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The sorts of parents who don't even want their child exposed to humanism, Islam, Buddhism, atheism and so on until the child is sure in his or her Christianity, strike me as being terrified that their religion isn't good enough to win out in a free and informed decision on the child's part.
The problem is that in the public schools you don't get exposed to all of that- you get exposed to humanism and that's pretty much it. I'd have 0 problem sending my child to a school that was truly open to the marketplace of ideas, but it just isn't the case. If Christanity, Islam, Buddism, or any other relgion were to be discussed in a classroom that teacher would risk being fired. A good friend of mine had to skate that line all of the time because he was a debate coach and often the kids would bring up faith during issues. He'd have to be very careful about correcting their arguments and pointing out flaws in their reasoning. It shouldn't be that hard. He was there to teach debate, and debate often finds itself in the realm of religion and philosophy. Yet he had one arm tied behind his back as he worked with these kids, all of whom really wanted to discuss religion. In fact, the biggest problem he had was correcting the terrible argument that the Christian students would come up with. He had 0 credibility with them because he had to remain silent on the issue and tacetly affirm the secular side of the argument.
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.