.